What are your "must haves" when buying a house?

[Oops41]

And your "nice to haves"?

For me I must have a utility room and garage and good sized rooms. Also a decent sized garden and off road parking.

Nice to have... room for a playroom, quiet street, kitchen on back of house that overlooks garden

Not on a main road.

Must have parking

Must have a minimum of 3 reasonable sized bedrooms and at least 1 other bedroom big enough to get a single bed in.

Must have an upstairs bathroom

The rest I think is up for negotiation

Must have

Storage, large rooms, insulated, decent garden for DCs to safely play, no repairs/renovations needed, off street parking, kitchen/diner so DCs can chat to me while I'm cooking cleaning, character, extra room for play/games room, large windows letting lots of natural light in and that can be opened during the day/ not on a main/busy road and location location location, dont care about fancy postcodes but I do care about safe friendly area with good schools and decent neighbours.

Would like, Corner house or detatched/semi, front garden that looks nice, extra utility/washroom, high ceilings, own ensuite or extra toilet/shower room.

When we were buying location was really important to us, we wanted to be in a couple of very specific areas and to be close to a train station with direct access to town. We also wanted to be close to some nice places to eat/drink and easy access to the countryside.

The house was less important as we knew we would want to make it our own over time so as long as we had space to extend. That said, we knew we'd have to live in it for a while before doing anything so we wanted somewhere that was at least habitable.

The key things we focussed on when renovating were building a good sized kitchen, with open plan living space/family area and a separate living room for when the kids get older and we want peace! A utility was a welcome addition too, it's great to be able to close the door on the washing!

Must have:
A quiet residential street
4 bedrooms
A kitchen diner
A garden with grass
Detached
A Woodburner in the sitting room

Nice to have:
A spare room
A summer house/workshop
A utility room

Detached
More than one bathroom
Large kitchen and dining room (open plan type thing)
Bedrooms for me and the dc and a study

@DuesToTheDirt

Soul.

That’s mine, too, really. Although we restricted ourselves to being within walking distance of DS’s city-centre school, so we needed our ‘soul’ to be in one of two specific areas where not many houses come up, and where those that do are often extremely quirky because of the steep terrain (eg. twenty steps up from the street to the garden path, or access only via a steep, narrow path down from the street, no off-street parking and not much on the street, houses only one room deep as built into a cliff face etc).

Our only other stipulation was that the house needed to be habitable while we gradually renovated it. We’ve only lived here a few weeks, and I love it, but I do recognise that our big Victorian rooms, beautiful old stairs, cornicing and original shutters come at the cost of us living indefinitely in fairly primitive conditions.

Must haves:

Detached
Off street parking (for minimum 2 cars)
Either a study or an extra bedroom
A garden
En suite
Fast internet speed & phone signal

Nice to haves:

Close to a train station
South facing garden
Garage
Utility room

I hadn’t thought of the placement of the living room but I’m now going to add porch/rear living room to my essential list so that it’s not used as a walkway like mine is now!

Off road parking
Southerly aspect garden
Huge kitchen diner
Downstairs loo
Utility room
Two bathrooms
All other things negotiable to me as long as at least 3 bedrooms

For my next home:

Must have:
3 bedrooms- 2 double bedrooms and box room (study/hamster room).
Large hallway
Good public transport which mean that car is not necessary
Easy commute to the city/synagogue and fairly near to my MIL's house
(Above 2 factors mean z3 north london but i have a habit of perusing rightmove for properties in Home Counties towns that I can never move to)
Outstanding Primary and Secondary schools
High Ceilings
Period building
If its a flat, building must be managed by residents (just like how my current flat is).
NO OPEN PLAN!
Decent sized kitchen
Bathroom
Muswell Hill/East Finchley

Character
Within reasonable walk to station and shops
Big kitchen
Nice views
Room to have both a kitchen table and dining table
Room for everyone to have their own study space
Large bedrooms

Nice to have
cloakroom
large hallway
study for me
patio/walled garden off of kitchen
No lawn
Oak beams and flagstone floors.
Large fireplaces
No ensuite, don't need one and don't want lots of bathrooms to clean.
A separate snug

It depends on where you are in life.
My first house was must be 2 bed, easy parking.
Buying with 2 dc, parking, 4 beds and a downstairs loo was important.
If I was to move now, I'd want 4 beds, two work spaces, a bungalow and parking for 4 cars.

Must haves:

Driveway for at least 3 cars
Large garden with space for entertaining
4 bedrooms, with no box room
Large room sizes in general
Very large kitchen
Pantry
Utility room
Office room
Craft room
Toilet on all levels
Plenty of storage space

Nice to have:

Detached
All on one level
Laundry chute direct to laundry room
Ensuite bathroom to master bed
Walk in wardrobe to master bed
Gym space
Boot room
2nd lounge for teens
Set back from road
Walled garden
Space for allotment
Garage
No close neighbours
Outside entertainment area with BBQ, pizza oven, seating all under cover plus hot tub, bar area, pool, etc.

Also a large entrance hall with plenty of storage space is a must have.

Character would be nice

Detached property
More than one bathroom, a toilet and washbasin could be sufficient for the second
Near transport but not so close you can hear every bus or train
Not on a main road.
Off street parking.
Utility room - the washing machine does not belong in the kitchen.

We couldn't find our ideal place when we were moving 5 years ago so we bought something that had potential and did the best we could with the space we had (which included a large 2 storey extension).

It's not my ideal house as there were limitations due to plot size/shape and monetary constraints, but it's pretty close.

I'd prefer more frontage and a longer drive plus a wider plot in general and the garden, whilst big for town, is smaller than I'd like.

I'd love a separate room for the dogs that is straight off the garden (they sleep in the utility/laundry room atm). I'd also like a separate laundry room ideally.
A room within the house for a gym area would be great too.
Space for a decent sized pool in the garden or house would be great too.

Warmth and privacy.

Walking distance to a proper train station. One with regular trains that turn up and connect.
Quiet at night.
Near enough to a proper city.
In a hilly place, on the dry side of the hill. I can’t settle in flat landscapes.
Enough going on within a three mile radius for teenagers.

Pretty much everything else is negotiable.

Also forgot:

open fireplace or wood burning stove as a must have (or the potential to put one in).

I love our log burner and wouldn't want to be without one now.

Quiet road, street with mature trees, house with front garden, large kitchen, light sitting room, loo downstairs, period features (fireplaces, cornices etc), garden facing south (or almost), good storage, shopping nearby (small shops/local businesses), good bus services. Would not buy a doer upper but wouldn't mind redecorating. Place within easy reach of cultural activities (theatre, cinema, museums, galleries - sadly not at the mo.) and countryside.

NB Children are all grown up, otherwise good schools would be crucial - would compromise on other features/amenities.

Essential

10 min walk to a good station - 35 mins to Central London tops
Light
East/West aspect
Large drive
Space
Large garden
Excellent water pressure
Not listed

Desirable
Character
Fireplaces
Excellent drawing room
Good roof

The bonus
A boot room
It's Arts & Crafts

Caveat: It's the 4th house.

I've read most of the other posts now and it made me realise our top must-have was actually the location.

The place we bought didn't originally tick many of our must-haves, but it had the potential for pretty much all of them and for most of the 'would likes' too.

It only actually ticked the boxes for:

Location
Driveway (for 2 cars, but potential for 4)
Large garden
Detached

Everything else we achieved through renovating and extending.

To be fair the big three non negotables were proximity to station, quiet road, aspect.

Thankfully this house had those three because as we got out of the car, DH reached for my hand and and we knew it was "the one".

It was a probate sale (although clean and well maintained) and very dated. Had a late 70s kitchen with two tone mustard and olive high gloss doors and tiles with hexagons. We lived in it for 12 months to judge the light through the seasons and then moved out for 6 while the builders did what needed to be done. Rewired, replumbed, took the back off half of it.

Must haves:
Detached
Garage
Off road parking for at least 2 cars
Private garden - not overlooked
At least 4 bedrooms
Utility room
Open plan kitchen diner
Separate sitting room
Nice outlook
Neighbouring houses well kept and maintained exterior and garden
Quiet
Asthetically pleasing
At least one en-suite bedroom

Honestly it was a nightmare finding that lot and I’m never moving again!

Must have

Quiet road
3 bedrooms
2 toilets (or space to put a second one in eg under the stairs)
Garden
Decent (not galley) kitchen
Storage space

Desirable

3rd bedroom good size
Utility room
Open plan kitchen/diner with separate lounge
Garage