What are/were your dealbreakers when looking for a house to buy?

[YaffleYaffle]

We are would-be FTBs and after a few viewings are getting a better idea of what we need and want to avoid, but still figuring it out. So would love to know what you did/didn’t want in particular.

So far ours are:
Garage
Space for a dishwasher
Bath not just a shower
Must be able to sit opposite the TV in the living room and not have to position it at a weird angle due to doors/stairs/etc
Not too close to a busy road

What are/were yours?

Perhaphs, but much more convenient for the camping gear, bicycles, gardening stuff, decorating stuff, garden furniture, ladders than the bathroom. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm looking at the moment;
Hallway rather than door straight into front room.
Downstairs loo as well as upstairs bathroom.
Off road parking.
Either 2 separate reception rooms or a spare bedroom (to shove gaming teenager in).
Kitchen you can fit more than one person at a time in.

Why do people want South facing gardens? It means the front is north facing.

Sunny garden, sunny kitchen diner, big doors onto the patio. The rooms at the front are dark but the sun in the garden makes up for it!

Large kitchen diner or scope to knock through
At least 3 bedrooms (4 ideally)
Driveway for 2 vehicles
Location was the biggest for us, the only one that was non negotiable.
And after wasting thousands and 9 months on a vendor that refused to move out, a vendor that would actually complete the sale!

We got everything we wanted apart from we need to take a little bit of hedge out to get 2 vehicles on drive. And still deciding whether to knock through kitchen diner 🤣 Our estate agents were absolutely fantastic re the vendor situation I have to say...they helped us so much with the new purchase!

A house I could afford, in the best area we could afford and felt like it could be home. Also we never over-streched ourselves and I was lucky to have paid off our mortgage when DH died very suddenly. Just a 3 bed 1920s semi in an okay bit of Leeds (not a favoured mumsnet location- but great schools, lovely neighbours).

4 good sized bedrooms
2 bathrooms
Spacious
Decent sized enclosed garden
Newish and in a good state as we didn't want to have to do any work for at least a few years as DC were young.

We were FTBs looking in a nice area of central London with a budget that was decent but not extortionate, so had to make a lot of compromises.

Must haves:
Location
Some form of outside space (bought a flat rather than a house)
Bedrooms all a decent size, i.e. no box rooms
Not a fixer-upper
Not ex council

Nice to haves:
Front door doesn't open straight into the living room
Not open plan, or separate utility room/cupboard (basically didn't want to have noise from the washing machine disturbing us in the living room)
Dining room or kitchen/diner, rather than dining table in living room

Had to have

4 double bedrooms
at least 1 en-suite
utility room (this was an absolute non negotiable)
kitchen at the back of the house with space for table and seating area preferably with the mums et hated but elsewhere loved bifolds

not bothered about
garaged
detached
big garden, smaller is better

When buying our first house in Australia it was no pool and plenty of garden. Harder than you'd think.

Now casually looking to downsize:
Same area
Single storey
Single use of site i.e. not a unit
No massive renovations
No pool

Talk about hens' teeth.

Ideally detached, having suffered with neighbour noise through wall in the past...but not always, neighbours always a gamble. But a lot of detached in our price range are modern/estate type, prefer older with some character....harder to find.
Kitchen diner OK, in fact I like a kitchen with plenty of space but total knock through a no-no.
Not bothered about garage but some outside storage. Garden not a postage stamp but not too big either.

Of course I'd love detached, land etc, but its important to state budget. My budget, in the South East, stretched to a standard 800/900 sq ft, semi type house.

No Flood Zone (first thing I check)
No Flight Path
No Busy main road
No Shared driveway/anything
No Right of access through gardens
At least 2 proper sized double bedrooms
Walking distance to shop
No more than 2 miles to mainline Station
Not overlooked in garden
Ideally off street parking
Must room for a bath, not just a shower
Not new build on an estate
Not mid terrace

To add: Kitchens with no room for full sized upright fridge freezer, and just under counter space. No thanks. Would mean remodelling kitchen. Also no to integrated appliances. Unnecessary PITA to replace anything.

Why does MN hate bifolds?

Not open plan
Sizeable hall
Not overlooked garden which is not too large
Adequate parking
Garage
Detached
3/4 bedrooms

Personally I think they can look amazing in the right space but they can look wrong in smaller rooms and for me they look too modern. They become a massive mirror at night and you lose wall space in a kitchen for cupboards.

I live a lurch sink at a window looking out over a garden.

it can be hard to find a new build or refurbished house now without them. The phase will end at some stage.

With these requests everyone must have 1 million pound plus budgets!

An East West facing property means a house has sunlight at the front in the early part of the day and the back in the later part of the day.

I’m house hunting. I want almost the same as I have but in a different area, this includes off road parking, a garden, two reception room, large kitchen and detached. I can find loads of houses like this in my price range but there is always something putting me off!

• safe, quiet street
• not near a busy road
• not near a school or a pub
• close enough to a train station
• no damp or other structural issues
• no flood risk
• a bath, not just a shower
• garden
• decent internet access
• no ex-council
• no leasehold
• no new-built (nothing built in the past 30 years, standards of constructions are shoddy in this country...).

BIG kitchen, some outside space, ideally a garage and off street parking...

I'm finding lots of them quite funny. I suspect most on this thread don't understand that probably the majority of people in the UK live in flat or a terraced house because that's what it's like in cities and most of the population lives in a city. And if they are in an urban conurbation on the outskirts of a city they'll be amazingly lucky to get detatched, garage, driveway, not new build, not ex council, 4 double bedrooms, utility etc etc. If you can get all that where you live on a FTB budget then lovely - but I bet the area is shite or dull or remote.

You find the fact that people have different budgets, different priorities and live in different areas quite funny?

you suspect most people don’t understand the housing stock available in the uk?

why do you assume everyone posting is a FTB? And why do you assume a FTB budget can only be low?

How patronising and narrow minded.

I find bi-fold doors baffling because where would you put the fly screens? (Australia) I'm so used to having them, and therefore a fly and mosquito-free house. To be fair, I wasn't oppressed by insects when I lived in the UK, and happily left doors open.

Also see the point about losing wall space - rarely seen an Aussie house without pocket doors to maximise space. I suspect also the ads show a larger than average house spec when the reality is that rooms are like to be smaller so the doors dominate.

As a (single) FTB I was quite flexible:

• Secure entry flat
• Decent area (felt safe, close to restaurants and with good transport links)
• Not a tenement (potential maintenance costs)
• Move-in condition
• Allocated parking

For my next house with DP:

• Quiet street (we have a dog)
• Good location (close to work, safe area)
• Kitchen/diner
• Door opens into hallway, not straight into the living room
• Garage
• Stairs not in living room
• Driveway for two cars

We had other things on our wants list (e.g. a utility room, ensuite, big hallway, access to kitchen via hall instead of living room, bay window) but only got some of them. There will always be compromises.

I agree with @Stripedbag101.

Although some of these requests/requirements might seem like people have millions in the bank, you can't presume anything about someone's budget.

OP, you need to think about what really matters to you and your life. Futureproof yourself - do what will work for your budget, and think about what you really need. People's needs change as their family grows.

If the plan is to buy somewhere that is your forever home, your priorities will be different to if you plan to only stay for 3-5 years.