House Hunters: Buying in the USA

[chessiegal]

Y'all are right -they are repackaging Beachfront Bargain Hunt. Or they are burning off episodes they don't plan to show.

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Y'all are right -they are repackaging Beachfront Bargain Hunt. Or they are burning off episodes they don't plan to show.

When I hear that the house has a name, I know it is repackaged BBH. Don’t have to wait for the agent to stay outside.

[LittleIggy]

Austin: I would like to see that house after they finished remodeling. The backyard was really nice. Get those kids a puppy! ?

[Empress1]

The Austin kids were adorable and so was the husband. I knew they’d go with the fixer. I hope they’re on an update so I can see what they do with it. That lot was big so they could even expand the home over time, if they felt like they needed even more space.

[Phoebe70]

Just saw an older episode that was recently on my DVR.  South Dakota couple with a young daughter named Rozley.  The husband with that weird mustache that curled up at the ends...WTF was up with that?  I kept waiting for the rest of the barbershop quartet to pop in.  The wife was really attractive, I thought.  WTH was she doing with him?  Does he actually go out in public with that monstrosity on his upper lip?  If I was the realtor I'd have a difficult time keeping a straight face.  Snarky, I know, but his mustache was SO distracting!

[Pickles]

The Austin couple last night. Obviously, the wife was white and the husband was black, but their facial features were so similar. Almost identical! They say you marry someone who looks like you and that seemed to be the case here. The kids were adorable. That house needed so much work. Omg. It would be daunting to me. I guess you just hire a good architect and contractor and get on with it.

[Dewey Decimate]

Austin couple was cute - I enjoyed his cheesy "Heeeeere's Johnny!" as they broke through the wall. And the kids were adorable, especially the little girl. Wow, her smile was straight from dad, and gotta say the snuggly hammock scene made even this non-child-bearer go "awwww...".

[LittleIggy]

Memphis: I’ve never seen an episode in which the chosen Home was a fully furnished one with closets full of clothes. I just knew the empty house was the one. It was my fave, BTW. I just wondered why the owners remodeled the carriage house but only put a half-bath in it. ?

[doodlebug]

6 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Memphis: I’ve never seen an episode in which the chosen Home was a fully furnished one with closets full of clothes. I just knew the empty house was the one. It was my fave, BTW. I just wondered why the owners remodeled the carriage house but only put a half-bath in it. ?

I was just thrilled to see the husband tell the wife that, if she insisted on tearing down walls and destroying the character of an older home; he’d rather just buy a new place.  Finally, someone on the show who gets what makes historic homes so special.

[msmarjoribanks]

41 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

I was just thrilled to see the husband tell the wife that, if she insisted on tearing down walls and destroying the character of an older home; he’d rather just buy a new place.  Finally, someone on the show who gets what makes historic homes so special.

Agreed.  (I also preferred the husband's aesthetic, and disagreed with the wife's view of what was necessary for a house to be functional.)

I think an important factor in their choice wasn't stated, and was location.  The third place (which seemed a great compromise) just HAD to be in a cheaper location given the lot size, overall size of the house, so on, but that wasn't discussed except for an off-hand comment from the husband about the pool making up for being all the way out there.

I also wish that they'd be more clear if the budget number is "maybe if everything is absolutely perfect I could stretch to X."  With location and the second house being more than they wanted to spend (although in budget), the first one made sense.

On 7/24/2018 at 7:19 AM, Empress1 said:

The Austin kids were adorable and so was the husband. I knew they’d go with the fixer. I hope they’re on an update so I can see what they do with it. That lot was big so they could even expand the home over time, if they felt like they needed even more space.

Yeah, I suspected that too, although I was surprised they showed only one fixer and not a compromise "some work, not a lot."  I think they made the right choice (assuming locations were not much different in desirability) if willing to do the work for that lot.  I would LOVE an update show.  

[LittleIggy]

Knowing Memphis, I don’t think the third house was in a cheaper location.

[LittleIggy]

New Orleans: Wow, the fiancée really annoyed me. I can’t stand those HH women who walk into a big closet and tell the man that this is perfect for her stuff.

[KLovestoShop]

The NOLA woman was nasty.  I really liked the guy, but she just came off as thinking she's all that and then some. 

[msmarjoribanks]

19 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Knowing Memphis, I don’t think the third house was in a cheaper location.

Any sense where they were? I didn't pay enough attention at the beginning to catch if they mentioned a specific location, but I noted him saying the third was "way out here" and it seemed cheaper than the second by a good amount (100K?) and yet was larger, and had a much larger lot.  But my memory could be off as these shows seem to go out of my head in two seconds after I stop watching -- need to post immediately or else! I don't recall any of the other details about it that gave me that impression (including how much work it still needed, or not), so can't explain more what I was thinking.

[laredhead]

I liked the 3rd house on the New Orleans (Gretna) episode.  The kitchen and range were great, and the house had some nice curb appeal.  If they turn one of the 3 bedrooms of the house they bought into a closet for her costumes, then it might be large enough for them.  I didn't particularly care for it, but I'm not buying it.

Gretna is across the river from New Orleans, but still close enough for a short commute, depending on traffic.  The guy was nice and seemed to be pretty easy going, but the woman's blatant tourism promotion of New Orleans got very old.  She stated that she works for New Orleans magazine, and yes, New Orleans, does have a lot of festivals and events, but people don't dress in costume for all of them.  She said they had been together 6 years, so he must not mind her play acting. 

[magemaud]

11 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

New Orleans: Wow, the fiancée really annoyed me. I can’t stand those HH women who walk into a big closet and tell the man that this is perfect for her stuff.

I thought that line was required and it was scripted just like when the man has to climb into the shower or tub. 

[LittleIggy]

4 hours ago, msmarjoribanks said:

Any sense where they were? I didn't pay enough attention at the beginning to catch if they mentioned a specific location, but I noted him saying the third was "way out here" and it seemed cheaper than the second by a good amount (100K?) and yet was larger, and had a much larger lot.  But my memory could be off as these shows seem to go out of my head in two seconds after I stop watching -- need to post immediately or else! I don't recall any of the other details about it that gave me that impression (including how much work it still needed, or not), so can't explain more what I was thinking.

I couldn’t say exactly where, but I would think East Memphis which covers a range of housing pricewise. I didn’t hear “way out there.” I thought he said the pool making up some for the house not being his style. I could be wrong.

[topanga]

On 7/25/2018 at 12:52 AM, LittleIggy said:

Memphis: I’ve never seen an episode in which the chosen Home was a fully furnished one with closets full of clothes. I just knew the empty house was the one. It was my fave, BTW. I just wondered why the owners remodeled the carriage house but only put a half-bath in it. ?

The Memphis and New Orleans couples: Maybe I missed something, but both couples were looking for homes with 3-4 bedrooms, and both were childless. The number of bedrooms is their choice of course, but I’m wondering if I missed them talk about adult children or kids from previous relationships. 

I binged on this week’s episodes in one sitting, so I’m confusing the couples. Which ones had the two dogs and a cat? I laughed hysterically when the wife was pushing the cat down the street in a covered stroller. I supposed that might be fun for the cat so she can go on family outings, but I have never seen that before.

 

And I liked the Austin family. They seemed so normal—like people I’d want to be friends with. And I agree that the kids were adorable.  

[Empress1]

23 minutes ago, topanga said:

The Memphis and New Orleans couples: Maybe I missed something, but both couples were looking for homes with 3-4 bedrooms, and both were childless. The number of bedrooms is their choice of course, but I’m wondering if I missed them talk about adult children or kids from previous relationships. 

I binged on this week’s episodes in one sitting, so I’m confusing the couples. Which ones had the two dogs and a cat? I laughed hysterically when the wife was pushing the cat down the street in a covered stroller. I supposed that might be fun for the cat so she can go on family outings, but I have never seen that before.

 

And I liked the Austin family. They seemed so normal—like people I’d want to be friends with. And I agree that the kids were adorable.  

No kids mentioned in the Memphis or New Orleans families that I recall, although the engaged couple could have been planning to have them.

[jcbrown]

51 minutes ago, topanga said:

The Memphis and New Orleans couples: Maybe I missed something, but both couples were looking for homes with 3-4 bedrooms, and both were childless. The number of bedrooms is their choice of course, but I’m wondering if I missed them talk about adult children or kids from previous relationships. 

I binged on this week’s episodes in one sitting, so I’m confusing the couples. Which ones had the two dogs and a cat? I laughed hysterically when the wife was pushing the cat down the street in a covered stroller. I supposed that might be fun for the cat so she can go on family outings, but I have never seen that before.

 

And I liked the Austin family. They seemed so normal—like people I’d want to be friends with. And I agree that the kids were adorable.  

It was the Memphis couple with the two dogs and a cat. I actually bought my sister a stroller for her cats and she takes them out into her neighborhood for walks like that.

At first, I did not like the NOLA wife but she kind of grew on me. She seemed a bit goofy. They did come off as having a good relationship so there was that at least.

[msmarjoribanks]

9 hours ago, topanga said:

The Memphis and New Orleans couples: Maybe I missed something, but both couples were looking for homes with 3-4 bedrooms, and both were childless. The number of bedrooms is their choice of course, but I’m wondering if I missed them talk about adult children or kids from previous relationships. 

I noticed that with the Memphis couple.  With the second house they were complaining that they'd have to go through the downstairs bedroom (a beautiful room with nice windows) to get to the backyard for the dogs, and what if they had guests.  Given that in that house they had 2 more extra bedrooms upstairs, why waste that room as another bedroom for occasional guests?  Also, I'm sure they could go around the front during those times they happened to have guests -- they didn't mention any reason this would be all the time.  It seemed like an excuse for why they wouldn't pick that house, since of course it was a decoy.

 

9 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I couldn’t say exactly where, but I would think East Memphis which covers a range of housing pricewise. I didn’t hear “way out there.” I thought he said the pool making up some for the house not being his style. I could be wrong.

He did say that.  I thought he said something about way out there too, but then I tried to find it and couldn't, so dunno. I probably misheard.

I remembered the first house being not as nice as it was, so my perception when comparing the three was also likely off.  (I also feel like it wasn't clear how many bedrooms were in the first one, which is annoying except for the fact it's very likely to be my poor attention, heh. Given how much they went on about the closets -- I'm wondering if their own clothes were in them -- you'd think they'd talk about the possibility of using closets in another room.) I also thought the lot was a lot bigger in the third and the first two seemed more city lots, the last more suburban, but that didn't seem as clear either, so I probably just imagined it. The overall size of the third house did seem a lot bigger, they claimed 3400, which I take with a huge grain of salt, but it did strike me as relatively bigger.

I managed to find the place they bought -- it's in a neighborhood called Central Gardens.  Thought it would be easy to find the third one with the pool, but no luck.

[LittleIggy]

Central Gardens and Midtown are where you would find the older, historic homes in Memphis. There are some really gorgeous ones.

[Empress1]

Bristol, CT couple were one of the flatter couples the show has had.

[topanga]

3 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Bristol, CT couple were one of the flatter couples the show has had.

I thought they were pretty nice, but...I can’t remember a thing about them. So, yeah. Maybe they were a little flat. 

[doodlebug]

3 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Bristol, CT couple were one of the flatter couples the show has had.

They were dull, dull, dull.  The wife wanted hardwood floors, open concept and a white kitchen.  Shocking!  Neither one of them was able to muster much emotion about the search.  They were as exciting as watching paint dry.

[ForReal]

5 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Bristol, CT couple were one of the flatter couples the show has had.

They seemed young, not that that's a crime. I get annoyed when the husband wants a house where you can't see the neighbors and the wife wants to be in a neighborhood and a cup-de-sac, at that. If you are the parent staying home raising little kids, living in a neighborhood is great so your kids can play with friends and you can (hopefully) make friends with the other parents. As nice as it sounds to raise kids in the country, I think it could be lonely, and I don't think the husbands ever think about that.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, ForReal said:

They seemed young, not that that's a crime. I get annoyed when the husband wants a house where you can't see the neighbors and the wife wants to be in a neighborhood and a cup-de-sac, at that. If you are the parent staying home raising little kids, living in a neighborhood is great so your kids can play with friends and you can (hopefully) make friends with the other parents. As nice as it sounds to raise kids in the country, I think it could be lonely, and I don't think the husbands ever think about that.

I think the wife said at the end that they wanted at least an acre and they got two, so maybe the cul de sac thing was fake. I definitely would want neighbors around, particularly if I had kids. I loved my neighborhood as a kid because there were lots of other kids to play with. We were always in and out of each other’s houses.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Empress1

[msmarjoribanks]

The Bristol couple seemed less comfortable in front of the camera than some, which is why they seemed flat, I think.  Anyway, neither their desires nor the houses were very interesting.

I do think that WHERE you want to live, which includes how close to the neighbors you are, ought to be decided in advance, so I also kinds of suspect the neighbor thing might have been fake.  I would not want to be that isolated, especially with kids, as I like being in a neighborhood, when I was a kid it was nice to be able to go out and find friends without being driven somewhere, so on.  Sounds like the husband plans to work out of the home somewhat, though.

The "this isn't my colonial, this isn't my ranch" thing really needs to go, especially if what they really just meant was 2 floors vs. 1.

The house they got had 2 bedrooms on the top floor, 3 on the bottom, which the wife didn't like, but that seemed potentially ideal to me.  If you have young kids they can be upstairs, as they get older they sleep downstairs and you get upstairs. The husband wanted one of the bedrooms as an office, and having the guest room downstairs is quite reasonable.  Lots of options.

[ehall1052]

Re: the Bristol couple.  All 3 houses looked exactly the same to me and during the recap at the end, I couldn’t remember the inside of any of them.

[jcbrown]

I wish they would stop airing these tiny house episodes pretending to be HH. Last night I kept yelling at the TV when the couple was complaining about not having enough space for their "gear." You are purposely shopping for a ~300 square foot house. By definition, it will not have space!

[topanga]

1 minute ago, jcbrown said:

I wish they would stop airing these tiny house episodes pretending to be HH. Last night I kept yelling at the TV when the couple was complaining about not having enough space for their "gear." You are purposely shopping for a ~300 square foot house. By definition, it will not have space!

I refuse to watch those. I automatically delete any episode that has “tiny” or “small” in the title

[jcbrown]

5 minutes ago, topanga said:

I refuse to watch those. I automatically delete any episode that has “tiny” or “small” in the title

That's the thing--it's not in the title. My TiVo records it like a normal HH episode and it is only when you read the description or start to watch that you realize it is people who want to live in something the size of a large storage shed.

[Ohwell]

Don't they already have a tiny house show, or did they cancel it?  Because if they still have the shows then I don't understand why they're slipping it into HH. 

[doodlebug]

33 minutes ago, jcbrown said:

I wish they would stop airing these tiny house episodes pretending to be HH. Last night I kept yelling at the TV when the couple was complaining about not having enough space for their "gear." You are purposely shopping for a ~300 square foot house. By definition, it will not have space!

The buyers also inevitably want full sized kitchen appliances, a regular bathtub and a full staircase to the loft rather than a ladder.  Then they complain about the lack of space for furniture.  Not to mention, they all claim that they want the house to haul around on wheels while they see the country as if it was the same as any other RV.

The tiny houses are just not that interesting, there are not enough variations to make watching someone shop for one interesting, IMO.

[Kohola3]

31 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Because if they still have the shows then I don't understand why they're slipping it into HH

For the same reason that they are slipping those Beachfront and Island episodes into HH. I wonder if they are running out of material.

[doodlebug]

44 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Don't they already have a tiny house show, or did they cancel it?  Because if they still have the shows then I don't understand why they're slipping it into HH. 

I suspect that the House Hunters franchise gets better ratings than the tiny house or beach/island verions; so TPTB want to air as many episodes as possible under the HH banner.  They pull the old bait and switch and re-label episodes from the tiny house and beach franchises under the more popular HH brand to try to get better ratings for them.

Edited July 29, 2018 by doodlebug

[suebee12]

21 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

They pull the old bait and switch and re-label episodes from the tiny house and beach franchises under the more popular HH brand to try to get better ratings for them.

They still cannot make me watch them!

[Ohwell]

45 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

For the same reason that they are slipping those Beachfront and Island episodes into HH. I wonder if they are running out of material.

Yeah, I forgot about those shows, they're doing the same thing with them, too.  I don't watch them either.

[MsTree]

Also disappointed that they slipped a tiny house show into HH. The tiny house is so boring. IOW how many ways can you configure a loft bed, an airline bathroom and a sink with 1 cabinet?

[msmarjoribanks]

13 hours ago, doodlebug said:

The buyers also inevitably want full sized kitchen appliances, a regular bathtub and a full staircase to the loft rather than a ladder.  Then they complain about the lack of space for furniture.  Not to mention, they all claim that they want the house to haul around on wheels while they see the country as if it was the same as any other RV.

The tiny houses are just not that interesting, there are not enough variations to make watching someone shop for one interesting, IMO.

Totally agree.  I watched the first few that I saw show up on HHer (I'd always meant to try the Tiny Hunters show) and realized that right away.  They all seemed about the same.  I'm not interested in Awkward-and-Less-Functional RV Hunters.  ;-)

[Kemper]

Instead of "Tiny House" ... which usually means camper/trailer on wheels...why can't they have a show that features houses under 2,000 sf?  Or maybe under 1700 sf?  I would watch a show like this.  Usual size appliances, functional bathrooms; you know, the kind most buyers actually buy.  No McMansions, no huge master bathrooms and bedrooms.  

I hate the tiny houses, am tired of perfectly staged houses by the trio...Property Brothers, Chip and Joanna and almost all of the flippers.  I think in a lot of cases the furniture and accessories do not stay.  Take the homeowners to consignment shops, antique malls, etc.  Have it be part of the show.  The tv personalities show up at the beginning, then they show them "working" on the house.  Then, magic, we see the final result...furniture already bought and placed.  Let's mix things up a little, shall we?

[Kohola3]

52 minutes ago, Kemper said:

Instead of "Tiny House" ... which usually means camper/trailer on wheels...why can't they have a show that features houses under 2,000 sf?  Or maybe under 1700 sf?  I would watch a show like this. 

Gosh, yes.  How often did I sit in my 900 square foot house and wound what a flipper would do to change it.   I'd love to see homes that everyone in my acquaintance inhabited to see what "magic" could come of them.  Or new homes with limited square footage to see how cleverly it could be used without making people sleep on a shelf in the attic.

[Ohwell]

While we're at it, I don't need to see any more homes from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and probably some other cities I'm forgetting.  Those cities have been done to death.

[LittleIggy]

Bristol:  That guy had the dorkiest haircut.

[CruiseDiva]

On 7/28/2018 at 8:42 PM, doodlebug said:

The buyers also inevitably want full sized kitchen appliances, a regular bathtub and a full staircase to the loft rather than a ladder.  Then they complain about the lack of space for furniture.  Not to mention, they all claim that they want the house to haul around on wheels while they see the country as if it was the same as any other RV.

The tiny houses are just not that interesting, there are not enough variations to make watching someone shop for one interesting, IMO.

Has anyone actually seen a tiny house rolling down the Interstate? I seriously doubt that buyers of those tiny houses haul them all over the country. Heck, they'd need a big ass truck to move them. If they really want to tour the country they should buy an RV.

[Kohola3]

5 hours ago, CruiseDiva said:

Has anyone actually seen a tiny house rolling down the Interstate?

I really did, once.  But I think it was more a case of it being moved from the builder rather than an owner towing it around.  An RV is much better suited to that kind of thing, they are built to withstand the rigors of the road.

The biggest hint to me that they are not going to be moving around much is ones that sport open shelving.  They would have to pack and store all of their stuff every time they decide to get on the road.  Dinnerware, appliances, and gee-gaws don't magically stay in place when you are traveling.

[aliya]

On 7/29/2018 at 12:38 PM, Kemper said:

Instead of "Tiny House" ... which usually means camper/trailer on wheels...why can't they have a show that features houses under 2,000 sf?  Or maybe under 1700 sf?  I would watch a show like this.  Usual size appliances, functional bathrooms; you know, the kind most buyers actually buy.  No McMansions, no huge master bathrooms and bedrooms.  

Same here. I have a 3 bed townhouse with a finished basement, I think close to 2000 sq ft. As I head into retirement, I'm thinking I don't really need a full basement (aliya jr still lived w/me when I bought it and we needed space away from each other) and could do w/o one of the bedrooms. I'd like to see what that looks like w/furniture, tho, and would watch smaller, but not tiny, houses. I'd also like to see more single retirees. Not everyone is moving w/hubby to Scottsdale.

[irisheyes]

As if HH aren’t annoying enough, tonight they had HH Family, so we got to listen to annoying children’s opinions of houses. And, of course, I’m trying to figure out why a family of four can’t live in a 4 bedroom, 3100 sf house. Why did they have the kids sharing a room?

[FawnLeibowitz]

OMG that was really awful. I can't watch this if the kids have to do the talking too. And yeah! You have a 4 Bed house but make your 2 sons share a room?? Not cool.

[msmarjoribanks]

4 hours ago, aliya said:

Same here. I have a 3 bed townhouse with a finished basement, I think close to 2000 sq ft. As I head into retirement, I'm thinking I don't really need a full basement (aliya jr still lived w/me when I bought it and we needed space away from each other) and could do w/o one of the bedrooms. I'd like to see what that looks like w/furniture, tho, and would watch smaller, but not tiny, houses. I'd also like to see more single retirees. Not everyone is moving w/hubby to Scottsdale.

I'll second all this.  One reason I loved Restored is he often worked with 1200-1500 sq ft houses.  I like seeing smaller and medium-sized places.