A new inside poll of house buyers has revealed the wish list of items buyers both desire and detest when looking to buy a new home.
The two top-10 lists, compiled by Zoom995, may prove useful to those looking to swap a for sale sign to a sold sign sooner rather than later.
Dream items for the perfect home include:
A strong mobile phone reception/network coverage
Three bedrooms – with many wanting the third room as an office
The home to come with a large screen TV or other technology gadgets
Adequate storage – with one particular request being “large enough to play hide and seek with the children around the home”
A larger kitchen rather than sitting rooms for entertaining
To be within walking distance of a primary school and the local pub
For there to be a good range of take-away companies that will deliver to the house
Have a maximum of 40 minutes’ commute to work
A garden size of around 1/4 of an acre
Seller-beware items, that’s items that may put viewers off include:
Fish ponds, due to children and grandchildren
Ghosts! The thought of a haunted house makes people shudder
Downstairs bathrooms unless there’s an upstairs one too
Stains on the carpet make buyers wince, particularly in the toilet
Un-trimmed bushes puts off those with less than green fingers
Pelmets are seen as dust catchers so ditch them with the chintz
Damp patches and mould as it instantly makes people worry about cost and health
Broken or missing knobs and door handles
Exotic pets
Wet washing, especially underwear hanging on the radiators
Michael Robinson, director of Zoom995.co.uk, said: “It’s really interesting looking into the requests we receive and the feedback we hear. I’ve worked in the industry for more than 30 years and in this time the wish list has changed dramatically with technology and the want for more space increasing with each generation.
“However, buyers actually haven’t really changed with their list of dislikes. People sometimes struggle to see how their furniture would look on a different coloured flooring so putting extra hurdles in a buyer’s eyeshot won’t help with the sale of your home.”