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?

Fake grass

@XingMing

All interesting thoughts. But what about a house that's been lived in for 20 years by elderly people? We're just putting DMIL's house on the market as she now needs full on care and will never be able to live independently again. The ILs refurbed 25 years ago for their tastes and expectations, and it's now tired decoratively. But it's clean and tidy, everything works, and it's in a very sought after area, close to a beach, a station and shopping centre. There's tennis and golf within a few minutes walk. We live a long way away so are not planning to do more than clear it out.

I think you may regret that. When my MIL died, we cleared her house out and put it on the market. It was in a pretty good condition, new central heating, pretty good windows/doors, pretty good kitchen, etc, but carpets and decoration were looking tired. We just got a couple of cheeky low offers. So we decided to "do it up", and ended up spending £17.5k on it for new carpets throughout, decorated throughout (in and out), cheap new kitchen - we basically "beiged-it". Got £50k more than the initial cheeky offers when we put it back on the market, so we made a £32.5k extra profit just by freshening it up and making it a blank canvas.

Any indication that the neighbours aren't nice.

Sloped driveway
Stairs to front door
No bath
Dog smell
Garden on a hill

Anything else I can change.

Massive tree right outside but not on your land so you can't trim it. Musty smells, any kind of stain on the ceilings, next door house dropping to bits.

Yesss this @BlusteryLake I am sick of having to ask the council every time the tree in front of our flat grows too big it blocks out all the light (literally every 6 months)

I will be much more wary of big trees when we buy next

It's in an area that is very much in demand, and we live 300 miles away. And DMIL has gone into care and the monthly bill for the care needs paying. We wouldn't get our money back, we think, so prefer to sell quickly. Yes, I could do a quick and dirty interior design job cheaply, but if I were planning on moving there, I would prefer to buy as is, and have my work executed to my taste.

No driveway
Smelly
Doggy smell especially
No utility room
Dark rooms with small windows
Too many small rooms (I like open plan kitchen diner )

To add to this.

• North facing garden is undesirable. You can't change orientation. Then again, I've got friends with long North Facing gardens who get decent sunlight.
• Location is important.
• Proximity to amenties, green spaces, good schools and public transport
• Public transport that goes to key destinations is important (London and other major towns/cities).
• Things to do in local area
• Neighbourhood watch
• Friendly street and/or community
• Well kept development, if it's a development. A perk of new build sites is that there's a service charge for that so less dependancy on a cash-strapped council etc.
• Crime stats are important - important to feel safe.
• Lots more.

I once saw a chalet and it was the vendor showing me around. She was selling it by telling me of all the changes I could make to the place: "you could extend here and there etc."
I remember thinking, "suggesting how much more money I'd need to spend to make this place better to live in is not helping you secure the sale!"
She was also insisting for nothing below the Over And Above asking price. The house did sell (it was nice, just small) but it went for 10k below the Over And Above asking price.

The price
If its dirty inside
If there appear to be undesirable neighbours or close by
Anything to do with "shared" ie shared garden space, shared drive, etc..

The price is the price for the property and the place. It's about right. I think. There are no unpleasant surprises on garden (sunny and south facing, enclosed for pets/children. No issues on access or parking, room for three cars, or more if you wanted. It's on a bus route. There's a Tesco Metro and a mini High Street ten minutes walk away and a beach and station five minutes in the other direction.

Live Laugh Love on the wall, open plan kitchen/lounge/diner (the more walls the better for me), on a busy road, single glazing, galley kitchen, conservatory

@XingMing it sounds like all the fundamentals are there and in your position I’d empty it ( obviously) make sure it’s clean and put it on the Market. If it really fails to sell then consider an update.

North east facing garden

And definitely suss out what you can about the neighbours! Having lived next door to loud neighbours (the type that plonk their hot tub right up against the boundary fence, a meter from your back door) I have realised the huge impact on your life bad neighbours can have.

Thank god they are moving in a couple of weeks, to be replaced with lovely people

Lots of clutter as it makes me suspicious that the vendor is not serious about selling.
Lots of animals - not a single cat or dog but multiple animals especially dogs or birds. I would have to replace all the carpets which is just hassle.
Vendors who won’t leave your side. I know they need to watch you as it’s there home/belongings but some won’t let you even walk in a small room alone and without a constant unnecessary dialogue. I don’t need to be told the bathroom is a bathroom with a bath and shower. I can see that myself.

Busy main road outside

Bus stop outside

No parking

Small kitchen

Expensive, new fittings that are not to my taste. E.g. glitzy looking kitchen or bathroom that is very specific to someone else's taste that I wouldn't want to live with.

Dirt and smells

Shiny feature wall paper everywhere

Original features ripped out

Barking dogs next door/trampolines

Oh god, I hate when the vendor's in. They go around and say all the things that they think are good ("the room fits a king-size bed, once you try King you can't go back" and "rain showers are the best, it's like standing under a waterfall") and I have to awkwardly nod along while thinking, I fucking hate rain showers because it's impossible to not get your hair wet and that would be the first thing I rip out and replace, and I hate king size beds because it feels like my husband is a mile away. You can't criticise anything or discuss what you would change when the person is showing you round their own house!

Gosh people are very exacting!

The only things that would strike somewhere from my list before viewing would be:

Signs of bad neighbours (but I would not count trampoline, BBQ and hot tub owners in this category)

Any shared access, flying freehold, rights of way or particularly restrictive
A private estate would raise suspicions if a leasehold house or flat.

An unadopted road.

Not bothered by pubs more than 50ml meters away. Like sound of school playgrounds although not keen on parking wars.

Not bothered about having a drive if adequate on-road parking.

Worst thing for me is too small/ bad layout that cant be changed and things that appear cosmetic but aren't, I.e., 70s woodchip hiding 40s wiring requiring rewire/reskim/redecoration.

Badly maintained large gardens and driveways are money pits and/or incredibly laborious, hard, time-consuming jobs. Cf massive hedges.

The smell and dirty skirting boards 🤢

Adjoined living/ dining rooms and conservatories are a no for me. Also shared drives and scruffy looking neighbours houses.

Lots of clutter as it makes me suspicious that the vendor is not serious about selling

Eh ? How do you work that out ? They are presumably people who like to be surrounded by their 'stuff' which they will take with them.

The smell and dirty skirting boards

Seems a bit of a niche hatred. Surely skirting boards are pretty eay to clean and / or paint ?

Expensive, new fittings that are not to my taste. E.g. glitzy looking kitchen or bathroom that is very specific to someone else's taste that I wouldn't want to live with.
I'm with you on this - I mooch about on line quite a bit and would not be interested in buying where someone has just put in a fashionable kitchen or bathroom and then expect to recover the cost from me, when it really isn't to my taste at all. I'd prefer something I can live with until I do it up in my own tastes.

I had forgotten other things hat would put me off.
Houses on modern housing estates where there's inadequate parking for modern households which makes it difficult to get in and out of the estate. Why do they always have wiggly roads?
Houses that are a car journey to the shops. I can walk to my local Tesco in about 10 minutes. Likewise the bank, post office, takeaway, pub, church (ok, so b&q, m&s require a car journey but I don't need them every day).

@Endogal yes to not look at the old fashioned layout of a biggish kitchen but not big enough for more than a breakfast bar and then a living room with a dining room attached. And then a conservatory. We didn’t look at any like that as we would have wanted to block off the living room and make a big kitchen diner. Some layouts are so old fashioned but clearly work for some people who want to hide the wife in the kitchen and keep kids silent.
Also didn’t look at any houses with a conservatory!

Downstairs bathroom
Only one loo
Noisy neighbours
No parking
Insufficient wardrobe space

Why do they always have wiggly roads?

To slow traffic down to make it safer for children and animals.