Irritating comments by homebuyers on HGTV shows

"There''s no bathtub in the master suite? What kind of master suite doesn''t have a bath tub?" %0D\ %0D\ "These cabinets look dated." %0D\ %0D\ "I wanted stainless steel appliances." %0D\ %0D\ "This is the master suite? It''s TINY!" %0D\ %0D\ What else?

• There''s a closet in the guest room for your clothes, honey."

• "mancave"

• "It only has one sink, I really wanted double sinks"\ \ "I really wanted a walk in closet"

• "This room can be used for your office honey"

• "Is that veletion (sic) plaster?

• This will do for my closet, where will you clothes go, dear.

• If the appliances are not stainless steel---\ \ "The appliances are outdated and there are no granite counter tops."

• I was hoping for double sinks in the master bath.

  Single Woman

• This (2001) kitchen is really out of date.\ \ I''ll need to buy all new stainless steel appliances and that will put me over my budget.

  People who don''t cook

• Hardwoods

  WTF?

• "There''s no pool?"\ \ "The paint colors are really bright."

• "This yard is not big enough for fido"

• But I really hate the paint color....

  So Fucking What? Change it!

• I like the open floor plan; it''s good for entertaining.

• I want a three car garage.

• These comments are all on target. They all seem to want to buy the same suburban Nashville McMansion, just located in different places.

• I like/don''t like the celling fan.\ \ Buffy and Kailegh will have to share a bedroom?!

• Oh good! The kitchen has a wine cabinet...we do a lot of entertaining!\ \ There''s too much traffic along the front street. (front lawn is huge and backyard is fenced in)\ \ "But we''re only budgeted for 850,000!"\ \ Those throw pillows don''t match that couch.\ \ I was hoping for a whirlpool bath!

• "The kitchen isn''t very big" (for people who you just know don''t cook shit and barely know how to boil water)%0D\ %0D\ The word "mancave," PERIOD. %0D\ %0D\ I like the two car garage. (don''t own a second car and used to public transit).%0D\ %0D\ Anyone who bitches about paint colors. RE-PAINT THE FUCKING ROOM.%0D\ %0D

• HGTV is really disappointing these days with all the House Hunter shows. They need to revamp the network, give us something new. Let''s start with a new Design Star, minus the awful Vern Yip.

• Networks give us the drivel we demand. It''s obvious from this thread that people watch these horrible shows. So why should the network do any better than drek?

• Isn''t some kind of bath in the master bathroom pretty essential though?

• I like House Hunters International, but get sick of all the red state fuckers looking for a cheap, low taxed, gaudy paradise on the backs of poor brown people. \ \ Same goes for the UK wankers looking to turn lovely Spanish and Portuguese countrysides into Chav Land.\ \ All their comments grate.

• When going to the next house, real estate agents in Canada say "we''re leaving out."

• Sometimes I wish this board had a LIKE button, like on facebook. %0D\ %0D\ I definitely would have click LIKE on r8 ''s post%0D\ %0D\ LOL

• "I can really see the guys coming over for poker night down here, watching the game on a big screen."\ \ Anything, just to get away from that wife who wants to use the third bedroom for her scrapbooking.

• The most annoying ones are the parents of little Dakota and Madysen who say shit like "oh, there''s stairs and I''d worry about the kids" or "a pool? what if the babies fall in?". What on earth did my parents do before all this hovering and over the top safety consciousness? Maybe they let us fall down once in a while and watched us around water? Amazing that whole generations of kids grew up without helicopter parents.

• "this house isnt going to work, because we dont like the carpet in the living room and the bonus room is really too big"

• "We want a newer home in the historic district and that''s close to work."

• We need a least a five bedroom home. We will each need a room for our offices, one for a workout room and one for when parents visit and of course the master suite.

  Childless Couple

• I NEED a goddam fucking MUD room!!!!!

  First time home buyer Tiffani wandering off her meds.

• I don''t think the master bedroom suite is big enough for our furniture.

  Newlyweds with a $120,000 budget and a gaudy bed as big as a Cadillac

• The kitchen is so closed off...I wouldn''t be able to see little Caitlyn and Renner''s in every corner of the property as I microwave their dinner.%0D\ %0D\ I''m worried about the kids bedrooms being upstairs/downstairs from the master bedroom. How will we ever know when 17-year-old Jason is masturbating or ignoring us?%0D\ %0D\ We really like the property but need to show it to Olivia [age two] to see what she thinks.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ %0D

  House Hunters: Helicopter Parents Edition

• The master bath is a little small, and we really need [bold]at least[/bold] two sinks.

  Couple who really likes sinks

• Hate the ones who go on and on about carpet, paint and even the furniture, criticizing all. Bitch you are not purchasing the furniture and paint and carpet can be easily redone. I saw one hh even comment on how the owner''s cat was too fat.

• Is that all (there is)?

• This second master bedroom suite would be perfect for my scrapbooking room!

  Wife relegating husband to an unfinished basement furnace room

• We could add irritating things said by the realtors. My hands down favorite is "And you''ll enjoy this. The dining room is right off the kitchen."\ \ And many other variations pointing out that the dining room is right off/connected to the kitchen. Over time, I have stopped screaming at the TV.

• In a house from the 1840s. Are those the original floors?

• [quote]I like House Hunters International, but get sick of all the red state fuckers looking for a cheap, low taxed, gaudy paradise on the backs of poor brown people. \ \ PLEASE run for President, R23! Or marry me.

• I was watching HHI the other night and a very young couple were looking for a place in one of those S. American countries on the beach. The girl was a whiny little bitch princess and nothing was good enough for her. They don''t seem to realize they are not in the US or Canada (in her case). She bitched about the kitchens not being modern and big enough, not enough bathrooms, guest rooms not big enough. The husband was getting visibly pissed off at her because his budget was only $500K and she was bitching about every place in their budget. The place they finally decided on was a lovely little native looking house right on the beach I would kill for and sure enough, showing them move in, she was bitching about the bright colors and beachy decor and she never wanted to see another fish again and hubby promising to knock down walls and redo the kitchen for her, the kitchen was fine. Closing scene was a bunch of surfer dudes right out of the frat house pulling in and her giggling amongst them.

  I give them 5 years before he bails on the little bitch

• "I love how the light comes in through the windows!"\ \ \ What the hell ELSE is the light going do do?

• This house is only 3000 square feet. How can two adults and two children possibly fit in this small of a space?

• Honey, let''s keep looking; I think I saw a neighbor with cornrows.

  What they edited out.

• This popcorn ceiling has got to go...\ \ Oh, a closet big enough for all my SHOES...\ \ We need more room to ENTERTAIN (as if anyone would want to spend time with these carbon copy, wooden bores)...

• The backyard is too small for the dogs.

• "There aren''t enough bathrooms or closets!" - In a house built in the 19th century.%0D\ %0D\ "The kitchen is too small and the appliances aren''t up-to-date!" - Said by an eating-disordered bitch who never cooks and barely eats.

  Duh

• As has been posted in here many times before.... House Hunters is completely fake. The house hunters are required to be in escrow on a house before them will come and shoot the phony and scripted "hunt". The result of the hunt is that the house already in escrow is "selected" and fake papers are signed.\ \ In Canada this is illegal and the Canadian first time buyers shows (even those filmed in the USA) are all real.

• Um, R48, most us do not have Asperger''s therefore are not bothered by the fact that this is not in real time. Try not to fret.

• Most annoying comments, as others have posted deal with the color of the rooms, double sinks, the lack of granite counters, and the lack of stainless steel appliances.\ \ Whatever happened to painting the rooms the color you like once you''ve moved in, and renovating kitchens or bathrooms when you can afford to?\ \ Can someone explain to me the desirability of closets in bathrooms? Won''t your clothes get mildewy?\ \ As for the International House Hunters shows, I like the ones where people are buying in foreign capitals or foreigners are buying in their own countries. The latter demonstrates just how greedy and privileged Americans are. As someone noted, the episodes that highlight Americans buying vacation homes in Costa Rica or elsewhere are awful!

  BonniePrinceCharlie

• Yes, the show is a fraud, it is still fun. None of the comments are real, who cares?

• The annoying comments are put in on purpose to get us to watch the show and it works.

• [quote]As for the International House Hunters shows, I like the ones where people are buying in foreign capitals or foreigners are buying in their own countries. The latter demonstrates just how greedy and privileged Americans are. As someone noted, the episodes that highlight Americans buying vacation homes in Costa Rica or elsewhere are awful!%0D\ %0D\ Agreed. I hate the Costa Rica, Belize, and most any episode in the Caribbean or Central America -- likewise those that feature the newly-built resort communities in Spain or Portugal. It''s usually a golf community hell rather than a resort paradise.%0D\ %0D\ Why bother with House Hunters International if half the time they focus on generic sorts of properties that could be most anywhere? HHI too rarely makes a point to show some sort of architecture or setting that is characteristic or exemplary to the region (and possibly of interest for those reasons to American viewers.)%0D\ %0D\ %0D

• Yes, HHI usually showcases brand new condos with granite and stainless steel. I prefer the houses that show the regional architecture and I love when they use the native materials. Why would anyone buy a house somewhere that looks like the one at home? I usually root for the little bungalow with the palapa and the HHI couple will go for the modern condo. Ick.

• Recently I found out that the Joan Rivers reality show about her moving to LA is a complete fake from beginning to end. I was told this by somebody who is in the show and is good friends with Joan. I was shocked. Are all of these shows fakes?

• HHI was a bit different last night. Brit guy got a wild hair to go buy a "vacation" home in....Bulgaria.\ Bulgaria?? Who goes on vacation to Bulgaria? Although financially it was a good deal - he got a 1600 sq ft house, on about a quarter acre of land (house actually had modern conveniences) for $21,000. Problem is, he''s still in....Bulgaria.

• All reality tv is fake.

• "This won''t do. We need several more guest rooms and a large dining room and a terrace for bar-b-queing and a vast eat-in kitchen, and a wine bar, [bold]because we really like to entertain.[/bold]"%0D\ %0D\ Says the Ann Arbor couple shopping for a pied-a-terre in Paris, last there on their honeymoon 22 years ago.

  Who are all of these friends coming over for bar-b-qued croques monsieur?

• Bulgaria is a beautiful country, it''s like Northern California. It has huge problems with organized crime gangs and I imagine that is why they wanted to move to the city where it would be safer.

• I saw those R56/58. I thought same thing about Bulgaria, which I''m sure is lovely, but Bulgaria? I was actually shocked at how expensive those tiny little spaces in Paris were and they needed work too but ain''t no way they could entertain in one.

• Oh, that was a different Bulgarian show on HH I saw. A Brit couple was living the countryside and wanted to move to the city

• I still think complaining about no bath in a master bathroom is legit.

• They are complaining there is no bath TUB in the master, just a shower stall. Geez, how many people take baths these days? The legitimate complaints about no tub come from parents with young children - they do need a bathtub in which to bathe the kids, but why do you need it in the master bath? There's going to be a tub in the kid's bathroom, so just use that. As for the general tone of this thread - the prospective buyers have to complain about SOMETHING, they can't just go in and say "I love this" for all three houses. So what else WOULD you have them complain about? Half the time the "complaints" are to point out things that ARE easy to fix, like paint or carpet. A lot of people watching these shows are utterly clueless about home buying. I think at least part of the original intent of the show was to point out things to look for. The show that really irks me is this Holmes guy who goes in and "fixes" things that are wrong in newly purchased homes. Most of the time it's because the new owner didn't bother with a home inspector. What idiot doesn't get a home inspection? And what realtor worth his license doesn't insist the buyer get a home inspection? There are a lot of clueless idiots out there.

• A friend of mine from the UK was convinced that Bulgaria was going to be the next big vacation destination, so he invested in a development project for condos. He lost his shirt.

• Hideous Canadian couple. Thank god for once they aren''t American. I cannot stand this woman.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3MfoJ_nZs0

• The agent that introduces each room, as in ''this is the bedroom'' and ''this is the kitchen''

  Really Mrs. Agent? I thought it was the garage, thanks!!!

• "And what is this room for? What specifically is its use? Is this room a dining room? Is this room a bedroom?"

  Buy it and it''s whatever you want it to be.

• The rationalizations given by prospective buyers on Selling New York when they could really sum it up with ''this just isn''t ostentatious enough for us''.

• People are obsessed with this show!

• "Would you like to see the kitchen?"\ \ \ No thanks bitch, I''ll just buy it sight unseen.

• Selling New York is unreal. These people are paying several million dollars IN CASH for these places and bitch about moldings on doorways and windowsills. People with that much money to spend can easily fix these things. The spoiled entitlement of these people is insane.

• Who''s dumb enough to buy in Mexico when you can lose your home to the Mex government! I''d be worried that Costa Rica would pull that same shit with gringos.%0D\ %0D\ Recently a bunch of Americans who had bought property/houses in Baja California had the Mex government come in and appropriate their homes. They were S.O.L. with no appeal process on their side.

• None of the tours on the New York shows are real buyers, they are set-ups.

• the enormous emphasis on having the new FAD of a SOAK TUB.....%0D\ %0D\ so ridiculous%0D\ %0D\ as if they are really going to soak in a SOAK TUB all that often%0D\ %0D\ as if the house is sub-standard because it doesn''t have the latest ridiculous fad of a soak tub%0D\ %0D\ so many housebuyers think they are elite

• r67, you hit it on the head! These staging shows: "People walk into this room and they DON''T know WHAT it''s USED for!" Uh, it''s adjacent to the kitchen, my guess is it''s a dining room!

• He: "I love that it''s already remodeled. We can just move in!"\ \ He: (moan) "But it''s SOMEBODY ELSE''S remodeling!"

• Selling New York uses stunt buyers. The real people who are buying those millionaire pads in Manhattan are not the sort of people who would ever want to appear on television.

  Mrs. Onassis

• two observations: 1) the referral to a ""BONUS ROOM" by the agents - wtf is that about- very annoying - I mean, isn''t it another room in the house? isn''t it included in the listed squre footage? 2) I found the HHI in Berlin and houseboats in Amesterdam interesting - I have no idea as to the authenicity of the real estate market in those situations, but at least it was not the typical American suburban buyer.%0D

  Kansas boy

• [quote]Selling New York is unreal. These people are paying several million dollars IN CASH for these places and bitch about moldings on doorways and windowsills.[/quote]\ \ \ If I''m paying that kind of money for an apartment it should be perfect. I''m not looking for a fixer upper.

  Raised middle class and tight with a buck

• r65, that entitled cunt in the video actually said "closer to my budget. I intend to get my way." And it is HIS money. Oh. Just oh.

• Yeah, R80, I was watching it on tv and thinking "what a little cunt" the whole time.

• I don''t like those Canadians in Nicaragua either. Brock could have killed her on that leapfrog stunt.

• [quote]If I''m paying that kind of money for an apartment it should be perfect. I''m not looking for a fixer upper.%0D\ %0D\ Fine, if you like buying someone else''s taste wholesale. Why not, then, hunt until you find the perfect place, down to the pictures on the walls and the guest towels and the silverware? The previous owner can take his toothbrush and you''d be all set.%0D\ %0D\ Most buyers expect to make some changes with the purchase of a new home, and all the more so as the price climbs and matters of personal taste with it. Obviously a buyer has to weigh how much money and effort is required to make a place over to his own taste and requirements, but buyers of expensive properties usually expect to do so -- even if they sometimes get lost and stubborn in some very petty details.

• I''d like to see a new HGTV show called Househunters Downsized. It will feature those who bought more house than they could afford and have to move into a more realistic, affordable house. Like a 1964 3-bedroom ranch on a quarter acre.%0D\ %0D\ "I''m not a fan of aluminum siding"%0D\ %0D\ "Is this the original kitchen?" No, the kitchen was updated in 1988, and the honey-stained oak cabinets with brass fixtures are all custom.%0D\ %0D\ "This is the only bathroom?"

• I especially enjoy these comments when we have seen the couple storing their clothes in cardboard boxes, eating in shifts on stools at a kitchen bar, and hanging laundry in the bathroom.

  Realty Ricardo

• I''m so sick of hearing (mostly from fat fraus) "Gee, these rooms are sooooo small!". %0D\ %0D\ Gee, Lady, what do you expect with a budget of 100,000!

• ...and then we added a bit of whimsy to the living space with a few whimsical design accents!

• "Gee, this is a nice big yard for 45.000, but we''re afraid Baby Herman will toddle out into traffic because there''s no fence!"

  How about watching your damn kid, Lady!

• What do you mean by ancient Indian burial ground?

• "Hey, I LOVE that huge front yard!", spoken by the husband.%0D\ %0D\ Yeah buddy, you''re really gonna love MOWING that shit every fucking Sunday.

• Gee R90, you are ready for the show because they are always saying, "That''s going to be a lot of mowing"

• Glad I''m not the only one who noticed how annoying that Canadian couple was.\ \ Do they still have that pumpkin-faced family of agents (mother and two daughters)on Selling New York?\ \ \ Love R84''s idea. Barring that, I''d like to see some negative comments about things like two-storey entrance halls, as in "This much be a bitch to heat."

• Agent: "The previous owners just updated all floors recently with $5,000 worth of laminate".%0D\ %0D\ Picky Buyer: "It''s got to go! Nothing will touch my feet but hardwood!"%0D\ %0D

• I don''t want to just SEE the beach! I want to be ON the beach!!!

  Within a budget of $65,000

• That Canadian couple won''t have a long marriage.

• R91, I''ve seen plenty of episodes where they insist on the place with the huge front yard, and no mention gets made as to mowing duties.

  R90

• I want to be in the heart of Paris with over 3,000 sqare feet of living space. And don''t forget the terrace view of Notre Dame!

  Couple from Mississippi with a budget to match

• "Well, we didn''t choose the 3,000 square foot $75,000 home with the ocean view, because we didn''t like the yellow wall paper in the master bedroom".

• I don''t understand why the buyers spend so much time on trivial shit. I''d be asking about the type of HVAC system, how well insulated the house is, the sewer and plumbing, the electrical wiring, the roof, and whether or not there are any hot teen male neighbors.

• Do they still have that pumpkin-faced family of agents (mother and two daughters)on Selling New York?%0D\ %0D\ YES!!%0D\ ******%0D\ RE SELLING NEW YORK which showcases the yenta and her 2 daughters. You know there''s a time when you need to tone it down and dress age appropriate. She''s trying way too hard with the BIRKIN BAG, tight dresses, high heels and hair parted down the middle. A few bangs would serve her well...I don''t need to see that little wrinkled billboard of a forehead.%0D\ She''s a real JAP.

• R99, with the exception of the hot boy next door quip, no viewer wants to look at dingy furnaces and HVAC systems. Just give me the house porn, and keep the ridiculous comments to a minimum.\ \ There''s a reason why they barely touch on the actual home inspection process on My First Place and similar shows. It''s just not good tv.

• I think the entitled cunt at r65''s link should have held out for the second house. The beach house had a terrible layout and a lot of fug finishes that will be expensive to replace.

• R63, you''re assuming that buyers do everything their Realtor recommends. Hardly.\ \ People are idiots. Besides not listening to advice on how to prep a house for sale, they''ll refuse to spend 350 bucks on an inspection on a house they''re paying 500,000 for. \ \ In a bidding war, my client "lost" and offered to sell our home inspection report (that we had done) to the "winner" because they hadn''t done one. They paid 100K over list price for the house. They refused to pay 200.00 for an inspection report to see what the heck they just bought.\ \ A friend of mine bought a place "privately". Was told by me and another agent friend to ensure she had an inspection. Didn''t do it. Looked good on her when she had to have the roof redone and the plaster fell off one of the walls within a week of her moving in. So much for "saving all that money by buying privately".\ \ Even new construction is so shoddy these days that I always recommend getting an inspection.

• R103 is right on the money. If you''re about to make the biggest investment of your life, which is the case for most of those couples, maybe saving a thousand dollars or so on home inspections, a good real estate agent and a real estate lawyer is not such a great idea. My partner and I bought our condo when it was still in construction. We did our pre move-in inspection with our real estate agent and looked at everything, marking every flaw with a post it note and taking photographs of anything. People get hung up on carpets and wallpaint instead of looking for real issues at hand.

• What mortgage company would agree to a loan without an inspection? Oh, I guess the same ones who loaned too much money to people with bad credit and not enough income. No wonder the industry is so fucked up.%0D\ %0D\ In Massachusetts you can''t get a mortgage or homeowners insurance without an inspection.

• My absolutely favorite part of HH is the standard opening of each episode which shows a young couple frustrated because they are both in the kitchen of their rented apartment trying to make a sandwich and they can''t seem to move their arms enough to complete the task.%0D\ %0D\ "We''d really like a bigger kitchen, there''s really not enough room for the two of us when we''re making dinner."%0D\ %0D\ And then they open the refrigerator door and suddenly the other half cannot even cut her lettuce anymore!%0D\ %0D\ My other favorite is when the house they are looking at has granite!!!!%0D\ %0D\ "But it''s not the granite we like."

  I guess they don''t pay RE agents enough after all

• [quote]YES!! ****** RE SELLING NEW YORK which showcases the yenta and her 2 daughters. You know there''s a time when you need to tone it down and dress age appropriate. She''s trying way too hard with the BIRKIN BAG, tight dresses, high heels and hair parted down the middle. A few bangs would serve her well...I don''t need to see that little wrinkled billboard of a forehead. She''s a real JAP.\ \ I think she looks great!

  Mrs. Dr. Barry Weiss, DDS, Great Neck, Long Island

• I love op for starting this thread.\ \ I watch this show on mute so I don''t have to listen to buyers and or hear the rolling of eyes of the agents.\ \ there was an agent in on a few weeks ago - that was showing houses to this Quincy couple - some really nice houses too.\ \ He didn''t even try to hide his contempt.

• R105 - good for MA. Unfortunately not all banks in all parts of the world operate like that. Nor are home inspections a guarantee of nothing being wrong. They can only inspect what they can see, and these days, in Canada anyway, have you sign acknowledgements to that effect so that you can't come back and sue them. If you buy a house in the winter, they can't check to ensure that the air conditioning is operative - you're depending on the honesty of the seller that it's in good working order. (Ha!) Nor will they crawl up on a roof to inspect the shingles under a snow covered roof. I've never been able to stomach most of the HGTV shows. When you work in the industry, who wants to watch it at home ;-) I admit I've heard most of the comments posters have mentioned here. One of my favorites was this ditzy woman I'd shown a house to and she made some comment about the owners china. "We're not shopping for place settings, what about the HOUSE". It's also amazing how many people will discount a property out of hand because of wall color - and the sellers who get their backs up when I tell them to paint that shocking pink bedroom a neutral color before putting it on the market.

• I meant to add to my last post, that what irritates me about these shows the most is that some people figure that watching HGTV for an hour qualifies them somehow to be an expert and tell me I''m wrong about something I do every day. \ \ "Pink IS a neutral color"\ \ That, and "well my uncles best friends wife told me that I shouldn''t have to flush the toilet before showings because everyone knows what a toilet is for"

  R103/109 and just about done with RE

• I love Sandra Rinomato of Property Virgins. She has first time buyers who have a $5 budget that want to buy something in an exlusive neighborhood. So she takes them:%0D\ %0D\ Sandra: so what do you think the asking price of the houses in this area run?%0D\ %0D\ Buyer: $5%0D\ %0D\ Sandra: oh...sorry...well unfortunately the type of house you''ve described would cost ONE MILLLIIIONNNN DOLLLARRSS here. (said with an eyebrow raised) That''s 999,995 over your budget.%0D\ %0D\ Buyer: Oh no! You''re kidding me! Really?%0D\ %0D\ Sandra: let''s go look at some properties in a town you can afford (then takes them 50 miles away and shows them a fixer upper with one bath and no dishwasher)

• That''s fake too, but funny, and makes the point.

• We will need a private area for my husband''s gloryhole.

• Oh, this classic vintage bathroom tile that has been in this house for 75 years and is still in wonderful shape....has to go!

• This Great Room could be greater. And I want a gift-wrapping room separate from the scrap-booking room.

• I live in Knoxville (home of HGTV btw) and they did a House Hunters here this week. Entitled very young couple looked at three bland as you could possibly imagine mini mansions, in the budgetary range of $250,000.\ \ Knoxville has about 5 historic neighborhoods where that kind of money would buy a very nicely reno''ed historic home (yes, probably with granite countertops, stainless appliances and probably a clawfoot tub and at least one working fireplace).\ \ Aside from the complete bitchiness of the wife, which made for some fun since the realtor has a local rep of being quite no nonsense herself, WHY BOTHER?

• We want something open-space concept, loft-like.

  First time buyers in Omaha

• I hate hearing the promos for Selling New York with the horrible tagline "It''s so money." Awful.

• r116, would there be enough adequately sized bathrooms in those "historic" houses? Would the kitchen be tiny? Are they well heated and cooled? Insulated well enough? That matters.

• Selling New York is a guilty pleasure of mine. I just cannot believe how much it costs to live in Manhattan and how small the apartments can be. They recently showed two queens buying a $1.4 million one-bedroom in a walk-up in the East Village that looked like it hadn''t been renovated since the Nixon Administration. This place was 1/3 the size of your average blue-collar ranch house in New Jersey, and the two queens and the realtor were going on and on as if they had just discovered a palace! Manhattan is fucking crazy.

• I was on House Hunters with my boyfriend who was buying in Chicago. His realtor suggested him for the show. He had closed on his condo months before the show was shot. His realtor had open listings for the other two options. It''s always a total setup. Everyone knows which property they are getting from the beginning. The crew on out shoot did a lot of HH International shows too and said that was the same deal. Sorry if this is news to anyone, but, you know, TV is 100% phony.

• [quote]Sorry if this is news to anyone, but, you know, TV is 100% phony.%0D\ %0D\ Certainly not news who bothered to read any of this thread; the same point has been made above (as it is in any HGTV thread) half a dozen times at least.%0D\ %0D\ I assume though that the big lapse in your case between closing and filming may not be the usual order. At least in many (though not all) instances the "6 months later" footage does show [italic]some[/italic] changes. Timing the "hunting" part of the shooting closer to the closing would eliminate having to "un-paint" walls, remove the new owners'' furnishings, and fabricate the appearance either an empty or occupied house for sale.%0D

• I sold a condo that was slated to be on House Hunters. The listing broker told me - that someone had seen the unit and was still interested.\ \ I think he was just trying to push me on the financing - which was talking longer then expected.\ \ I think there was some truth to the story but doubted that the buyer haven''t already made the decision - since rarely (if ever) does a deal fall apart on this show. \ \ Property Virgins is much more realistic in the sense of what Sandra focuses on and her gentle slap down of buyers.\ \ It annoying that the producer focus on things that s/s, granite, paint and closets. I guess this shit appeals to fly overs.\ \ Still it just real estate porn.

• .

• For the past year, it seems that "Designed to Sell" shows renovations made for staging homes for sale, and they always seem to conclude "It''s only a matter of time before the right buyer snatches up this beautiful property." %0D\ %0D\ Recently, they did feature a deal that fell through, and sometimes the ending is unsatisfying, with the buyer deciding to pull his condo off the market since the current housing economy is so weak.

• Some of the house buyers or apartment renters on all of the various HGTV shows fixate upon the view out of the various windows.%0D\ %0D\ They often exclaim how fabulous the view is when it actually is quite mediocre and something they will tire of very quickly within a month or two and never even look at the view after that.%0D\ %0D\ For example, the view of a city from the low level rooftop deck of a house in a U.S. city.%0D\ %0D\ And internationally, the view is sometimes a view they will tire of quickly.

• In one show on HHI the couple exclaimed over the "wonderful" mountain view. All you could see were ordinary mountains way, way off in the distance, hiding behind several huge gray roofs in the foreground.

• HGTV is so out of touch!

• No one''s complained about the insufferable comments some buyers make when looking for loft-style apartments. Aparently the style alone is enough to justify their gushing admiration. Exposed ducts, brick walls, etc, no matter how ugly or inconveniently designed, will be complimented. It''s a learned preference that''s almost ideological.

• R123, they''re always trying to push, and usually you can see right through it.\ \ Honestly though, most buyers, unlike what''s displayed on HDTV, don''t make stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops there top choice in kitchen design. I had a buyer who dropped 1.8M on a condo, a week before closing he calls me up and says "Hey, one question, does the kitchen have a stove and fridge, I forget" \ \ I was sort of shocked. He didn''t remember anything about the kitchen. I responded that the stove was a high end viking and the fridge a sub zero encased in custom cabinetry.\ \ He really didn''t care either way though.\ \ My experience is that most buyers don''t - although, most do remember what the kitchen actually looks like.

• The couples who insist on two sinks in the bathroom annoy me.%0D\ %0D\ Not too long ago, NO ONE had double sinks and/or it was rare to have them.%0D\ %0D\ Also annoying are the couples who find a house which is satisfiactory or even great in most every way, but then reject the house because it does not have a fenced in backyard for their dog.%0D\ %0D\ Also annoying are the people who seem to be buying the house for the dog as if their dog is a person emphasizing in a dramatic way ''Fido will LOVE this backyard!!!!!''.

• R130, but wasn''t that a man who does NOT cook who called and asked you that? Men who do not cook do not care about the finer points of a kitchen.

• Well sort of, R132. I''ve represented him in several purchases (investor) and normally his wife flies in to view before entering contract. He saw the place literally for only 5 minutes and decided to move forward on it, but his wife wasn''t with him on this specific trip. \ \ She probably asked him about the kitchen and he didn''t have a clue. It was kind of funny actually. He really didn''t care either way about the kitchen.

• Did anyone catch the HHI episode where the husband was looking for a fixer upper in North Africa that he could spend a few months decorating before his family moved down with him? That boy was gayer than an Easter Bonnet. He couldn''t wait for the young sweaty carpenters to arrive.

• The most irritating HHI was the woman who was moving to Amsterdam, and all she cared about was this fucking dog the size of a Shetland Pony and where it would shit.

• i also hate the "fido" remarks.%0D\ %0D\ "oh look, blimpie will have his own room!"%0D\ %0D\ what really gets me are the "this will be great for entertaining" comments. they later show a group of people drinking wine, one of which is the realtor, and another lady clutching her purse like they just pulled her in off the street. these people will do NO entertaining.%0D\ %0D\ did anyone see the gold-digger married to the old man who had to have this apartment in (insert s. american nation''s name) so they could tango: "oh, dis roooom will be gweat to dance de tango" and "i can have rots of tango pahties here." she looked like a massage parlor madame.

  maggot who just gagged

• "This street is SO noisy!"%0D\ %0D\ Couple looking for an apartment in the heart of Manhattan.

• Yes, R136, loved that tango episode in South America!!!%0D\ %0D\ She was looking to do a bit more than just tango with the locals..... :)%0D\ %0D\ of course, tango is the dance of love (wink)

• R135, actually I think that Iowa woman moving to Amsterdam has TWO fucking dogs the size of shetland ponies and only cared where the TWO dogs would shit!%0D\ %0D\ That was a fun episode - got to see lots of Amsterdam street life!

• R134, yes, that Morocco episode was a blast!%0D\ %0D\ He was an architect who wanted a three-month to five-month long project overhauling a historic dwelling in the heart of Morocco.%0D\ %0D\ He and hiw wife and 2 kids were from England.%0D\ His wife wanted a 2nd home in Morocco because it is SUNNY.%0D\ %0D\ The town they chose seemed so archaic and medieval or older and cloistered - very odd.

• I wish they would drop the ultra-annoying term ''master bedroom''.%0D\ %0D\ The ''master bedroom'' concept seem to be an invention of the McMansions where the ''master bedroom'' is gargantuan and ridiculously over-sized.%0D\ %0D\ It is a fabricated concept of recent pathology.%0D\ %0D\ So now the annoying entitled couples say ''Oh, this master bedroom is rather small''.%0D

• These shows are so fake. The "homebuyer" has already purchased. So the chatter about other houses is just that, pretend chatter. Which is why the comments are so stupid. They are talking about houses they don''t own or intend to own.

• "But Honey, I''m afraid this might not be safe for the children."%0D\ %0D\ "Oh, I love the wall-to-wall carpet!"

• Duh, do you think maybe the show is scripted ould that explain why every woman wants granite countertops, an open floor plan, stainless appliances, and hardwood floors? Why every couple jokes about how many clothes she has and how few he has?

• [quote]So the chatter about other houses is just that, pretend chatter. Which is why the comments are so stupid. They are talking about houses they don''t own or intend to own.\ \ It''s fun where you''re in on it, because there have been a couple times where it''s obvious that one of the decoy houses is waaay better than the one they already own and their comments make that clear. Then they shuffle around and spew some really phony bullshit to justify picking the place they''re stuck with.

• when the husband admmires the "backsplash"

• Designed to Sell is sometimes the worst. I hate when that steroid redheaded Roger comes in, paints things beige, only leaves a bed in a bedroom, puts in an uplight and a ficus tree in a corner and says - "Voila! Now they can see what this room is meant for!" \ \ That man keeps the corner uplight industry in business all by himself.

• "The light fixtures look so outdated!"

• That tiny bespectacled gay on "Sarah''s House" has to jump when she snaps her fingers.

• Do you get that bitch Tatiana Londono in the US?

• HOUSEHUNTERS is NOT REAL. It is a FAKE show. They have a SCRIPT. The house was chosen before filming starts and is in escrow.\ \ None of the banter some of you find so adorable or revolting is for real.

• Why don''t you READ the thread before POSTING SOMETHING that''s been said over and OVER again,r151? Do you think we''ll finally GET IT because you SAID so?

• [quote]"This street is SO noisy!"%0D\ %0D\ Stupidest comment made by people looking at places in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Montmartre in Paris or any other busy city with tourists and a night life. Why are they insisting on living there to be close to everything and not looking at some suburban/country house?

• I am so sick of Sarah''s House. I don''t like her style, it''s too traditional/cutesy country for me.

• !52 - you are an IDIOT

• Sarah''s Voice is more like it.\ \ And she made the stairway in that split-level look like a late 80''s shopping mall atrium.

• R156 that show seems very much like a vanity project for her, all about her. She should have just done some mag spread when she was done with it. WTF is she anyway?

• What about the guy with the laptop who shows couples different houses and how he can demolish them or add a third story? I love when the couple looks at a 400K dump and the designer says for an additional 125K he can demolish most of it and rebuild it into a dream home.

• Well, it IS $700,000- $200,00 over our budget. But we chose it anyway because we couldn''t resist the cute doghouse in the back yard!

• r159 needs to make some friends.\ \ Dude you are a fucking nut. \ \ Check out troll dar

• "England is stupid".

  American on House Hunters International

• Oops... I was thinking of a different show. I think it was on "Location, Location, Location" with the hot bald host with a chirpy lady co-host.

• "Oops... I was thinking of a different show. I think it was on "Location, Location, Location" with the hot bald host with a chirpy lady co-host."\ \ Her prettier sister is now hosting a show on HGTV, forgot the name of the show, it''s a bit like "Property Virgins". I think her last name is Alsop?\ \ I used to love "Location, Location, Location"! wish BBCAmerica would bring that back, I''d rather watch repeats rather than all the other crap shows they keep on repeating!

• Sure we know most of the HGTV shows are fake, but I wish they'd give the house hunters more believable dialog. The worst are the annoying entitled young couples walking into a huge 1000 square foot kitchen declaring the room is "too small". "I wanted to add a sofa." Well, there was enough room for three sofas! I guess these entitled idiots really haven't seen how small some actual kitchens in older homes are? They must have grown up in large homes? Another super lame complaint, the kitchen islands aren't large enough! Meanwhile, there's also enough room for a full kitchen table and lots of these houses also have full formal dining rooms, yet they're still complaining! Some of these homes are enormous, even on "Clean House". On one episode, some slobs were standing in their living room, which was so large it was the size of a four room average sized apartment in a NY borough! The room was bursting with junk, yet the entire family and the show's cast were dwarfed by the huge room. I don't know how much furniture was needed to fill that room, but it was enormous. It looked like a loft, but it was a house in California.

• That''s the delicious Sofie Allsopp on "The Unsellables." I could just eat her and her plummy voice up.

  salivating as I type

• r50? You do know not just Americans buy homes in foreign countries right? As a matter of fact, the majority of the foreigners who''ve bought places in some of the areas I''ve looked in (along the Gulf of Guinea)are European and Asian. \ \ --These comments really crack me up! I was actually watching one of these shows while reading and heard some of these comments. lol

• Well, you''ve caught me,r160. See, I''ve been sitting here all damn week with the worst flu I''ve ever had. And yes, I''ve been posting quite a bit. AND I''ve been watching every HGTV show,one right after another. So, yes, you''ve seen my posts, all of them!%0D\ %0D\ The question is, why are you so interested? Do you stalk others,too? %0D\ %0D\ Why don''t YOU find some friends to fill your time, instead of spying on me?%0D\ %0D\ I could have guessed- you don''t have any.

  You creep me out, you know

• The nuttiest fucks on DL are the Trolldar queens. Talk about get a life...

• what is this sarah person''s obsession with butter yellow? her poor little gay-aid tries to suggest lovely ideas, then she nixes them all. i bet she slaps him. often.

  sarah''s brutal backhand house

• Sophie Allsop is the Nigella Lawson of home improvement. \ \ Her voice and mannerisms make even wainscoating sexy when she speaks of it.\ \ Those two could sell anything to the male public - both straight and gay.

• r160 & r168 = sock-puppet

  Gotcha!

• HGTV Canada is full of these interior designers with very questionable credentials. For instance, Sarah''s family is very well connected in Toronto and that catapulted her and her brother into the realm of design celebrity. Also, that Newfie queen Ambrose Something must be giving mean blowjobs since he has no background in interior design and somehow managed to get a show on HGTV Canada. The guy who used to do Restaurant Makeover show is a coke fiend who defrauded my neighbors by taking on a job in their condo, collecting advances, fees, etc, and never did any work. He''d come to meet them and then disappear into their bathroom for half hour or so doing coke there.

• Good one last night. Aussie woman married to an Indian man moves to Mumbai and is disappointed by the apartments available. The bathrooms and kitchens were very primitive and she acted like she was surprised. Duh, bitch, they bathe and cook quite differently than we do.

• The show is a fake, r-173, don''t you get it yet?

• There was an intriguing episode of Changing Rooms (it might have been shown on BBCA) %0D\ %0D\ One set of nice suburban neighbours redecorated the other house in a tasteful but uninspired way...while the other pair redecorated THEIR house in what could only be described as "Late-period Colonial Ethiopian Whorehouse"%0D\ %0D\ All I remember, after the reveal, was the woman in tears, and her husband saying that he had to get the emulsion out...

  Zebra prints? I don''t think so!

• The reaction was not in real time, R174, but that probably was her reaction. Don''t you get that?

• "Late-period Colonial Ethiopian Whorehouse"%0D\ %0D\ Sounds fun.

• It amazes me how stupid the American public is that they refuse to believe House Hunters is staged and a fraud.

• Trading Spaces (the TLC rip off of Changing Rooms) was much more infamous for the reveals going badly.

• Wow--a House Hunters Conspiracy Troll. \ \ Only on the DL.

• Oh it was, r177 - %0D\ %0D\ but not in a suburban semi...%0D\ %0D\ (I think there were tiger skins too)

• I do wonder how many of the homebuyers have buyers'' remorse after seeing some of the other properties.%0D\ %0D\ Do they ever go to the fake house options and say, "shit, this better than the one we bought"?

  Left on the cutting room floor

• We know R178 but we still can''t believe that they say such stupid stuff. The scriptwriters are going overboard.

• I was watching one show last night that was too funny. My First Place, I think it was called. HS teacher was buying his first home and he was petrified of buying a haunted property and would ask the realtor about murders and/or possible ghosts. You could tell the realtor didn''t like him and thought he was total loon. The house he finally settled hads to be cleansed by some new age wiccan type guy by smudging with sage and putting some rock near the door to prevent future spirits from settling there. **whatever**

• [quote]I wish they would drop the ultra-annoying term ''master bedroom''.%0D\ %0D\ Even more annoying is the truncation to "master" --emulating that oh so in-the-know shorthand of the most harried of NYC realtors. %0D\ %0D\ "Oh, so this is the master?" "It''s kind of small. I''m not sure all our bedroom suite will fit in here."%0D\ %0D\ "Now is this the master or was that other one the master?"%0D\ %0D

  http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsM/12003-20780.gif

• [quote]"The kitchen isn''t very big" (for people who you just know don''t cook shit and barely know how to boil water)%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ As uttered by a San Francisco couple buying one of the coveted "painted ladies". You later find out after moving in that they are "learning" to cook. They also had to settle with one smallish bathroom. Oh, dear.

• "Things I don''t like about the second house: Those dated cabinets and light fixtures. Plus, the walls are painted the most horrible colors."

  Head>>Wall

• At the end of the show when they are entertaining their friends, the couple are always cutting up vegetables. They each weight 300lbs. and never saw a vegetable in their life until that moment.

• The comments are not "fake" but they are "forced".\ \ The buyers are instructed to comment on what they do an don''t like in each room of a house.\ \ Suggestions of things to comment on are given to the buyers before shooting.\ \ The stupid comments still belong to the buyers, but most people left alone would barely say anything when touring a house.

• Love seeing the real estate agent get visibly irritated at some of the comments. %0D\ %0D\ I had a minor crush on the cute short guy in Lubbock showing a couple around. That part of Texas was one of those places you can get a five-bedroom four-bath mega-house with two-car garag and pool for $125,000. Hate that. %0D\ %0D

  Sitting in cramped condo

• Yeah, but then you have to live in Lubbock, Texas. I''d rather have a dog fart in my mouth.

• Yeah, Lubbock is pretty bad. Anything west of Austin and the hill country is horrid except Big Bend National Park. It''s beautiful around there.

• The other night I saw "Seana''s" third HouseHunters show.\ \ Any of you know who I am talking about? She has has a husband now.

• Is Seana the realtor or the buyer?

• I watched one once where the wife cringed at "veneer cabinets.. yuck!" in a kitchen. They were the same cabinets (and pantries) I''d just put in my house in the Hamptons. They''re Ikea. %0D\ %0D\ I could see if they went on to buy a million dollar home with a fab kitchen, but the couple wound up buying some dumpy suburban ranch with tiny little brown cabinets from the 1970s, saying, "Well, the layout of the kitchen is good. I like it."%0D\ %0D\ Meanwhile, when people see my kitchen they say, "I love this kitchen! It looks like it''s from a decorating magazine."

  To Each His Own

• A buyer. I think she''s the only one to appear on multiple shows.

• There was a show set in St. Louis this week with a couple moving from Chicago. Don''t know why anyone would do that, but okay. The couple had lost money on the sale of their house in Chicago, so didn''t want to repeat that mistake. (So yes, of course, move to St. Louis!)\ \ They looked at two houses in Webster Groves and one in Kirkwood, both of them being older suburbs with older housing stock. All the houses they looked at had nice newer kitchens of a decent size, but the wife, who oozed entitlement, declared that all of them were unacceptable. Newsflash: if you look for older homes in close-in suburbs in a lower price range, they won''t have the gigantic rooms, multiple baths and fancy amenities that newer houses would.\ \ Well, they finally "picked" one, a house with the tiny bath and powder room they had so lamented over, and two months later, they had a new kitchen that barely different than the one before.

• Any reason why she is always reappearing R196? An addiction to being on tv?

• A home had this laminate flooring throughout, and it was really beautiful, considering it was laminate. It was as close to hardwood- looking as you could get. The couple had it yanked out right away ,(but kept the ugly wallpaper that was absolutely hideous). Even the realator was surprised, since this couple was on the strictist of budgets. The result was mediorcre hardwood with weird stripes.

  I like hardwood myself, but what they picked was awful

• I can take all the inane comments from Realtors and buyers, but I can''t watch that goody-two-shoes, sanctimonious, ass Mike Holmes for more than about 5 seconds without boiling\ \ I realize builders do shoddy work and someone needs to protect them, but that drama queen pitches fits over nothing. He went on and on and on the other day about bathroom mold that was just nothing. He tore out the fucking shower instead of getting some bleach on a paper towel and dealing with it. No house is perfect, and some of his fixes don''t look all the hot themselves.\ \ The fact that he dresses right out of the Winnie the Pooh Collection at Sears doesn''t help either.

• I''d do Mike Holmes. I like manly men.

  Madison

• This horrible woman was on the other night complaining that when they want to go to their boat, they have to take the elevator "all the way downstairs to the marina" and that their lives would be so much better if they had a house with a dock.%0D\ %0D\ When the revolution comes, I hope they kill her first.

• [quote]I realize builders do shoddy work and someone needs to protect them, but that drama queen pitches fits over nothing. He went on and on and on the other day about bathroom mold that was just nothing. He tore out the fucking shower instead of getting some bleach on a paper towel and dealing with it. No house is perfect, and some of his fixes don't look all the hot themselves.%0D %0D [quote]The fact that he dresses right out of the Winnie the Pooh Collection at Sears doesn't help either.%0D %0D HGTV took a wrong turn when they decided to elevate Mike Holmes to sainthood and savior. His show was okay initially, but it's ridiculous and unwatchable now - and it's exhausted its premise. I can't even stomach the previews.%0D %0D At least House Hunters unwavering formula is relieved by different houses, locales, and people, but in Holmes' show it's the same set of horrors beneath the drywall every episode: bad plumbing, bad wiring, bad insulation, water infiltration...%0D %0D Understandably perhaps, the rotten economy didn't do anything for HGTV's programming. They downsized everything for a long while and focused on how-to shows: how-to to slash your asking price, how to market your house in a buyer's market, how to add an income-producing unit in your dank basement... Useful enough, but they went overboard. Then there were the super-low-budget shows like the one patterned after House Hunters where people went hunting for middling rental apartments. Fucking fascinating to compare the relative pros and cons of wall-to-wall carpet and sliding glass doors and assigned parking spaces and Formica countertops. It may be "real world," but who can be bothered to sit through it?%0D %0D I like House Hunters for all its dumb predictability and dumb house hunters, but HGTV (years ago now) used to have some series about houses and places and gardens -- about places and things rather than about the process of tarting them up to shift them for a higher price.

• Seanna was a great story arc told through three house hunters episodes. In the first, she''s an aspiring song writer moving to Los Angeles and buys a quirky retro house. She wants to be a professional singer and it''s obvious she''s got family money (or maybe divorce settlement?) to fund her start.%0D\ %0D\ In the second episode, having failed in L.A., Seanna decides to "go country." Just like Jenna in 30 Rock. So she sells her L.A. house, and buys a comparable house in Nashville, and pockets the $ difference.%0D\ %0D\ In the latest installment, she''s wised up and married a rich guy. He''s obviously loaded, because they are moving from a mansion outside of Nashville. He obviously doesn''t give a shit where he lives, but he knows the new house will keep the new wife busy and out of his hair for a while. (You know how I like my projects, says Jenna to her agreeable husband).%0D\ %0D\ Yes, it''s a tale of a golddigger''s progress. Tear comes to eye, fade to black.

• The other night a Seattle couple was looking at places in Italy. They were very specific about wanting an "old" place close to the town center. Realtor finds fantastic apartment inside the ancient village''s castle walls, very medieval, and couple proceeds to complain about no parking outside. They would have to park nearby and walk to their front door and believe me her fat ass needed exercise. They also wanted room for a hot tub. I was pretty disgusted and the realtor could barely contain his disdain over their ridiculous needs. There was of course the ubiquitous "the kitchen is too small". He gently pointed out that the it was built in the 1400''s.

• I saw that one, too, R205.%0D\ %0D\ Almost inevitably, the House Hunters clients who insist on historic character really want a property stripped of its historic character, a gut reno with the plaster replaced with wallboard, the floorboards replaced with Lumber Liquidators. %0D\ %0D\ They swoon over the crown molding and the $120 light fixture that still smell of Home Depot, and recoil in horror at the lack of an open-plan kitchen, propose the removal of multiple internal walls, hate the original light fixtures and windows and the large 1920s bathroom with its original pristine tile and fixtures, want to rip out the fully fitted butler''s pantry to make a scrap-booking room and "storage" (what is a butler''s pantry but storage?), and want to install sparkly glass backsplashes everywhere -- to show off their originality and "sense of design."

• My fave is Property Virgins. Host Sandra Rimorato''s busty cleavage is mesmerizing.

• The worst has to be when they spend a big part of their $2,000 fix-up budget (not to mention $10,000 worth of free labor) on assemble-it-yourself furniture and cheesy-looking drapes, linens and "wall art" and then "potential" homebuyers come in and ooh and ahh over that shit even though it is not included with the house.\ \ I''ve looked at houses seven different times. Not once have I given a shit about the home owners'' furnishings or thought, "Ooh, I should buy this house because that cheap furniture is arranged so artfully around the fireplace."

• Last night: "I don''t want to spend too much money, but I''m having my decorator come in."%0D\ %0D\ I guess decorators are free now?

• ... Anyone who goes around looking at the belongings in the rooms rather than the "bones" of the room itself.

  Jesse

• The entire bathroom/kitchen, WHATEVER, ''needs to be gutted'' - WHY do I torture myself and watch this show????

  Karen

• [quote] it''s ridiculous and unwatchable now - and it''s exhausted its premise.%0D\ %0D\ Truthfully, how many times can you watch a guy rip out a bathroom and gripe about other builders. You have to have a serious OCD affliction to watch this repetitive garbage.

• When did everything become "outdated"?\ \ People seem to sneer at kitchens and bathrooms as little at 10 years old.

  Alice''s Orange Formica Kitchen

• Speaking of the Brady kitchen, unless it''s avocado green, harvest gold, or Brady orange, I don''t get why they go it an take one look at a kitchen full of nearly brand new appliances (all in white or all in black, when you know what they can''t possibly survive with is anything less than stainless) and the first comment is a dismissive "these will all have to be replaced."

• I''d be thrilled to see a kitchen with avacado green or harvest gold appliances because you know they work! Today''s appliances suck, they are not made to last.

• You know what they say about a man who likes a bit of chrome in his kitchen, likes a bit of cock up his arse!

• R215 is right. I know lots of couples that have brand new stainless appliances and they constantly go out. The new ones have computerized chips in them that, I swear, are designed to fail. I still have my old Kenmore washer/dryer that are 25 years old and never broken yet.

• Please, people, don''t you know House Hunters is staged and a fake? They have already chosen a house and must be in escrow before House Hunters will film them. The hunt is not real, there is a script...

• Computer chips in a stove are as stupid as a toilet you have to plug into the wall.

• You forgot ***BREAKING NEWS***, r218.

• Yes we know, r218, you''ve told us at least a thousand times.\ \ You seem a tad obsessed.

• Does a new husband come with the bathroom?\ \ Why does it smell like old mustard in here?\ \ Do the lawn ornaments come with the house?

• More like hers and hers closets. *guffaw*

• Irritating comments by real estate females ...%0D\ %0D\ "The kitchen area." Hon, just say kitchen.%0D\ %0D\ "We''re leaving out." "Leaving" says it in fewer words. %0D

• Wedding dresses are white because they match appliances the wife will use for decades.

  decades wife

• This kitchen is old school.

• Everyone wants one of those hideous houses u see on the "Real Housewives"\ \ Ugh.

• "We love our new home in quaint Mexico!"

• "There is dust in here?"%0D\ Oh my! It''s a house no one has lived in for a year. What did you expect? Buy the house and dust it if it bothers you that much.

• .

• I saw one where the house had a huge den with goldenrod walls, shag carpeting, and art deco chandelier. I instantly thought "Awesome, a retro den!"%0D\ %0D\ Of course the suburban couple were all making fun of how ''70''s'' it looked, and that it would be the first thing to change.

  miss the 70''s

• I saw a perfect bathroom- 50''s very pale pink tiles, bathtub, sink and commode. Everything was still in pristine condition.%0D\ %0D\ Of course the first thing out of the lady homebuyer''s mouth was "Gotta change THAT!"%0D\ %0D\ Moron.

• R252, this is not related to HGTV, but my brother once bought a house that had been built in the ''50s. It was for sale by the original owner and the place had never been changed except for maintenance reasons. The kitchen and baths had the original pink and/or green tiles and matching fixtures and looked incredible. He lived there for a year by himself, and then a new girlfriend moved in. She insisted that everything be "modernized" and soon, the house was bland and beige. I couldn''t get over it. It was tragic. And shortly after that, the bitch left my brother for the contractor. No lie.

• I fucking LOVE this thread. I watched an episode of House Hunters International this weekend and this couple from Pennsylvania wanted a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Of course, they wanted beachfront property but only on a budget. So when the realtor found a place for them within their budget, the first thing the housewife asked was how far away the beach was. The realtor said it was six minutes away by walking. %0D\ %0D\ THAT was the dealbreaker for her.

  dumb frau

• My favorite was a couple of yutzes looking for a condo in Chicago. The husband ooohed and aaahed over a flat screen television on the wall, apparently oblivious to the fact that it didn''t come with the place.

• The people they get for these shows aren''t very good at being spontaneous or speaking in public. Their dialogue is full of this brand of nationwide verbal tics that just get on my nerves.\ \ As proof, I dare you to create the following drinking game out of "House Hunters." Do a shot whenever anyone says:\ \ 1. Sounds good.\ 2. Check it out.\ 3. Definitely. \ 4. Updates.\ 5. Old school.\ \ You''ll be shit-faced in minutes.

• Don''t think your comments are fair, OP. I hate when they complain about easily changeable things, especially the newbies because you can tell they did ZERO research. Not having an ensuite bathroom is a huge deal, it''s not something you can easily change, so it''s not an irritating comment to me. Complaining about carpets and appliances is SO annoying. How can you be spending 6 figures, in many cases, on something and not price check how much it would cost to change these things???? If you don''t like a certain tub, it doesn''t cost that much to swap it out, whereas switching from a shower to tub set up is doable but a bit more expensive. Some things you can do yourself. Bath with tub in the master suite is a must-have, the countertops aren''t deal breakers, bedrooms being too small/few, however, is.

• Ensuite bathroom is a given, but a tub in the master suite isn''t a "must have." It''s a luxury.

• Latest house hunters featured a young woman who worked hard to get her credit back up..and then decides to buy a home on her own..but her boyfriend is going to live with her??? \ Sorry, can''t get past this fact. She''s an idiot.\ BF, go rent your own fricking apartment. \ Is this a sad commentary on today''s society or what!!

• Yes it is, R239. The Holy Bible is very clear in its condemnation of fornicators.

• "I love that the house is built over an Indian burial ground. That''s a really attractive feature and will add to the property value."

  Carol Anne

• On a recently re-aired House Hunters International, a U.S. couple looking to buy in Cuenca, Ecuador were puzzled and put-off by the fact that bathrooms in a new construction house did not have mirrors above the sinks. The realtor''s explanation that mirrors or medicine cabinets could easily be added seemed not to satisfy them.%0D\ %0D\ (All of which reminded me of the crazy past thread where a DLer went off on a seller who had a colander hung on the kitchen wall. The affrontery!)

• lol those shows are so goofy and the whiney comments go live in the highlands of papua new guinea. see how you like the multy family huts they live in and a nice spacious central campfire in the center. "oh dear we have to have it all by age 23"

• "Oooh, beautiful bathroom with double sink" with cultured marble counter top! ($280 from Home Depot) "Oooh great, it has stainless steel appliances" (Kenmore, $2500 total for the fridge, range and dishwasher - not that there is anything wrong with them) "I love the granite countertops!" ($49 sq ft at Home Depot. And too heavy for the cheap home depot stock cabinets. Or "cabinetry") "The bonus room is fabulous, we can make a kids room or an office!" Except it will be freezing, it's over the garage and poorly insulated.

  New Construction

• Can't believe this thread stalled so long ago..it's great! Sophie Allsop is terrific because she has fairly tasteful, reasonably priced solutions for usually quite untastefully decorated, unkempt homes. Sure it's staged but I like her personality and results. What show I simply won't watch is Love it or List it! Fake isn't the word for that show...there is no word for that couple!

• glad to see some of the homebuyers say they are sick of cockie-cutter homes with granite and stainless steel appliances! So if stainless and granite are the oughts design, what is high demand for the middle market right now?

• Did Mexicans or blacks live here before?

• I have a limited budget but I'm not going to settle. I want to be in a hip,"up & coming" neighborhood close to cool shops,restaurants and bars and mass transit...right in the middle of everything. Open concept of course because I don't want to be cut off from my guests. Espresso hardwood throughout and for the kitchen, dark cabinetry,glass mosaic and gas,professional grade oven as I love to bake and may want to start a boutique cookie business in the future.

• R246. Silestone baby! Durable,flexible,affordable and BEAUTIFUL!

• can we please see an episode where they don't want an open concept plan (cheap build) with Home Depot grade granite countertops and Kenmore stainless front like they are the be all and end all.

• R246, for kitchen countertops, shiny or polished stone is out. Stone in the 2010s should be veined, honed, leathered, patina'ed, or antiqued. There's a wide variety of fashionable looks and stone-like materials to choose from -- silestone, soapstone, paperstone, marble, dark concrete, Absolute Black granite, etc. Also popular are patina stainless steel and dark gray/black concrete.

• As mentioned upthread, House Hunters International oft-made questions/comments: "How far are we from the beach?" "We want someplace centrally located." When shown someplace centrally located: "Oh, I can hear the traffic. I don't know if I can deal with all that noise." "I want a quintessential English/French/Italian/Dutch/Whatever country home." When shown that home: "The kitchen's so small!"; "I was hoping for a larger bathroom." "The bedrooms are a little on the small side." "I don't see a washer and dryer." "There's not enough closet space."

• "There's so much street noise outside. I can't live in a place with that much noise!" ALWAYS said by some idiot who's looking in places like Manhattan, the French Quarter of New Orleans etc. Good luck finding a quiet street, idiot! "The kitchen/appliances are outdated!" I swear, kitchens must get "outdated" after 3 years now because that's all you hear anymore.

• Has anyone ever noticed that no one ever talks about taxes. I guess taxes are like the HVAC system or insulation in so far that the subject makes for boring television. Ditto schools: some time homebuyers are looking to buy in a particularly well regarded school district, but that doesn't happen too often. I love it when the husband can "recognize' -- and gush over -- a tray ceiling,a chair rail, and/or crown molding (extra points for dental crown molding)

• "I want a place right on the beach" Ummm... Hurricanes? Tidal waves? Rising sea levels??? And this is in countries where the government doesn't give a fuck about rebuilding after natural disasters, so SOL.

• ITA, R211, R213, and R214 -- it's as if somehow the house is uninhabitable if everything isn't up-to-date. Such entitlement.

• Ucch. Yesterday I saw one where this bitch in no where New Hampshire wanted a brand new McMansion and went batshit crazy because the agent showed her a house WITHOUT a walkout basement. She just could not believe the agent would do that. And in another house she went insane because of a cheap ceiling fan in the bedroom.

  I%20hope%20the%20agent%20was%20paid%20well

• On International House Hunters, like others have posted, the potential buyers always compare the size of the rooms in Europe to American counterparts. This week there was a couple relocating from Atlanta to Brussels. The wife did not like the fact that the homes were close together. You're moving a small city in a small country, honey! The same home had a back garden that overlooked a large open field, which her two sons could use to play. She still thought the yard was too small. And, of course, most European kitchens do not have a large American-style refrigerator. That was duly noted! Why bother moving from the USA?

  BonniePrinceCharlie

• I miss Sandra Rinomato, but I'm liking Egypt Sherrod of [italic]Property Virgins.[/italic] Tough love!

• I tried watching that Love it or List it show. I want to blow up my TV, I hate the hosts so much. And why did they make the PropBros a full hour. I hate the extra drama.

• House Hunters International: "I want something with character and reflecting the culture of the area..... ....But the rooms are so small!!!"

• r239, I saw that one on a rerun today. They didn't really seem into each other that much, and there were more than a few comments about having their own separate spaces. I also liked the biting comment about how she built up HER credit and paid off HER debts so she could get a house.

• Oh god, all of those American idiots who go to European countries and expect McMansion-sized rooms. Money really can't buy class or smarts, can it? American idiots who actually but property in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America. Like others have said, the gov't can seize your house for no real reason and if there's a disaster or fire, good luck trying to get it rebuilt. Morons just need to rent a house down there if they're only going to use it as a vacation home.

• Women who focus on a chantelier, as if that makes or breaks a house and cannot be taken down or replaced. ridiculous

• I think with HH International people have a vision of what houses look like from movies. In Italy they see Under the Tuscan Sun house or England a house in a Jane Austin movie.

• I also really don't know why people can't just rent a vacation home in another country. These couples seem to make a lot of sacrifices and settle for something they don't really like, when for a fraction of the cost they could rent something that is exactly what they want. If you're only going to be there 3-4 weeks a year, it doesn't make sense to buy.

• i hate House Hunters International with the heat of a thousand suns.

  Bored2

• "Oh dear, our twin boys will have to share a room again". Funny, ever since they turned 16 they sleep in the same twin bed. They have always been so close."

• "This Tuscan villa that was built in the 16th century is ok, I guess, but I was expecting a master bedroom with a walk-in closet, and a garage. I'm really not ok with street parking."

  Entitled American Princess

• I love it when househunters whine and moan that the houses that are shown to them lack significant amounts of closet space. The real estate agents all seem to have the same response: "Back in the (fill in the decade), people didn't as much clothes as they do today." If your house doesn't have enough closet space, get an armoire.

• A lot of the homebuyers on those HGTV shows aren't homebuyers. My sister interned for one when she was in college and the interns and their friends would pose as homebuyers when the show couldn't get enough people to show up for the open house, which happened fairly often. They just made comments that they thought the producers would want to use.

• I like "House Wreckers" with Josh Temple. On DYI not HGTV.

• I want stainless steel appliances and granite, but I really don't cook (giggle, I go out). This space is a little tight (the master bedroom is so large it echoes like the Grand Canyon). I don't want to see the neighbors and be up in their business (you need binoculars to see the nearest house). The island is kinda small (20 couples could do the tango on it). The insanity reigns.

  Jean%20White

• Every suburban frau upon seeing the 1999 kitchen in the $165K asking price tract house," I wanted granite and stainless steel." Followed by hideous pout.

  skyhag

• Elderly mom and dad are buying their little princess her first condominium. She demands all the upgrades: the kitchen must be professional grade, big jetted tub, office space and .... a huge walk-in closet for her 500 shoes, 400 handbag and tons and tons of clothes. When the realtor shows her the condo, the princess acts pretty nonchalant until she is shown the massive walk-in closet. At that point, princess enters closet, thirds around and around and, I swear with everything holy, has an epic sexual experience. The condo is about half a mil. Daddy says no, too much money. Princess gets mommy aside, whisper, whisper, and guess what happens next? She gets the half mil condo.

  what%20happened%20to%20common%20sense%3F

• Should have read "twirls".

  what%20happened%20to%20comlon%20sense%3F

• YES!! ****** RE SELLING NEW YORK which showcases the yenta and her 2 daughters. You know there's a time when you need to tone it down and dress age appropriate. She's trying way too hard with the BIRKIN BAG, tight dresses, high heels and hair parted down the middle. A few bangs would serve her well...I don't need to see that little wrinkled billboard of a forehead. She's a real JAP. You think with her income and access, she could tighten up the skin and resurface her face. She looks like one of those cigarette smoking, tanned leather Miami women. And the daughters, well why work anywhere else?

  laser%20it%20sister

• Wow. It's so edgy to read for the 8th time about how stupid wives are for making a fuss over granite and stainless steel. The first seven times just slipped right past the poster. And it's already been pointed out multiple times that the House.Is. Already. Bought. when the show is filmed. The two other homes were never even looked at by the purchasers. Yeah, it's pretty much scripted, kids. But keep making those scathing, original "granite and stainless steel" comments.

• It seems like all anyone wants in a house is granite countertops and stainless steel appliances! Has anyone noticed that? (that was especially for R278) I would love if they revisited folks in 3-5 years, and they could call it "HouseHunters: Foreclosures". I seriously don't understand how some 20-somethings are buying $500K homes. Whatever happened to "starter" homes?