As a buyer what would now stop you from buying your own house?

[countingdowntoxmass]

For me:

Shared driveway. Mostly it’s fine now, but that’s only because I’ve had to kick off multiple times at next door using my side or having their friends park entirely across my drive.

Not having a downstairs toilet.

Not having a separate dinning room (kitchen and diner are open plan and would be too small to divide). I’d still love an open plan with a table, but I’d like a dinning room for more formal occasions.

Potentially because it’s a semi detached, too much noise from next door.

I always dreamed of an old house. Now I have one I hate it. Impossible to heat, costs me a fortune just to stop it falling down

Kitchen is too small and needs updating
It costs a lot to heat - needs more insulation and better double glazing
Garden is too small
Hall is too big

Garden that gets very little sun - lots of it north facing and lots of big trees everywhere around us

No parking.
The freezing cold kitchen diner - we bought in the summer and that first winter was a real shock. We hardly use the dining table now except as a dumping ground. Total waste of a room.

Everything else I love. Victorian terrace - neighbours are great, garden surprisingly big, lots of original features, high ceilings.

Parking is a must in the next house though.

Our house pretty much ticked none of our boxes but I absolutely love it.

The only thing is that it is detached and has a 2nd bathroom.

Compromises (or things we have that we didn't want)
The 4th 'bedroom' is actually the garage conversion. DD is quite happy sleeping downstairs. though.
Lounge / diner - I would have preferred two separate rooms, but since we have had the conservatory roof done we have a lovely useable room.
Shared drive - wasn't an issue when we moved in as the old guy didn't have a car, however this year we have had a couple move in with two cars and it can be a bit awkward (the issue is that the driveway is narrower at the entrance)
No real front garden.
Massive back garden, which is lovely now but I can see being a headache in the future.
The 2nd bathroom is downstairs.
Parking in the area is a bit of a nightmare.

I would buy it again though despite all the things we didn't want. 4.5 years on I still have a warm feeling as I am coming home, I never had that in my last house of 16 years.

I wish it was detached and preferably a good distance from other houses- DS has additional needs and can be very loud so I'm constantly on edge about disturbing people.

I also wish the roof pitch was high enough to convert the loft in to a bedroom, because our smallest bedroom is really tiny.

Bigger windowsills- ours are only about 2 inches wide, I'd love to be able to have things like vases of flowers in the windows.

Why skim it? Woodchip paper is really easy and fast to strip.

The thatch. Costs a fortune to replace and is always a worry when there are fireworks.

Excuse me interrupting - this wasn't my post - but how on earth do you strip woodchip easily and fast?! I've found ours an absolute bastard to remove. We can't use heat strippers and it's inch by inch work, so if there's a trick, I'd love to know it.

(I agree skimming over it is odd, though.)

I’d still buy it but all the houses being built around us.

These are reasons I’ve rejected otherwise lovely houses in the past:

• Garden too small
• Garden very overlooked
• Road noise
• Dark rooms
• Needs too much work done
• whole house reeks of cigarettes and every surface is sticky with fat 🤢 (plus dead mice all over garden)
• Too ‘old person’ vibe
• Too near nasty estate
• Shared freehold with complicated maintenance arrangements

Absolutely stupid fuckery going on under the stairs concerning gas meter, lead gas piping, vintage fuse box and modern consumer unit all doing the wrong things to each other and expensive to sort.

clay soil so heavy it makes my prolapse pop out digging the bloody stuff (but my roses love it, so it’s not all bad)

the state of the kitchen, which cannot currently be replaced due to cost of other more urgent things (see under stairs fuckery above, plus damp, rewire, roof repairs etc etc etfuckingc) but has 3 layers of vintage Lino over some original quarries and then lumpy lumps (concrete? Earth? Who even cares to find out at this point? Not me.), and our good cooker balanced half on the original hearth stone and half on a couple of bricks. Classy.

I'm in an Edwardian end-terrace. Fuck me the house was cold last week, I'm dreading the next heating bill! So I'd love decent insulation. The main bathroom is ghastly but is coming out next month, hooray! So I will finally have a shower on the same floor as my bedroom.
There's no off street parking but that doesn't bother me, I don't t usually have any problem finding a spot. No permits either which is an absolute gift in London.
The garage is at the end of the garden and was converted by the previous owner so I can't use it for the car. Mind you it's full of my crap anyway. I also have the washing machine there so it can be a bit of a chilly damp sprint down there in the winter.
I moved in in July just before the heatwave. Garden was entirely paved with no shade, south facing, and no blinds/curtains downstairs. It was like a furnace in the kitchen. Awful.
I've redone the garden so next year there will be some trees and life, I've also put blinds downstairs!
Other than those things it's great. I would rather live in my old house but I had to move as I was getting divorced and the house had to be sold. It broke my heart to leave to be honest. But I'm making the best of the new place.

@Puppypads I’m also having to move after a divorce. I don’t want to buy with anyone else ever again, so that no-one can make me leave on a whim.

@Stayingstrongish sending solidarity. I don't t think I will ever really get over the feeling that exH stole my home from me 😔. But I'm doing my best to make a nice home for the DCs.
Ex moans that his new place is smaller than the old one. Bellend.

Too near a main road
bigger kitchen
newer so less work to do

@Puppypads thanks, I’m sure we will both get through this and emerge stronger, over time we will get our new homes how we want them :)

@Stayingstrongish definitely 👍. Hang in there!!

This!

The back garden. We have a huge and beautiful front garden but the back one is an odd shape and narrow. It's perfect for eating and sitting outside but even 5m more would make a huge difference.

My house is a product of divorce. I had to downsize and had very little choice.

I have no garage, I miss the extra accessible storage that provides.

It is a traditional three bed semi with a slightly extended kitchen and lounge. I always thought if I got the money I'd knock the lounge and kitchen through to make a largish kitchen diner and use the current dining room as a lounge. But I do like the separate dining room, so based on my current property my wish list would be:-

Garage
Large kitchen
Separate lounge and dining room
Bathroom - large enough for bath and shower cubicle.
Three double bedrooms.

My house has so many plus points:
-We sympathetically renovated it so heating, electrics, pluming is all less than 8 years old plus cast iron radiators, wood burner and a lacanche oven. Fab location. Fab schools.

What would put me off:

• The price now - 75% higher than 8 years ago.
• One bathroom/toilet
• Third bedroom is more like a cupboard
• Only one off road parking space
• Semi detached

Even though it feels so small with the size of my growing family - the pros still outweigh the cons and make moving near on impossible. I am not moving to a less convenient location and cannot afford the ‘next house up’, even with the inflated price my house would sell for.

No Utility room
neighbour trees block substantial amount of sun

Everything.

We rent, and I really love my house. The location is perfect so I probably would buy it if I could, but it needs SO.MUCH.WORK.

Entirely re-plumbing, windows, new bathrooms, cosmetic stuff like built ins ripped out etc.

We’ve already updated a lot ourselves (with permission), but we’ve reached the point where anything else is beyond the responsibility/expectation of a tenant now. And the state of some bits is so embarrassing.