Mostly Harmless

It has to be said, buying a house in the South of England scares the living daylights out of me. Prices are so ridiculously inflated that you could probably factor in the cost of chartering a helicopter to bring you back and forth to visit family ~~and friends~~ and still wind up with it being cheaper to live elsewhere. Worse, property websites like Right Move and Estate Agents themselves just aren’t giving what I’d expect.

The trouble is the Internet has spoiled me with information. For every property I see on a website I want decent quality photos of every room, measurements that the Estate Agent the minute you meet him won’t go out of his way to discredit and information about what high speed Internet access is available. Most agents seem unprepared to be told if it can’t get at least 1MB then there’s no point us looking at it. Guaranteeing broadband availability would be another matter entirely but it isn’t difficult for them to stick the Vendor’s phone number into an availability checker or ask If any of the neighbours have ADSL.

The lack of decent photographs astounds me - a good enough digital camera to produce snaps of a house doesn’t cost much and were I looking round a property, I wouldn’t be declining to enter any of the rooms so please show me pictures of every room, multiple angles would be great.

And where are the floor plans? Only 50% of web listings at most seem to have them - floor plans with measurements give you a good idea what you’re getting and whether your junk fits. For those who have a pathological attachment to their junk that frustrates their partner to the point of violence, this is vital.

I’m aware that the logic is that the agent wants to get you in to view a property rather than dismiss it online. But to be honest I’ve dismissed more properties through frustration at sheer lack of information than I ever would have done had I been armed with a decent set of facts.

Finally, let me exclude retirement properties - not being able to exclude is silly.

What I’d really love of course would be a 3D Sketchup style model of the house - but now I’m just being greedy