What puts you off a house?

[kerrymucklowe2020]

Thought this might be if interest to anyone putting their house on the market.

I hate strong artificial smelis/ plug ins / insrmse sticks etc ( what are you trying to hide ?)
Dogs. 2 houses I viewed I spent less than 5 mins in as they had barking / in your face dogs
( Plus I was thinking of one I viewed that had a new puppy that maybe it had had "accidents' on the carpets). If you have dogs - take them.out fir the viewing ( also hide pet beds / feeding bowls ).
Houses that lacked tlc ( scuffed paintwork / dirty windows )
What puts YOU off a potential house?

Clutter and smells. Box up everything you don't need and hide away, it will make the whole house look bigger.

Also, keep clean

Big work jobs such as a falling down conservatory or a hugely unkept garden or a bad, ugly extension.

I am not remote put off by a shit kitchen or bathroom if the house is attractive and has potential and is a good area.

But i am middle aged, have money in the bank and can do changes. Some changes. Some are not worth the effort.

I'm not keen on open plan or gardens with no grass area. It also puts me off if places are very dirty or smelly, even though I know these things can usually be fixed. Also, no downstairs toilet and a newly done kitchen that wasn't my style would be off putting.

Aside from structural problems / damp etc

Open plan kitchen & living areas
Gardens covered in tarmac/paving/decking
Neighbours gardens decked out like adventure playgrounds or with hot tubs, outdoor sound systems
Houses that have been flipped on the cheap, original features & removed & replaced with the cheapest crap available.

Dirt. Especially dirty skirting boards, dirty finger marks around door handles and light switches... shows lack of attention to detail and makes me think the house hasn't been maintained.

Things that scruffy people miss when they're tidying up.. not making beds neatly. Piles of junk. Again if it looks like this when you're showing off your home to sell makes me think the house hasn't been maintained.

Pet smells.

Cigarette smell.

Bad DIY... think tile paint, badly put together units. For same reasons as above.

Shared driveway
Anything else that might be shared or communal eg rear or side pathway or garage blocks
Smokers
Overlooked garden
Busy road
Lack of parking
Semi that is not halls-adjoining
No downstairs loo
Hedges
Large trees

Downstairs bathrooms at the end of the kitchen.
On street permit parking.
Narrow galley kitchens.
Carpeted bathrooms.
Rubbish/large items dumped in neighbours gardens.
Cladding/pebble dash on outside walls.

• Too close to a road or railway
• Power lines overhead
• Too close to a working yard, takeaway, pub or anything likely to be excessively busy in the day or noisy late into the evening
• Too overlooked
• An alley along the side or back
• Through access
• No off-road parking
• Stone cladding or mismatched finishes to extensions.
• No garden or very small one.
• Untidy neighbour’s drive and garden
• Barking dogs, chickens, loads of cats
• Alpine style wood cladding everywhere, airtex ceilings.
• Bad smelling house especially strong pet smells and smoke
• Front door straight into living area
• Damp & large visible cracks
• No downstairs toilet
• Not enough storage or room to put storage.

Small windows
Garden without much sun
Garden with loads of steps / sloping
A big wall on the end of the garden feels obstructive, need trees and space before next houses
If it’s just decor it’s more easily changed

Men, usually in their 60's who are absolutely shit at DIY yet think they are amazing and have DIY'd everything in the house.
Also smokers.
I could only afford one house in this historic town and the guy who lived here had been doing all of these things.
I man who the fuck doesn't unscrew a plug socket to paint the wall - not this guy he just painted right over them all.
Everything is yellow and stinks of fags.
This is only the first of a long list of his DIY crimes.

Obvious signs of lack of maintenance and care.
Poor and dodgy DIY.
Smells like damp and neglect
Smokers
Plug-ins - they give me migraines
Grime, not a bit dusty or grubby, I'm thinking nicotine stained walls and ceilings, thick stained limescale.
Over-parked road
Barking dogs next door

I have never been put of by cosmetic problems. I have always known I will want to change kitchen and/or bathrooms and rip out carpet ( can’t stand it). I will be put off by vendors present at viewing. Ugly windows, small rooms, no/small unkept garden/ busy road. Or if the house is really dirty.

Things that can't be changed. Small garden, next to busy road, pylons, next to pub, farm, factory etc. Near a river, size and number of rooms. But the slightest bit bothered about smells,

Pressed button too soon!
Also not bothered about mess, decor, old kitchen, bathrooms, scruffy garden. All this can be changed. Can't change size of plot or where it is

A house that’s high up with steps up to the door.
A house where the garden slopes down to it meaning you’re looking up to street level.
No bath.
Near a pub.
Dark beams. Low ceilings.
Too overlooked.
Shared drive or access.

Neighbours. I know they can change after you move in and ultimately you have no control, but it makes such a difference to your quality of life and my whole childhood was blighted by awful neighbours (from just plain old noisy bastards, to drug dealers), so I’m really paranoid about it.

We found our dream house: it ticked all the boxes, on our favourite street, perfect in every way. On the second viewing I looked out the window and saw next door’s shed door was open. There was a fully stocked BAR inside. When we went in the garden I peeped over the fence: they had a hot tub in a wooden gazebo-type structure, with speakers rigged up, a separate structure with the biggest non-commercial BBQ I’ve ever seen and fairy lights all over the place. I asked the vendor if they liked to entertain, she admitted that they have people over all the time, all year round, and use the hot tub daily with the music on, but it didn’t bother her as she was used to it and just put her headphones in! I was so glad for her honesty but it completely cost her the sale.

I can't imagine being put off a major purchase by choice of air freshener! In fact I didn't think I'd be put off by anything cosmetic, but then viewed a house owned by a smoker and felt I'd never get the stink out.
I'd be seriously put off by noise from neighbours or evidence of street being a through way for people returning from a night out.
Structural things: signs of damp / no rooms that don't adjoin another house / garden entirely paved or decked
I also walked out of a house once becase the estate agent was bloody awful. But honestly, if I'd really wanted the house I'd have put up with her too.

Mold. Damp. Mold in window frames, modern plastic and seeing active black mold on kids rooms as you walk around a seemingly ok house.
Cigarette smoke.

No dining space. Kitchen diner fine (we have a long kitchen with a table at one end, no separate space) or dining room, but have seen lots of small houses like ours with only breakfast bar space for eating... otherwise TV dinner, I assume.

Straight onto the street also a no for me, even a small front space or garden separating front door from street is enough.

I'd never buy another house without a drive or at least good on street parking. When we bought our house we had to park on a grassy (huge lump) verge in front of the house. I felt uncomfortable doing that but there was no other option other than parking in another street. Wing mirror got knocked off within first week. Fortunately we were given permission for a dropped kerb and now have a double driveway, was unsure if they'd OK that as there is a tree close to the drive. I'd make that a big consideration were I to move again.

Scruffy neighbours. We're not the best in this respect but we try out best. Have viewed some lovely houses with jungles or junkyards next door and it's just so off-putting, awful situation as it isn't the owner's fault.

Anything near a flood plane
Small kitchen
No downstairs cloakroom
No ensuite
A small hall
A large dog next door
Small garden
Reptiles in house as phobic. I would run out screaming.
Most other things I would just change and fix.

Houses that are top heavy, all bedrooms and bathrooms with barely any living space.

Loads of en-suites shoe horned in.

I don't want open plan downstairs. Happy to have a kitchen diner but not kitchen/diner/living space.

Over looked garden.

Lot's of HMO's in the area.

Neighbours with dogs make me think twice.

9.9 million pet dogs in the Uk, so surprised that so many would not buy a house that a dog had lived in , or lived next door. I hate laminate flooring, so do my dogs🙂

Damp smells
Downstairs toilets directly off kitchens
Four tiny bedrooms with a en suite shoehorned in where you could have three lovely sized bedrooms and a decent family bathroom.
Houses that smell of pets
Houses with clothes drying on radiators
Unkept fencing
A lean to with a plastic roof being passed off as a conservatory
Loft conversions where the new staircase has completely ruined the upstairs layout

Price
Things that can't be changed - eg

• no parking
• no garden

-not enough space for what I want

• shared driveway
• neighbouring houses or businesses that I don't think I'd want to live by

Then things that I don't like / would want to change, but probably too much hassle, on top of being in a chain to buy house in the first place eg

• garden that has been covered in slabs or gravel or artificial grass
• all open plan
• no bath
• front door opening into the living room