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…

Outside -
Unkempt next door, and litter around the place.
Cars parked all over the place on the road, no room to swing in to the driveway.
No sun at the back, no access to the back except via the house

Inside
No hallway
Stairs in the living room
No downstairs loo or utility

The outside issues are difficult if not impossible to change, the inside can be re jigged, so if the location and the outside were good, I'd be ok with that.

Am I the only one who likes open plan? Well I live on my own and it really suits me and my lifestyle, easy to keep clean and everything is just well.... there! I have a separate hallway and d/s loo utility though.

I live in an older red brick terrace, it has everything I want and need, access to the back is via a driveable laneway. It's so handy, and better in many ways than a side entrance. There is room outside everyone's back wall for a skip for example, and everyone has a full size garage/shed backing on to the lane. The gardens are huge (to me) at around 80ft long so plenty of room for extensions. Back view is over playing fields and a park.

I'm so happy here that I had to share! (Cost me a lot to get it and to fix it up, but worth it). Sorry if I sound like I'm boasting.

No off road parking
open plan. As a basically lazy person, I like to have different rooms to close off if people unexpectedly pop round.
an artificial back garden. Fake lawn, fake plants, marble patio, etc
no downstairs loo
family bathroom on a different level from bedrooms
modern townhouses
steep sloping garden or one that is on lots of levels
sloping road
no side access
galley or small kitchen
grey flooring and carpet throughout
I could go on…

Quite a few things but definite deal breakers are:
no en suite
no utility
no bath
no downstairs loo
no double garage
artificial grass
overlooked garden
shared driveway
on a main/busy road

I'd overlook a lot of the fixables if it was well within my budget to fix them. My nevers are
Shared drive or right of way
no downstairs loo and no facility to have one
two bathrooms with PROPER showers
spiral staircase if it couldn't be changed
any "listed" anything
a lack of on property parking
small or no garden
any kind of Home owners or oversight committee
and I'd ALWAYS get a full structural survey. I am only on my third owned house and each time it has turned up something helpful
At my age, I want my next move to be a bungalow or facilities to have a downstairs bedroom and bathroom.

Loads of MN don't like ensuites!

I wouldn’t consider a house that had stairs in the living room, no hallway, or where the front door opened into the living room. I also wouldn’t consider a house that didn’t have a downstairs toilet.

My current house has some things that have been mentioned here what people don’t like, artificial grass in the back garden, and a downstairs toilet which has no window, but has a fan. Someone mentioned a media wall, I love a media wall, although I don’t have one.

Kitchen island

Media wall (huuuuuuugggggeee ick)

Artificial grass

No upstairs bathroom (lots in the NE)

Only a backyard

No hall (straight into living / dining etc room)

No parking (as in, no driveway / allocated parking space) of my own

Double glazed windows

Plantation shutters (unless they're easy to pull out - I have no idea!)

Solar panels are the best. Especially when someone else has paid for them and you just enjoy the cheaper bills. They are totally not a scam unless you have some weird arrangement going on.

For me: main/ busy road, miles away from public transport, tiny garden.

I'd hate a right turn out of the drive onto a busy road.

We did walk away form houses with no baths when kids were very young and money tight - be less bothered now.

No outdoor space.

Having lived in one - open plan house would be a no - like rooms and to get away from cooking.

Poor maintenance that could require work/upgrades - had no choice with first house but it took way longer, despite survey was much more needing doing, and cost way more.

We'd pay attention as always to layout - this house was a great one - central corridor stair off and rooms with doors off either side.

Would like patio doors from living room to garden - never had before but it's so nice to have door like that into garden space.

A house where you come straight into the living room or kitchen. When you open the front door there should be a hallway where you can hang your coat and take off your shoes

And it would have to be amazing in every way before I'd consider a shared driveway.

A garden with artificial grass or fully concreted
No driveway
Houses without a hallway

Never say never.

We were flat hunting a few years ago. The must haves were 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an outside space and a sea view. All absolute non negotiable

I viewed a property that met all the criteria and didn't like it. The estate agent insisted on showing me another flat in the same building . It was a split level loft style so didn't even have one bedroom. It only had one bathroom, no outside space at all and faced inland. I was a bit irritated at him wasting my time but went along to be polite.

I walked in and it was love at first sight. The light, the high ceilings, the quirkiness just made me happy. I offered the asking price on the spot - before DH had even seen it. We've never regretted it.

I bought one of those. We used a cleaning service that usually did crime scenes or houses where someone had died a while before being found.

Neighbours nearby with hot tub.
Ditto, with massive dog.
St. George flag in a window within half a mile.
In a school run parking road.

Our cloakroom doesn’t have a window. The fan comes on when you switch on the light. Plenty of bathrooms/cloakrooms don’t have a window.

Never is quite a strong word! Mine are…

Trampoline next door
Open plan anything (I know I could remodel and put walls up but when we were looking this was a definite no as we didn’t then have a huge budget for big changes).
Neighbouring houses that look uncared for/trashy. We looked at one where the neighbour was basically a recluse and all the other neighbours had to keep trimming her garden to avoid rats and total darkness.
Loft conversion (always too hot, and where do you put all your crap if you have no loft?!)
Massively overlooked on all sides of garden.
Any form of shared access/right of way etc

I would hesitate over…
Artifical grass.
Tiled/laminate floors everywhere downstairs
Anywhere where we were told the neighbours are lovely, we’re always having street parties, wine together etc. Too people-y for me!
Extensions that have left precious little of the garden

1. open plan kitchen
2. next to a main road
3. A shared driveway/garden etc

I'd stake a house out for a few days before considering buying. See what the neighbours are like whether they're loud or assholes etc.

With lots of pigeons in the street because you know there will be a bat shit crazy old woman who feeds them aswell as feeding cats, even though she knows the owner has asked her to stop!

Artificial grass and a conservatory

This is also true! If you love it, sometimes you just accept its oddities and inconveniences.

I would definitely not be put off by anything you've listed @TheHorticulturalHussy. I think I'd love your house.

We have:

Only two lights over our large island because they're kind of feature lights
A North facing back garden and it's lovely in hot weather when the front (south facing) is too hot to sit out
Listed
Big, big windows
Also sort of open plan in that kitchen, snug and dining all open into each other through massive open doorframes that we widened and opened almost to the ceiling (but also have a separate tv room, living room and library/study)

I'd love solar panels, but we weren't allowed due to the listing.

To those saying metro tiles would put them off - I can understand disliking them, but wouldn't you just change them? I can't imagine walking away from a house I otherwise liked

We had solar panels fitted this year. We reckon on savings we will have them paid off 7-8 years. In summer we’re generating enough power (16 panels) to power our house and charge a battery (10kW) plus any excess energy is being sold back to the grid. We’ve only had one bill so far for a 2 month period and it’s €240 (Ireland) cheaper than the previous bill plus we earned credit which will offset the winter bills when we need to pull from the grid.

Can completely understand most of these, north facing gardens, no front drive or bath but Id be jumping for a house with a (correctly installed) solar system