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!?

no parking
busy road
no garden
no shops in walking distance

we once looked at a lovely house. Ample space inside & out, planning for a decent extension, detached. It was only when we went to the upstairs front bedroom that there was an engine noise & we could see a bus sitting outside with the engine running. Apparently it was the ‘rest area’ for the bus drivers who then got off the bus, weed in the bushes, then got back on the bus & turned it around to head back into town. Lovely 😕

My no no’s for a home.

Thatched roof. Shared drive or shared garden. Near traffic lights. Near a school (parents parking erratically) Low ceilings. Attached. Thin walls. High crime rate. Never ever a new property. Never too far from neighbours.
Must be near a bus route, trains and shops.

I should have added I also wouldn’t buy a house that had been recently decorated in a style I don’t linked.

I viewed a lovely house in a great area that was recently renovated.

everything was either grey or sparkly or grey and sparkly! There were square led lights in the stairs and all over the kitchen. New carpets throughout - all grey. The bathrooms had some sort of white obviously roof. And there was plastic grass. It was an expensive house but not to my taste - I would have had to spend thousands ripping everything out - all new and all priced in to the value of the house.

White plastic ceiling not white obviously roof😳

When we bought there was only one loo. Now we’ve got 4-not a problem to add on. Plus we bought the downstairs flat, gutted it and combined it all. Knocked down a couple walls and have a large and stunning dining room two steps up from big chef’s kitchen. We enjoy entertaining and cooking so makes perfect sense to have open plan kitchen- dining room. Living room is completely separate.

DM lived just under half a mile from a school(5-11) and it was horrendous to drive through, I avoided visiting about an hour or around drop off and collection, the parents used to arrive early to bag a space.

Scary stairs with open risers. Balustrades with large gaps. Too many levels.

I've lived near a primary school for ages, it's never been a problem. Busy around 3pm, but then it's unlikely that I will want to be going anywhere by car at that time. My children all get themselves back from secondary school.

Honestly, when I realise some of the walls have just been painted. Either it's all been painted and you can tell they made the effort because looks like, or you can tell the people who live there don't particularly care and then, why paint some of walls? Why go through that trouble? Why not paint everything? What are you hiding?

How do you ensure there are no barking dogs near your next house though unless you live in the middle of a field or country pile with absolutely no neighbours? There could be a dog next door which is quiet and shortly after you move in, a neighbour may decide to get a dog which sets off the others!

Its the same with neighbours playing loud music in their gardens or garden structures. Unless you’re there when they’re playing it, assuming it’s not all the time, you’re just not going to know until you move in, no matter how many walk / drive -throughs you do. And who knows what the next new neighbour is like?

I so much agree with an earlier pp - I can put up with a lot in a house, but it’s the neighbours!!!

Quite

This is what's making me hesitant to move @Abracadabra12345! Although I have said to DH I would go and sit on a street we were buying a house on with my car windows open for as much time as possible to see if thereis any annoying noise. And would directly ask the question of the sellers. You can't guarantee it though. A detached house would at least minimise noise when we were inside.

redandwhite1 I have a bathroom down stairs, it’s literally at the bottom of the stairs, no problem going upstairs with a towel round me and it’s ideal if there is someone in the bathroom upstairs

The main thing that puts me off is if lots of building work has been done but badly or not how I’d want it. Inevitably the owners want top dollar for their “done up” house but it’s not worth that to me.

Other things:

noisy road

any sign of anti social neighbours

north facing garden/kitchen

small overlooked garden (We have one now, it’s been fine until the most recent neighbours moved in )

low ceilings

I so agree. My pet hate is the current trend for everything grey, it just looks so dreary and depressing. As for the 'sparkly' as well, just gross🙄

I should have added I also wouldn’t buy a house that had been recently decorated in a style I don’t linked.

Yes, that's a big one. Anything like a blingy kitchen which would feel really wasteful to rip out but I just don't like. I mean, if everything else was perfect, I'd have to consider it but would hate buying something I actively don't like.

I'd now be cautious about older houses with windows I can't change because I think future heating bills will become a resale issue now. So definitely no listed buildings.

I suppose re potentially horrible neighbours, you could see how often the houses nearby change hands. That could be a red flag to all of that.

No storage, as in cupboards under stairs ripped out to create more room, no loft as it's been made into a room (whether officially or unofficially).

Everyone needs space to store their suitcases!!

Conifers in neighbouring gardens!
Open plan
No room for downstairs loo
No hallway/foyer, so you walk straight in to the living room.
No garden
No parking
No beach/grassy area/park nearby.

no loft as it's been made into a room (whether officially or unofficially).

Everyone needs space to store their suitcases!!

but it’s still a lodt - so just use the space for your suitcases and keep it as your lift space

if someone changes the dinning room into a sitting room - you don’t have to use the space in the same way?

Yes but the house would be more school became of the extra bedroom in the loft.

expensive not school!

No if unofficial and if done well will still have eaves to store suitcases

Over extended properties
The proportions are all wrong

Front door needs to be on the front for me. A lot of cheaper victoriana houses had doors on the side when we were looking. I just couldn't!

Something that would really put me off, even though it could be changed (but it would be a bother) is a freestanding bath in the bedroom. It’s a style I hate and don’t get. I live in a house that doesn’t have passers by and a lot people say they didn’t even realise there was a house there so I would find it very difficult to adjust to being in house with people walking by the window.