Not sure I can agree with you here. A house's bones are the wood frame and the concrete that make up the footers and foundation. The quality of those materials is pretty standard across the board from a million dollar home to a small 800' cottage built today. The differences in quality ratings tend to come from what we can SEE--the siding, roof covering, trim, flooring, kitchen, bath, etc.
While I agree one cannot easily change the roofline or fenestration of a home, or its ceiling height, those are not the only determinants of the quality rating. So long an improvement is not a super-adequacy, I believe one CAN improve the quality of a home, not only the condition.
It's an area one could have different viewpoints, but imo, you can add upgrades up the kazoo to any original construction rated Q home, and most of the time, it make it a highly upgraded Q4, but not a Q 3, or a highly upgraded Q 3, but not a Q 2. It's not just about piling on upgrades and replacements, its; the design and architecture and to an extent original build quality that unless you practically tore a house down and recreate it, won''t change
The houses bones start at foundation and then differ - wood frame or steel frame, CBS or just frame stucco or poured concrete/other, then many other elements in the original construction and design contribute, including ceiling height, size of windows, size of rooms and layouts, design, style, quality of materials etc, and is the house of standard tract design or more custom....those elements are in the Q ratings as differentials, along with ornamentation /fenestration.
I did an inspection today, the houses, while nice, are tract house boxes, the same predictable tract floor plan of 3 bedroom 2 bath found in many communities. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a C 4. It does have vaulted ceilings which gives it some air and a few taller arched windows, but that's it. They all have S tile roofs. My subject is CBS, the community is comprised of CBS and frame/stucco homes. Driving around hard to tell the difference from ext . But it's on the building card and on MLS. They all are still C 4 though, because of the box style floorplan - 1500-1700 sf tract homes . But the CBS vs frame stucco has about a 10k premium in the market and CBS is a better construction because more solid in a storm and the less wood near the surface for termites. I could have just adjusted on the Q line but it was more clarifying to make a line item adjustment which I called "other", and then specified Subject as CBS and each house as CBS or frame/stucco, and that has its own line item adjustment.
Some of the frame stucco houses were more upgraded than the CBS houses, such as a frame stucco has has a new kitchen-the kitchen is an upgrade, Having an new kitchen is recognized in the market and is an upgrade, but it does not change the Q rating. CBS vs frame stucco is not enough of a differential to change the Q rating either, but it is also recognized in the market and thus gets its own adjustment, apart from any additional upgrades made .
It's not just the quality of the materials ( though that is a factor ), it;s the intrinsic design and floorplan and structure of the house that contributes to a Q rating. Q3, UAD specifies above standard residential, tract quality , the UAD Q4 says standard residential . The subject today called it Q4 because overall it is a standard residential tract design.
. I appraise houses also of CBS with an S tile roof that I call C 3, because they are higher than standard residential tract...they tend to be larger even when same 3 bedroom 2 bath count, and have architectural features such as a formal dining room , often offset by columns, a large master bath with a separate tub and shower, a foyer , high ceilings that are tray ceilings or coffer ceilings etc. All that makes them above standard residential tract design.
