What puts you off buying a house?

[notwhyicamehere]

Other than structural things or location- which can't be changed, what are the seemingly little things that would put you off buying a house?
For me, seeing tumble dryer or vacuum in a random room screams not enough space/ storage. As well as loads of bathroom clutter.

AIBU to dismiss houses based on things like this?

Looking to sell soon so looking to avoid those mistakes!

When we moved in it turned out that they didn't lock properly and were a security risk. We had to replace them which was an added expense on top of all the things we knew about.

Crap surveyor if that wasn’t spotted.

Small shut in rooms with lots of doors and no flow and space, prefer semi open plan to make the most of the space than walls everywhere. Remember seeing a house with a and tiny kitchen and dining area separated when they would have better all in one with so much more space and functionally

Messy or noisy neighbours
Road busy
Too small plot
No bath or anywhere to put a bath
No downstairs loo or room to put one in
No drive
No garage or room to build one
Tiny rooms
Weird layout that cannot be changed
Listed
Exposed Beams

been*

Oh dear don't think I will be selling our house, we have most of the things mentioned. There are some seriously fussy people out there.

@StoneofDestiny

Japanese knotweed in the garden

Wow - you have serious issues with that problem.

This is true. My friend has been told they can't extend their house because if this stuff.

We are looking at the moment, things that put me off are:

Fully open plan, if the house doesn’t have a separate lounge I won’t view it, I don’t want to be listening to the dishwasher and smelling cooking smells whilst watching tv in the evenings.

No off street parking. My partner works shifts and doesn’t want to be struggling to park at 3am

Listed, just can’t be bothered with the hassle

Big gardens, a plus for some but too much work and money. I want a garden, but happy with a courtyard style paved garden which I can put pots in. I don’t really like lawn, too much maintenance.

Not fussed about the current decor, that’s easily changed.

Where are all these houses without upvc windows? I hate them, but there aren’t many houses without that I see for sale so unfortunately I couldn’t make that a dealbreaker.

For me it’s:

Extensions - almost all of them. Making the house unbalanced, depriving old dining rooms of light, pushing the prices of houses up when actually you’d prefer without one.

Altering the floor plan of period houses too much - the above plus removing walls. Removing hall wall being the worst. Actual period features are nice, but actually things like fireplaces can be easily bought and installed as can new wooden windows (albeit that’s a much dearer job and they won’t look the same as old windows) so that wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me, whereas radical changes to the layout would.

Tiny windows - except possibly in old cottages

Very overlooked gardens - I can take a bit of being overlooked, but not sets of windows looming from every direction!

Presentation can be changed.

What would put me off:
North facing garden
Scruffy area - rubbish, etc
Traffic
UPVC windows - yes they can be changed but wooden sash windows cost an absolute fortune
No downstairs loo
No en suite

ossomtoes yes he was. He took the seller's word for the insulation in the loft, which is very poor.

Kind if comforting to know most of mumsnet lives nowhere near me since everyone here has upvc😂😂😂
Less chance of being outed😂

Houses that smell of animals. Lack of storage. Lack of parking. Anyone saying plastic windows put them off would have a hard time buying here, everywhere has them, do you all want original sash windows??

A lot of people saying no off road parking.

When we bought our current place, I thought the lack of off street parking would irritate the living daylights out of me. However, it’s not bothered me in the slightest.

Neighbours' gardens. Are they in good nick?

The view out of the window. We viewed a house last year and it looked over parked caravans. No thanks!

I would love fitted appliances. The washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher and fridge all stick out from the rest of the kitchen units and it looks crap. And that's why we're redoing the kitchen

Lack of storage
I want to see storage cupboards/space

Open plan living

Dark houses. Decorated in dark colours and no light coming through.
Also, rubbish parking. If there’s no driveway enough for two cars, it’s a no from me.

depends on size. selling a terrace in london very quickly - no parking, tiny kitchen, small garden, fitted wardrobes, downstairs bathroom!! so many off putting things according to this thread

for our next property i think location, size of garden and potential to extend or refurbish is all we care about

Dodgy neighbours
Lack of parking
Lack of a garden
Knotweed in the area
Subsidence

I would be prepared to fix anything else if I loved the house enough.

@Confusedaboutlots

depends on size. selling a terrace in london very quickly - no parking, tiny kitchen, small garden, fitted wardrobes, downstairs bathroom!! so many off putting things according to this thread

for our next property i think location, size of garden and potential to extend or refurbish is all we care about

I think offputting attributes of London property needs its own thread because to find a house without these apparently bad features in London you’d have to be a multimillionaire!

very true! oh i also have the anti social neighbour to boot... (although that has actually been a pain tbh)

I have a hoarder living in the downstairs flat and weed smokers next door, knotweed in the garden (it’s endemic in south east London, it seems) and a dog but I adore my flat! London really is a different world in property terms. I had the opportunity to buy a house in my hometown and chose this instead

No bath
Lack of closet space
No linen cupboard
European laundry

Sorry I suppose most of mine are structural. But they're the main things that would put me off. I wouldn't really be put off by anything that was easy to change or do differently. When we moved into our current house we had a few extra lights and power points put in and it wasn't difficult or expensive.

On the bookshelf thing, we sold our house this week. I have a home office with floor to ceiling bookshelves as I have a lot of books for work. This definitely put off some visitors, but was a big plus point for the buyers, as the wife works in a book shop. Horses for courses.