If buying a house, what would make you want to walk straight back out?

[JMSA]

I mean it lighthearted-ish, as we probably wouldn’t be quite so rude! But what is an absolute dealbreaker for you?
For me it would be the presence of a Saniflo/macerator toilet. Evil things.

Oh also to say there was weed on the kitchen side in a little bag and lighters everywhere in other rooms...!

Smell of dogs, and no downstairs bathroom. Or must at least have the possibility of a downstairs bathroom. Friends' parents have started to get inevitably old and ill, and one or two have wanted to spend their last days at home, and it's been difficult without a downstairs bathroom. Elderly neighbour has also moved his bedroom downstairs for last few years, and luckily he has a downstairs bathroom already.

Dog stink. Have walked away from a couple of otherwise nice houses because the stench was nauseating. We could even smell it on ourselves all the way home after the last one. I guess it can be eradicated with a lot of expense and hard work, but that would mean you'd need to do it before moving in.
Crap neighbours are off-putting, but I've always thought you could move in next to the best neighbours in the world but they could sell up a week later.

Shift worker?

If thats in the UK then thats not legal so I would worry how bodged everything is.

Lots of people use to think you cant have bathrooms opening onto kitchens (2 door rules where spouted often, even by some builders) which isn't true but it does have to be sealed with at least 1 door (so 2 separate rooms) and have its own dedicated hand washing area.

Oh gosh, I walked into a bathroom to find a woman in the bath, boobs above water and said hi. Quickly closed the door but was also encouraged to go in, which i refused.
The guy showing me around had already given me weird vibes, so not sure why i even went upstairs.

As someone who suffers crippling migraines what an odd thing to judge people for.

Blimey, we would never be able to sell our house looking at some of the replies on this thread!

We live in a Victorian terrace. Front door opens straight onto living room. Downstairs bathroom, no upstairs loo. Stairs to loft room from spare bedroom so reconfiguring and associated permissions needed if you wanted to make 3 separate bedrooms.conforming to current Building Regs.

We've got the original Victorian roof, oh and we've got Astroturf in the back garden. We back onto the railway and had 3 lots of new turf which was ruined by the crap coming off the railway before we bit the bullet and got it replaced.

We're on a main road through our village so permit street parking. Our permit does allow us to park in the car park in our road though.

So all in all a no-buyer for a lot of people, but we do have lovely neighbours in a friendly village with a train station giving us direct access to London/South Coast in about an hour, good local shops and a couple of restaurants and the size of the house suits us. Just had the house repainted and a new bathroom.

I walked out of a viewing after a few minutes as the smell of dog was simply overwhelming- we fed it back to the estate agent too as it was truly stifling

St George’s flags and union jacks all over the lamp posts.

Also dodgy looking extensions on neighbouring property encroaching on the property of interest

one yesterday - bungalow with massive side extension dormer and another property where you’d have to drive across a neighbouring property to access your driveway

Open plan kitchen
Smelly - cigarettes, weed, mould, pets
Wooden panelling everywhere
Bedroom off another bedroom
Postage stamp gardeen/ all gravel or concrete garden
Noisy neighbours
Flags everywhere in the neighbourhood

The weirdest part is them encouraging us to carry on having a look! Honestly could not believe it.

Yours is even worse!

Glossy floor tiles. looks like a Hotel reception
Stainless steel units in the kitchen, looks like a morgue...

Some crazy people out there for sure 😂.

Mine would be walking away from front doors being centimeters apart with no way of putting up a division.

Lived next door to a very nosy neighbour, where I had to time my comings and goings to avoid being pounced on by the door.
Never again!

We moved to this town about 45 years ago.
Reasonable house then the lady selling it mentioned that her husband was an undertaker. This spooked me, I envisaged having nightmares sleeping in an undertaker’s bedroom.(apologies to any undertakers on here) or worse digging up the odd femur in the garden
Then the owner’s large bouncy dog jumped at DS2, who was 6 and knocked him over. We didn’t buy the house.

Cigarettes/smoking of any kind - and even if I had a waft of smokers as neighbours, it would be a no.

Intolerant of me but I cannot abide it and struggle.

Also, I would absolutely not be able to live within a mile of any food outlets/restaurant/cafe's etc as the very thought of food/fat smells...nooooo.

Dogs I could do! Cats not so much and a litter tray would finish me off! I have to live as remotely as possible

Really interesting reading this thread, we’ve recently had an offer accepted on our first-time bought home, a lot of these I completely agree with!
Our dealbreakers (some of which meant we didn’t even seek a viewing as it was obvious from the listing), in no particular order, were:

• Astro turfed/completely concreted/hard-laid garden.
• Right on a busy main road.
• Like Pp above, ones where the front doors opened almost next to one another with no real separation. We’re not super-unfriendly but that closeness to others feels claustrophobic.
• North-facing garden.
• We saw one house - the sitting room had no windows! It was kind of the middle room in the house (it was a bungalow) and I think the room had been made by partitioning off the back room. The only natural light was from the kitchen door. Really weird and a big nope from us. Hadn’t realised until we viewed it.
• Being awkward to get to from other places - we have a young son and when he’s a bit older I want him to be able to get himself to and from places easily, not having to rely on us to drive him everywhere.
• Dodgy-looking neighbours, e.g. St George flags or property in a studenty area (luckily not really a thing where we were looking but just up the road is a city with 2 universities and also lots of air bnb type accommodation which would also be a big nope! We used to live in the centre of that city and the late night noise from stag/hen parties staying used to get pretty tedious).
• After thinking we wouldnt mind a big doer upper, after checking out a few, we decided that actually we dont really have the money or time to do essential works. Cosmetic work because we want to, ok but having to replace kitchen/bathroom, etc before we could use them we realised just wouldn’t work for us.

Thanks everyone for this thread, it’s been a great read 🙏

Why is that a problem?

Wow

Screaming DC or DGC.

Houses and neighbours with rusted/rotten cars and boats in their driveways. There is a house which I drive pass on the way back from the supermarket which has a rotten wooden boat on the drive. It’s not lake/sea worthy and gone past repair. What’s the point in keeping this?

Yes

Traffic sounds. Woodworm . Only a couple of feet from neighbours. ..some houses are so close together, you can touch the neighbours wall from your window. Give me a but and Ben in a field with no neighbours for half a mile in any direction.

Had to have a nosey ... Bletchingly always struck me as such a lovely, quaint and salubrious area (used to live nearby some years ago) ... just goes to show that you never know what's behind those front doors!! 😅