What's the worst thing that can scare off a buyer? (incentive, agent)

[twodoor2]

Just curious as to what are deal breakers for people planning on buying a property to live in or to rent out, IF you found a neighborhood you want to be in. So aside from general location, what are the deal breakers?

For example,
Living on a busy street, or near train tracks, etc. . .
Fear of rezoning schools
Water damage
Ugly kitchen
Bad mechanicals
Foundation damage

Choose other deal breakers as well.

[johngolf]

A line painted down the middle of the road.

[1insider]

Number one: scary neighbors or indications thereof; including trashy yard, lots of cars at home during work/school hours, neglect of yard/house. It's all about the neighbors once the house has passed muster.

[luv4horses]

I looked at a lovely house in a nice neighborhood that was empty. I was musing over improvements to make and wandered up to look at the mechanicals room...**** roaches!! Could not get out of there fast enough. I have also seen dead bugs (probably from an exterminator) in a highly desirable golf course nighborhood near me at an open house. Seriously? Can't the listing agent get an exterinator/ vacuum cleaner out there?

[cjmeck]

The biggest things I see with my clients:

1. The smell of the house. If it smells like animals or smoke; that usually scares them away.
2. Location (busy street, road noise) and their perception that the neighborhood itself is declining based on the neighbor's yards.

[cully]

Noisy wild neighbors, blaring music, shouting.

Beer cans, other trash and numerous vehicles in the neighbor's yards.

Water whether in a pool or body of water can be attractive probably to as many as it is a negative to others.

In some areas I have seen for decades that contemporary homes kind of scare people off. Not just transitional but actual contemporary, very modern, open, airy.

[Thundarr457]

Noisy/busy street
Foundation issues
Noisy neighbors

[LifeIsGood01]

Originally Posted by twodoor2

Just curious as to what are deal breakers for people planning on buying a property to live in or to rent out, IF you found a neighborhood you want to be in. So aside from general location, what are the deal breakers?

For example,
Living on a busy street, or near train tracks, etc. . .
Fear of rezoning schools
Water damage
Ugly kitchen
Bad mechanicals
Foundation damage

Choose other deal breakers as well.

Foundation damage is a deal breaker. Electrical and plumbing problems too.

[Nor'Eastah]

For us, lots of grimy dirt and bad odors; black mold problems.

Evidence of severe rodent and insect infestation.

[City__Datarer]

If I gave it some thought, I could probably (sadly) come up with an A-Z list of reasons why I'm presently writing rent checks despite putting significant time into researching home ownership possibilities.

Let's see. A = associations (have been very interested in a number of condos only to find that they preferred not to fund roof reserves and/or had other issues). . . . Z = zones (high-flood-risk properties are unfortunately not uncommon where I live . . . but I like where I live; don't really want to move somewhere else).

Or maybe zoom ties with zone for Z (zooming prices can make the difference between feeling a place would be a great home for the money--how it was for a while--vs. being definitely not worth the money compared to renting, so price--buyer's market vs. seller's market--can be either an incentive or a deal-breaker).

But my most vividly memorable deal-breaker by far is a "the neighbors" story. Kind of a surreal situation from the viewpoint of me who was not then (or ever to be) the owner of the place, but a very real problem for the then owner and whoever had the misfortune to be his successor.

The owner (a real estate agent who bought the home to flip, so this was a vacant property) was inspired by the sight of either the next-door neighbors returning home or their hose (that was attached to an outside spigot on his house)--or both (these sights possibly interacted synergistically)--to run over to them and start yelling about how they have to stop using his water and get their own water turned on.

The yelling went on for a while because they apparently felt they had a valid counterargument that needed to be voiced as well.

Then, without missing a beat, the owner/agent walked back over to me and resumed detailing why this home would be perfect for me!

Actually, I've come across even worse deal-breaker scenarios (some already mentioned above by other posters), but this one will probably always spring to mind first when this topic comes up because it was such an unexpected, off-script move by the agent to choose that moment to have it out with the neighbors (not to mention that at the time--this was many years ago--it was pretty unbelievable to me that anyone's neighbors would ever do this).