What's an absolute "No" in your house search?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cul-de-sac. Anyplace with an HOA.

Why no cul-de-sac?

Because they're dangerous for kids (chance of back-up accident increases by a significant margin), aren't safer from crime (harder for emergency responders to access), are horrid for the environment (they encourage driving everywhere) and generally are filled with suburbanite cretins.

None of this is true whatsoever. We live on a cul-de-sac and love it. It has significantly less traffic than neighboring streets, no cut through traffic, super safe for kids to play in street as there's little to no cars, and the environmental point is just silly. We walk to school and theater frequently. No difference in how we would walk vs the street over. PP sounds miserable.

We purposefully sought out a cul de sac and avoided busy streets, thoroughfares, connecting streets and/or similar because we like kids playing away from cars.

NP, but it actually is true. There are studies on cul de sac safety and driving habits. I'm glad you love your cul de sac, but they do statistically increase fatal crashes and necessitate more driving.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Curse of the Cul-de-Sac" https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Problem With Cul-de-Sac Design - Bloomberg" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"Cul-de-Sacs: Suburban Dream or Dead End? : NPR" https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cul-de-sac. Anyplace with an HOA.

Why no cul-de-sac?

Because they're dangerous for kids (chance of back-up accident increases by a significant margin), aren't safer from crime (harder for emergency responders to access), are horrid for the environment (they encourage driving everywhere) and generally are filled with suburbanite cretins.

None of this is true whatsoever. We live on a cul-de-sac and love it. It has significantly less traffic than neighboring streets, no cut through traffic, super safe for kids to play in street as there's little to no cars, and the environmental point is just silly. We walk to school and theater frequently. No difference in how we would walk vs the street over. PP sounds miserable.

We purposefully sought out a cul de sac and avoided busy streets, thoroughfares, connecting streets and/or similar because we like kids playing away from cars.

NP, but it actually is true. There are studies on cul de sac safety and driving habits. I'm glad you love your cul de sac, but they do statistically increase fatal crashes and necessitate more driving.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Curse of the Cul-de-Sac" https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Problem With Cul-de-Sac Design - Bloomberg" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"Cul-de-Sacs: Suburban Dream or Dead End? : NPR" https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743

Hate cul de sac. Cars everywhere, basketball hoops, soccer goal nets, just a damn parking lot most of the time - hard to get into and out of your own driveway. And the noise….noise all the time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cul-de-sac. Anyplace with an HOA.

Why no cul-de-sac?

Because they're dangerous for kids (chance of back-up accident increases by a significant margin), aren't safer from crime (harder for emergency responders to access), are horrid for the environment (they encourage driving everywhere) and generally are filled with suburbanite cretins.

None of this is true whatsoever. We live on a cul-de-sac and love it. It has significantly less traffic than neighboring streets, no cut through traffic, super safe for kids to play in street as there's little to no cars, and the environmental point is just silly. We walk to school and theater frequently. No difference in how we would walk vs the street over. PP sounds miserable.

We purposefully sought out a cul de sac and avoided busy streets, thoroughfares, connecting streets and/or similar because we like kids playing away from cars.

NP, but it actually is true. There are studies on cul de sac safety and driving habits. I'm glad you love your cul de sac, but they do statistically increase fatal crashes and necessitate more driving.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Curse of the Cul-de-Sac" https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/04/09/the-curse-of-the-cul-de-sac/amp/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"The Problem With Cul-de-Sac Design - Bloomberg" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-19/the-problem-with-cul-de-sac-design
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743" target="_new" rel="nofollow">"Cul-de-Sacs: Suburban Dream or Dead End? : NPR" https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455743

I kind of like ONE cul de sac, which I like and live on now. I haven’t found bad driving and I feel safer walking around our street vs on neighboring streets where people definitely drive faster. But I’m house hunting and many neighborhoods in the area I’m looking have cul de sac after cul de sac. It’s killing my walkability dream, because you have to walk around and take a convoluted route to even walk to a park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:House next to a cemetry.

Those are the nicest residents. They never complain about noise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family room where the only place to put a TV is over the fireplace.

Hold on - THAT ^^^ is a deal breaker for you?

[Anonymous]

Houses that have eyesores like giant apartment buildings, water towers, or electrical towers that you cannot hide from your line of vision.

Bad smells.

Split level/split foyer.

[Anonymous]

Excluding a house because of any finish inside is madness. That’s just time/money.

[Anonymous]

Suburbs with no sidewalks where you have to drive everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Black fixtures, quartz waterfall countertop.

This is so stupid! Why? You can change those so easily.

[Anonymous]

Squatters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you finding sunken living rooms? I’m with you on the pipe stem thing. And backing up to a major road. Those were dealbreakers for us.

DP but we have sunken living room in NWDC and it just means we can have a taller Christmas tree. But we don't have an "open" layout where it would be plausible to extend furniture into other rooms anyway, so there's no real downside.

My dealbreaker was no powder room on the ground floor. It actually cut a lot of houses in our price range but I'm still fine with it.

Did you want a full bathroom on the ground floor, such that a powder room was inadequate? Or just no bathroom at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just bought earlier this year. Instant nopes were

Cul-de-sac
Corner lot
Pancake flat yard
Basketball goal anywhere near, especially if rolled out on to the street

What is wrong with a level yard? And a basketball hoop 3 doors down would be a no for you?
Genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Sellers are smokers. Dealbreaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sloped backyard

Amen. We didn't realize this was so terrible until we bought our first home together. Ended up spending around 35k to regrade and address drainage issues.

[Anonymous]

I looked at a lot of homes as was almost a hobby over 20 years. Maybe I saw 100 homes a year.

My favorite bad house had everything all in one. I looked as it was really cheap. Bank listed it directly. Had every bad thing possible
1) mom was a chain smoker like three to four packs a day 20 years. It was overwhelming beyond belief and Sheetrock was black except behind pictures or coach as furniture was tossed and half front lawn.
2) flag lot where it was a long narrow driveway and then 60x100 plot surrounded by four homes staring into house.
3) super fixer upper
4) get ready. Remember foreclosure so everything tossed. Well one room and the connected bathroom had centerfolds from playgirl magazine all over walls and doors and even ceiling. The disturbed adult son put the nude male center folks up. I asked why did bank not remove them aren’t they just glued on? I get that’s not glue guy jerked off and used his sperm to paste it in wall. Workers refused to touch it. My wife already choking from smoke ran out!