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?

I bought a house where the dogs had run riot. Had to pull up carpets, underlay and air it for months. Ended up sanding the floorboards.

It hadn't been immediately obvious they even had dogs on viewing - so what they'd done in between accepting my offer and moving out - god knows.

“Why?? The dog wouldn’t be there if you bought the house. Cleaning, decorating and new carpets would get rid of a doggy odor.”

Or you could just buy a house that didn’t smell. Animal urine gets right into floorboards, impossible to get rid of.

Re the garden with just a patio next to house and rest being lawn, plus weeds:
Put a table and chairs on the patio (not basic white plastic, wood can be cheap but looks betters). Put some pots with winter bedding plants/flowers on patio.
Cover/hide/suppress weeds with a good layer of wood bark.
Give lawn a very high cut (not ideal at this time of year but needs must).
Make sure no kids toys or dog toys or dog mess in garden. If there is a lot of clutter in garden consider very small shed in a corner somewhere.

Dirty/smelly house: cigarette smells, dog smells/hairs, dirty cooker, mould stains on tiles, dirty grout, mouldy sealant or sealant coming away.
Dark house- need to be light and bright
Noisy position-if I can’t hear the birds clearly
No privacy

For me, nothing about the house smell or decor would put me off because that all can be changed. It would be things like annoying neighbours, road noise, no driveway would definitely put me off, no garden, etc. But you can't really change these things. Generally though, your house should look like the photos. I'd be annoyed if I wasted the time to view and it looked very different from how it was pictured.

Loos with the lid and seat up
Beds not made properly with the duvet pulled over the pillows
Dirty skirting boards
Smoke-stained walls and ceilings
Mouldy shower curtain
Piles of 'stuff' in the bathroom, i.e. shower gels, shampoos, empty loo rolls, small pieces of soap in the dish
Toys all over the floor
Clutter in the kitchen covering work surfaces

Decent heating that’s well maintained

Sorry that should say it would have to have decent heating

My current flat stank of fags when we bought it. We hired a carpet shampooer from B&Q and shampooed all the carpets, took down the manky curtains the owner had left, ripped up the disgusting bathroom carpet and cleaned everything. It made a huge difference. We gradually replaced all the carpets over time, but they were liveable with in the meantime.

I like to be able to do up my own place so would choose dated old decor over new kitchen/bathroom I didn’t like - and I mostly don’t like them. A messy garden wouldn’t bother me either. If you could sort something cheaply I would, but I wouldn’t put in a new kitchen, for instance, as people would like to do up their own.

Anything dirty (e.g carpets, bathroom, sticky kitchen cupboards, mould etc). Anything that involves more investment.

Dog smells, low fences, large trees in neighbouring gardens, badly maintained neighbouring houses.

MagicSummer, seriously?! You’d turn down the perfect house in a great location because the owner hadn’t made the bed properly? Please tell me you’re joking!

Very little would put me off but it needs to be reflected in the price. So if a house needs work it needs to reflect that.

I assume you want the asking price so I would declutter like mad (to show how big the rooms are) and clean as much as possible. People are bound to mention the parking but maybe this is common in the area in which case they wouldn't expect a drive?

Our last house had a separate kitchen and dining room and most people mentioned that because the trend is for open space living (which I also prefer).

Cons for me were : no parking, smokers/ dog owners, old bathroom/kitchen, shoddy DIY. I viewed a house where they’d built a bed on top of the slanted bit above the stairs ... hard to explain but definitely no room for a better there & very dodgy!

House that stank of urine no; house with normal dogs (it is not normal for dogs to wee indoors!) yes, no problem at all.

I don't think many decor issues would put me off.. Whenever we've moved, we've slowly redecorated each room anyway.

Non-negotiables for me would be:
Bad catchment area for schools
Main road position
Obviously difficult neighbours (loud, don't take care of their own house and garden etc...)
No potential to improve
Obvious structural issues

@MagicSummer

Loos with the lid and seat up Beds not made properly with the duvet pulled over the pillows Dirty skirting boards Smoke-stained walls and ceilings Mouldy shower curtain Piles of 'stuff' in the bathroom, i.e. shower gels, shampoos, empty loo rolls, small pieces of soap in the dish Toys all over the floor Clutter in the kitchen covering work surfaces

This aren't a good first impression I agree @MagicSummer - but would beds not bring properly made or small pieces of soap in the dish actually put you off making an offer?

People like uncluttered, clean houses so they don't have to 'see past' your stuff but instead can just imagine putting their things in.
Sort out...
Cluttered kitchen work surfaces
Stickers on the wall (children's bedrooms)
Close loo lids
Replace shower curtains if they aren't tip top
Remove shampoo, shower gel etc bottles from baths and showers unless you just have one very neat one
We bought a house with a rug in the kitchen - turned out it was covered a cracked tile. So a sneaky trick but we didn't blink at the time until we moved in and found it.
Remove clutter generally and tidy to the max
Children's things which as parents we think of as normal can be messy to non-parents

Owner following you around especially with a running commentary.
Beautiful original wood features all painted white (doing calculations in my head as to the time and cost of stripping/restoring).
Toilet seat and lid left up. Eeeeewwww.
Unmade bed, clothes on floor.
Smells.
Lots of clutter. It's hard to see/feel the space of the rooms. It also draws to your attention the lack of storage areas in kitchens and bathrooms.
Unkempt garden (makes me think it must be too much to manage).
Junk in front garden.

These are all things easy to address. Other more major stuff that would put me off (though the these should be ascertain ed from the agent info.
Poky kitchen with no scope to knock through.
En suites. We wanted a second bathroom accessible to all without matching through someone's bedroom.
No off road or close to house parking.
Overly shad ed garden regardless of direction.
Any of the bedrooms needed for family members being small. Saw so many where the third and fourth bedrooms were tiny!
Master bedroom being in the loft (not big enough for full size wardrobes or my four poster bed, regardless of floor space).

make sure garden is tidy without piles of rubbish or dumped items

mould /damp/musty smells are not good
get rid of all your clutter - try to have clear surfaces in every room.

Unflushed toilet. I know it isn't a permanent feature of the house but once viewed a property where someone had used the toilet and not flushed and it had sat there for a very long time with the lid up. The agent decided to chat to us while we were in the room. Couldn't wait to leave that one and it took a while to clear my nasal passages. I can still remember it now and it was about 12 years ago.

The shitty nappy in a bag inside the front door didn't help with one house either.

Lies - especially obvious lies - like ''it's very quiet'' when it's not. I once viewed a house with triple glazing and when I ask why they had it as house was in the country I wasn't told the true reason which was that there was a train that passed very near and put it's ''whistle'' on as it passed the house! I only found that out because i was late for the appointment so was there when train passed by!

Dirty / mould in bathrooms.