What puts you off when viewing a property?

[Sittingonasale]

I find smells really off putting.
I viewed several properties last week and I was put off two straight away walking through the door.
I'm not against having pets indoors and have had my fair share in the past but both these houses stank of cat and dog.
We DID view properties which clearly had pets and they didn't smell at all.

I have very allergic children and one with asthma which probably doesn't help the way I feel but I just can't do smells including tobacco smoke ( I used to smoke!), strong smells of food or cheap, sweet air fresheners. I'm the same if I have a lift with someone in their car. 😤

Another thing I find really irritating on pictures or at viewings is a nearly empty toilet roll hanging off the holder or toilet lids open. 😆

Bad smells -specially smoke.

Smell, dirty bathrooms, someone using the toilet while viewing commencing, dampness, cracks in walls, no greenery at the front of the house- all concrete /driveway, creaky floors, trees too close to foundations, house close to the road, Japanese knotweed, bamboo trees.

Dog shit.
I viewed one house with a litter of labs. There were traces of poo all over the place.
Viewed one with piles of poo all over the grass.

Damp.
Especially when the owners try to hide it. I have a keen sense of smell.

I love your boss. I once discounted a job candidate on Zoom because he hadn’t made his bed. Senior, public-facing role.

I don’t give a toss if my employees are messy at home but, if you are so oblivious to the impression you give that you CBA to make your bed for an interview, I don’t want you representing my team.

Apart from the obvious like damp patches, cracks and shoddy DIY:

Smells - Dogs mainly (not a dog fan).

Clutter - Seeing a really full and untidy house makes me wonder if they'd ever get their act together to pack up and move out. I don't mind lots of curated belongings but it has to be clean and tidy.

Ground in grime (often not visible on EA photos).

Characterless - original features all ripped out.

Had to smile at the posts about job interviewees. I dislike those things on the wall.
Previous owners had "love" on the kitchen wall....they seemed a very happy young family, why did they need a reminder?

Lack of light, very overly blingy new kitchen not to my taste. I’d prefer a lower price with work that needs doing. Bad diy, mean looking proportions and garden. Being overlooked is a big thing and bad neighbours.

Pets
Cooking smells
Bad DIY
Wallpaper / those 80s swirly things on ceilings
Concreted front garden

I've seen some houses which immediately turned me off:

• very dirty house with dirty, greasy oven and microwave, walls, greasy/dirty lightbulbs, obviously dirty clothes strewn around
• all the family in, usually watching TV, so you can't really have a good look
• an unkempt garden with a big pile of dog poo in it

Didn't take more than 5-10mins before I was off again. 🌹

we saw a fabulous house.

In the back garden (which was a decent size for the area) the whole garden was turned into a series of ponds with waterfalls and rockeries and 'fairy' garden.

Apparently their grandchildren loved it. The owners showed us round and showed us the shed where the controls for all the filter system etc was.

We had 3 small children and 1. would not want that amount of uncovered water. 2. wanted space for them to play.

But we went and calculated how much it would cost to get a builder in with a digger to dig it all out and put down a lawn and flowerbeds.
House was a good price and it would have been worth it, but in the end we didn't buy for another reason.

(same house he proudly showed us his breakfast nook, and while I was nodding and smiling I was working out if I ripped out his horrible kitchen cupboard configuration was there space for a decent sized table.)

Twigs in vases, the smell of bread or fresh coffee. Anything that makes it look like the seller is desperate basically.

I just want to see it neat and tidy and clutter free, and I don't want to meet the owner if at all possible until after negotiations.

Totally agree. A lack of light is a definite put off. I'll scroll past pictures on rightmove if it looks dark and dingy.

....and swirly things on ceilings...Yes! 😂

There is one house I really like but when I looked at the ceiling, it was planks of something and I'm really wondering what lies beneath so I'm going to leave it as can't afford to do work.

Smell of fags
Glitter (in any shape/ form anywhere)
Hot tubs
Plastic grass
Air fresheners/ candles/ pot pourri- that shit stinks almost as bad as cigarettes

Small windows and are dark environment are huge. That's an instant no from me.

I also cannot stand photos taken of the room with the light on, even worse if it's at night. But I think this is more common in rental property listings.

It's a bit like when you go into the restaurant and they hand you a menu before you committed to eating there. Or when you have a shop owner start recommending things without you asking.

@DrySherry I think that's a bit harsh. I had twig arrangements and coffee (not the bread) when I sold many years ago and sold within 3 days of being on market and 3 offers too.

It wasn't because I was desparate , it was because I genuinely wanted it to look nice and feel homely. I had nice music on too !! I did the viewings as agent was ill and asked if I could.

Neighbours - unkempt house & garden/loads of cars being done up on drive/road, hot tub close to property.

Anything that relies on the neighbours not being twats, because it makes you a hostage to fortune.

So agree on the hot tub, but I'd take scruffy neighbours who are a good distance away/not overlooking you any day, over clean and tidy ones who are on top of you. Being tidy doesn't rule out them being a PITA and, even if the current neighbours are genuinely nice, they might move and be replaced by nightmares.

The neighbours having Range Rovers (drug dealer cars), hot tubs or a garden bar

Any tik tok DIY trend

High gloss kitchens

Breathe, eat, shit I can't stop laughing!!!

The neighbours having Range Rovers (drug dealer cars)

Interesting. Round here, they drive BMWs or Audis with heavily tinted windows and fat tyres. I think Range Rovers are mainly driven by people trying to evade tax (because there is some loophole for vehicles above a certain weight, designed for agricultural vehicles etc).

The worse of all is "My kitchen is for dancing".

Pets and smoking. Both stink.

Animal detritus of any kind. It gets everywhere.

Recently I went onto ebay to get an old PC chassis I needed for a particular reason. It came and I took it to bits. It was clogged up with this sort of matting all the fans and inside were clogged. I couldn't figure it out and then it eventually got to me - cat hair. The whole thing was clogged up with cat hair.

I don't know whether it was more PC. Or cat.

I will base my reply around one awful house we viewed many years ago that had all of the following .

1. short garden that backs onto a busy railway line.
2. Strong overpowering smell of fish.
3. Clothes strewn everywhere.
4. Unflushed brown stained toilet.
5. The sound of rats running around squeaking in every room of the house.