Prevention is always the best cure, and you can easily tackle the problem yourself if you have a handy step ladder.  Alternatively, a tradesman will be able to tackle the problem. 

As they say, money doesn’t grow on trees!

 It concluded that the quality of information available to buyers through the Home Report provided real value, enabling people to make more informed decisions.

And there’s further optimism for Scotland as last month saw a rise in property prices with signs of an improved recovery which reiterates my work load last month.

Overall, the housing industry is a bit like this week’s Scotland team – showing signs of improvement but not quite enough for celebration just yet!

 But for buyers it still remains a opportunistic time with many incentives and good deals to be had.  For vendors, my advice would be to take a realistic view on potential selling prices.    That’s when the many benefits of the Home Report come into play.

 But for the majority of us at least we don’t have to take a £7m drop like the owners of Scotland’s most expensive house in East Lothian which is on the market for a vastly reduced £8m.

Need to keep doing the lottery……………………………

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are specialist contractors who will eradicate the problem – but don’t be in a hurry! It can be excavated by a JCB (no joke!) or specialist weed-killer can be applied however this can take anything from one year to five years to be effective.

Think I’ll stick to garden window boxes for the time being!

Many years ago I visited a property in Paisley complete with its own fabulous indoor pool but unfortunately the local burn flooded immersing the entire house in water and the indoor pool simply became the deeper end of a bigger pool!

Currently there’s an extensive flooding protection programme taking place in Glasgow’s southside around Eaglesham and Carmunock to stop the Cart from flooding and protect many homes which have unfortunately suffered from the misery of flooding in the past few years. 

Must dash – heading off to the Gourock Outdoor Pool for a dip!

She had heard about the website from a friend and found it a really invaluable source of information when it came to commissioning a home report for her two bedroom traditional tenement flat in Roseburn in Edinburgh.

She said: “Home Reports hadn’t been introduced when I bought my flat  so I wasn’t exactly sure what was involved. However the website had a step-by-step guide to the home report and lots of handy tips about preparing your home for the surveyor.

If you are embarking on any alterations always ensure that you have all the paperwork in place for the Property Questionnaire within the Home Report.

A good builder and a building surveyor will be able to advise you on the local regulations.  Whilst you might not require planning permission you will likely require a building warrant.

As with all major expenditure, always seek the right advice first!

Andy

 Of similar splendour but differing style, I’ve been visiting a lot of West End homes this week and a word of caution for such property owners.  It always pays – although unfortunately it can be costly – to have any repairs undertaken to the cornicing, which is often a lovely period feature of these homes.  If a surveyor notices a missing section in the cornicing it tells us that there’s usually been a previous damp or rot problem and it will affect your Home Report.  Specialist tradesmen are available to undertake the work.

More next week,

Andy