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!

Right location is essential.

Off putting to me would be;
Busy road - traffic noise
Pretend stone cladding on buildings - what is being hidden?
Too near a school or on a school route for many kids
Messy neighbouring gardens or properties
Signs of unruly, loud or messy neighbours
Lack of off road parking
Flags flying on neighbouring properties
Appliances in random spaces
Pet or smoke smell or damage
Air fresheners everywhere (what are the trying to disguise?)
Main bathroom downstairs
Too little living space
All open plan living
North facing garden

Within reason you can clean and improve mess in the house you buy (but if they have too much mess on view, what is hidden?), but if the future neighbours look like being messy or a problem, there is nothing you can do about it.

@TangoWhiskeyAlphaTango

Lack of sunshine

You don’t live in the UK then?😉

Oh gosh yes, a bath in the bedroom. Ugh.

Neighbours with rubbish in their garden. Neighbours with overgrown garden. Neighbours with closed curtains. Neighbours with cars on bricks. Neighbours being audible. Neighbours.

Small windows
Bathrooms without windows
Beds not made properly for photos (shows they don't care about appearance)
Loo seats and lids up in photos
Stuff 'out' in the kitchen = clutter
Ditto bathrooms = clutter
A loo off the kitchen
Conservatories (hate them)
Bins in front of house

@IsThePopeCatholic

Plastic / upvc windows Divan beds Pelmets on windows

A divan bed would stop you buying a house?!?!?!?! Wtf??????

A house that doesn’t look lived in. I don’t need to see loads of personal items, a ton of clutter or mess but I would like to know that someone is inhabiting the space. Why? Because then I can envision where my stuff can go, I can see that the house has been used as a home, that it’s been loved.

I don’t like dog smells either but saying that the house we currently live in was in a right doggy smell state when we bought it. It was a period property and the dogs had been allowed to shed and rub and pee themselves all over the place. It took a whole month of daily scrubbing to remove the smell but we got there and the house was worth it.

Houses right back to back so hevauly overlooked
Smoke smell
Dark living areas with no possibility to change it

Sorry but most washing machines and dryers in UK are in the wrong place😂

Also. I would now abandon viewing if the owners were at home.

I once looked at a house that had just had 10k knocked off the price for a quick sale as the owners were emigrating. It looked perfect for us and we were on a very tight budget. Everything was going well until we reached the lounge. The owners had packed up everything and put it in boxes in the lounge. You couldn’t step any further into the room than about a foot and the boxes were floor to ceiling. I could not even see any walls as it was completely blocked. So although I didn’t know it when I started house hunting being able to see the walls in a room turned out the be crucial.

Dirt, clutter, doggy smells (ie people who can't be bothered with basic presentation).

Bad UPVC windows and front door (posh ones might be ok, depending on the house).

Things that we would get no pleasure from but would be costly to fix if they went wrong eg jacuzzi bath, integrated sound system, "smart" lighting.

A poorly maintained house / garden next door would ring alarm bells,

Oh, and fake grass is yucky but I guess it's probably easy enough to pull up.

Fitted wardrobes?! I don’t understand this one, can someone explain?

It'd be the cost of removing them and making good for free-standing furniture. I've done it once and wouldn't fancy doing it again.

Other things that put me off:

Boilers in bedrooms. Big no-no as they’re dangerous and cost a fortune to move.

Downstairs main bathroom.

Kitchens at the front of the property. Hate that. I like living rooms at the front.

Trees in gardens. My oh owned a house with giant ferns in his garden when I met him. It put me off dealing with any kind of tree as his took ages to sort out as he’d left them to grown untamed.

Houses that open straight onto the street. I like a front garden.

Houses that don’t have a porch or vestibule or hallway. I don’t want to come straight into the livingroom when I get home. Rooms like that are always cold in the winter.

Houses with old outhouses (like an old outside loo that hasn’t been demolished after the loo was moved indoors).

I’m sure there are more!

Neighbours’ visitors parked on pavements;
Cluster;
Dirt;
Signs of pets;
Bold colours on walls;
Bad hammering into walls for hanging pictures;
Unmade beds;
Any dodgy smells;
Kitchen pans left out in cooker;
Chip pans hanging around looking greasy- means greasy steam ingrained in walls;
Products all over the bathroom- hanging shower puffs and wash mits etc;
On show kitchen bins.

Anything that makes it look like the deep cleans get missed, if the regular cleans aren’t done.

I know I’m very picky! I bought a new build to eliminate the above!

WTF is the matter with people who are put off by beds not being made and loo seats up, etc?

Kitchens at the front of the property. Hate that. I like living rooms at the front.

I’m the opposite, living room at the front is a big minus point for me!

No parking outside/restricted parking

Driveway is what I would like! Of course

Thanks all- looks like I'm pretty safe then.
Though we have just touched up the paint work- nothing to hide,it was just time.

Obviously a little further down the line but we once viewed a house with the sellers sat on the sofa having their dinner( and dropping it all down their front 🥴) they knew we were coming! The house stank.

@Birminghambloke

Neighbours’ visitors parked on pavements; Cluster; Dirt; Signs of pets; Bold colours on walls; Bad hammering into walls for hanging pictures; Unmade beds; Any dodgy smells; Kitchen pans left out in cooker; Chip pans hanging around looking greasy- means greasy steam ingrained in walls; Products all over the bathroom- hanging shower puffs and wash mits etc; On show kitchen bins.

Anything that makes it look like the deep cleans get missed, if the regular cleans aren’t done.

I know I’m very picky! I bought a new build to eliminate the above!

Unmade beds would stop you buying a house? Why?

Did we find out why Covid would reduce fitted appliances?

I once viewed a house with a massive water feature (like fountain with a pond around it) in the conservatory. No. Just no.

Smells. Dogs, air fresheners, food, especially greasy food lingering.

Spotlights everywhere.

Grey fixtures and fitting eg kitchen units/bathrooms.

Neighbours' houses and gardens being unkempt.

Thought of another one.

Windowless bathrooms and the only source of ventilation is an extractor fan. Hello Legionnaires' disease, nice to make your acquaintance!

How do divan beds put people off a house??

Location - not keen on constant road noise or any regular loud noise.

Openplan downstairs - it would drive me mad if there was no seperate living space. A lot of houses where this has been done would be fairly easy to change so it wouldn't neccessarily put me off totally if everything else was good.

Lack of driveway.
Wood chip wallpaper.
Unkempt garden and lack of decent fence.
Scruffy neighbours.
Neighbours with small kids.
Rewiring over 10 years old.
Past subsidence.

@ChocolateCakeYum I guess it’s about the general upkeep of the property? It takes 10 seconds to make a bed and if they can’t be bothered to do that then it suggests they haven’t been bothered to do maintenance either

@frumpety

Location - not keen on constant road noise or any regular loud noise.

Openplan downstairs - it would drive me mad if there was no seperate living space. A lot of houses where this has been done would be fairly easy to change so it wouldn't neccessarily put me off totally if everything else was good.

Yeah. I actually opened mine with possibility for making a partition later to split the rooms in mind, because it's very half and half when it comes to open plan people vs non open plan