What is something that would totally turn you off

[mikehoncho]

when looking at houses?



For me--the smell of smoke. We just looked at a really nice house that was well priced but smelled terrible. The agent said, "Oh, it's just because their furniture smells, it won't smell so bad when your furniture is in" ^o) Yeah.. no.



Ughhh it had a fireplace and built ins thoughhhhh. We'd never get the smell out. We lived in an apartment before we bought our current house and once I accidentally left the shower on with the door closed and when I came back in there was orange nicotine residue leaking from the walls. It was a non-smoking apartment 8-D obviously.

[browneyedhunni85]

A garage door with red spray paint reading "Keep out". True story.

[charlielove]

Smoke is a big one. Others would be a bad location, size, or too few bedrooms/bathrooms.

[Deleted]

Drug deal out front? Smoke or nasty smell. Previous fire or flood damage

[TrudyCampbell]

Ew, smell would get me too. We looked at an AMAZING apartment once but it smelled so badly of cat pee. I knew it would never fully go away.

[mikehoncho]

I also don't think I could live in a house that was right on a busy road. I have enough anxiety backing out of places, let alone backing out onto a busy street.

[charlielove]

Dec 7, 2012 19:24:38 GMT -5 mikehoncho said:

I also don't think I could live in a house that was right on a busy road. I have enough anxiety backing out of places, let alone backing out onto a busy street.

Yes, location was really important to me when we bought our house.

[lauranicole91]

I backed out of contract when someone broke into the vacant home and punched holes in the wall and spray painted gang signs all over.

[TrudyCampbell]

Dec 7, 2012 19:29:37 GMT -5 lauranicole91 said:

I backed out of contract when someone broke into the vacant home and punched holes in the wall and spray painted gang signs all over.

Oh yea, I forgot about that. That was nuts!

[ruby412]

Instead of doing turn-offs, can I do turn-ons?

Things that are most important to me when I think about our next house:
-Location/good school district/proximity to family
-Appropriate amount of bedrooms/bathrooms
-Garage
-Finished Basement
-Back deck and backyard, preferably with some privacy to have family dinners outside
-Not too much privacy - I get freaked out by secluded places

Other perks
-Upgraded kitchen
-Nice master bedroom with good closets

I think that covers it! House hunting is a pain and moving is worse. But finding your family home is also pretty exciting!

[silverjm]

Smoke or cat pee smells would be a major turn off unless we were planning a major gut/redo. Any evidence of water in the basement is a deal-breaker for us. MUST have 2+ bathrooms - when I gotta pee, I gotta pee. Also a requirement for us is a backyard that can be fenced with a real fence - we love our dogs, and we want them to have a safe area to be outdoors.

[TrudyCampbell]

Ruby, I am so glad I'm not the only one who gets freaked out by seclusion! I love being surrounded by other people. We stayed in this romantic cabin in the middle of nowhere once and I felt like I was asking to be murdered. (When in reality, I'm much more likely to be murdered in the city probably!)

[charlielove]

I could also never live in a home where someone died (besides naturally).

My friends in another town wanted to buy a house, but it was disclosed that a person was murdered there. The agent tried to tell them it was not the person that lived in the home, so NBD because the victim was a hooker and it was a drug deal gone wrong yadda, yadda. No way in hell!

[TrudyCampbell]

Dec 7, 2012 19:33:04 GMT -5 charlielove said:

I could also never live in a home where someone died (besides naturally).

My friends in another town wanted to buy a house, but it was disclosed that a person was murdered there. The agent tried to tell them it was not the person that lived in the home, so NBD because the victim was a hooker and it was a drug deal gone wrong yadda, yadda. No way in hell!

After watching American Horror Story I'm going to have to agree with ya on this one! Although I have no idea if people were murdered in my apartment. Uh oh...

[mikehoncho]

OO these are all really good, my list of wants and do not wants is getting longer. I know it's a total FWP and I should be excited but I'm just not. I don't want to move again, and I hate having all this on our plate. I wish we wouldn't have felt so rushed when we bought this house and would have kept looking. I love it but it's just tiny and now, after not even being here for 2 years, we've outgrown it. I wish we could keep it and rent it out but we really don't have the money for two mortgages.

[charlielove]

Honcho - we rushed into out first home purchase out of necessity when the market was sky high. One of my biggest regrets! Smart not to do the two mortgage thing, very stressful. Buying and selling is really stressful for me too so I get it.

[mikehoncho]

Dec 7, 2012 19:33:04 GMT -5 charlielove said:

I could also never live in a home where someone died (besides naturally).

My friends in another town wanted to buy a house, but it was disclosed that a person was murdered there. The agent tried to tell them it was not the person that lived in the home, so NBD because the victim was a hooker and it was a drug deal gone wrong yadda, yadda. No way in hell!

Oh god yes! We looked at a lot of houses last time where you would walk in and be like.. uhhh someone died here. You can just tell! It's like..a smell or something. ::shivers:: Then when you ask the agent and they get all dodgy about it, "Uh, well, I'm not sure exactly.. I'll have to check and let you know!" Hey buddy, your absence of a NO is a yes to me. That sounds date rape-y.

I should add that I apologize in advance for possibly annoying the hell out of this board with my selling/buying escapades.

[lauranicole91]

Dec 7, 2012 19:30:37 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Dec 7, 2012 19:29:37 GMT -5 lauranicole91 said:

I backed out of contract when someone broke into the vacant home and punched holes in the wall and spray painted gang signs all over.

Oh yea, I forgot about that. That was nuts!

Right?! I was mad but sort of relieved. I that's really the kind of neighborhood it was/is I'm glad it happened then instead of after we lived there. Everything happens for a reason.

[rxbeth]

We saw a house I really liked and then we opened the garage and it reeked of smoke. It was obvious whoever in the family that smoked did not smoke in the house but I almost got knocked over when we opened the door to the garage. Crossed it off my list right away.

[bellewithablade]

Aside from what people already said:
1. telephone poles and wires. I have a complex about above ground wires, I think they will fall and kill me.
2. being close to major roads
3. Garage that can be seen from the front.

I'm too picky with homes.

[browneyedhunni85]

The house we looked at with the keep out spray painted on the garage doors was creepy. I don't think I could be happy in that home. It was just a weird feeling and I couldn't explain it. I was afraid I was going to walk into one of the rooms and find a dead body or something. I think that house was haunted.

[monkeybabe]

Smell, high traffic road ( i want my kid to be able to play in front of the house without me constantly fearing that someone's going to kill her Pet Cemetery style), rot, cars parked in the neighbors' yards, neighbors who let their houses look shitty from the outside (gotta consider resell-ability), tagging around the neighborhood

[tuck]

Location. We moved last year when a dead body was found by daycare kids a few blocks from our apartment.

Though, a month or two after we moved here, one of neighbors was raided for pot. Their friends emptied the apartment (neighbor never came back, so I assume jail).

[mikehoncho]

OOO, D thinks we shouldn't be looking until our house has sold. That's a tuurrrrible idea, right? If we wait until ours is sold we are pretty much guaranteeing that we will be living with my mom for a while, right? Anyone have any insight?

[silverjm]

On the one hand it's nice to be prepared for when yours does sell, and you definitely want to get a good idea of what you're looking for. On the other hand, you want to be careful not to get too attached to any one house. If yours doesn't sell right away, that "dream house" may not wait for you. Even if you get an offer on your house be cautious. We had two sales fall through on our house last year, and had to back out of the "dream house" we had put an offer on.

[monkeybabe]

You could make the sale of your house contingent on you finding a new home.

[lolaburns]

Kitchen in the basement...dirty and from 1934.

[mikehoncho]

Dec 7, 2012 20:25:52 GMT -5 monkeybabe said:

You could make the sale of your house contingent on you finding a new home.

This is what I keep saying!

[fusion]

check out to see if there are any child molesters living nearby too. That would break it for me since we are outside and running around all the time. Besides that the usual location, size, future property value, etc.

[Deleted]

Dirty. It was hard to picture living in someone else's mess. One house we looked at was beautiful in the pictures. We walked through....it was dirty. Dog hair all over, smelled like dog, toothpaste squeezed out in the drawers. Plus they tore it up. Scratches in the granite and cabinets, stains on the carpet and other things. If you put your house up for sale.....clean it up.