We have a million things we'd truly love in a space (including a live in maid!), but when all is said and done, there's really only a few things that make us happy. That said, the things that top out our list aren't really negotiable. They're requirements and without them, there's no lease, contract or even small talk — we're outta there!
Although that makes us sound snooty (especially when in some cities, just finding a place that's available can be a real chore) we've learned that over the years, there's just some things that truly matter to our quality of life and enjoyment of the time we spend at home. Sure we'd love french doors that open up to a small balcony that we could sit and read the morning news on, but we'd give that up in a heartbeat to have a toilet that sits far enough away from the wall so that we don't get claustrophobic! Here's our top five list, make sure to add yours below…
1. Toilet Placement: It sounds silly, but we really love a comfortable pooper. That's just all there is too it. We don't care if it's big or small, short or tall, but it better be at least 12" from the wall, though we'd prefer 14".
2. Windows That Open : This wasn't previously our list, in fact, we'd assumed that most places would, in fact, have windows that open, because, well, they're windows! In recent weeks two of our Apartment Therapy writers have moved into locations with windows that are less than awesome and gaining a desired breeze without blasting the AC has been tricky!
3. Lack Of Carpet: With our pets and allergies, finding a place that is carpet free is always a must. Hardwood, concrete (unfinished or no), even peel and stick vinyl tiles are fine by us, just as long as they're easy to clean!
4. Partial Sun: Our last loft had northern facing windows and we never... ever... had any sun. At first it was nice to have a cool cave of sorts, but after our last move into a place with grand windows, we forgot just how much we missed light — and the ability to have plants!
5. Ability To Move Large Items Into: Although we'd sell off everything we own for the right apartment, we've spent many an hour stuck in the hallway playing sofa Tetris, trying to get things moved in. You can only remove so many door hinges before you realize things just aren't fitting. We have even had to leave a sofa in an apartment once, because to get it in, we had to go in through the neighbors first and the landlord was unwilling to let us in to remove the item! Crazy!
Do you have one to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: Flickr member all of olive licensed for use by Creative Commons
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Stanley Console by ...
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good natural light! We just moved from a place that had gorgeous views, but horrible light. It was like living in a cave only to see that there was a better world out there that we weren't a part of.
Windows in the kitchen.
A full kitchen. Might seem obvious, but I looked at an apartment that only had a half-fridge and a hot plate. Dorms should only be rented by universities!
Dealbreakers? Unresponsive landlords and roommates who don't like my dog.
Also, this might be weird, but...places that are too big. If an apartment is too big, I end up spending half my life cleaning, and I don't want that. :-(
Cowboy boots. If I see that any of the people who live in the building wear cowboy boots (or crocs for that matter), I'm not signing the lease.
:P
1. Closet space. I've seen places that had either no closets or just a small linen closet for a two bedroom.
2. A usable kitchen. I currently live in a place with such a small kitchen it is almost impossible to cook. And god forbid have more than one person in there.
As I've gotten older. I've learned to never settle on an apartment. There is always something out there that will suit your needs/wants.
The entrance for the bathroom cannot be through the bedroom! There is nothing more awkward than visiting guests having to go through your room to pee when you are trying to get your morning snuggle on!
Agree with commenters above re: natural light, full kitchen. Two of my own are:
1.) Dirty common spaces. If the common spaces are dirty, it means the super's not taking care of the building, and probably won't help you take care of your apartment when it needs it.
2.)Bathrooms that are on the other side of the apartment from the bedroom. If you have to pee in the middle of the night, you risk toe-stubs and knee-barks along the way, and if you have any kind of stomach sickness, you basically have to move into the bathroom till you stop throwing up.
I know this may sound needy but I live in New Orleans so our top priority is central air. Window units just don't cut it down here when the heat index is 115.
Outlets! I never thought about it until I didn't have enough of them. Earlier this year, I very briefly stayed in a studio that only had three outlets in the entire place (none in the bathroom and one in the kitchen).
Currently I'm battling neighbors who yell as their favorite form of communication. Not as in angry yelling but more of too lazy to walk from the ground floor apartment to the second floor apartment to ask how your days is.
I can't wait until my work travels are over and I can get back to my cozy little apartment
Windows in the bathroom.
Closets.
Convenient and working electrical outlets.
Check to see if the electric wiring looks dodgy- I lost everything in a fire because of faulty wiring.
However, I had replacement value apartment insurance- cheap and worth every cent.
Check to see if there is evidence of water stains on the ceilings or elsewhere and peeling paint. The plumbing could be faulty and the appliances could be antiques.
Check to see if there are roach traps Usually under a sink). Belive me you don't want to move in with them.
Look for proper escapes during a fire.
See how sound proof the walls are and if there is an apartment above you. Loud music and stomping and noisy neighbors can be a killjoy.
Try having a peaceful evening alone or a get-together with friends and have the ceiling shake with the sounds of bedsprings rocking or moans of more! more! yes! yes! coming through the wall. Then think of the noises you might make unless you are a yogi- but then there is the chanting and fire ceremonies.
the bedroom has to big enough for your bedroom furniture. i once had a really large mission style headboard and footboard along with a huge 12 drawer dresser (like a double tall-boy) that severely limited my apartment choices.
1. If there is carpet, I *sprint* out.
2. If it's an electric stove, I walk out.
3. If the kitchen is not its own room, I walk out.
4. No (openable) window (or fan, at least) in the bathroom? I walk.
5. Poorly placed windows - as in, the light is bad, the airflow is bad, the location gets in the way of room arrangement. (this one is new, thanks to my current otherwise awesome place).
Surprisingly not on my dealbreaker list? I don't care about having a bathtub as long as the stall shower is roomy enough and well-lit. I've also decided that I'm "over" a previous objection to places without overhead light fixtures in living/working/bed rooms.
1. Toilets are required by building code to be centered within a 36" wide minimum clear space. If it's narrower, you're either looking at a very much older building or an illegal unit.
2. At least one window must open - by national firecode - sufficient to be a secondary egress from the building (even if you're on the 20th floor). If it doesn't, you're looking at an illegal unit.
My deal breakers include carpet, windows that don't open or don't stay open, and view of train tracks or parking lots.
So many deal breakers like not being able to hang a picture to having the landlord's in laws living next door. My rule of thumb is that if something bugs you before you move in, it'll feel like nails on a chalk board within 6 months.
another one who absolutely could not live with carpet or bad windows.
I guess it depends if you're renting or buying.
We owe our fantastic deal of a house to those buyers with no imagination at all who made shag carpet and sixties metallic wallpaper (and no, not in a good way) their deal breakers. What we saw underneath all that was the most architecturally perfect and interesting house we'd ever seen.
I guess if you're renting, shag carpeting that you can't replace is another thing entirely, though.
Inadequate electrical capacity and water pressure are dealbreakers for me. I learned this lesson from my first apartment where I discovered after moving in that only one of the 5 20 amp circuit breakers in the electrical panel functioned. Fortunately, my landlord got the problem fixed quickly, especially after I informed him his electrician had committed fraud and violated the electrical code.
drop ceilings that are too low for someone over 6'
A big deal breaker of mine is popcorn ceilings...
Deal breakers:
No in unit washer/dryer (this is common in DC apartments) - Laundromats were for when I was living in Italy and the college dorm room.
No A/C - Central air preferred, but I will accept window units. Barely.
No outdoor space - I MUST have a place for my grill and my plants. You just cannot beat the homegrown goodness of fresh basil and tomatoes during the summer months.
After spending hours and hours scrubbing all the walls and every surface with detergent and ammonia to remove the nicotine residue in my last apartment, my top deal breaker is previous-smoking-tenants. The sticky, sour smelling yellowish-brown gack was so gross, and such a pain to deal with.
We just moved into an apartment that is so great in every way except for the white carpet. Anyone who installs white carpet must be out of their damn mind.
I'd say a funky smell is the biggest no no!
Smokers - I refuse to live in a building that allows smoking. The apartment I'm in now used to be rented by a smoker, but because the building bans smoking indoors, you couldn't even tell when you walked in right after he had moved.
Lack of public transportation - I gave up hardwood floors to live in a place with carpet because my building offers a private shuttle to the subway. DC weather is not to be messed with, and it was a total dealbreaker to have to walk to the subway whether snowstorm or downpour.
No pets allowed - we could never live somewhere that didn't allow pets.
Must have natural light. No carpet of any kind or any quality.
Wow! There are a lot of people who could not live in NYC!
When I was last looking, I saw a number of nice units in one building but ruled them out because the building super was creepy, with Hustler photos plastered all over his walls in the basement office. Not someone I want to have a key to my door!
Deal Breakers:
1) Carpeting
2) No windows. Windows that don't open. Windows that are sealed shut with plastic. Broken windows that are taped up.
3) Slumlords
4) Half a kitchen.
5) No available parking.
6) Next door to elementary school, fire department or jail.
7) No onsite laundry.
8) Smokers
9) Drop ceiling or low ceilings.
10) Basement apartments without separate entrance or proper exit.
11) Poor lighting. I shouldn't have to buy floor lamps for each room.
12) Zero water pressure. No water pressure makes everything from flushing the toliet to washing your hands and showering a pain in the butt.
13) Zero building security. No locks on front door, mailboxes, storage units. No thanks!!!
14) BUGS! Any kind of bugs. I'm running out of there in a heartbeat.
No window in the bathroom is a deal breaker.
An outlet in the floor was a deal maker when I bought my own place.
The boyfriend and I just moved into an apartment whose building hallways are too narrow to fit our sofa. We had this lovely, expensive couch his sister was willing to give us but after an hour and a half of struggling and playing "tetris" it wasn't budging. :(
-Decent closets
-Room for a kitchen table - don't care if it's an eat-in-kitchen or the living room is big enough to accomodate it (and God forbid if I found a nice apartment with a dining room I'd rent it on the spot)
-Vanity in the bathroom - I hate pedestal sinks since there is no storage
-Dishwasher!
-Washer and dryer hookups
My criteria is different for renting versus buying because buyers can remodel. For example, while I wouldn't be likely to rent a house with carpet, as a buyer with discretionary funds, I know that carpet can easily be replaced with a hardwood floor. My husband and I are buying a house right now, but with the assumption that we will be replacing certain things, particularly doors and windows, as well as adding natural light with solar tubes. To us, part of the fun of buying is adapting a house to our own tastes so a house that was entirely move-in ready but decorated to suit someone else was not ideal.
sea-shell-shaped sink basin. puke.
From back in my renting days my requirements were hardwood floors, a bathtub and a full size stove. I hate vacuuming, I can't live without soaking in the tub at least once a week and I love to bake. I have lived without those three things and hated every minute of it.
1. Must allow my dog.
2. carpeting in the whole unit. I am willing to deal with carpet in the bedroom area, if there is a hard floor in the living, dining, kitchen, and bathroom.
3. Washer and Dryer must be in unit.
4. Must have storage space
5. Must have parking.
Dealbreakers:
1. Insufficient number of outlets;
2. Insufficient natural light;
3. Must have full-size fridge and (preferably) full-size range;
4. No carpet or brand new carpet;
5. No roaches, bedbugs or rodent problems;
6. Poorly insulated;
7. No on-site laundry facilities;
8. No A/C (if you live in the South);
9. Insufficient storage space (just plain annoying);
10. Not up to code.
I've lived in all those apartments (no kitchen, windows that don't open, next to the fire station, no heat, crack house next door, etc.) Thankfully I was young and just happy to have somewhere to sleep. In my 15 years of rental history, I have walked out of 2 places. One, you could sit on the toilet and cook your dinner. The second deal breaker was described as having awesome space, natural light, great storage, pets welcome. What they failed to say was that it was in a Funeral Home. I left rather quickly. I guess we all have our thing.
As some have said.. it really depends on whether you're renting of buying. In our case, we are renting.
I used to think I couldn't live without a window in the bathroom, but our current apt is modern, entirely tiled bathroom with great lighting and fans and I gotta admit, I am not missing the window at all.
Deal breakers now:
-carpet
-lack of full kitchen
-weird/creepy supers & neighbors
-building that doesn't allow pets
-building that allows smoking
-lack of closet space
-lack of secured parking (nothing's worse than being stuck in 2-hr traffic only to come home to some guest being parked in your spot and having to call the site mgr)
Natural light!! Spain is the WORST country in terms of this problem. I once had an interior apartment there that overlooked a very narrow courtyard (I'm using that word lightly). The apartment itself was nice, but we never had a nice breeze, nor could we ever see the sun. I honestly couldn't tell the weather, temperature, or time of day unless I went outside. It was horrible and I will NEVER live in something like that again.
Tranquility!
I moved away from my trainline (Coal train that is Arg!) apartment a few weeks ago to a granny flat under an old queenslander with a big tropical backyard and I feel so much better for it. And natural light BTW if you live in the southern hemisphere like myself, North facing is what you want, that will get the sun all day. A sence of security is also important, I have 4 blokes living above me and just hearing their footsteps makes me feel safe as a female who lives on her own. They also gave me the password to their internet too, that's also a bonus. As long as they know that I don't 'put out' for passwords ;)
1. No carpet (Self explanatory)
2. No parquet floors (Not sure why, but I really, really hate them)
3. Must have a bath tub.
4. Tranquility
That's about it. I'd love great closest space like I have now, but I have made due without it in the past (you learn a lot of tricks when it comes to storage).
Dishwasher. I will not live without one.
Parking. I have a car, it needs to stay somewhere.
I agree with Taureg, you are ruling out a LOT of places in NYC and Chicago. That said my 2 deal breakers are:
1: No pets (It makes me furious when I go to the animal shelter and see moved to building that didn't allow pets as the reason for giving them up.)
2: Garden apartments. They flood easy, the windows are almost always odd and unless you have new construction that intended it to be a living space you are moving into a basement.
5 Deal-Breakers (for me) in a rental:
-Carpet, anywhere in the apartment
-Not allowing pets (I have 2 cats)
-Basement or 1st floor unit (I won't live anywhere where someone standing outside the building can see directly into my apartment--that's just creepy!)
-Not walking distance to the metro (I don't have a car, so this is necessary)
-No laundry in the building (I did the dragging my stuff to a laundromat thing, and it was awful--I have enough trouble getting motivated to do laundry! :-P)
Taureg,
you are correct. Being picky has it's price. Cool city but just not worth it to me. I also had to work hard to get an impeccable rental record, rock solid job, stellar credit score, and savings so I could go after the cream of the crop among rentals.
Must haves: off-street parking, in unit washer/dryer, HVAC, accepts pets, safe neighborhood.
No way joses': carpeting, former smokers or smoking building, popcorn ceilings (very rough on allergy folks), pest issues, seriously delayed maintenance issues.
One thing I will point out is that you should feel some sort of rapport with your LL. If you don't feel comfortable with the person before you rent, you will probably hate the begeezes out of them because within a year. So add LL people skills to the list of must haves.
No smokers or pet owners. Period.
I always forget to look for windows in the bathroom. I just bought a house....and no windows in the bathroom! GRRRR.....I want some fresh air dangit!
@H.B.: I'm curious as to why you object to living by an elementary school? I'm not judging, I'm just at a loss. (I live one door away from an elementary school) On the other had I totally understand the fire department and jail. I would add hospital.
@aychihuahua I find it really amusing that someone with the word "chihuahua" in her username would not like pets.
But anyway...
I've actually been looking for a year, so perhaps the issue is that I have too many dealbreakers! Mostly the issue has been #1.
1. PETS OK. I have a dog. Holy crap. The sacrifice one makes to live in Los Angeles with a pet! I've seen some really nice places that totally fit the bill, but the owners are adamantly opposed to pets *at all*. A lot of the rentals that do allow them are either charging well above the market rate or are dumps. And before people get started on pets...I know...I'm a really tidy person. I'm tired of hearing about the stereotype!
2. HARD FLOORS. Wood, linoleum, pergot - anything but carpet. It is such a dirt sponge. And not just because I have a dog, but also because in LA things get dirty from the air, and carpet is difficult to clean. Though a lot of places have hard floors in the main areas, but carpet in the bedrooms, and that's pretty manageable.
3. WALKABLE AREA. If you can't walk to fun stuff from where you live, enjoy spending hours in the car.
4. BATHTUB.
5. NOT NEAR a dumpster, a prison, a unit facing a loud street or the fire engine's path.
6. NO SHACKS. I'm willing to put a bit of money into an apartment. Sometimes you gotta do that in LA to get the right place, but it cannot be a total wreck. If it requires heavy cosmetic investment, forget it.
7. A CLASSIC LOOK. If it has some weird "upgrades," I usually pass. Some things that landlords have actually touted as features: brown carpet, astro-turfed patio and fluorescent office lighting.
8. PLENTY OF LIGHT.
I find it interesting that so many posters list "non smoking building" as well as "pets allowed". Don't pets do more long-term damage than smokers? Pets could potentially ruin flooring, chew walls, etc (dog urine stains and odors are not easy to remove from wood flooring, speaking from experience). Smokers may damage paint jobs but that is easily rectified. I'm not trying to start a debate, I just think I must be missing something. Also, I have never heard of an entirely no smoking building. Are those popular? (I've only ever lived in NYC)
I think I've lived in all these apartments (15 in 5 years-- from New Orleans to Toronto and everywhere in between), and now my list of "deal breakers" makes it nearly impossible to move:
1. Must have dishwasher and access to some type of laundry (current apt doesn't have this, ugh!)
2. Parquet floors or carpet when not brand new (a few times we've gotten lucky and had spiffy new carpet, otherwise it's icky)
3. Kitchen must be separate, but not confined by 4 walls that make it feel like a jail cell. If I'm cooking dinner, I want to be able to communicate with whoever else is home
4. Must be within walking distance (I'm a good walker, so let's say 1 mile) of groceries, public transit, convenience store, coffee shop, restaurants, etc. The thought of living in a place where I have to get in a car just to get a newspaper or some milk is horrifically depressing to me.
5. Depending on location, must have proper heat/cooling device. Our current apt has no AC, and even though the windows technically open and we could have one, the exhaust from the major street below fills our apartment with smog and makes both of us sick
6. If multiple floors, must have a bathroom on each floor.
7. NO BATHFITTERS. I know this is a weird one, but I have been in so many apartments where the bathtub was just so gross, the landlord slapped up a piece of plastic and caulked it in place. This will ALWAYS result in crazy mold problems and is so unbelievably disgusting. Not to mention it looks awful.
8. NO NEW BUILDS. There are too many faceless, bland, boring places with no personality and crappy finishes and workmanship. Given the choice between an old house with no insulation and a new build townhouse, I'll pick the old one any day. This is kind of what keeps us in our current apartment, even with no washing machine or AC, the building is over 100 years old and having that character trumps everything else. Every time we have someone over that lives in a McMansion or new apartment building, they admire our marble stairs and exposed brick. In the end, I think it makes all the deal-breakers worth it!
Carpet is biggest deal breaker for me. The thought that is might be holding left-overs from the previous tenants is just, well, creepy.
EdgeH2Ogardener and Taureg: Funny thing - I've never had to endure any of my dealbreakers in either Chicago or New York City. Just in Bostonland. In my Chicago experience, the *hard* apartments to find are the ones with carpet and electric stoves. And in New York, when one's looking for a one-bed with room for an office, one can find full kitchens without much sweat - but then, I was specifically not looking in Manhattan.
I find all these dealbreakers interesting. It really, really does depend on the city you live in. It would be a rare apartment complex in my city that didn't have carpet or a combo bathtub/shower in every unit. I did live in one that was "modern" and had concrete floors, but the bedrooms still had berber.
Then again, an average single bedroom apartment here is around 600 sq. ft. or so. So, many of these dealbreaker amenities we take for granted.
My dealbreaker was the kitchen. It carried over into my search for houses, and when I came across my house with its really big kitchen (with bay windows!), I fell completely in love.
I'm a young grad student.
Dealbreakers:
-Old carpet (brand new? sure. 20 years old and smelly? no.)
-Bugs/pests/rodents
-No kitchen. Mini fridge and hotplate won't cut it.
-Inadequate water pressure.
-Weird smells. Some apartments have this weird smell, and it smells like apartment. Kind of like grimy gas stove, old cigarette smoke, and heavy duty cleansers. I have no idea why a lot of apartment buildings smell the same, but when I can smell apartment smell outside the building as I walk in, I walk away.
Washer and Dryer!
@bsz: The whole pets vs. smoking thing I think is one that really depends on who has the pet or who is the smoker. My parents smoked, but never inside the house, so there's no damage. And I have cats, who are thoroughly well behaved and would never damage anything.
That being said, smoking does more to paint. It actually gets into the walls themselves, and, depending on how long the smoker has been smoking inside, into the insulation ANd then you're screwed. There's nothing that'll get that smell out.
And pets? Same thing. You have a cat that pees on a piece of carpet even once and it doesn't get cleaned up (cats never pee in a place one, irritating buggers) and that can destroy the subfloor.
So it really depends. I just found out that the people I'm buying from smoke, but only in the bathrooms, with the fans on. I didn't even know, and I've spent a lot of time in my new place.
Deal Breakers:
1. Places that don't allow pets, especially large dogs. I'm a single woman and I like having a large dog as a deterrent. My dog is also my hobby, i.e. we compete in obedience competitions and agility. It pisses me off when others ruin it for the rest of us who know how to take care of our apartments. There was a rowhome that I wanted to rent (I would've been my friend's neighbor) where they had a front and backyard, wood floors, parking...so cute and they allowed dogs. Well it took two people to ruin that; one chick's dog ended up flooding up the unit so badly that now they allow dogs under 20lbs. The other chick left her dogs out all day long and they barked at everything, scratched up the doors and chewed.
2. Smoking - I lived in a place where you could smell the previous owner's smoke. Same goes for places that seriously smell like animals! I went to one complex where it seriously reeked of animals and the problem was that this slumlord didn't hire people to clean the main halls or stairs, which were carpeted! Her entire complex just screamed someone can and will break in. I've been to complexes where animals were allowed and no way in hell did they smell like this place did!
3. The "party" apartments. There are plenty of those here in Denver, in Cap Hill in particular. I visited a couple of places and when I saw the college kids hanging out on the stoop, I turned around and went elsewhere. The worse one was where this kid took me on a tour of the building and was just walking into people's apartments (they don't lock their doors apparently). He even mentioned, "Hey, so and so is where you can get your weed fix." I smiled, said thanks and never looked back.
4. Garden or first floors: Never again! I lived in a garden level where the guard thing on the window in my bedroom kept slamming against the window when someone entered the building. I kept waking up thinking that someone was trying to break in. I have to live on a top floor.
5. Must have a dishwasher.
6. Must have a balcony and not a stoop.
7. I have to have a parking space! No more off street parking. Do you know how many parking tickets I received?! Plus I had to walk through the alley to get to my place and there were creepers that would hang out and stare! (another reason why I have to have a dog)
8. Washer/Dryer on the premises and more than just one set!
9. AC and heating that actually works.
10. Better be in the neighborhood/location that I want to be in. I can't reiterate this enough, especially with apartment hunters. You tell them that you want to be in area x,y,z and the idiots try to offer you places that are way off from where you told them you want to be. No!
My new place has everything that I want but also includes a pool, an elevator, men and women's sauna rooms and parking!! Plus I can have my large dog.
My NYC Apt requirements:
Windows/sunlight. No wall facing windows
Hardwood floors
Full kitchen
Transportation within 5 blocks
Laundry in bldg or delivery service close by
Market/deli and restaurants within 1 block
Walls and doors. Loft living is not for us
Not above 4-flight walkup
As an LA transplant I was *shocked* how hard it was to find a place that met all of these in NYC!!
For the poster who asked about smoking damage compared to pet damage-
Smoking leaves behind a dark smelly stain that can be painted over but will seep through the paint over time. In our place you could see where furniture seating used to be because of stains on the ceiling. Our contractor covered it with many layers of primer and paint but he thinks it will come back and need routine repainting.
1) NO CARPET! besides allergies and odor, they attract carpet beetles and those little buggers are impossible to get rid of.
2) CLOSET SPACE! always check to make sure that a normal sized hanger will fit on the pole with the door closed, especially in old houses.
3) LANDLORDS THAT TAKE PRIDE IN THEIR PROPERTY! Being handy and having a nice personality help too.
4) QUIET NEIGHBORS (i.e. no children/dogs) or REALLY GOOD SOUND INSULATION... so at least you won't hear the kids or dogs.
5) IN UNIT WASHER & DRYER! Laundromats = horrible way to spend your time.
6) OUTDOOR SPACE! there is nothing like relaxing with a glass of wine on your patio/deck/balcony/in yard at the end of a hard day.
7) GREAT WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOOD! Sounds strange to be a deal breaker but I love to be able to just walk to the corner store instead of having to get in my car to go anywhere.
A lot of these items have made this list because of bad experiences but you live, you learn and rent on!