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Are housing shows misleading?


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2010 Jan 24, 12:53am   4,179 views  17 comments

by mdovell   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

I've been watching TLC's housing shows (between those of ones of little people and ones of families of a bakers dozen) anyway I noticed a few glaring problems with these shows

1) Some of them show housing in Canada. Now there's nothing wrong with that but the Canadian dollar has less value than the US dollar (currently 5% less)

2) Some of these shows are old...quite old. I just saw one today that was five years old. Look for the end when it shows roman numerals

MM is 2000

MMV is 2005

MMX is this year.

If anyone advocates that housing is fine and that the housing shows somehow show a pricing floor or that everything is ok it clearly isn't.

#housing

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1   Fireballsocal   2010 Jan 24, 2:35am  

I have been watching HGTV also and have noticed the same thing. I don't think they are trying to portray housing costs, a bottom, etc. I think they try to show you an inside view of the buying and selecting process. I laugh because the whole process is so different than anything I have been through in the last year. I can't get my head around people who rely on an agent to pick the houses for them. I find houses I am interested in off of the MLS or an RE website and tell my agent when I want to see them. I'ts never a short wait when I put in an offer. Sometimes, I hear back in several days but most times, I never hear back.

What cracks me up are the shows that claim to make changes to your unsellable house so it sells. The ones that stage, do minor updates, etc. I have noticed the shows usually say at the end "Traffic has picked up and the sellers are expecting an offer any day now". Real Estate speak for "It still hasn't sold yet".

2   zzyzzx   2010 Jan 24, 11:49pm  

Are housing shows misleading?

Yes. Duh. I love it when on the rare occasion they show the flipper losing their money.

3   mobislink   2010 Jan 25, 3:44am  

There ia a show called Real Estate Intevention but it seem even the reduce recommended price id too high.

4   pkennedy   2010 Jan 25, 6:03am  

I've seen the show where they make the house better. And in general, the places do look a lot better after just some minor touch ups. Removing some horrid mural from the wall, or some other tacky painting to neutralize the house out isn't bad. If people complain about these things, try buying a house in another country where they don't follow these conventions.

I've been in houses where the people moved out and were now selling. Garbage was strewn throughout the house, random packing material was just strewn about. What they didn't want to move, etc. The floors were covered in mud. You just had to look past all that, at what it would look like clean. I saw that in every house while touring around with a friend who wanted to buy. He wasn't put off by it at all, it seemed very normal.

If anyone saw a house on the market in that shape here, who wouldn't suggest cleaning it up a bit? Of course it would only take the new owner 2 hours to clean up... so why bother is what you guys would say, right? The suggestions they are making aren't guaranteed to make a sale, but they generally do bring the house more in line with what else is out there.

5   closed   2010 Jan 25, 11:41pm  

I watch that home porn all the time. What's funny is on one show, people do stuff to a house to "add value". Often as not, the next show has "experts" tearing out the same type of stuff, because it's such a turnoff for buyers.

6   Storm   2010 Jan 25, 11:54pm  

I think HGTV is a big marketing tool for the Realtors. They only seem to show the positive side of things, rarely showing the negative. They run shows like "Flip this House" that were filmed back in 2005 still today! They rarely show anyone ever losing money. They're always gaining money, and yes, it is "house porn", designed to be 30 minute long commercials on the "joy of house ownership..."

Better to not even tune to that channel. It's like if you're on a diet, are you going to sit there and watch a 30 minute long special on the joy of eating sugary fattening desserts?

7   weaverdo   2010 Jan 26, 1:39pm  

I think they should team up "Property Virgins" with "Real Estate Intervention". I just wonder how many of those "First Time Home Buyers" who couldn't wait to stretch themselves so thin to buy an overpriced house even 2 years ago, are now so underwater and strapped that they can't breath. I wonder if they watch the show and just want to reach through the TV and strangle that snotty realatard that made them feel inferior for second guessing themselves, or how many break-ups it has caused because they had to have the fully loaded kitchen and crown molding in hallway.

8   Austinhousingbubble   2010 Jan 26, 2:53pm  

What 8KTV doesn't show is the buyer who has to go in and rip out all the cheap modern crap that was supposed to make the house worth more and march it to the dumpster, subsequently spending/wasting the next ten years of his life sourcing original hardware trying to get the thing looking right again.

9   seaside   2010 Jan 26, 2:54pm  

HGTV is great. Best comedy channel EVER.
Especially "(stupid) property virgins" and "Design to sell (budget list)" rules.
Even Jay Leno and Connan O'brien combined can't beat the fun.

10   Austinhousingbubble   2010 Jan 26, 3:14pm  

I only see it if I am in a hotel or something. A minute or so of that is like audio/visual Ipecac.

11   elliemae   2010 Jan 26, 10:09pm  

I love the ones where people complete a remodel and afterward a realtor tells them how much they "made." Yea, right.

12   finehoe   2010 Jan 27, 12:11am  

HGTV should do a show where they re-visit the "House Hunters" from three or four years ago so we can see how many are in foreclosure or working two jobs trying to make their outrageous mortgage payment.

13   TechGromit   2010 Jan 27, 4:20am  

lyoungblood says

I think HGTV is a big marketing tool for the Realtors. They only seem to show the positive side of things, rarely showing the negative. They run shows like “Flip this House” that were filmed back in 2005 still today! They rarely show anyone ever losing money. They’re always gaining money, and yes, it is “house porn”, designed to be 30 minute long commercials on the “joy of house ownership…”

Well of course they are going to present an image that owning a house is the best investment you can make. Look at who there advertisers are, the bulk of the commericals are Furniture stores, Home Improvment outfits, Real Estate brokers, etc. They are not only selling you on the fact home ownership is the path to wealth and enlightment, but all the stuff that goes into the house is critically important to your well being.

If they told you the truth, who would watch it? Who would advertise onit? Who wants to be told the truth that there house isn't worth what you paid for it and your interest rate is going to reset next year making your mortgage unaffordable. We watch TV to get an escape from our depressing lives, not to get sucidially depressed.

14   Done!   2010 Jan 27, 4:39am  

An agent told me yesterday about all of the updates done to a house.

I said most people see granite counter tops, I see a huge kitchen demolition job in about ten years after the granite pits and has chicken and beef residue in the exposed grain. And I plan on taking 30K off any house that has Styrofoam Greek pillars on a door stoop less than 4 feet wide. Basically most modern contemporary "UPDATES" done to 50's - 70's style ranch houses. Will be a blight on these neighborhoods with in the next decade. As features like these become as dated as Avocado appliances and orange sculptured carpets. Which was considered an update in the 70's. I spent all of the 80's replacing with Mauve the eighties version of Avacado.

Tastes change, but fools are eternal.

15   permanent_marker   2010 Jan 27, 5:40am  

mobislink says

There ia a show called Real Estate Intevention but it seem even the reduce recommended price id too high.

This is my fav show on HGTV now... there were couple of great episodes, where the zippies (ultra-yuppies) who drunk the kool aid, totally loosing their shirt... priceless.
(yes, paint me as a cynic)

16   hackmaster   2010 Jan 27, 8:05am  

Maybe they _should_ show the math. Much like the government required "surgeon's general warning" on a pack of cigs.
Of course they'll flash it on the screen for 2 or 3 seconds in such small print that you need a 52" HDTV to read properly. But a warning nonetheless.

17   pkennedy   2010 Jan 28, 3:27am  

Maybe what they need to do is include everything, like they do in credit cards. 8+ pages of 4 point font material to read over of all your obligations, or possible consequences!

Considering a home is usually considered the largest and most time consuming hobby a person will ever start, a show on their hobby is pretty fun for a lot of people. It gives them ideas and aspirations.

If these people are using these shows as their sole piece of investment advice, they've got issues already. In fact, if they're using these shows as their sole piece of advice, I would rather they do home improvement then invest in the stock market, lottery, or other get rich quick scheme. At the very least, their failures will give them something to live in, that might be better than what they started with.

They might be in debt way over their heads when they are done and realize their 100K in investment might only net them 70K in returns, or less, but it's probably better than owning a stock that went belly up because it was recommended as a sure thing by their brokers!

Flipping a house requires skill and super fast turn around. Those shows are showing people really going at it. In some of them, they showed the carrying costs for these people, and lost opportunities when they need 1 extra month to finish a job.

I'm also going to venture a bet that after 6 months to 1 year (probably less than 6 months), a person will realize they are way in over their heads and bail out. Housing prices don't usually change that much in 6 months, even when they were declining, they didn't drop by that much. Unless that time was at the *very* height of the home pricing and ended at about the lowest point possible, they shouldn't have lost that much money. *note: that much meaning it could take 3-5 years to pay that back.

What really cost everyone a lot of money was atm thinkers who bought nothing. Or bought stocks. Or bought cars that rapidly depreciated, before going belly up. Or buyers who should never have been given a loan in the first place.

As a hobby show, they're entertaining, and give people ideas.

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