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 love a painted house, whether render, brick or pebbledash!
Good job we don’t all like the same thing eh?

I assume it's damp and they're trying to cover up the smell ( I'm not aspirational and I do make my own bread😉).

Ok, to take us out of the MN bubble of complaining about only having one bathroom and having bins outside, consider what some renters of cheaper flats have to put up with. I've seen flats with a shower in the bedroom, not in an en suite, just in the bedroom, also one in the kitchen and a toilet that can only be accessed via the balcony. Lots of flats that advertise as flats/apartments that are actually one room studios or maybe there's a platform you can climb onto with space for a mattress.

What would put me off is any shared drives/access/wayleaves. Freinds have had awful problems in the past from those- just needs one horrible/overbearing/certifiable neighbour and you're in for a lot of stress.

No drive
Any kind of shared drive or access
New build
No storage or room to add it
Only one loo
Small kitchen
No dining area (I'm happy with a kitchen diner)
Tiny garden or a garden on a slope
Everything cheap and grey (kitchen, carpets etc)

There's plenty of other stuff I hate that can be changed.

Any of:

• on a busy road
• near the railway line
• downstairs only bathroom
• no garden
• living room/kitchen extended via a conservatory (unless it’s a really really nice one)
• front door opens directly into living room

Other than that I think I’m pretty open minded!

We’ve bought three times and every one of them was fairly dirty. The last one was epic - the bathrooms were absolutely filthy and the house stank of dog and cat. As a result we got it for a good price as I think most others were put off. I have to admit I did cry the day after we moved in and wonder if we’d made a huge mistake! But after several weeks of intensive cleaning (and replacing all the curtains and some carpets!) it’s pristine. It was definitely worth it.

Non negotiable:

No driveway- we have four cars in the family. Not having a driveway or designated parking space would be a real pain

No windows in bathrooms- had this in my first flat and hated the fact that smells would linger even when there was an extraction fan

Paved garden- cold looking

Open plan kitchen dining ( when there is not another dining room). Covid made me realise how important separate spaces are

Busy roads- However, my sister bought a five bedroomed house on a busy road , but she has a very large frontage and double glazing so the busy road doesn’t bother her. In fact, she prefers it

Lack of storage. I turned down a beautiful house because I didn’t have anywhere to put all my stuff

Open plan/barn conversion type houses
Flat roofs
Integral garages
No garden/all decking/astro turf
Conservatories

^ I wouldn't view any house with any of those "attributes"

My house has several of these faults, but it's one of the few houses in a very nice road that hasn't been massively extended, so someone who plans to change everything would undoubtedly buy it anyway.

Bathrooms/loos without a window. They also never get the fresh air and so seem unhygienic to me. Plus it's a nightmare cleaning them as the fumes from any spray make you feel dizzy.

Oh good, yeah, this too. Sounds hellish

www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/g8942056/open-floor-plans/?slide=9

I love open plan living, I live in a house where the front door is opening onto the open plan down stairs

I like it so much and find that space isn't wasted on doors and walls

I loved my old 1930s traditional house and was surprised by how much I like living in a modern open plan - couldn't go back now

Oh, I forgot, bathrooms without a window keep all the moisture from a shower/bath in, I'm sure it's terrible for the house. If you leave the door open that just permeates the rest of the house.

Smell of fish! Yep, we once viewed a house that stank of this; we couldn't wait to leave.

Seriously though:

smoking,
no parking,
lots of DIY,
main road,
corner plot,
overlooked garden,
low ceilings,

only 1 loo

BTW - I like open plan!

• Fully paved “gardens” – always described by estate agents as “low maintenance”. Pal, I want maintenance! Gimme some grass and flowerbeds.
• UPVC windows
• Boiler in a weird place
• Fully renovated, badly designed kitchens or in high gloss/bright purple/etc – can’t in good conscious rip it out
• Ditto new bathrooms, often with a miserly sliver of window, particularly floor-to-ceiling beige tiling like a high-end abattoir
• Period features removed
• Laminate flooring
• Dogs
• Composite front doors
• Stuck-on-the-front porches

Unfortunately budget + no fucking houses on the market mean we’ve just bought a terrace with ugly windows, north-facing fully paved garden, boiler in a bedroom and new but fucking terrible kitchen. Thankfully the bathroom is from the dark ages else I’d weep. We do have some cash to do it up but the kitchen is only an option if we can sell/donate the units & do it all as sustainably as possible, which I’m not sure we can when the only sustainable thing is to do nothing. Wish we had the budget for a house on Inigo, alas.

And a shared drive! Had one at our last house - never again.

The only thing for me is where the only bathroom is downstairs, which rules out a lot of pretty London terraces.

Oh and a quiet road as we have cats.

We've just had an offer accepted and it is an absolutely disgusting looking house but has huge potential.

Surely these things are all just aspirational though, and depend on your own individual circumstances?

I mean, I doubt anyone's wishlist includes no downstairs loo, tiny bedrooms, overlooked gardens, no parking, front door opening into the living room etc. But people have to work to a budget, and everyone will surely make whatever compromises work for them.

For me now, sitting in my place of relative privilege, I wouldn't want to downgrade from what I currently have - which is 5 bedrooms, large garden, multiple bathrooms, highly regarded safe area, plentiful off-street parking etc. But it would be ridiculous to think that this would be a realistic wish list for the average 20-something first time buyer.

Oh yes no bath or place to put one,
Too many stairs, one flight is enough!
Boring fire places.
Those windows with squares on them

A door that opens onto the street. I could never live anywhere like that.

No parking in property is also a no no.

Terraced.

Thatched roof. (Thatching spiders the size of dinner plates).

On a cliff edge.

This!

When my late DH and I were working very low paid jobs, we had a tiny flat with the shower in the kitchen and the loo in an understairs cupboard. It was all we could afford.

I'd avoid open-plan because that doesn't work for me. I don't want to live on a main road as I have kids or near a bus stop, play park, large park or nearby a pub, school or next to shops. I'd avoid a house where the downstairs bathroom is off the kitchen and I am not a fan of houses where you enter off the road into the living room. I like a hallway and it is a must for me. A separate dining room is important too.

Having a drive (not a shared driveway) is important I have no time for parking disputes with neighbours.

I can overlook dodgy wallpaper and paint as I will most likely want to rip everything out and start again. I find it hard to overlook clutter though, we had a viewing of a house with two adults, two kids living there. There was clutter everywhere, I know it's not affordable for many to move stuff into storage when selling but it just highlighted the lack of storage in their home. They had exhausted the storage I would have thought to add and had converted the loft into an extra bedroom. My kids were younger but we wanted a third and I knew in a few years I'd be facing the same issues they had. We didn't put an offer in.

Totally agree with @stuntbubbles about the brand new high gloss kitchen with lime/purple/red splashback that obviously cost someone a fortune but is not my cup of tea. Would feel so guilty having to tip it out so it would put me off buying. I would rather they had left a shitty old kitchen in there

I think I may have very different priorities than most but mine would be:

• too big/very large
• cold
• EPC low
• costs a lot to heat or run (i've always looked at this, even as far back as 2001).
• isolated
• not able to see outside from a sitting position. years ago i went to view a flat that was a really good price to rent but it was dark. all of the cupboards were dark mahogany and the windows were above waist height, so when you sat on a chair or sofa you couldn't see outside, it was horrible. everything else was perfect but didn't go for it as couldn't imagine sitting there not able to see outside at all.
• no window in bedrooms or tiny high up slit windows.
• bad views - view of either nothing happening like a brick wall
• needs to have at least one big window/window below waist height.
• people directly able to see in. years ago i lived in the jewellry quarter in a really nice development BUT i was on the ground floor. the flats were in a square all facing in to a really nice garden with BBQ etc BUT people had to walk past to get to their flats and would wave at me on the sofa! having said that it's the only time i felt safe enough to live on the ground floor.

Also not a fan of split level gardens, with my kids it's just a no and I would avoid a townhouse as our kods are little and I do not want to be on a different landing to them.