The whole industry needs regulating tbh.
Prices for homes are plucked from thin air rather than on the merit of the home itself.
For example I see people who's neighbours house sold for x amount think we should ask x amount plus 5%. However their neighbours home had a bigger garden and a conservatory. So they should have priced it at x amount minus 5%.
Then you see 2 homes the exact same. One owner has spent thousands keeping it modern. Fully landscaped the garden. Extended the driveway, etc. Opened it up internally, etc. It sells for x amount and then the guy 3 doors down says well my house is the same size albeit original, garden a mess, inside needs full refurb, etc so mine should be worth x amount too and people are forced to pay it because houses are sought after and if you don't pay someone else will. So the original house was under-priced if anything.
They should require formal qualifications for all aspects. Home adverts also should have a history. You should be able to see every home listed on the market for 5 years including all the pictures. So you can see why a certain home sold for X price. Then compare it with the home you are looking at. Then add in if prices have moved since it was sold.
Home reports in scotland are a joke. It's copy and paste unless they see something iffy then they make a note. It usually says looks to be in a good standard however I couldn't inspect it properly. My advice is you get a professional in if you want assurance it is okay. And that is the line they take for everything to cover their backs for not doing any real work.
Also the amount of home owners that have overpaid for new builds is hilarious. There are homes in the next block over sold for £600K 10 years ago which cannot sell with offers asking over £450K because it's too expensive for the area. They built luxury homes in a new area with no schools, no train station, no local amenities apart from an asda. Asking prices which are only suitable for affluent well established areas with the best schools.
In fact £400K will get you a slightly smaller home in a much better area. So whoever paid £600K+ for a slightly larger home in a half decent area lost out big time. These people will likely never move home again as they with interest will likely end up paying close to a million for a home worth less than half a million.
it's crazy to think a lot of people now are also taking out longer and longer mortgages. rather than it being a ladder you climb. they want to go straight to rung 3 and just spread the loan out over 35 years. less people are moving now because of things like this. people cannot move because they overpaid and now the market is established nobody is willing to pay anywhere near their asking.
people converting garages into a room then label it as a bedroom in floor plans. no room on he ground floor should be classified as a bedroom unless it's a bungalow or built for a disabled person with a wet room installed. all rooms otherwise on the ground floor are social rooms, offices, kitchens, etc. not bedrooms. people classifying rooms which can fit a single bed and no more as a bedroom. there should be regulations in place as to the smallest space which can be classified as a bedroom. should be split into 2 for a single bedroom (single bed) and double bedroom (for couples). with obviously the double bedroom being much larger.
