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’m looking to move from a two bed to a three bed in the south east, so I would probably rip your hand off for anything right now, but…

Open plan kitchen/living room. I want a door to close if I’m cooking fish/curry etc.

Astroturf garden - we have a dog but even so, just…no.

Loft conversion - worry about it being done properly for building regs, the heat and having no storage.

En suite bathrooms that have rendered the third bedroom a cupboard.

Trampoline in next door’s garden, or the houses next door looking a bit of a state.

Tiny bedrooms (if the 2nd or 3rd bedroom isn't big enough to swing a cat, it's not a bedroom and shouldn't be marketed as one).

Lack of storage space.

This one might be a weirder one, but I have a strong preference for properties with storm door/vestibule set-ups - reduces the risk of pets or family members running out into the road, and gives a space for taking off muddy clothes etc. I'd want a property to either have something like that already or have the option of adding one.

Kitchens that are just a row of units against one wall in the living room.

For me, location is paramount.

I wouldn't buy anything in a large town or city. I love my little market town (population 3,000) and that's big enough for me.

Wouldn't get anything on a busy road, or without its own parking for at least 3 cars.

In terms of the house itself, I wouldn't look at a house that had no downstairs loo, or one that had a downstairs bathroom.

This is a strange one, but I wouldn't buy a red brick house. Lucky enough to live in the Cotswolds so all the homes here are made of Cotswold stone. And having previously lived in a street full of red houses, the sun shines so much more nicely off the yellow Cotswold stone. It just feels a sunnier / happier place to live!

Wouldn't buy a Victorian terrace either. They have all the things I hate in houses, and often dark rooms with small windows. If I had the money, I'd happily buy one of the lovely Georgian houses in our village, or the ones nearby, but not Victorian. Too dark inside and usually made of red brick, in depressing row upon row with no parking.

We've got a north-facing garden and it's fantastic - I actually wouldn't buy a place with a south-facing garden now. The glass-roofed room at the back of the house gets just the right amount of light, and never overheats in summer. Plus the back of our garden is a real sun-trap, and all the flowers face the house (to the south) so you can enjoy them from indoors. It's been a surprising win for us.

Bungalows.

Neighbours having access through your garden (past your kitchen window) to put out and bring in their wheelie bins.

Stuff that needs extending or has large scale building work needed. Been there, done that… and at the moment, is a nightmare to execute.

Houses that’ll cost a fortune to heat.

Street parking.

Open plan - love having separate living spaces, much more practical for us
No hall - love a nice hall - both our centuries old cottage and our present modern house have lovely spacious halls - makes the rest of the house feel more balanced
No downstairs loo - a downstairs loo is invaluable as you get older!
No parking - it would be so stressful to not know if you could park near your house when you get home
Overlooked garden - have luckily had private gardens in both my houses - when we were selling our cottage I said to my husband that I doubted if I'd ever have a private, not overlooked garden again, but we struck lucky.

However - we also said we didn't want to be on a main road - we are!
Ditto shared driveway - we have one!

Always such a compromise, house buying.

Woodchip on the walls.
Small windows.

Smell of dog. I can always tell where there's been a dog

But that's just bizarre...if their house smells of dog (I'm assuming you mean 'normal' dog smell and not floorboards saturated in urine or anything) then that smell will go with their furniture and soft furnishings and after a good clean.

It would be like not buying a house because their living room is painted blue...it doesn't mean you have to paint it blue!

Lots of grey everywhere
No garage
No downstairs loo
Main road position
Near a school/pub/shopping area
Small/overlooked garden
Open plan layout.

Rubbish EPC
Creaky floors

for me, I wouldn’t look round houses that had:

• downstairs bathroom
• bathroom off kitchen
• too steep stairs / open plan stairs
• no parking
• north facing garden
• galley kitchen
• narrow living room where everyone has to sit in a line
• near school / pub / restaurant

My house ticks 90% of the dislikes listed in this thread. However it is in a UNESCO world heritage site, 1/4 mile from the national park boundary with uninterrupted views across the Irish sea to the Wicklow mountains.

Best post of the day. I could not agree more!!!

You win mumsnet 🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 .

Shared driveway
Cul de sac
Untidy neighbouring properties , I’m talking old cars and junk/rubbish

We've got a north-facing garden and it's fantastic - I actually wouldn't buy a place with a south-facing garden now

Totally agree with this!

Our compromise was a North facing garden - our main lounge and conservatory are at the back and face north. At the front of the house, south facing, is the kitchen and reception 2.

Our garden is fabulous - enough sun but plenty of shady spots. Conservatory is massively more comfortable and usable in high summer and our main reception room is perfect.

The front rooms, south facing, are unbearably hot and glare-y at times in high summer and I'm forever grateful they're not out most-used living spaces!

OP, I wouldn’t worry too much. We live in a house that 90% of delivery drivers, workman, etc and all our friends and family lust after. A stunning cottage in an AONB (commutable to London). However, the house commits the following heinous crimes

No downstairs bathroom
Stairs into living room (though not in the middle)
No garage (although we have loads of parking as have plenty of land)

We have ramblers and MAMILs stop and ask if it’s for sale, estate agents falling over themselves to sell it for us and when our neighbour put his house up for sale, it sold immediately, off market, and the buyers paid +80k more than the asking price, there was that much demand and a waiting list for properties like ours. I don’t lose any sleep over my beautiful house’s ‘faults’. Character properties are never going to be ‘perfect’, which is what makes them so desirable.

Similar to many others:

Front door opening straight onto the living room.
Stairs rising from a room rather than a hallway.
Shared access/use of outdoor space.
Corner baths - I’d rather no bath than a corner one.

No off road parking
Downstairs bathroom
Back garden that is entirely cement/slabs

If the above was reflected in the price/I wouldn't be going beyond the ceiling price of the house to make it how I want it, then I would still view the house.

Also:
Painted bricks - I wouldn't view a painted house
Ivy on the house
A falling down extension that's connected to next doors - I've seen a few like this but it's funnily enough never captured on the photos
The bathroom off a bedroom

Bad smells (cooking, dogs - and I love dogs - smelly trainers etc). I once looked round a house which actually made me feel sick as it was so foul smelling (was weird, as it was otherwise very well presented). It was 20 years ago and I still remember it

Otherwise, I wouldn't look at a house on any kind of estate, and wouldn't look at a house built after about 1920 (and preferably 1820). I did once say I would not begin to consider a house on a main road with no parking, then bought precisely that.

Live in Aus, so different house types.

Must have a proper, separate laundry with enough space.
No horrible light beige facebrick.
Nothing with low ceilings - I have 2 sons who are 6'5.
Nothing with shared access of anything.

Sounds utterly idyllic ❤️

Downstairs bathroom as the only bathroom. Gardens that are virtually all at the front of the house. Traffic noise. Interior half timbering. Narrow oblong rooms.

Oh and a shared driveway and any kind of painting / cladding.

Main road
No parking
Tiny garden
Low-lying near a river
Ugly front of house
Cramped kitchen
Kitchen at the front

Rightmove first photo being inside the house rather than a shot of the outside full picture, just screams red flag must be an awful outside