I have a friend who is in his early 40s. He spent almost a decade in the
armed forces then left and went to university as a mature student to get a degree. A further few years were spent in the Middle East working followed by establishing a business on his own (lucrative self-employment). He did use the parental home to get his business established.
Before the self-employment, he did have two long term, serious relationships (totalling 10 years), both conducted outside the parental home (one when he was in the army and the other when he lived in the Middle East.
He's built up a very good business and is successful in what his does. The family home is largely unoccupied as parents live abroad so he lives there alone and takes care of the home repairing things/paying bills etc. 'paying his way'. He's more than capable to look after himself.
We often talk about the situation he's in, and I think without knowing the full story a lot of men might be suspicious of him. He would love nothing more than to have a project ie to renovate a home together with a partner, he is a skilled engineer, he says he doesn't have any desire to do this alone (although I think having discussed this at length with me), he can see that his set up might be a really big red flag to potential new relationships. It's not for the lack of money/inability to get a home of his own that's the issue; he could take on a reasonably large mortgage alone, it's the lack of a partner to do it with to create a home with that's 'keeping' him in his current situation.
For the posters on here, having now explained my friend's situation: would you be put off/see red flags still?