Dream Home - List of Favourite & Dislikes of Houses You've Lived In

Likes:
Period home. Preferably Victorian (like Gockie said - scarcity factor)
Within 5km of city
North facing
Balcony off the main bed with french doors (LOVE)
Original features (also LOVE)
Quiet street
Close to transport, local shops and parks
Rear lane access with parking (for one car, no requirement for a triple garage!)
Decent size rear garden
Storage!!!!
In my previous property we had a pull out pantry. Loved it and miss it.

Dislikes
Bathroom attached to the kitchen
Upstairs laundry (had this in previous property, do not like)
Busy roads - worse if used by trucks
Close to hospital, fire station or police due sirens (police is the best of the three)
Poor drainage and ventilation

 

Likes:
Cul-de-sac, quiet street
Level land, high side
Views, city or water views great, bush not bad
Open plan living areas with elevated ceilings
North facing living areas, natural light
Modern kitchen with large pantry, between meals and laundry
Large bedrooms, big windows
Downstairs study/home office, facing the street so I can see people approaching
Upstairs rumpus
Guest bathroom
Triple garage with internal access, off street parking
Low maintenance garden
Under cover outdoor entertaining areas, paved courtyard
Maintenance free and power efficient
Feng Shui friendly
Cat doors
Neighbours who mind their own business

Dislikes
Busy/main roads
Large trees near the house (good to have them but minimum 50m away)
Nosy neighbours
Noisy neighbours
Corner blocks
Low side, backing bush or reserve
T intersections

 

Of houses I have "lived in", favourites:

1. Location
2. Location
3. Location
4. Everything else like 3 story, 4 bd, 3.5 bath, large granite kitchen w/ SS italian appliances, inground pool etc. The usual stuff.

Dislikes:

1. Neighbours too close
2. Lack of storage
3. Lack of car garaging & parking
4. Low ceilings
5. Poor natural light inside

 

I'm a rentvestor, buy & hold 60s & 70s walk up units.
Easier to identify what I use as a process of elimination after identifying the right area;
- kitty litter ceilings, especially in kitchen areas
- shared laundrys
- car ports - tenants hardly ever park their car in a garage but almost universally have a trailer load of crap they like to keep in a garage
- blocks of more than 8-10 - low owner occupier appeal / rental ghettos
- lifts, swimming pools, gyms - rare in a walk up anyway
- tiny galley style kitchens
- shower over the bath - these are two separate things that should not be combined
- second floor / more than one flight of stairs
- no balcony
- streets full of units, the best are in a street that are predominantly houses.
- anything that isn't an easy walk to a station or place of employment like a hospital (hitting both is gold).

As a side note, what I love - good sized sinking funds (this money belongs to you - you never buy a house with prepaid maintainence), high strata. I can never understand the psychology of those that prefer houses over units because of strata fees. A high strata fee usually means lots of owner occupiers, and realistically this is money you'd otherwise spend on maintainence, and these are fairly low maintainence anyway. Strata that seems cheap usually means either or both of a near term increase or a special levy because they haven't budgeted enough. I.e., assume you will spend the money anyway, because you will.
And a high strata knocks a few misguided investors out of the mix of competition when buying.