Jess14

Yeah, that’s why I think unless the chocolate team had just been completely awful, they were coming away with the win. Val and Duff seemed (rightfully) ready for Ben to go.

I was concerned for a second, but I think Val and Duff were over him, and there was no way they were going to let the other kids on his team save him.

Count me in as also thinking something was off with the Debt free Atlanta couple. Given that the husband wasn’t working and none of the kids were babies, I didn’t necessarily get the sense that finances were a huge issue. I also found it very believable that they could sell their house for a big profit given how hot the market has been everywhere, including Atlanta. However, they lost me after that. It didn’t seem like they were actually downsizing. They seemed to want an extra bedroom than what they currently had. It just seemed like they were moving into a cheaper, nowhere-near-as-nice home and then planning for the husband to renovate, which I imagine would be shoddy if his only experience is internet videos. Very odd. And they had bought the new house to renovate before they sold their other one, so did they already have $120k and then another $40k in cash (renovation) laying around even without the sell of their home? Something was just missing. Real estate investment is something that so many people want to get into, so I thought maybe he was looking to start flipping a bunch of homes, and wanted to get rid of the family mortgage for more room to finance some of the flips that he wants, but that kind of goes against the “debt-free” thing.

My main takeaways: If I were a developer or wealthy person in Tampa looking to sell properties, I would not call Allure Realty. I hate to say that because I imagine that they’re much more professional in regular life, but based on the show, only Rena seemed like she was truly interested in real estate vs drama. I laughed when Sharelle chose Juwanna over Colony after Colony had thrown her friend under the bus to curry favor with her. Colony going on and on about loyalty to Sharelle was ridiculous, especially when Sharelle talked repeatedly about being about the business. Colony also seemed messy telling Sharelle that Alexis feels like she was abandoned. Terminated employee is unhappy…..shocker! Why did that need to be relayed to Sharelle (beyond the fact that it’s a tv show and they needed a story lol). The commission structure that Sharelle changed to seemed reasonable. The original 95-5 one seemed overly generous. Still though, the agents’ pay shouldn’t continue to be repeatedly changed without notice and without explanation. Rena was absolutely right about that. Did they actually sell any homes on the show? I will say that the show made Tampa look very pretty.

We can agree to disagree on the swimsuit shows. I would’ve been embarrassed to do them, but each to her own. However, on the choreo, I remember that scene with Jennifer and Melissa talking about that particular move, but Im not sure how that relates to Judy’s comment about Vivian. I don’t remember Judy even saying that Vivian was doing the move wrong or placing the wrong emphasis on a certain part of her body - that would’ve been a 100% valid comment and correction. Instead, I think she just said that there’s something raunchy about her or the moves that she was doing. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that episode, so I don’t remember the exact wording.

There was also Judy comment about something being raunchy about Vivian’s dance. That was odd to me. She was just doing the choreo. Those bikini “fashion shows” that the DCCs do on their swimsuit trips are what I would call raunchy… Agreed 100% that Vivian needs to move on if she hasn’t. I get that it’s easier to move on when some of your worst moments aren’t being played on a continuous loop on Pluto, but still…that was so long ago at this point!

Exactly. He explicitly ignored instructions to put his cookie back in the oven and then served an underbaked cookie (with an attitude). I don’t care how bad Finley’s cookie turned out, he should’ve went home, and that should’ve served as a lesson to him and the other kids. And that isn’t even going into how awful his popcorn had to be. As soon as he started dumping all of that paprika and nothing else on it, I knew it would be terrible. I find it very hard to believe that Finley’s popcorn was worse.

It’s clear that they’re keeping Ben around for the drama, but it’s not cute or funny. He just comes off as immature and bratty. He should’ve been eliminated in both of the 2 eliminations.

I have! Most people think I’m crazy though when I say that something is too chocolatey. In fairness, I didn’t even like chocolate until I was a teenager, and I’m actually not a huge fan of icing at all unless it’s light. It’s not at all unusual for me to eat the cake and leave most of the icing on the plate. So, I don’t think my food preferences are the norm lol.

I agree that Adam’s cake looked the best, but I don’t really agree on Sabrina other than the color of the middle tier. If she had been able to figure out the black fondant, I could absolutely see that cake at black tie NYE party.

I was rooting for Sabrina or Jody. I liked Adam the least. He rubs me the wrong way, but I don’t think his win was undeserved. He was the most consistent baker throughout. His cake was beautiful and the most put together minus the finger smudges. However, I also thought it was boring - 2 square gift boxes and a round gift box is not creative to me. I thought Jody’s cake was pretty awful. I wouldn’t pay $10 to take it, with that leaning tree. out of the bakery, and certainly not whatever a cake that size would cost. I liked Sabrina’s cake and thought she met the theme the best, but the middle layer needed to be black.

Yeah, I read an article earlier this year that was ranking the net worth of the MDL brokers. Not sure how accurate it was, but James and David were listed as being worth significantly less than Flagg, Fredrik, Altman, and Tracey (and Ryan Serhant). They were only above Tyler and Kristen from the NY show. Now, like you said, compared to me, they’re RICH lol, but probably not compared to other really rich people in NY and LA.

Oh, interesting. This explains the move more than the show did. If she loves outdoor stuff as much as she indicated, maybe she is a part of some mountain biking groups, etc and will meet people that way. I’m moderately social, but I think I would struggle in a new city where there wasn’t a natural avenue to meet people (work, school, family, etc). I admire those who can just go to a bar and leave with multiple friends, but that’s never been me lol. Perhaps she is that type though.

Yeah. Everyone has their own wants and needs, but nothing about her situation seemed particularly appealing. I’m not familiar with the area, but it seems like it would be difficult to meet people in her age range since she is working remotely and bought a house that seemed isolated. Also, that yard that she got does not seem like it would be fun to maintain at all. I could better understand wanting a roommate if she was living in a high cost area (like LA - how mushy times did she mention LA ?), but she wasn’t in one. Also, with the house she bought, it seemed like the space was more amenable to a family renting out the upstairs section, not necessarily another single person in their 30s that she could hang out with. Just very strange, but hey, to each his own.

I can kind of see why taxes and insurance rates wouldn’t come up on the show, since it focuses primarily on the people actually viewing the 3 potential homes. They’re likely not going to get those exact numbers regarding insurance and taxes until they get with the banker (or whoever they’re working with) and they run the potential monthly payment numbers for that particular house. I can see why that gets wrapped up in “budget,” although they are extremely important for anyone buying a home. On the topic of utilities, insurance, and taxes though, I often wonder how many of these people who go way over budget end up in over their heads. It’s only one thing for the purchase price to be higher, but as noted by others, you have utilities and an escrow payment, all of which are usually higher in bigger and more expensive homes.

I thought the bungalow that the Charleston couple bought was nice, but I definitely think they will outgrow it. I can see both sides though. As someone who has moved homes multiple times in 7 years, I can say that moving isn’t end of the world. If anything, I wish that my husband and I would’ve bought a smaller home for our first purchase. We bought a big house that we could “grow into” and then ended up moving out of state for work before we had any kids. With that said, nothing is wrong with that strategy. We really liked that house, but waiting to buy a bigger house until you actually need it is perfectly reasonable as well. I’m always surprised by how high the homes in Charleston are. Usually, the more expensive homes seem to at least track somewhat with areas with higher salaries, but (I could be wrong), but I don’t think that’s the case with Charleston.

I prefer to do makeup in the bathroom, as the lighting is usually better, but you’re absolutely right that nothing else has to be done at the sink, other than washing your face and brushing your teeth. With that said, I would never buy a home that only had one full bathroom or buy a house with a primary bathroom that didn’t have double sinks, but that’s just a convenience and preference thing. I also prefer newer homes anyway, so both of those things are usually a given. For people who have limited budgets and/or are looking in areas with older homes, it never makes sense to me that they expect to get homes with features that were not common when older homes were built. I did think that the sisters chose the right house. The second home was the nicest, but the location seemed to be ideal in the one that they chose, and it still seemed fairly updated. I caught up on the Texas and Rhode Island episodes. I seriously, seriously hope that the RI buyer had a structural engineer look at the house during the due diligence period and did not take the realtor’s word that the changes would be about $10k. The issues with that home seemed quite serious to me. As for the Texas couple, I thought the second home was by far the nicest. The one that they bought, while also very nice, seemed a bit dated in the style and all of those Texas stars were tacky to me. However, it was obvious that they would pick that one. No way was the husband settling for anything that didn’t meet his ideal Texas, 4000t sq ft, childhood-like home.

Yeah, doing a jump split in those shoes seems kind of dangerous. Speaking of jump splits, I’m always surprised by the number of TCCs who say that they’ve never done them. I can believe that they’ve never done them as part of a kick line or performance, but not even playing around? I remember when I was a kid, we used to play around and do jump splits all of the time in cheerleading.

Yeah, Lacey has had way too much work done, as have many DCCs. However, I find that she looks far more natural in that picture than she has in others.

I watched the first half, and kind of skimmed the rest of the episode, so I hopefully, I didn't miss anything important. However, I also wasn't a huge fan of the proposal on the field either. Kleine seemed to be touched though, so fine, whatever. I wish them happiness. I like this rookie class. There are a few that I think are prime candidates to be cut next year, but they are a strong group overall. Ava handled her cut well, but it's hard to believe that she wouldn't have posted something that got her into trouble during the year. I just don't think she "gets" it. Marissa really stood out to me during the Meet the Team event. I know opinions are mixed on her, but I think she's a really strong performer. I was also surprised by the big house that the girls were living in. It's certainly possible that their parents are helping them with rent, but I would guess that's the case with many of the cheerleaders, and that home was still very different than the typical apartments that we usually see the cheerleaders living in.

I understood the LA attorney picking the one that she did for space. The second condo, while nice, was very small and the lack of parking for the single family home would be an absolute dealbreaker for me. However, I agree with everyone - her expectation of the cost of the remodel was completely unrealistic. Upgrading the floors, kitchen, and bathrooms will easily, easily exceed $25k. That’s not even getting into dealing with the ceilings or painting.

Agreed. I don’t know anything about Dover, Delaware, so perhaps the rental market is bad, but no matter the market, it’s likely going to be difficult to find a place that will allow 3 big dogs. The parents really didn’t bother me at all. The mom was absolutely correct that painting the white kitchen brown would make the kitchen feel smaller and be unhelpful for resale value. White kitchens aren’t for everyone, but this wasn’t the daughter’s long term home to be making changes like that. I also didn’t really understand the situation with the boyfriend’s truck. Was the problem that it’s too big to sit in the driveway bc then, the girlfriend wouldn’t have room to back out of the driveway? Just seemed a bit odd that he needed additional space when all of the driveways seemed to be a decent size.

I initially responded because you said that my comment about Alora Rose fulfilling her rookie year contract meant that I was claiming that she had no obligation to the DCCs her second year - something I did not say. If we’re now talking about Alora Rose’s second training camp, I haven’t even said that Alora Rose was right to do what she did. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong choice here, actually. I simply said I don’t blame her for it. I don’t know when she decided to try out for the Rockettes (could’ve been after training camp had started). Also, the DCCs take varying numbers of girls into training camp, so I don’t think there’s anything to suggest that they really wanted to take another girl but were constrained by an arbitrary cap. However, even if Alora Rose did know that she would try out for the Rockettes before training camp and even if there was a set amount of girls allowed into training camp, I still would not blame Alora Rose for what she did. That doesn’t mean Kelli and Judy don’t also have a right to be upset, and I don’t blame them for confronting her and cutting her when they found out. Kelli and Judy’s #1 priority is the DCCs. I think it’s fine for Alora Rose’s #1 priority to be Alora Rose and her career. We’ve seen the DCCs string girls along for several weeks and then cut them on the last night of training camp. I bet some of those girls missed out on other opportunities and probably wish that they would’ve auditioned somewhere else during the process. I think it’s just a complicated situation. If you disagree, that’s fine. We don’t have to come to any sort of consensus.

Huh? Those are your words, not mine. In that exact same post, I said that I don’t blame Alora Rose for looking for trying to secure another job before quitting this one, but that I under Kelli’s and Judy’s frustration (and reiterated in another post that I wouldn’t expect them, or any boss, to act any differently than they did). That seems to the same that you’re saying in your second paragraph, so I’m not sure where there’s a disconnect. In terms of why I talked about one-year contracts, it’s because there was a discussion about last year’s tryouts. She fulfilled the terms of her contract for last year, so I don’t think she took anyone spot last year, any more than Brennan would have if she had made it, danced, and then retired after last season. Certainly had she made the Rockettes and then DCC after training camp had ended, then yes, she would’ve taken someone’s spot this year. That still has nothing to do with the previous year’s contract that was over and done with. K&J can cut girls right up until the last hour of training camp for any reason that they want. Alora Rose was not actually on the team yet. So, while I don’t think that a girl should go into training camp if she’s not 100% committed, it doesn’t really bother me if these girls are keeping their options open during that same period when they can be cut. I feel differently when a girl leaves one the final team has been announced. Even then though, life happens. DCCs could easily take an alternate or 2, so that they have replacements available.

I’m guessing she did not, although I have no idea what the terms or actual effective dates of their contracts are in training camp. However, my comment was specifically in reference to the posts about last year’s tryouts and the decision to cut vets for rookies. Last year’s tryouts were for the 2020-2021 year. She and Sydney fulfilled their contracts for that year.