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

[Anonymous]

Nearby retail.
Within a block of a school.
Sidewalk in my grass.

[Anonymous]

poison ivy

[Anonymous]

Split level
No basement
No sidewalks
Neighbors who weren’t maintaining their lawns/ homes
Bad schools

[Anonymous]

Too many stairs, sunken living room, too close neighbbors like a townhouse or condo. I can handle a busy street in an urban area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP isn't the only one! I HATE TVs over the fireplace. And we watch enough TV that not having someplace else to put it would make this if not a dealbreaker, a real downside.

Lack of sidewalks and/or not walkable would be an actual dealbreaker for me. Walking is my main form of exercise and it's how I decompress, and not being able to step out my door and walk would make me miserable.

+1 hate it! You have to look up so high, it’s uncomfortable. And the TV has to be really small. Plus it looks so tacky.

[Anonymous]

Island stove with no or undersized overhead vent hood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Busy street. My love of silence greatly outweighs any amenity a house can offer. Cannot relax with car noise, sirens, etc constantly bombarding my home.

This.
Plenty of other preferences but this was my only deal breaker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bamboo, streets or neighborhoods with the word plantation, streets named after confederate soldiers, no garage, no backyard (doesn't have to be big), no basement, average to below average school cluster, unattractive neighborhood. Basically, things that you can't easily change.

Your McMansion on MLK Jr. Street isn't fooling anyone about your privilege.

wow, people will literally say anything when no one can personally hold them accountable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearby retail.
Within a block of a school.
Sidewalk in my grass.

Wouldn’t want any humans to actually walk anywhere now would you? Nope, can’t have that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearby retail.
Within a block of a school.
Sidewalk in my grass.

Don’t you want a walkway to your front door?

[Anonymous]

I want a small house on a big piece of land, one level living.
I do not fancy new construction
I can deal with it needing a paint job. Nothing major

Why is that so hard to find?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP isn't the only one! I HATE TVs over the fireplace. And we watch enough TV that not having someplace else to put it would make this if not a dealbreaker, a real downside.

Lack of sidewalks and/or not walkable would be an actual dealbreaker for me. Walking is my main form of exercise and it's how I decompress, and not being able to step out my door and walk would make me miserable.

+1 hate it! You have to look up so high, it’s uncomfortable. And the TV has to be really small. Plus it looks so tacky.

Depends how big fireplace is and how big room is. I have it in Den and have a 55 inch tv and watch it from 20 feet back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal breakers -
Pipe stem driveway
No driveway
Busy street
No sidewalk
More than 3-4 steps to enter the main door
Yards or driveways with retaining walls, terraced back yards
Neighbors with dilapidated homes, messy unkempt landscaping- either it’s a have for rodents and wildlife or it’s a target for a tear down and I’ll have to live in a construction zone.

If it's no more than 3-4 steps to get to a houses front door, the driveway would be of similar length, rendering it useless as a driveway. The car would be sticking out into the street, or at a minimum blocking the sidewalk.

I don't think you've thought this through.

I believe the PP is talking about steps on a stairway.

This kind of entrance is a deal breaker to me. I don’t want guests entering my home through the garage. I don’t want my mom with 2 hip replacements to have to navigate those steps inside or out to be in the main level of my home.
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Dealing with aging relatives changed my perspective on this. Straight, wide stairs are fine. It's easy to install a stairlift, and I like how our first floor windows are elevated above the street. If we ended up with someone in a motorized wheel chair, we'd move. But straight stairs are pretty easy to deal with. I'm more attuned to narrow doors/halls/stairs and small bathrooms with regard to accessibility. But I also just accept that when we really have mobility problems, we may need to move. I hope I'm not one of those people who clings to the house.

[Anonymous]

Split foyer
Unworkable kitchen layout (if we can’t/don’t want to reno)
No master ensuite
Entrance right into middle of living room or dining… We take shoes off and need some kind of entryway even if small.
Busy/noisy - right by train line or right on busy street
Right by giant power lines or water tower or other unsightly/potentially dangerous eyesore
Carpet in most room. Bedroom carpet is fine I guess, but carpet everywhere on both levels is a dealbreaker
No garage
Lack of natural light
House that looks like it sits uneasily - like a house perched on top of a sunken driveway/garage, or a house on an awkward lot, or a very narrow tall house
House with bad vibes or smells - sometimes you just walk into a house and it doesn’t feel right… or it smells like poop or cat or smoke

[Anonymous]

Busy road (aka Connecticut Avenue)

Split levels

Low ceilings

No basement

Hardscrabble lot (where the ground looks very hard and the grass is spare and you can tell it's difficult to have landscaping)

Unkempt neighbors

Too many political/social justice signs

Front door right into the staircase

Only one bathroom

Cramped rooms