House Hunters International - General Discussion

[DownTheShore]

Remember when Roatan was the go-to place for HHI?

 

Things have changed in Honduras....http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/alertswarnings/honduras-travel-warning.html

 

I always wonder what happened to that family that moved to Cairo Egypt because the father wanted his son to attend the same soccer school that he did.  IIRC, they went there shortly before the Arab Spring turmoil hit the Middle East.

[scrb]

Yeah I'm wary of the HHIs in Nicaragua and Costa Rica and many parts of South America.

 

In the episodes, they sometimes mention the barred windows and the full time security or how certain properties are within gated communities with guards.

[DownTheShore]

Any place where every household has a machete is pretty much a no-go for me - lol.

 

I wonder sometimes about those barred windows.  I mean, I know that some places have had a lot of civil unrest in the past so I wonder if the bars are just leftovers from those periods, or if they are precautionary for the present.  Or maybe it's just because some of the homes are vacation homes and it's the easiest method of security.  There's also the fact that a lot of those countries seem to have monkeys in the neighborhood, so maybe those bars keep them out of the houses.

[Taylorh2]

I was watching last night and I don't know if it was a repeat or not: Couple moving to Mexico, and the thing that made my eyes roll so far into the back of my head, that I thought my eyes would be stuck there, was that the Realtor was white.

 

Why are 90% of the realtors on this show (no matter what country they're filming in) are White ?

I know that this show is staged because the houses are already bought by the HH by the time filming starts but DAMN!!!! at lease try and make it look like they really are going out with a Realtor to look at houses.

 

 

[Quof]

Because the realtors are actors and/or friends of the HHs.   Except for the awesome Adrian Leeds of Paris.

[BearCat49]

Yes, the (faux) realtors have sometimes been friends of the househunters, although it seems that isn't happening as often these days.  Most of the time, I believe they're assigned by the show.  For the European episodes, it's my understanding that the HH crew is British.  Seems like besides being white, the "realtors" are usually British.  So ...

 

Adrian must have a contract.  She scores terrific exposure for her vacation properties.  Check out her website and you'll probably recognize a few decoy properties.

 

Yes, last night's Mexico episode was a repeat.

Edited August 18, 2014 by BearCat49

[cassaundroll]

Chiropractor in Ireland: insufferable!  First recorded case of male voice fry?

[cassaundroll]

"Retirement" home in Mexico: show of hands -- viewers who believe this Las Vegas cub will be enjoying being "unfortunately downsized" at his surfside condo while the cougar works to pay off the mortgage?

Edited August 18, 2014 by cassaundroll

[DownTheShore]

I think I caught the tail end of that one so I didn't know their backstory.  We were commenting on how much older she looked than him; we thought that she had just aged less gracefully.

[cassaundroll]

They met on a plane (!) out of Las Vegas (!!) and he was "unfortunately downsized" soon after marrying her (!!!)...  Now he realizes what's important in life and wants to buy a retirement home so he can surf in Mexico; she doesn't.  Naturally, he got the home HE wanted?  I look to see the rest of this story on "20/20: Real Life Mysteries"...

[BearCat49]

Hand up:  Mexico cub and TX cougar ...

 

Glad the Thai house hunter didn't fall out of the flimsy dress she wore for 3 days.  And they implied/admitted she was sneaking animals into their rental?  That always endears you to the other tenants and landlord, not!

Edited August 19, 2014 by BearCat49

[BearCat49]

...

 I wonder sometimes about those barred windows.

...

There's also the fact that a lot of those countries seem to have monkeys in the neighborhood, so maybe those bars keep them out of the houses.

I always notice how often they don't even mention the bars and security during the island episodes, DownTheShore. Are the monkeys used as an excuse?

Edited August 20, 2014 by BearCat49

[DownTheShore]

I don't really know.  They'll pitch a hissy fit if there's no dishwasher, but no one mentions the bars on the windows.  That also surprised me about some of the Australian ones - not the ones on the various "Coasts" but ones that were along lagoons/rivers.  Where they protection from pirates? ;->

 

Ah, yes, Amber Allred and the animals.  Another one who needs to go to a foreign country to save stray animals, instead of perhaps saving the stray animals or children in her own country, or perhaps the stray children in the country she really wants to tour.  I laughed when she practically imitated a baseball player sliding into home base when she saw that caged cat in the apartment, and the cat gave her a "Puh-leez" look.

 

Hopefully the other tenants will report them to the landlord re the pets as lease violators.

 

I couldn't believe that they chose the apt. they did, given the fact that the time difference requires him to be online and working when she's trying to sleep, and the work area was located in the bedroom.

[cassaundroll]

The single Atlanta lady retiring to the Dominican Republic: good on her for choosing what she wanted instead of what her grown son wanted (proximity to the beach), and good on him for taking it well.  Although, personally, I'd have ripped out the sink and toilet and just put a bed in that ginormous, useless second bathroom (why two bathrooms and only one bedroom)?  Very likeable people!  Wait; this *is* HHI, isn't it?

Edited August 20, 2014 by cassaundroll

[OSM Mom]

The couple who moved from the UK to Australia last night. They were looking to rent and had $3200.00 monthly budget. The husband kept hinting that the wife might want to think about going back to work to help pay for the house if she wanted the most expensive one which was $200.00 over budget. She acted like she was shocked that her husband would even suggest such a horrible thing as her working. And at the end, they showed them driving a new Jeep and the husband had bought a boat. I guess the wife didn't need to work to afford the house after all. Oh and I missed what the husband did for a living. Anyone know?

Edited August 22, 2014 by OSM Mom

[Patrizio]

I understand some peoples aversion to watching the Mexico, Honduras, CR, ect episodes. I agree with the cookie cutter remark since I would not live in those countries unless I was in a gated community with a guard shack with actual guards-not just a fence. I lived in Honduras (Soto Cano y'all), and it's always good to have a reliable conduit for bribes. Never been to Roatan, maybe it's different there, but Honduras is a very poor country with a prominent military presence which is always a good combination for trouble. I can't understand investing in Mexico right now either, just too dangerous. I thought Ecuador was looking to be a good retirement option but then they started having probs. I do have family that own a place in CR and it has been a positive experience for them so far. They live in a safe area where the medical facilities are very good, but they still have air ambulance insurance, JIC; which is not cheap. Sometimes I watch these shows and I can just smell the diesel fumes in the towns, LOL.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Patrizio

[BearCat49]

They never said specifically what the husband in Australia did for a living.  It sounded sales-oriented b/c he mentioned travelling and then being on the phone constantly at home.  WRT the wife working, he appeared to be mentioning that in general.  Didn't sound as if it was specifically directed at the one particular home.  Never heard why it made sense for them to relocate business-wise.  They just mentioned moving for lifestyle reasons before their children started high school.  Was curious if they had another, more specific reason -

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Isn't Australia strict about allowing work visas? Meaning the husband might be able to get one because he already has a job there but his wife might not be able to. I might be thinking of another country though (several of my friends moved abroad and I remember one of them mentioning the work issue).

[cassaundroll]

The woman whose lifelong dream was to move to Paris and become "a true Parisian," yet didn't speak bother to learn to speak a word of French?  SMH  And I was wondering how Poppy (oh, wait; that was the Napa Valley couple; they all run together after a while), I mean, her elderly father was going to get to his room in some of those walk-ups with many narrow stairs...  But she ended up with a truly magical home and made her dream come true, so I say, "You go, girl!"

Edited August 22, 2014 by cassaundroll

[DownTheShore]

An interesting article today on the BBC website regarding taking a job abroad and what you should be considering about the move - especially the cost of housing and living:

 

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140825-price-shock-moving-abroad

[DownTheShore]

Saw that Coober Pedy Australia show yesterday, the one where the couple moves from Copenhagen to somewhere in the middle of Australia where the husband is going to work for an open-pit mining company, and where most people live underground because it is so hot.  She's from Denmark and is used to city-living, and has never lived in such an isolated spot or even such a hot spot

 

He's got to be making good money on that kind of job, yet he sad-puppy-eyed her into agreeing to the lower-priced underground home that had a hotter constant temperature (87F) and was more remote that the first, more expensive underground home they looked at.  That woman is going to be home all day, living in what is basically a boiling moonscape, and he couldn't figure out a way to give her a cooler location and once closer to other people. 

 

I'm trying to think back, but it seems to me that in the Australian episodes, when the husband himself is Australian, the wife usually gives in to the husband's preference.

[NYGirl]

I came here to express the same thing DownTheShore.  What an ass he was!  You have 2 young children and your wife is new to the country and you put them in a house in the middle of nowhere?  They can't walk to town from there plus it's 110 degrees outside.  Cheap bastard wouldn't at least get the first house..which was much cooler, and near town.  I hated him.

 

Edited to add that the narrator said his job was "lucrative".

Edited August 28, 2014 by NYGirl

[izabella]

It is episodes like the Coober Pedy one, and the one where the Australian guy moved his wife and very young baby to Papua New Guinea where their community needed both gates and armed guards, that makes me so incredibly grateful not to be married to such selfish dumbasses.

Edited August 28, 2014 by izabella

[DownTheShore]

Oh, that Papua New Guinea guy was another one!  Wasn't he pushing for the stand-alone house, IIRC?  Why on earth would you bring your family to a place where they had to live under armed guard?

 

Saw the Bhutan episode last night.  They are lucky their kids are so young and so will be adaptable to their reduced living conditions without really realizing that's what they are (speaking from personal experience).  And come on, $80/mo is all they could afford for rent for a one year's stay?  They have no savings whatsoever to up that budget?  I'm guessing if they had two little girls instead of two little boys they wouldn't have even considered that $20/mo rental.

[walnutqueen]

It is episodes like the Coober Pedy one, and the one where the Australian guy moved his wife and very young baby to Papua New Guinea where their community needed both gates and armed guards, that makes me so incredibly grateful not to be married to such selfish dumbasses.

 

When my S/O got job offers after his fellowship in the early 1980s, we had to choose between a research directorship in Grenada or Hawaii (we lived in Canada at the time).  I graciously allowed him to make the final decision and dutifully followed him to Hawaii.  The sacrifices we make for love when we're young ...    :-)

[DownTheShore]

What a brave person you were, to face that hardship!  ~smile~

[peggy06]

I watched an episode where the couple were moving from Arizona to Ireland. Why do people agree to these terrible scripts that make them look like jerks? All three properties were lovely, all had modern kitchens and nice layouts (except for 3rd floor master suite in the first one). I thought they made the wife look like a spoiled brat for pooh-poohing the second house and insisting that her husband pay $300 more a month for the big, "white" house. Yeah it was nice, but maybe they should have found a less-nice competing property to make her insistence seem less selfish. Also, again with the "Neighbors are on top of us." So what? You aren't that interesting.

 

I wish they would come up with some better excuses. That episode did make me want to up sticks and move to Ireland, though.

[KLovestoShop]

Ireland is so beautiful, along with Scotland.  Those are two places that I've thought I could move to. 

 

When I watched the couple moving to "Goober Peas" (that's what my husband thought they were calling it), I thought how crazy and selfish the husband was.  I hope he had a great paying job to cover the horrible living conditions.  When they kept talking about "the beautiful view", from one of the houses, and all I saw was dirt and sand, I just sat there, amazed.  To each his own, I guess.

[laredhead]

I hope they show the Coober Pedy couple in a "Where Are They Now" episode at some point. 

[DownTheShore]

Probably we should check the crime statistics for the area to see if the wife went mad from the loneliness and murdered her husband - lol.

 

I thought the view was "beautiful" but that that feeling would probably last for the first month or so until the novelty wore off, and then it would be just unrelenting sameness no matter where you looked.

[laredhead]

Watched last night's episode about the Romanian ex pats moving to Hawaii.  The house they chose needed some TLC, and I thought the layout, from what we could see, was odd.  One of the rooms was being used as a bedroom, but it didn't have a window.  I love seeing houses in Hawaii, but oh the prices are incredibly expensive.  He is a software engineer and she is a physician so they could afford a million dollar plus house.  I want to see what type of house the average person lives in there. 

[walnutqueen]

That was actually an HH episode (Hawaii), and I loved it only because when I lived on Oahu briefly, I lived in Lanikai, and thought Lanikai beach was one of the nicest beaches I've ever seen; certainly the nicest for long swims.   And yes, everything in Hawaii is expensive - the condo we were renting in 1982 was $800/mo, and there was no way we could afford to buy anything decent.

 

The wife's french door fetish was silly - it isn't all that hard to switch out a door.  Also, much as you might love wood, you'd better make sure it's all treated or distasteful to termites, because tenting and pest control is a PITA.

[KLovestoShop]

Just watched an old HHI with a couple going to Iceland.  I couldn't figure out the wife and her freakish dislike for being in a city or having people nearby.  I felt sorry for the husband because it was obvious he wanted to live closer to his school, but the wife was adamant that she didn't want to be living anywhere near a city.  She forced him to take the ugly, cheap army barracks house which would cause him to have a 45 minute bus ride to and from work each day.  Freak wife.

[laredhead]

Ooops, Walnut Queen, you are correct that the Hawaii episode was an HH program.  Sorry, wrong forum.

[DownTheShore]

Just watched an old HHI with a couple going to Iceland.  I couldn't figure out the wife and her freakish dislike for being in a city or having people nearby.  I felt sorry for the husband because it was obvious he wanted to live closer to his school, but the wife was adamant that she didn't want to be living anywhere near a city.  She forced him to take the ugly, cheap army barracks house which would cause him to have a 45 minute bus ride to and from work each day.  Freak wife.

I was coming here today to comment on that same episode.  Her dislike of city living seemed almost pathological to me.  Usually when people move to a new country where they don't know anyone else, they want to live in an area where they will at least interact with other people; she didn't want to to do that at all.  And she made that comment in one of the showings how that soaking in that big bathtub (in the unit they didn't wind up choosing) would be helpful to cheer her up during the long winter nights.  I would think that if she is worrying about the long nights, she would want to be located in a place where she could actually go out and DO something during those nights.

 

I wondered if it was some sort of passive/aggressive protest against having to move to Iceland for her husband's schooling?  She is making herself totally dependent upon him for her social interactions and punishing him by making sure that he has a longer commute.  He's the one who is going to have to make friends and invite them over, and then she will get to critique them.  He is the one who's going to have to rush home to be with her because "she's all alone during the day in a strange country".

 

-----

 

Can someone explain to me why, if there is no oven in an apartment, the potential renters never think to themselves, "oh, we can just pick up a large toaster oven and that will serve in place of an oven for most recipes"?

[DownTheShore]

Also saw the one set in Puerto Rico where the family moved from Indianapolis, I think.  He was working in downtown San Juan, and the kids were already attending school in Dorado and apparently couldn't be moved.

 

The apartment in town had a beautiful view of the water and was close to the beach, but had one less bedroom than they wanted, but the husband would be close to work.  However, God forbid that each child couldn't have their own room and that they might have to double up. ~insert eyeroll~  But the killer to that one was that the wife - who wasn't employed - would have to drive 45 minutes each way to take the children to school.  Now granted, that's about 3 hours of drive time each day - but other than the housework (in an apt) what else is she going to spend her time on?  The kids could also move to a closer school, but that apparently wasn't even an option.

 

There was a choice that would have meant that both the wife and the husband would have a 30 minute drive to their respective locations, but nooooo, that one wouldn't do.

 

Of course they took the one that was over budget, gave everyone their own bedroom, was bigger, that had only a 10 minute drive to the kids' school, and which gave the husband an hour-and-a-half drive one way to work.  So it's okay for him to spend 3 hours on the road each day, but not for her.

[ChelseaNH]

Can someone explain to me why, if there is no oven in an apartment, the potential renters never think to themselves, "oh, we can just pick up a large toaster oven and that will serve in place of an oven for most recipes"?

 

*shock* You can't cook a Thanksgiving turkey in a toaster oven!

[laredhead]

Usually in countries that don't observe Thanksgiving and where you probably cannot locate a turkey to bake in an oven if you had one.

[KLovestoShop]

DowntheShore, I wholeheartly agree with you.  Both the husband and wife in San Juan were way beyond infuriating.  The husband needed to man up about his drive time and they both needed to grow up and be parents if they had to have one less bedroom.  I shared a 9X11 bedroom with my sister, who's 8 years younger than me, and there were no problems.  Today's kids are so spoiled that they can't share a room? 

 

I can understand the wife's concerns with having to drive 45 minutes four times a day.  At least the husband's drive is only twice a day, to and from work.  But the wife and her whining about "this isn't my taste" or "this isn't our style" drove me nuts.  When she started complaining about the kitchen cabinets not being her taste, I replayed the beginning of the show and looked at her cabinets in the Indiana house.  To be honest, they didn't look all that different.  Hey lady, you're in Puerto Rico.  You're renting a dadblame house.  If it's not to your taste, open your wallet and buy or build a house.  I'm guessing that this move to PR isn't short term because if it were, they wouldn't have sold "her dream house" and probably could have rented it out. 

[Quof]

Young couple moving from Nashville to Potsdam, Germany.  They were very circumspect about hubby's new job that prompted the move, wife had no job and they spoke no German. As usual, I asked What the Hell?  A quick Google confirms they are going to preach and convert the masses in "one of the most atheistic, post-Christian cultures in the world".  Should have known.

[Peanutbuttercup]

A quick Google confirms they are going to preach and convert the masses in "one of the most atheistic, post-Christian cultures in the world".  Should have known. And @Quof I wanted to hit the like button on your post but was afraid you or someone else would take it as my cheering on the conversion of the atheistic, post-Christian people of Germany :\

 

Somehow my dvr missed this one. Well, I won't kill myself trying to find it.

ETA: somehow the forum ate the bit of my post where I snarked about converting the atheistic, post-Christian people of Germany :(

Edited September 3, 2014 by Peanutbuttercup

[biakbiak]

Of course they took the one that was over budget, gave everyone their own bedroom, was bigger, that had only a 10 minute drive to the kids' school, and which gave the husband an hour-and-a-half drive one way to work.  So it's okay for him to spend 3 hours on the road each day, but not for her.

 

The apartment was lovely but it was also in a major touristy area and had no outdoor space. The house they got not only had the number of bedrooms they wanted but a lovely yard and pool and in an actual neighborhood. Also, to me being close to the kids school makes more sense then distance from work because yes she didn't have anything else to do (though who knows maybe she does charity work or other things) but the kids friends and activities are also most likely going to be around the area where they go to school so there would be a lot of driving in addition to just the daily drop off and pick up.  Also, the husband mentioned that he could work some days from home to cut down on the commute, that isn't an option for the kids. 

[KLovestoShop]

Anyone here from Canada?  The reason I ask is, whenever anything on HGTV is from Canada, I'm amazed by how expensive the houses are in the big cities.  I look at what they show, and the prices are so high, for not much house.  The other thing might be, they don't tell you if the prices are Canadian or US dollars.  I saw one show with a house that looked similar to mine, and the price was nearly a million dollars.  Believe me, my house is nowhere near that amount.

[NYGirl]

Yesterday I saw one in Australia where a young couple and their dog were moving to Australia.  Well they kept mentioning whether Pella would be happy there so I thought they had a daughter they were flying over.  They had to mention her at least 20 times.  Well color me surprised that they were talking about the dog and they got a place based on whether the dog would be happy there.

 

I am an animal lover and yet I shook my head.

[Quof]

 

Anyone here from Canada?  The reason I ask is, whenever anything on HGTV is from Canada, I'm amazed by how expensive the houses are in the big cities.  I look at what they show, and the prices are so high, for not much house.  The other thing might be, they don't tell you if the prices are Canadian or US dollars.

 

I've never seen a House Hunters set in Canada. (Property Virgins was originally set in Canada, and prices were Canadian). 

 

Of course, they have shown Canadians hunting in other countries (not the US), including a Canadian who was living in London and moving to the Ukraine. She stated her price in US dollars. Like all hunters who have no connection at all to the US. SMH.

[wisteria]

I'm certain that I saw several episodes in the Toronto area years ago, but I can't remember if it was HH or HHI (since many of the HGTV shows treat Canadian and American houses as practically interchangeable.)

 

Just watched last night's episode with the couple moving to Romania. Overall, they were likeable, especially her, but the husband acted a bit too much like he was trying to be a standup comedian. I was very, very impressed with their renovations to the new construction apartment, though the change was so drastic (including knocking down a wall) that either they used another vacant flat in the same building for the first part of the episode, or this is a rare case of HHI actually returning months later for the "after" scenes instead of just moving furniture and faking it.

[Bellalisa]

That wife moving to puerto rico was so typical of rich suburban Americans moving to another country and just can't deal that are very common on this show. Spoiled, entitled and clueless about other cultures. When she said "It's not what we have in Indiana" well no shit!  When she said the kid's bedrooms were "a little tight" I laughed so hard. Why do you need a giant bedroom? And when she said something like "His family thinks he is cheap but I know better"- what was the point of that comment? A little passive-agressive dig maybe?

These people just annoy me so much. Why do I watch? Well it's because I love San Juan and I am always interested in the real estate there. 

[Vivigirl10]

From the episode in Italy last night; what was up with that horror movie set of stairs in the bathroom going into an underground "bedroom"?  I was simultaneously hoping that they would go down there and hoping that they wouldn't dare to!  Thought it was a little odd that her husband wasn't involved in the process at all, but since it's all fake, maybe he just didn't want to be on t.v.  With two kids, I wonder how often they will even visit the place.  It was a pretty fun episode overall though.

[hula-la]

Anyone here from Canada?  The reason I ask is, whenever anything on HGTV is from Canada, I'm amazed by how expensive the houses are in the big cities.  I look at what they show, and the prices are so high, for not much house.  The other thing might be, they don't tell you if the prices are Canadian or US dollars.  I saw one show with a house that looked similar to mine, and the price was nearly a million dollars.  Believe me, my house is nowhere near that amount.

I have seen a few episodes set in BC. One was in Vancouver, and of the 3 condos that were shown, I knew people that lived in 2 of them. The other showed the Sunshine Coast, which some people treat as a suburb of Vancouver (though you need to take a 45 min ferry ride to get there). Vancouver really is expensive in terms of housing. The benchmark house price (slightly different from average price) of a detached single family home is $900,000. When I watch HH, I get depressed, as it seems many Americans can get a mansion for what I paid for my 1 bedroom and den condo in a suburb of Vancouver. 

Edited September 7, 2014 by hula-la

[KLovestoShop]

Housing prices in the US are all over the place, depending on location, hulala.  I've seen some houses in Texas, for instance, that are very lovely, and are priced very low, compared to other places.  I have a cousin that lives in SoCal, in what's known as a Beverly Hills zip code, but not actually in BH.  He owned a house, quite small, ,maybe 1000 sq ft with only 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, on a tiny lot, and he recently sold it for $4.9 million dollars---no, not exaggerating.  Of course, the actor Mike Myers lived across the street from him, but if you put his house anywhere else in the US, it would be lucky to sell for about $350,000.