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!?

Neighbours.

I don't want any.

Some of these are just snobby about decor though?
Writing on the wall - probably very cheap and easy to fix!
Location,surroundings, nearby buildings and street parking are obvs not changeable. Layout, lack of light, kitchen design, staircase orientation etc would be expensive, potentially cost prohibitive to change

Downstairs toilet accessed via the laundry room gets a very strong no from me. The whole point of the laundry room is to keep your washing away from your guests, not give them a guided tour of your smalls.

Lack of storage.

"Corridor" rooms that are too narrow.

Inadequate toilets snd bathrooms.

No bath - or there should at least be room to install one or more.

Near a noisy venue.

Too near a school, so will be parking issues.

A bedroom that isn't a bedroom. Marketed as a 4 bed. Only you can't even get a single bed into the fourth bedroom. Then it's a bloody three bed, isn't it?!
Wide-angle lenses so the garden looks massive - get there and it's the size of a postage stamp. What's the point?!

They will become less and less desirable with rising energy costs imo.

The point is that you went to visit I suppose. It's a stupid idea to classify houses by number of bedrooms rather than m2 as they do in other countries.

But there’s less private space - you’re all on top of each other, all the time. I like having separate rooms so that people can have their own space.

We're looking at bungalows so maybe a slightly different list,

• garden overlooked by houses
• Not enough car parking/tandem parking/drive only big enough for a tiny car
• Conservatory/sun room off a bedroom.
• French doors off a bedroom and no other easy access to the garden without walking around the outside.
• Dining room listed as third bedroom but the kitchen/lounge isn't big enough for a table.
• Property built on a steep hill or with a steep driveway.
• lots of steps from the back of the bungalow into the garden.
• No amenities nearby, at least a corner shop to buy milk.
• All the bedrooms are upstairs - if all the bedrooms are upstairs it's a house - maybe technically it's a dormer bungalow but its no use to me, might as well save money and buy a house.
• Shared driveway/access.
• Bathroom not large enough for a separate shower and bath.

Dogs are my main one. They always smell and it gets ingrained in the house. Same with cigarette smoke.

Open plan downstairs living space, unless there’s a separate living room. Kitchen diners if a decent size are fine, but living room diners are a big no.

They’re not that cheap to put in, especially as you’d need to re-tile and possible re-floor. It would put me off to be honest, as I’ve got young DC so need a bath. It might be ok if there were no DC.

Open plan... I cant ABIDE open plan, if I wanted no wall Id live in a field.

Open plan is not remotely practical on any level (noise, heating, clutter issues) and serves zero purpose.

Whats wierder is the house I grew up in (we moved 20 years ago) was put up for sale and I always wanted to move back so went to look at it, they ripped out all the walls to make it open plan and it looks TINY now.

Its so much smaller than I remember now and thats not because I was a child I was in my teen when we moved and my family members house on the same street is the same layout and doesnt look tiny - ripping the walls out made it feel so much smaller.

I saw a few years ago a property article and it had "trends" that were going to be fashionable at that time, and one was "open plan living space".

I know it is sort of a trend but the way it was written was as if you could take down and put up walls depending on the fashion!! ( Like comparing to a feature wall or certain colours with cushions/lamps/soft furnishings in accent colours or twigs in pots etc that could be easily changed)

For me I'm put off by open plan in terms of noise (either from tv/music/kitchen, even washing machine noise) smells - cooking smells can be quite strong, heating a large area, and not having spaces where people can do different things. And I think I'm too untidy for open plan!🤣

But there’s less private space - you’re all on top of each other, all the time. I like having separate rooms so that people can have their own space.

its only open plan down stairs - upstairs isn't open plan

tbh when we lived in the old house my dc lived in their bedrooms, and yet there was a living rooms with 4 walls, kitchen with 4 walls and a dinning room with 4 walls - now downstairs is open plan and the dc still use their bedrooms, but not as much as they used to and spend time in the open space doing stuff, we don't get on top of each other though. when you had open plan how did you get on top of each other all the time?

So many of these are budget dependent, surely? And age/stage of life? E.g. DH & I had a single bathroom/toilet in our first flat, fine when we were younger with no kids and stronger bladders, but I wouldn't like it now. Also, you get different types of property in different areas. My undesirables include:

living area all open plan
only one toilet
bus stop outside house
stairs going up from a room
front door straight into living room
flat - we had a very noisy one. If I had to have a flat I'd try and get top floor
north facing garden
storage heaters
bland-looking house
neighbours with unkempt houses
main road
no front garden to separate you from the pavement
no or tiny back garden
isolated so I have to drive everywhere

Don't care about (we have all of these currently):
off-road parking (as long as I can park somewhere nearby)
being overlooked
single glazing

😂 Gosh, my house has most of these. It's overlooked, it's on a main road (you can't hear because the walls are 18 inches of solid stone), it's only got one bathroom and one downstairs loo. Stairs in the sitting room. Every single window is a different size and shape. Several rooms built at different times with different materials. A layout that makes absolutely no sense at all. Mad neighbours. Communal courtyard filled with mad neighbours and the occasional impromptu gig.

But it's a wonderful, unique building with bags of history right in the middle of a creative and artistic hotspot. I won't have trouble selling it. (But possibly to no one on Mumsnet.)

My dc rarely use their bedrooms, and mainly play downstairs. I’d find it annoying to have them charging about a kitchen when I’m trying to cook - but my dc all have adhd and are very active and like doing things like playing hide and seek or playing tag in the house, so ymmv

Must haves for me are:
detached
four bedrooms (3 double)
ensuite
downstairs toilet
private parking with at least two spaces

So I wouldn’t even look at a listing without these.

Things that put me off:
patterned carpets
small garden
too overlooked
a street lamp too close
it’s clear there’s a parking problem on the street
no cupboard space/storage

Weird layouts like wedge-shaped bedrooms or having to walk through a communal room to get to a bedroom. Will always make a place hard to sell on.

Interesting thread this.
Our house needs spruce up.
Can do lots about some things on here, some things we already have in spades. Cannot realistically do much about a couple of things.

Clutter, mess, a general shit tip. Makes me think a) zero storage and b) not a well looked after house

Busy, noisy road/bus route or near a railway line.
Being near to a school, church or parade of shops. Just spells parking problems to me.
No off street parking.
House itself, or houses on either side, being unkempt or scruffy.
No gardens.
Open plan living/dining space. I'd hate cooking smells in my living room.
Over-bath shower.
Limited worktop space in the kitchen.

@Cloudyout @User487216 thanks for the feedback. Everything works and I use it every day, but it's very old, which most people wouldn't tolerate I think.

I would avoid..
Houses with big trees blocking out sunlight.
No bath.
Bifold doors.
Open plan.
Small garden.

• damp
• very little natural light
• lonely pathway up to the property ( love privacy but if you feel too isolated it’s not good )
• building site nearby
• lack of pavement/walkability outside
• basement property (as in most or all of the living space is in the basement)
• flood risk

superficial stuff- clutter, dirt, evidence of very cheap diy solutions, there’s a fair chance if they skimped on the small things they may also have messed up the big things evidence of current owner’s grim existence (it’s silly but if I think I’d hate to have the life of the current resident it makes it hard to get excited about it) mold more space than charm