House buying deal breakers

[HamAndPlaques]

My brother has just withdrawn an offer on a house because it doesn't have a gas supply, only electricity. Does everybody have a 'deal breaker' when it comes to buying property?

I didn't think I had one but DH has just reminded me that I do, and it's a bath. When we were house-hunting we viewed a place where the bathroom was brand new and the bath had been replaced by an enormous double shower cubicle with a very expensive, massive shower head. Gorgeous, but there was no bath. I could have lived without for a while in preparation to fit a new bathroom but we couldn't have justified redoing that room for at least ten years, so it wasn't for us.

What are your deal breakers...?

On a main road.
No garden.
Teeny third bedroom.
Low ceilings.
Dark.
Downstairs bathroom (first house had this, urg to trip downstairs to loo in the night!)

All else up for negotiation!

Non-negotiable would be

Must be detached
must not be on a main road
Upstairs bathroom
multiple toilets
reasonable sized garden
at least 4 bedrooms
close to good schools

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like we can get what we want for our budget in the areas we are looking.

deal breakers;
wrong location-must be near school, parks, countryside, friends/family, town centre.
huge garden (had one before too much maintenance)
overlooked garden
no off street parking
anything that says requires improvement/doing up etc- aka money pit!
pokey rooms
any shared access/driveway

Mine have been honed by bitter experience to:

Must have off street parking
Must be on a traditional street not a higgledy piggeldy estate with everyone overlooked and on top of you
Detached
No shared anything
Freehold, no management fees
Reasonable size garden
Spacious - doesn't make me feel claustophobic
Non north facing garden (could possibly overlook this if all above in place)

Luckily we found somewhere a couple of years ago (finally) and I'm never moving again!

We do not have;
A drive
Cloakroom
High ceilings
Decent size bathroom
A decent sized 3rd bedroom
Utility room
Large hallway

The next time we move these will be a priority.

We do have;
A kitchen diner which I love
A loft
A nice, south facing garden which is only overlooked by a few

Even after moving out of London, our budget did not allow for a lot of choice. We had to seriously compomise .

I wonder how much some of your houses cost especially as you were able to attain all/most of your dream list.

Compromise!

I can't speak for other people - many may have been lucky with the crazy London house prices and made a lot of money on previous property - we weren't. I rented a shithole for 5 years and worked almost every weekend on top of FT job to be able to buy our current house which only involved 2 compromises: small family bathroom. no decent secondary schools. We were also "lucky" to get it at the top of our budget under the asking price as it was part of a divorce settlement and the owner needed to sell.

Houses I'd not even consider if they had...

Only bathroom downstairs
No garden
Living room upstairs & no access to garden
Run-down houses next door/ nearby
On busy road/junction
"Bedroom" too small for a single bed
No central heating
Conservatory as only access to garden - feels too claustrophobic

• I've easily turned down 2 nice houses because they were more than 15 mins walk to train station. No matter how nice.

• a cupboard where you can't fit even a half-single bed in being described as a 3rd bedroom (well done KFH - no wonder it took so long to sell such a nice property with amazing kitchen when the rest of properties incl 2 beds were selling like hot cakes)

• garden less than 25 feet
• poor layout and flow of rooms that'd be very expensive to change

we are being royally f**d about by our vendors at the moment, who will only deal with us through the Estate Agents. The EA's aren't interested in keeping us happy, as we don't pay them, and are useless.
SO - next time I would not consider buying from vendors who will not deal with us, and insist on everything going though the EA.

I wouldn't have considered a property without:

Mains sewerage
Gas & electricity connected
Broadband coverage

No parking, we looked at a house last week where the driveway couldn't fit the Estate Agents Fiat 500 on without hanging over!

Millwall fans next door.

drxerox - isn't that normal though? I've sold 3 places now and always dealt with the EA only unless the buyer was actually at the property for a scheduled visit. Also when buying, never dealt with the vendors directly or had their number.

Really drxerox? I thought one of the major incentives for paying an estate agents was so you didn't have to bring too much personal contact into a financial transaction.
For me deal breakers are:
Small paved/gravel garden
Very overlooked
Not keen on door opening directly on to the street
No bath
Too open plan - once saw a house where they had removed every possible wall downstairs, it had quite a weird feel to it.

Don't the vast majority of house sales go through the EA directly?
Having bought and sold three times now, I have never dealt directly with either vendor or buyer...only via the EA.

A paved or gravelled 'garden' - never. Wouldn't even bother viewing.
Very overlooked by the neighbours - no.
We value privacy and outdoor space above all else.

Definite non starters for us are
Not detached
Listed
Low ceilings
Downstairs bathroom ( that can't be moved up)
Shared driveway/ shared access
No off street parking
No mains drainage
We barely looked round any houses when we last moved as most could be discounted before we went in. We are not moving again !

don't care about baths, parking or gardens (dcs now older) but apart from the usual things like quiet-looking neighbours for me the non-starters are

less than one hundred years old
unattractive outlook e.g. onto office block
only one loo
main roads
pylons
flight paths
sewerage works
more than 5 mins from frequent public transport
more than 5 mins from a corner shop
expensive fittings that I consider hideous and impractical but too costly to change - e.g marble worktops, or that pinky speckled granite that looks a bit like pedigree chum
too 'residential' - I have never bought a house that was not in easy walking distance of a Marks and Spencer

Must have a decent sized garden
Must have a hallway (don't like walking straight into a living room )
Must have space for a dining table (either in a dining area or kitchen).

Hugoagogo I can't believe you don't want an ensuite?! That was nearly a deal breaker for me not having one and I thought it would be a big issues for others too.

Would people consider a 36 x 45 ft decent garden???

Deal breakers for me...

• Loud road noise or sports fields that you can hear in the garden.
• Impossible parking
• Shared anything
• No possibility to extend (if not already sizeable)
• Over looked and ugly outlook.
• Neighbours houses looking like tips.

the rest can be changed.

We live in a small flat and don't have most of the things listed. But we live in a nice area close to the town centre and my main deal breaker would have been location - we wanted to be within walking distance of the town centre.

Also I wanted a garden, and not to be on the main road.

A complete deal breaker for me would be a house on an estate, of any kind.

I moved into dh's bachelor house on a fairly modern estate and hated every minute of three years there. Multiple houses being able to see into your house and all on top of one another. We could have bought a larger 4 bed on another estate but opted for a 3 bed non-estate location this time.

Oh and also flats which are described as open plan meaning that the kitchen is actually in the living room

Japanese Knotweed. (Obvs).

Paved over garden, same as others.

Houses where you can't walk end to end on the first floor and you have to go up different flights of stairs to get to different rooms.

But most of all, busy road. We have a deaf child and apart from the fumes, noise etc it's just too dangerous for him.