Would any of these put you off? I give my own answers after each question.

Place badly needs redecorating. No.
Shabby carpets, need replacing. No.
Curtains ditto. No.
Kitchen needs gutting. No.
Bathroom ditto. No.
Bathroom is downstairs. Yes.
Back garden gets no sun. Yes.
Place smells of dog. Yes.
Place is dirty. Yes.

Wonder why so many buyers are put off by things that can easily be rectified, ie. new kitchen, bathroom, carpets etc. Whereas a sunless back garden will ALWAYS be sunless, ditto a downstairs bathroom without a very expensive plumbing refit and loss of a bedroom.

You might say that a place that is dirty can easily be cleaned up, I suppose, but somehow you get the feeling that if people can't be bothered to keep their home clean, how many other faults do they have that they can't be bothered to put right?

When I say that redecorating even an entire house wouldn't put me off, that is assuming the place is basically clean, just not to my taste.

Hello Connie, I agree that things that can be changed wouldn't necessarily put me off that is providing the price reflected this. The house we moved into last year has lots of things that I didn't particularly like but nothing that can't be changed.

I can't agree about the smell of dogs as we have two. I hope that our house doesn't smell too bad because of them and if you were going to change all the fixings etc that would get rid of any smell. I suppose the same goes for the smell of cigarettes, cats, all caged animals and sadly some people. It would have to be pretty bad though to put me off if I really liked the property. I think the biggest put off for me would be location and also if it needed too much doing to it. Our last house was on an unmade road and the amount of mud in the wet months and dust in the dry really drove me crazy.

What would put me off?

Small rooms, every time. If I can't fit my sofas into the lounge, I'm not interested in the house.

Lack of character, which for me means anything less than 100 years old (although ideally 300-400 years old would be better)

Lack of off-road parking - would expect it for at least 2 cars

Back garden that gets no sun, or is overlooked

I can handle dirt, shabby carpets, tired decoration etc - any house I buy, I'll want to put my own stamp on anyway, & being a tight-arsed Northerner I'd much rather rip out shabby stuff than get rid of a carpet in good condition purely because I didn't like it!

I would even take a house with a downstairs bathroom on a main road if it ticked all of the above.

Location, Location and, er, Location
Also:
Sunny garden - though with my current house it hasn't turned out to get as much sun as I expected
Parking is a must - not too fussed about it being off road.
Sorry to tell you dog lovers out there, but your house stinks - almost ss much as a smoker's.

Have to smile at Josie I'm afraid - L3 had someone on who allowed a £700 sofa to dictate their house purchase so they ended up paying £1000s more than they needed to!

Location is obviously the first point.

Having to put a new kitchen in would put me off, and I wouldn't be keen to go through the hassle of getting a new bathroom so soon after doing the one I'm in just now.

Carpets, wallpaper, curtains, dogs and dirt wouldn't put me off. Lack of central heating/double glazing and not being near a bus route would definitely put me off though.

I can't see the disadvantage of a downstairs bathroom, actually I find it more convenient but I never wake at night (is there any other advantage to an upstairs one?? Hope that isn't another stupid question from me) . I would be put off by shabby DIY, dirty kitchen, and any damp or mould. The garden wouldn't be a top priority unless the view was awful

presuming you've done some research before you visit the property and not just landed from Mars you should have a fair idea of location.

what puts me off.....PRICE.

Everything else can be solved.

With the house being in need of decorating etc (dark and dismal), it can be hard to see the potential. Even if the owners were to magnolia the place completely and that was all they did, at least you would want to stay in the place longer and imagine what you could do with it?

"Everything else can be solved".

Actually it can't - a house fronting directly on to a road, or with a sunless back garden will always be like that. You can't move the house back away from the road, or turn it round to face the sun. As it happens I am completely obsessive about a south or southwest facing back garden, and wouldn't even bother to view a property that faced the "wrong" way, so the problem wouldn't arise. Wouldn't mind much about a main road in front, but then I haven't any children so no problems there. In fact it could be an advantage because you won't get yobs kicking footballs around your front garden if there's a main road in front.

Areas of green around a property could put me off as they tend to attract yobs/kids 'playing' ball games i.e. annoying neighbours. I viewed a rental property recently - I knew as soon as I saw it was ground-floor with small grassed areas around it and a small back garden with a path along one side and a low wall that I'd never get any peace in the summer. I've lived ina similar property and summer was a nightmare with balls endlessly kicked into the garden often deliberately and kids climbing over to retrieve them. Then there was the huge white leather 2 pce suite - most things I can cope with i.e redecorating but location is important. I always thought I could never live in a all-white bathroom but when I viewed my current rental which is entirely white the sun flooded in and made the room look huge.

Have to smile at Josie I'm afraid - L3 had someone on who allowed a £700 sofa to dictate their house purchase so they ended up paying £1000s more than they needed to!

Thanks for smiling with me Jim - but my sofas are only standard 2-seater & 3-seater size, nothing out of the ordinary, yet so many houses we've viewed recently wouldn't be able to take them, as the lounges are too small!

I know what you mean about Kirstie & Phil - but I'm with the buyers on this one - I would rather pay a few thousand more for a house with a reasonable sized lounge.

Things that would put me off:

Lack of garage/private parking.
Being on a faceless estate.
Being more than about 10 minutes walk from drinking establishments.
House needing too much work/decorating etc. I'm LAZY!
Hyperdermic needles in the back garden. I kid you not.

Seems different people have different things that would put them off.

I'm the only person I know who specifically asked about sun in the back yard, nobody else I know had any concerns about that.

It also seems to come down to what sort of house you are going for. If you only have the money for a 2 bedroomed terraced property you are not going to be put off by no off road parking and you're not going to be put off by a downstairs bathroom (although those terraces which do have an upstairs bathroom are desirable). If you don't have a big budget and have no money to spend after you've bought the place then, yes, kitchens and bathrooms will figure highly in the equation. If you know you can't replace either for years you'll be put off by ones that need replacing.

And I would have to say that location, as always is the biggest factor, decor is probably the lowest.

And as for being dirty or smelly, although you can look past that, these things make it harder to see the place so why choose that one when another house is spotless and fragrant? There would have to be some major selling plus to look past these sorts of things.

I was put off by one house. A 2 bed terrace with upstairs bathroom. Seems like a bonus for a terrace? Yes, but the access to the bathroom was through the spare bedroom!

And okay, you'll all say that you can make a door out onto the hall or whatever, but if you want a house you can live in straight away and you don't have the money to make repairs or changes, things like that will just make you walk away.

A lot of the smaller terraces in Notts/Derby are like that QS.
Such a shame 'cos there's no easy solution

Everybody I know lives in flats (here in Central Scotland) so the whole upstairs/ downstairs, garden, off street parking stuff doesn't figure.

To me it's all about location, bus routes, room sizes and light. The rest is either cosmetic (easy to fix) or a bit more serious (windows, CH etc which can be saved for if the flat is worth it).

And I'd never dream of buying a flat without walking up the stairs and checking out my upstairs neighbours front door. If their name plate is made of cardboard and has more than two different names on it, then

If it's a nice old brass plate with 'Smith' on it then chances are it's an old dear

As far as scabby decor goes, I love it. It puts off other, less imaginative buyers!

Mind you I once saw a flat with a large cage in the front room with a ferret in it.

I admit, that put me off.

If you can smell drugs at the front door run like hell.
Also check place out at night - if you see yobs or hear loud music it's another no-no.

Location, subsidence, structure. They're probably my top three and arguably subsidence is included in structure.

Other than that, I'd probably take each house on it's own merits but obviously I'd like a sunny garden, off road parking, big rooms etc.

Have a good nose in the neighbours gardens - well kept or full of tyres & matresses?
I drive past a nice green on my way to work - which I used to think of as being a plus point - but I'd never now buy near one anymore - its full of pikies now!

There are loads of things (dumped mattresses, bad neighbours, dog mess in the street etc) that my first flat suffered from but I didn't even notice them at the time.

I guess we all reach this critical stage after a while in the property market!

With having a young child, my main priority is to have a decent sized garden with privacy. My current home only has a front garden and my son gets frustrated at not being able to play outside. I would definately want a garden which has sun.

I would not be put off by bad decor, thats easily rectified but any house that needs major structural repairs would put me off unless the house was priced reasonably.

I have to say that a large influence on my recent house purchase was based on whether I would get any kids playing around my house. As a result I was put off any house's in Cul de sacs or quiet roads. I am sad to say that I have been turned off them by my experience of where I used to live. Kids running around screaming and generally hanging around. This would put me off.

Why do parents just open the door and let their kids out to play. It gets them out of their hair but do they have any compassion for their neighbours. Why do I want to hear screams and shouts and have Footballs bouncing off my car!? I know I sound old but I am in my mid twenties.

Connie,

I take your point..

Many many moons ago I rented a flat that was on a main road. It was worse than kids kicking a football! you ended up with all the drunks and students wandering past your bedroom window singing their merry he