Here's what I have so far.

-Real buyers look at far more homes than three!

-The houses they look at are not always as pristine as you they are on your show.

-Your agents never seem to have the stack of stupid addendums the lender wants signed.

Please add yours here!

OMG -OMG - Don't get me started.

What I HATE about House Hunters (although I do watch it a lot) is that none of the three houses meet the buyer's needs. They always have to do some serious compromising, and in my experience (good market or bad market), they simply don't give up as much as the HH buyers do.

And you gotta love how the agent always says "Congratulations you bought a house" after the contract is executed. Uh, like, there's a little more to the story!!! Or, maybe that's My First Place that does that... THAT LADY drives me nuts!

Sorry, not My First Place - I meant PRoperty Virgins.

Does every one of their buyers have 40-60k to totally renovate the home they just purchased and fully furnish it within 6 weeks? Yeah right.......

I like it because it's a fun fantasy world to watch of what we dream about happening. On the downside it mis-informs the public at large about the buying process.

That's TV for you.

It's just like action tv shows or movies. In real martial arts for someone that knows what they are doing what really happens is I hit you once and you don't get up.

Not sexy like movies and tv but real world kind of just like real estate transactions!LOL

I loathe House Hunters. Absolutely LOATHE IT. I do like Property Virgins, because they are like many buyers - completely ignorant and unreasonable, wanting the moon for cheap....

It's shows like this that makes the public think that just because they have a contract on a house that they have "bought" it. I hear we bought a house so often from people right after they get an offer accepted.

Maybe it's easier to have clients give up their wants when camera lights and cameras are in their face. I'm going to try video taping my next buyers and shine flashlights in their faces to see if they buy a house that doesn't meet their needs. I'll let you know how that goes.

Doesn't anyone ever ask to look in the basement . . . . or to see the physical plant/utility room ? You know, the so-called icky parts . . . . where the evil lurks. Is it that these parts just aren't sufficiently photogenic; or are these aspects just too complicated for the viewing audience ?

Where are the "helpful" relatives that tag along with my buyers??

They sometimes show up on Property Virgins, either as a mom, uncle, or college friend who owns their own home, and is thus, an expert.

Don't forget that it's always the relatives/friends that have either...

A) Never purchased a home

or

B) Purchased their last home in 1969

or

C) Constantly watch CNN and believe you can purchase a $300k home for $50k "Because the banks are desperate"

Flashlights in their faces...wouldn't that just tick them off? LOL...you had me rolling with that comment. I started to visualize this for a moment!

House Hunters has got to be one of the most unrealistic TV shows for real estate. Who looks at 3 houses and then decides to buy one of them? I wonder how many homes they look at off the show while being followed around with the camera. I assume they look at many homes and tape them all, then air the best 3 homes on the show. I wonder how long they are driving around with the camera crew looking at all these homes.

^That should be placed on the air, about how many homes they ACTUALLY looked at, but the clear implication is that they looked at three, and only three.

I can not stand Susan Wang for some reason - her voice irritates me. I hate that whenever I have time to watch HGTV, it seems to be when Househunters is on, rather than the shows I like, such as Divine Design, Designed to Sell (still unrealistic but you can get good ideas from it), and a few others....

As if the regular househunters wasn't enough, the episode is usually followed with a Househunters International! UGH!

But does your despise of Susan Wang descend to the level of Loathing ? . . . . that is the question.

I don't think so - I'd hate to waste my loathing energy on someone who doesn't deserve it. She's just annoying and irritating. I used to feel more strongly about her, but it's the show I loathe...I think.

I think I loathe the Freeman shrews - er, that mother and daughter "real estate expert" team that have their own show and make appearances on Designed to Sell. Those. Women. Are. Loathe. Worthy.

I hate all of the shows when they have real estate agents "tour" the house and give a suggested listing price on the spot. Agents have no idea ahead of time about the house, not even a room count, and they just cough up a price! No pulling of similar active comps, no research on similar solds, just "Here's your instant answer."

No matter how confident I am of my original opinion, I always back it up with research before I give suggestions to a client. These shows give the impression, I fear, that agents just pull their numbers out of the air with no research.

Back in the day house hunters would mention this was home 15, 18, 23 that the family has viewed. Guess that information wasn't interesting enough to warrent air time. on another note...

The agents seem a bit pushy during the showing phase. I let my clients tour the home and I am there to answer questions. If I see something important, I will mention it. However, I don't do a room by room guided tour.

Well, House Hunters is about my least favorite show on HGTV, but the issue that really bugs me on Property Virgins or My First Place is the terms of purchase they usually seem to talk about. Nothing down, $2,000/month, no principal payments for 5 years. Seems like a blast from the past, and totally unrealistic in today's market. I want to write them and say, "JUST STOP WITH THIS BS!!!!!"

Whatever happened to that gay investor guy that had OCD? I actually liked his show. He had million dollar homes in the California hills. His whole team was afraid of him because he was a control freak. I thought his show was always interesting to watch. I wonder what happened to him.

You mean I think Jeff Lewis. It was a crazy show. They did 2 seasons and then no more so who knows. I think alot of high end reno's such as his will tank in this market because when they don't sell for what he wants he can't refi out some equity to save his bacon. Hopefully he realized the shift and is doing what is moving in the market or else he should be underwater by now in debt.

The other shows I have my DVR so I just watch a 30 minute show in about 16 minutes.

The positive part is that buyers beleive they could find a home they like in after seeing 3 homes.

I wouldn't want a show having buyer beleive they HAVE to look at 50 homes before purchasing. That would really suck to ingrain that in buyers minds. I usually try to get them under contract in 10 homes or less.


I have had a few where we saw 3 properties that day put a contract in and closed in 30 days. Now if they all were like that...............:)

My wife and I love watching the show Flipping Out...it is hilarious and Jeff and Zoila are my favorites. I consider the show entertainment/reality TV and not really teaching the art of flipping. The show actually starts season 3 on August 10th

[quote]The show actually starts season 3 on August 10th
[/quote]

Popping up the corn and taking out my favorite glasses....Love the show too....

What I don't like about HH...its the Dorky music they play every second they can..Its not really a jingle- It sounds like nails on a chalk board to me!

House Hunters is a "fake" reality tv show. It's scripted. The show finds buyers in escrow or who have already closed escrow. Then it finds a couple of other homes to "show" to the buyers. These are homes that in reality the buyers may have never seen before, but they pretend they are looking at them for the show. Agents apply to the show hoping to be chosen for an episode. They were not involved in the actual sale transaction and often they are from some other state. If you google this topic you'll get lots of hits. I remember reading an interview of one agent who applied to the show and he made the initial cut to be the starring agent in an episode, but then he got ticked off when the producers told him he had to wear a certain color blazer and had to make certain comments in certain ways. He declined.

I never watch House Hunters. Boring. Fake. Can't stand it.