Thing that puts you off straightaway looking at a house?

[hugoagogo]

For me it's open plan type kitchen and living rooms. Like a bedsit!?

I suspect my windows are at least 70 years old and possibly 120!
Shameful isn't it?

Not really. More energy efficient to have the best possible glazing. It looks neater too. Lots of shabby looking houses have shabby looking glazing. To me, that's a no and would require replacing in order to improve energy and appearance quality.

No garden and no parking are big ones for me.

Next to a main road

Alley way to the back of the house. I used to live in
a house that had this and it was horrible. Fly tippers, boy racers etc.

Noisy neighbours and loud barking dogs. If I was looking round a house and next door had music blaring out and dogs barking constantly… I wound assume that happened often and probably wouldn’t bother looking at the rest of the house.

@Fritilleries what sort of window material are you going for that needs replacement after 10 years?

We had an extension in 2008 so new windows then, not sure they look shabby or need replacing yet...

To be clear, if I'm looking at houses that are nearly half a million, I would expect windows to have been glazed within the last decade. Hope that makes sense. Nothing worse than an expensive house with old windows that will need updating.

@TheSummerPalace I can understand that, it’s a legitimate reason, whereas a lot of other reasons given early on in this thread were very superficial.

I have dogs, so we are really careful with opening the front door, especially while they are young and have gate across the living room door as an extra barrier just in case. For us though, this bit of ‘management’ is worth it, as everything else works for us and the house is ideally located for lots of fantastic dog walks. If I had cats I would probably want to live on a quieter road too. It’s not a main road, but it can get quite busy around school run times.

I wouldn’t call considering the safety of your cats being prescriptive though. Prescriptive to me is a long list of things someone won’t even consider, even if they are things that can be changed fairly easily or one thing, again usually something easily changeable, that means you won’t go and view an otherwise perfect house.

No off road parking/drive
Main road
School on same road
Front door opening straight into living room.
1 reception room
Small kitchen
Downstairs bathroom

We are looking at the moment...as long as it is in the right place and has the correct number of bedrooms, I have two deal breakers: a small garden, and barking dogs in the neighbourhood. Oh, and a neighbour having an easement through our garden, so 3.

We have a lot of the things mentioned in this thread. We have no parking (which is fine, we drove past a lot when we were buying and made sure it wasn't an issue). We have stairs going from our dining room. Our house is fairly close to a railway line (don't really hear them but I grew up near a railway line and it doesn't bother me), and near a main road (would prefer not, but not a deal breaker).

The neighbouring dogs are making our lives hell. We heard barking when we looked at the house but didn't realise how awful it would be. Never again! And I love our current big garden, we turned down so many houses last time and it's very important to me.

For me, as a first time buyer who went on several viewings, here’s my turn offs.

• Not having ample parking
• No hallway
• Tiny kitchen
• Open plan
• No dining room/ dining in living space
• listing a bedroom as a double however, it’s clearly not
• sellers cooking in the house right before the viewing so there’s sometimes a lingering smell that isn’t to everyone’s taste
• Smell of pets, for viewings I’d advise using diffusers for viewings
• Clutter

shared drive or unclarity over who owns what space.
parking spaces not next to house
being overlooked
no or tiny garden or steeply sloping garden
run down area
I don't mind if the outside isn't fabulous but I expect clean and tidy
house smells of smoking/cooking/airfreshener. Don't mind bread or coffee.
I could live with dirt/poor care depending on the price.
Pushy sellers.

Here's an odd one.....much nicer houses nearby. We turned down a house once that was ok (it was a company sponsored move and we couldn't hang around) because next door and opposite there were FABULOUS houses...not bigger but much much nicer. The one we were looking at was an infill so different. DH and I agreed that it would be as annoying as heck to be thinking every day that we wished we had the house next door.

Busy road
paved or gravel garden
steps (we’re in our 60s and mindful of potential future limitations)
attached to another house (I’ve had that with bad neighbours)
open plan

140 here I estimate. I much prefer them to some of our neighbours' plasticky tacky-looking windows

crikey. Warm, safe and dry would be luxurious for most people.

Open plan kitchen and living room isn’t a bed sit what are you talking about

No garage, shared access, too near a main road, cladding, strong cooking smell, no garden, scullery type kitchen with no storage space or room to move around, only one toilet, neighbouring properties look like a junkyard with rubbish in gardens, evidence of broken windows etc, - actually looking at this lot its a wonder I have ever managed to find anywhere to live........

You lot would hate my house lol. Mind you I hate it too and can’t wait to move! Have open plan, living room, dining room all one room, I really hate it. Also no parking, so that’s a nightmare.

Any slight whiff of damp (had a horrible experience when renting and can detect it like sniffer dog now)

Anything with gravel - demands a ridiculous amount of upkeep and if you are even a little bit stingy with your time, it gets weedy and looks crap.

Another vote for barking dogs - drives you crackers

You don’t need planning to knock rooms through.

If it looks like a show home without anything to indicate someone lives there. I think they're hiding something.

Cigarette smells - distinctly remember visiting a place once that smelt like a Benson and Hedges factory and all the walls were nicotine stained. The only way we'd have got rid of the smell would be to strip every room down to bare walls and floorboards....

Lack of cupboard space

Shoebox-sized spaces being advertised as bedrooms

Gardens that require tons of maintenance

New builds, always cheap and tiny
Artex because it's a nightmare to get rid of
Those top curtain cover things that are from the 80s and just gather dust
Overlooked garden, popular with new builds
No downstairs loo because.. potty training

Huge pylon nearby
near a motorway/train line
Rough area
On a road where other houses are scruffy
Tiny garden
Main road
Limited parking

We'd reject houses before even viewing on the above. They are things you can't fix even if you throw money at them.

Astro turf/fake grass - can't bear it.

No driveway - just not practical for shopping
No garden/grass - just slabs or decking
No bath (yep - I actually viewed a house that only had showers)
Shared access
Doesn't particularly bother me but a lot of people hate houses right on the road