Asking what puts you off when viewing a house to buy?

[DarkGreen]

We have had our house valued but we are just getting the house ready to sell. Touching it up bits and tidying up.

For context its a 2 bed terraced house on a country lane with no driveway but space on the Road to park outside the house. It is an old house.

What areas and things should we focus on? What would you look for and what would put you off?

Smells of any kind, ventilate pre viewing. Also cold

My home
Old, cold, damp, cracked, walls like paper, no storage. All mine 🥰

No separate utility room, small rooms

Lots of clutter and "stuff" sitting about. Always makes me wonder about storage.

Downstairs bathroom/shower room
Downstairs bedroom
No off street parking/driveway

Any kind of scent, candles, diffuser, fabreeze, etc. I’m assuming they are covering up cat pee, mold, etc. I’d never buy a house now without smelling it first with absolutely no scent in the air.

I am buying a property right now, and as far as I can tell there will always be something that will put someone off - Tidy up, do a bit of painting and be yourself! I have no problems with artex - it is cheap and easy to have it skimmed. Smelly carpets are easily lifted and the stench of the chemicals in a new carpet is just as heady. My partner bought next door to me - heavy smoker - yellow walls, empty for a decade. Wall washing and painting and it was all gone and smelled fine. I dont think ALL houses with dogs smell - some dogs never smell.

Don't over think it. Something you do or not do will put someone off, but it will always come down to the basics - can I get to work from here, what are the schools like, parking, living near a factory (unless you work there), a busy road. I looked at a house where I could hear the platform announcements form the front garden, but the trains were electric and silent, and locals told me that being far from the track meant echos along the valley and it was more noisy then

@Wrenna

Any kind of scent, candles, diffuser, fabreeze, etc. I’m assuming they are covering up cat pee, mold, etc. I’d never buy a house now without smelling it first with absolutely no scent in the air.

Nothing will cover either of those smells.

What would put me off any big cracks in the walls, bad smells; cigarettes, dogs, cats, food smells (apart from freshly baking bread or cake), strong air fresheners or strong scented candles. Neighbouring properties in bad states of repair, tiny bathroom, lack of natural light, room too cluttered with furniture.

What i like tasteful decor, fresh flowers, minimal clutter, plenty of storage space, bright and airy.

Rubbish in the next door neighbour’s garden. Walking more as you do during lockdown, there are two houses up the road which are littered with rubbish, Christmas decorations still up, hedges massively overgrown so putting next door in the shade.

These are the things that would/have put me off:

Small kitchen
Untidy gardens
No garage
Busy road
Crappy kitchen and/or bathroom
Lack of storage space
Dark
North facing garden
Tatty

The house we lived in before my current house was an absolute tip and we bought it to do up and make a few quid on but the kitchen was covered in a greasy sticky film where it wasn't cleaned (probably ever) and the gardens needed loads of work. I love gardening but this was back breaking stuff! Never again!

Yes, neighbours have put me off buying in the past. Messy garden with junk in it put me off buying somewhere I had offered on.
They had two teenage boys and there were beer cans littered all over their messy patio. And a basketball hoop.
I didn't take much notice of next door until 2nd viewing and withdrew offer immediately.

Dirty - anything really - but especially carpets, worksurfaces, towels, sinks.

Coloured bedding- I know it's irrelevant to the house.

Noisy neighbours

Mouldy looking bathroom. Small rooms with small windows. Scruffy unkempt garden. Generally tired decor and mess. I am looking to buy now and want to move straight in. I don’t want to update or modernise anything!

We have had a few offers in a matter of a few weeks for our house. In terms of pictures etc and ready to view.
we have basically decluttered everything including extra furniture pieces etc.
Had a deep clean, fresh curtains. Sorted the garden / no weeds etc
Painted the walls to freshen them up ( nothing fancy ) but basically re coated them so they looked clean and fresh ( 3 kids )
Made sure my sons sports clothes were not hanging around ( as in his filthy dirty socks )
Aired the house Daily ( garden doors , windows )
Made sure the windows and front door were clean and the front didn’t have any clutter.

The windows, the radiators and boiler and the condition of kitchen and bathroom are what I would look at. All expensive to renew. Also would want it to be clean tidy and cared for including garden. Decor and furnishings not important as I would change them anyway

I remember viewing my first house. Just as the owner declared the carpets were included, their large dog puked up all over the one in the living room. We loved the house though, and bought it anyway (replaced that carpet pronto on moving in, obviously!)

mold or damp, messy garden, really outdated for the price, structural issues ie roof, it being too well done so no room for personal potential or to make a profit...you can do it immaculately it doesn't mean it will be to everyone's taste, being at the top of the area price ceiling especially if it isn't worth it ie doesn't have an extra bedroom or extended downstairs

as others said above aswell ... the condition of appliances like boiler etc

So many subjective comments .....

Things you can actually control:

Bad smells (dogs etc)

Sticky floors (I went to a viewing and was told to remove my shoes - wasn't wearing socks as it was summer) and my feet were sticking to the gross grimey floor!!! Got out of there fast and it was a pretty damn expensive house too! Urgh)

Clutter

Dirty rooms / unmade beds etc / mess

Untidy garden - at least now the lawn

Dark rooms - open curtains and turn on lights

Owners being present is a turn off

Estate agent not having all keys / access to things like back garden / garage etc

@CoronaIsWatching

Low divider between your garden and the neighbours, I like my privacy and too awkward putting a big fence up as soon as you move in

Freestanding oven

Ugly fireplace

Fitted wardrobes especially those 80s style ones which go over the bed

Carpets

Ugly tiling in the kitchen, another ballache to replace

I read ‘ballache’ initially as a french sounding word. Think balash 😂😂😂

@Coconuttts

Mess!

Also, when people have that sort of - take us as you find us - approach.
I once viewed a house with puppy-poo on the kitchen floor and a teenage son (theirs!) still lying in his bed with curtains closed.
I was so pre-occupied with the sheer awfulness that I didn't even take in the house!

I also viewed a house with teenage boy fast asleep in bed - so bizarre 🙄

We did too. The agent had got the time wrong and wasn’t there when we arrived. We couldn’t come back later, as we’d driven a long way and had a small baby. So we were shown round by a nine year old; the house was a tip and her teenage brother was in bed. Parents out. Really weird.

We still offered! It was an amazing house. But it turned out it was a divorcing couple, and one party didn’t want to sell, hence the chaos. They rejected our offer then the house was on and off the market like a yoyo, before selling about a year later.

@Fungster

Bare floors i.e. that damn laminate flooring that seems to be taking over the houses in the whole country. I won't view a house if I see that all the floors in the house just look bare and cold and unfriendly. People used to be proud of having fitted carpets. How come the change back to bare floors either wood or laminate. I can just about cope with the ground floor being bare laminate/wood on an, 'oh alright then' basis. But all the floors in the whole house ? Nope.

That made me smile, @ToffeeNotCoffee. I am the complete opposite! Polished, real wood floors make my heart sing. When I see a carpeted house it just screams "suburban" to me. First thing I think is, "How much will it cost to rip up the carpets and put install real floors?"

Horses for courses 😀

There's a world of difference between an actual wood floor and laminate though, even the expensive ones like Karndean.

I don't like these new estates, with their identikit houses that are very tightly packed in and overlook each other. I like my privacy way too much

Same here. We viewed some and they all seemed soulless and flimsy, even the big ones and the ones that had been lived in. Lack of storage space (no attics), tiny garden with nothing planted. Actually one had 2 trees but it was like they’d built the tiny garden around 2 huge old trees just so they could advertise it as ‘mature garden’ 😂

No shops or places to walk to on those estates either, except little slices of playgrounds sandwiched between houses.