When buying a house, what factors are important (e.g. off-road parking, character, a large kitchen)?

[mumma24]

Obviously all are good but which are the main gor you when looking to buy a house

1. off road parking
2. property with character
3. garage
4. not overlooked
5. quiet road
6. spacious rooms
7. good size garden

snd which would you rule out?
for example you wouldn’t consider a bungalow, something with no kerb appeal, it was overlooked or had no off road parking?
Would love to know your thoughts on this

Location.

South facing garden

Affordability.
After that size of property, and somewhere safe for our cats to go outside.

It depends on age, lifestyle & the area you want to buy in. For me the most important thing is location.

I also had downstairs loo, utility room, ensuite, office space and on a bus route for the kids on my list.

For us,it was detached,a must,sick of noisy neighbours. Big garden, not overlooked,quiet area,car parking (we have a garage in a block in the next road) it is a bungalow, bought purely because they had bigger gardens. I don't like big rooms.. would have loved a character property. This place was a boring white box, I didn't like the look of the front. It's now pretty,with colour, panelling, curved drive,lots of planting. I would have loved 3 bedrooms, but we would only have been able to buy a semi,or terrace with a small garden.. it was the downsize near the beach. I watch Location, Location and it's seems even if you have a huge budget,you can't buy exactly what you want.

I wouldn’t consider anything without off road parking, that was overlooked front + back, a small garden / paved garden only, on a busy road or with small rooms.

I look for gardens that wrap around (so a good distance from neighbours), private drive with parking for multiple cars, large rooms and about ten million other things 😂

Affordability and location are tops.

Afer that it was about not being overlooked, had decent off road parking, scope for building an extension and a downstairs toilet.

Different for everyone surely. I never once considered the direction of my garden and don’t get it, is ‘facing’ from when you’re standing at the back door? If you’re standing at the end of the garden looking at the house the you’re then facing the other way so just put your lounger or whatever wherever gets the sun if that’s the issue? Why don’t people care that the front garden will then be facing the ‘bad’ way if the back is facing the ‘good’ way?? Why does it matter? To lots of people it does.

For me it’s location and inside space. We would move from our house but tricky as the kids would still need to be able to walk to school and bigger houses in the vicinity don’t come up/aren’t big enough to make the move worth it.

Would LOVE all of our rooms to be 50% bigger.

Affordability
Location
No damp

As sad as it is I now look at the energy performance cert as a priority too. Having lived in old houses where my gas bill was regularly over £300 in the winter my new build cost me £60 in Dec.

The others are all interchangeable, despite being important I know that DH and I would compromise on any one of them if the other aspects ticked all the boxes. We’re very difficult customers for estate agents as they can never figure out what we want as all the houses we view are wildly different 😂

Depends on your situation and budget. The less you have to spend the more you will need to compromise. Starting out it would be more about getting my own place and feeling safe. With a family I’d want a nice garden and to not be overlooked. Now I’m in my 50s my next move will be for more community.

Because most people don’t want to sit all day in their front garden. They want the privacy of their back garden. A south facing rear garden offers sun all day so if you want to spent time outdoors a south facing garden is better.

Yes to downstairs toilet.

No to south facing garden with hotter drier summers.

Size of bedrooms and family needs. Singles or doubles. What is the longer term need.

Prefer two bathrooms.

Location, construction methods, sound proofing, access, off road parking, open space, upkeep - not furnishing but structure, not a cul-de-sac, how the neighbours look after their properties, shape of rooms. Not impressed by a kitchen, bathroom as we can do that and how they look is not necessarily how they perform / survive use. Would also check re. local development.

Depends on budget

are you first time buyer?

South facing can be punishing in the back of the house. So long as there is a sunny spot it’s fine.

What do you mean by construction methods? How can you find out?

This has changed for me over time but when I bought my 4 storey victorian demi -off road parking, space for all dc, near good school, garden for playing in.
When I became disabled this no longer worked so it was different criteria that met my needs but also had to fit dc.
Now dc are all leaving home I'm having to look at downsizing my new criteria are a bungalow, good transport links, two or three bedrooms, minimal garden, minimal upkeep, safe location. I don't need schools or off road parking but I need it to be level access and easy to get around.

Location in relation to work and school.
affordability.
Room sizes.

No chance of being flooded, so location. At least two toilets, storage, cost of heating.

1. School catchment
2. Big enough
3. Well built
4. Decent sized garden.
5. Off road parking.

Good sized garden was not on my list. I can't stand maintaining it.

Detached

Easy for me and kids to get into town on foot.

On bus route

At least 2 toilets

Away from a busy road for the cat.

Our non-negotiables were school catchment, quiet road, large garden and affordability. This meant we only looked at houses in a handful of roads. We were under time pressure because our previous house was already under offer. This meant we couldn’t get everything we ideally wanted.
Would have loved South facing or West facing and ended up with an East facing garden. But it’s very big, so has sunny parts all day.

There's main things like price and location then after that a million other things like:
A hallway, not opening into a living room
Look of house
Location on street - I wouldn't buy a house on a corner or opposite a junction, near a bus stop etc
Ensuite - wouldn't buy a house with one
Door from kitchen to garden etc, etc.
If I ever buy a house again, one of my random additions to the list would be a window in the kitchen, ideally over the sink.