I would NEVER buy a house with…

[Wyr]

• solar panels

• a ‘garden house’ IE a lockdown special outdoor wooden shed dressed up as an office - usually taking up half the garden and completely pointless

• a neighbour who has a load of cars / shit in their yard - hoarder vibes

who’s next? 3 things that would make you not buy a house…

damn you got me, I’m wildly jealous! 🤣🤣🤣

Any of these would be dealbreakers for me

Isolated
Dodgy neighbours
Spiral staircase
Steep garden
3 or more stories
Main bathroom downstairs
No downstairs loo
No side access

I would like to have

Open plan kitchen/diner with a separate living room and playroom.
Large north or north/west facing garden so there are sunny spots but house doesn't get too hot
Engineered wood floor
Underfloor heating
Mature garden
Calm colour palette ( no red kitchen etc)
Solar panels
Nice aluminium or aluclad windows

Aluminium windows are the dream 🙏

Ewwwww, no poops are ever pooped in the en suite! Noooooooo, that's strictly for the main bathroom! 😆

1. Listing. Grade 1 or 2 or whatever. No way I want that hassle and expense.
2. New kitchen/bathroom that I hate. Sure, you can change it, but it’s so wasteful that I would feel guilty. But I also don’t want to live with any grey, beige or black in my house, so.
3. More toilets than bedrooms. Who needs all that cleaning?!

Same here. We have a separate living room, dining room and kitchen. If we have friends round for dinner, they can relax with a drink in the living room until it's time to move into the dining room and I can cook in peace without anybody wandering over to give me their opinion. I absolutely hate people standing over me when I'm cooking - they're always in the way.

where the staircase is in the middle of the house instead of to the side

Based on my previous unsuccessful viewings in Bristol before we bought our house elsewhere:

1. With a mineshaft under the garden
2. That was previously a drug den with curtains stapled to the wall.
3. With explosive ordnance in the back garden.

Less specific:

1. Surrounded by very tall buildings
2. Anywhere near an A- road or motorway (risk from pollution).
3. Leasehold
4. Poor school catchment
5. Shared water supply (learned this the hard way).

I hate when I view somewhere with a mineshaft in the garden… every bloody time!

… I’m sorry whaaaaaaat!

no off road parking
in a rough area
on a busy road
with stairs in living room
up on a steep slope
across from, or very near to a pub, petrol station, shop etc.
where window frames are ugly or needed replacing
with no bath
heavily paved or tarmacked where there should really be lawn or garden
new build/nearly new build

Caveat: unfortunately two of these undesirables are present with our current house/ location. Lessons learnt for our next house.

oh its a thing in parts of Bristol. Houses were built over the mines! There are shorter bits if info, but I post the Hansard one to prove its not just internet silliness. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1996-11-25/debates/2ed7c113-0762-41ea-a46f-4996aba986a4/FormerMineShafts(Kingswood)

Position, size of the array and inverter.

Battery storage and the size of that.

How you use them. If you run your oven, dishwasher, kettle and microwave simultaneously you'll probably draw from the grid whereas staggering your use (you can have up to the size of your inverter so a couple at once is fine but not all) will mean you are self powered.

Plus households like mine which are all electric make bigger savings.

I was going more for silly than deep

FloweryCactus
There’s a time for being serious and trying to put the world to rights and this isn’t it!
This is just a FUN thread of what people like or dislike in a property!,
I never thought I’d say this as I used to think it was rude but please
WIND YOUR NECK IN!
Very appropriate for this post!!

Absolutely! Ewwwww indeed!

Very common in the part of the country I grew up in too. The whole area is riddled with old mine workings. The main corridor of my old school sloped at about 20 degrees because of subsidence and there were several occasions when sink holes appeared in the playing fields. It's been demolished now, but they built a housing estate on the site. No idea how it was allowed. I wouldn't buy a house on there if you paid me!

It must have been a thing in those days that you couldn’t get rid of unpleasant items without high cost. Same as our experience above. Such a shame because, like you, I fell in love with the house I found.

yes I think you are right....and it wasn't just the smell of what they had cooked the night before......

@thestudio · Today 15:22

It's interesting that there is such huge variation in reports of the savings - with solar panels. Is there a reason some people save immediately and/or make money selling back to the grid, and some people don't?

Good question. I think some people are over-egging and exaggerating the 'savings' that they get with solar panels. People are conveniently not mentioning that the super low electric bills (that some claim to have,) doesn't mean much when they're paying a five figure sum for the solar panels. (And with the amount of solar panels some claim to have on their huge houses, it would be a five figure sum for many.)

Many people will take the cost out on finance, and end up paying much more than the original cost. Even if they use savings, they're still expensive. Yet some people are talking/acting like they're free!

In many cases it takes more than a decade before solar panels start to 'pay for themselves.' It can take up to 15 years in some cases.

And you couldn't pay me to live in an all electric house. Love my gas central heating and gas cooker/gas hob!

That’s why you need to do your research and work with a reputable company to optimise the system for your household needs. No of panels, battery size etc. I’ve attached an image from the other day which was a nice sunny day and we generated over 30kW of energy whereas today was only 17 as a bit of miserable shitty day. Based on our estimated savings our system will be paid back in 7.3 years though that will fluctuate with energy prices. In our case we’re in Ireland so lots of grants for solar installs which meant we paid about €10K for our system (once grants applied) though the average cost seems to be about 6-8K

Houses that smell of cigarette smoke. Far less common these days but in still just can’t. Takes years for the smell to go. Also odd shaped rooms are a no. Thin L shaped for example.

Oh my giddy aunt. This is insane. What the heck is going on with the tiles?????? I don't mind quirky but this is like the end of a kids crafting session...

Also conservatories. We’ve got a south facing one and it’s bloody awful can’t wait to save up the £70k needed to knock down and rebuild as an extension!

My parents have a south-facing conservatory and they love it, I love it and the cats love it! On a sunny day in winter, it feels like a rare privilege to sit in 25C heat. When the conservatory is colder than the house, my parents keep the connecting door shut, but on sunny days, they open it and let the conservatory warm up the rest of the house. If it gets too hot in summer, they just open the garden door and windows, or close the window or ceiling blinds.

The downside of those beautiful double-fronted symmetrical houses...

A living room you have to walk through to get to the rest of the house. They’re impossible to furnish nicely and…and…and…and….I just hate them.

An air source heat pump.

Neighbours 🫣

I’m in Scotland so pebbledash is nigh on impossible to avoid. You learn to live with it!