House Hunters - General Discussion

[chessiegal]

2 hours ago, cameron said:

What is with the two tone hair that seems to be prevalent in that family in Ellicott City, and find it really hard to believe that he bikes into the District from his family's home.  Note to Ryan, Old Town Alexandria isn't in the suburbs.  Actually a bustling city.

He didn't say he bikes to DC from the family home in Ellicott City (which is closer to Baltimore than DC). He pointed out that at one house, the Georgetown one I think, he could bike to work.

[Crashcourse]

He really wanted to stay in DC, and given his young age and wanting to be near bars, restaurants, and bike trail, I thought the Georgetown place was the best one, despite some drawbacks.  Him grilling on that tiny balcony had me laughing because he barely had enough space to move around.  Old Town Alexandria is nice, but I didn't like the outside of that house and I can't imagine him maintaining even a small yard.     

[chocolatine]

14 hours ago, Grizzly said:

D.C. A 25 year old with an 800k budget?! Where did I go wrong?

Software engineers in large metro areas get six-figure salaries right out of college. And depending on the company, there may be another six figures in stocks and bonuses. If he started working at 21/22 and lived rent-free with his parents, he could have easily saved $200-300k in that time. And if he had a scholarship or his parents paid for college, he doesn't have any debt, so that makes it easy to get approved for a mortgage with a 2+ year employment history and 20% down payment.

I thought the family was adorable (save for the two-toned hair on the HH and one of his brothers) and the HH seems humble despite his large budget. He'll most likely outgrow the place he picked by the time he's 30, but by then he'll have saved enough to buy a bigger one and can use the first one as an investment property.

Edited July 2, 2021 by chocolatine

[Refresh]

On 6/24/2021 at 12:51 PM, LittleIggy said:

She’s 34! I loved those natural cabinets in the house they picked. The dog was so cute in her big bed in front of the fireplace. 🥰

Portland couple from last week: The dog was really cute. The house they chose was so tall. Curious if that’s a Thing that is happening in PDX with tear downs of smaller homes. Lot is small so go tall to give people the Sq Ft they want.  I am perplexed by Portland woman saying something isn’t walkable but it’s a 2-3 minute drive. 🧐 Isn't that just a 15-20 minute walk? They didn’t appear to be on a hill or surrounded by non-pedestrian friendly parkways. I’m sure their dog would love a walk. 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Refresh

[amarante]

On 6/30/2021 at 6:11 AM, Dehumidifier said:

I think it was being near her mother for babysitting.

I think the tiles are for coolness also. Weirdly there was an episode with a house on Long Island recently that had similar white tile in the living room.

Nothing wrong with stone flooring in a tropical location for lots of reasons but the tile in all of those homes was the cheapest ugliest tile.

There are all kinds of beautiful tile but they aren't $1 per square foot. One problem with tile is that it is super expensive to remove and the floor generally needs expensive prep in order for the new flooring (whatever it is) to be lain properly.

The Georgetown software engineer made the appropriate decision for his current life style. As the real estate agent said, a Georgetown location is going to retain its value and increase in the coming years so no reason to avoid it as a poor economic decision if it suits your current needs.

The guy was 25 and has probably been in the workforce for 3 years or so living in his parent's home so he would have managed to save a good amount of money.

[LittleIggy]

I liked the place in Alexandria best, too. The place he bought was so small and no closets! I don’t know why the kitchen was closed off from the rest of the bottom floor.

[Dehumidifier]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I liked the place in Alexandria best, too. The place he bought was so small and no closets! I don’t know why the kitchen was closed off from the rest of the bottom floor.

When you are young and single it is more important to live where there are other young and single people to meet than to have lots of space. He didn't look like the type who had a lot of clothes; he can get a wardrobe for the bedroom

[cameron]

19 minutes ago, Dehumidifier said:

When you are young and single it is more important to live where there are other young and single people to meet than to have lots of space. He didn't look like the type who had a lot of clothes; he can get a wardrobe for the bedroom

Didn't think that you can technically call it a bedroom if it doesn't have any closets in most states.  Maybe DC is different.

[Dehumidifier]

37 minutes ago, cameron said:

Didn't think that you can technically call it a bedroom if it doesn't have any closets in most states.  Maybe DC is different.

I was surprised by that too because the law in NYC is the same, unless it's a really old building and it is grandfathered in as a bedroom. It was unusual for new construction. From the glimpse we saw it looked like the other townhouses were wider than his; maybe that one was allowed to be built at the end under a special permit.

[amarante]

You can build rooms without a closet - you just can't call them a bedroom as a bedroom needs a closet and a window. 

I don't see the issue with the lack of closet as many people live in older homes where there is a tiny closet because people didn't have vast amounts of clothing until cheap disposable clothing became available in the past few decades.

Different homes appeal to people at different stages of life and with different needs. As a new graduate in my 20's I opted for a studio in a recently converted loft with a raised sleeping area. It was in the Village and my lifestyle was such that I loved being able to walk out my door and have any kind of adventure plus my commute was two subway stops. I would never have wanted to live in the boroughs in order to have a larger apartment - why would I want or need a larger apartment when my lifestyle was working and enjoying everything New York City had to offer.

Georgetown software engineer didn't need or want large closets or a suburban lifestyle. He wanted a good commute - access to some great running trails and not have to deal with mass transit or a car ride to meet up with friends or take advantage of urban pleasures. 

[Empress1]

On 6/30/2021 at 10:08 PM, Dehumidifier said:

San Francisco to San Diego. Is that really her husband?

I said out loud “he is really annoying.” My favorite part of the episode was when he asked if she could turn a nook into an office (I think it was in the largest house so there was no reason for her not to have a full room) so he could have a “hideaway” and she simply said “No” without further explanation or commentary.

I’d have redone the kitchen in the third house too, but just cosmetically - I just didn’t like the finishes, they looked kind of cheap for a $1.3M house. There was plenty of space before they gutted it.

[Dehumidifier]

I've seen people in roommate situations buy a clothes rack for their closet-less room. There was even an episode of HH where this was shown -- a house in Philadelphia four guys shared. The guy who got the smallest room had a rack that included a section across the bottom for shoes too.

[Cetacean]

13 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I don’t know why the kitchen was closed off from the rest of the bottom floor.

Not everyone wants their couch in the kitchen. I prefer a separate kitchen with walls and door.  Keeps odors out of the main space and I can close it off so that I don't need to clean it up before sitting down to dinner with guests.

[LittleIggy]

17 minutes ago, Cetacean said:

Not everyone wants their couch in the kitchen. I prefer a separate kitchen with walls and door.  Keeps odors out of the main space and I can close it off so that I don't need to clean it up before sitting down to dinner with guests.

I’d rather have it open in a small place like that. My preference.

[Empress1]

30 minutes ago, Cetacean said:

Not everyone wants their couch in the kitchen. I prefer a separate kitchen with walls and door.  Keeps odors out of the main space and I can close it off so that I don't need to clean it up before sitting down to dinner with guests.

Agreed, and I think in small houses it can actually make the space look smaller to open it up. I recall an episode set somewhere in the northeast, maybe Baltimore or Philly because they were looking at row homes which tend to be narrow. One had been redone so the first floor was open and all I kept thinking was that the fridge and couch were on top of each other - the space looked (and likely was, but that doesn’t mean it has to look it) tiny and if it looked tiny on TV, it was probably worse in person. I hated it.

[Cetacean]

5 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

I hated it.

I recentlly saw a new build episode where the whole floor was 7/8 kitchen and 1/8 "living room".  There was a small couch and two easy chairs with one of the chairs literally against the refrigerator.  Ugh.  WAY overboard on "open concept".

[Dehumidifier]

1 hour ago, Cetacean said:

Not everyone wants their couch in the kitchen. 

We'll have time for that in the senior apartment when the kitchen will be in the living room and the living room will be in the bedroom. At least the bathroom will have a door.

[amarante]

1 hour ago, Empress1 said:

Agreed, and I think in small houses it can actually make the space look smaller to open it up. I recall an episode set somewhere in the northeast, maybe Baltimore or Philly because they were looking at row homes which tend to be narrow. One had been redone so the first floor was open and all I kept thinking was that the fridge and couch were on top of each other - the space looked (and likely was, but that doesn’t mean it has to look it) tiny and if it looked tiny on TV, it was probably worse in person. I hated it.

One disadvantage of a completely open kitchen in a relatively small space is that you lose storage because without the wall you lose upper cabinets. 

Also with an open kitchen in a small area you are REALLY in that kitchen area and so you would generally not be able to hide any mess. A closed kitchen (especially a galley style) is generally a very functional use of square footage. You also have a wall in the living room which can be functional as well in terms of optimally configuring a room. 

An island - however trendy - doesn't provide the same amount of functional storage and actually takes up more room than a wall with cabinets and a counter would since it is generally deeper.

It is ironic since at one time the kitchen against the wall was considered to be the lowest type of sad apartment.

At any rate - different strokes for different folks. Does anyone seriously think Georgetown guy is spending lots of time "entertaining" in his kitchen. When I was at that stage of life if I had people over it wasn't for dinner. At most people might meet for drinks before heading out and I would set out some good takeout snacks I bought for the occasion. He is not going to be isolated in the kitchen whipping up dinner while his guests frolic in the living room :-).

 

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by amarante

[Empress1]

2 hours ago, Dehumidifier said:

I've seen people in roommate situations buy a clothes rack for their closet-less room. There was even an episode of HH where this was shown -- a house in Philadelphia four guys shared. The guy who got the smallest room had a rack that included a section across the bottom for shoes too.

I lived in a closet-less room in a roommate situation in my 20s and I had an armoire and a dresser, and that covered it. I didn’t have a ton of clothes  so it was fine. (It was nice to move into a room in that apartment with a closet though. (Newbie got the closet-less room & also paid the least rent - we didn’t split it evenly. Closet-less paid the least even though the room was the second-largest. When someone moved out, which was a given since we were in our 20s, that person could take their room. I moved into a new room when someone left to go to grad school.)

[Grrarrggh]

6 hours ago, cameron said:

Didn't think that you can technically call it a bedroom if it doesn't have any closets in most states.  Maybe DC is different.

Apparently: Every bedroom shall be a minimum of 70 square feet for the first occupant plus an additional 50 square feet for each additional person using the room.  www.ericstewartgroup.com/blog/what-makes-a-bedroom-a-legal-bedroom#:~:text=For%20a%20single-entry%20room%20in%20Maryland%2C%20Virginia%2C%20or,bathroom%20without%20having%20to%20go%20through%20another%20bedroom.

[Crashcourse]

47 minutes ago, amarante said:

At any rate - different strokes for different folks. Does anyone seriously think Georgetown guy is spending lots of time "entertaining" in his kitchen. When I was at that stage of life if I had people over it wasn't for dinner. At most people might meet for drinks before heading out and I would set out some good takeout snacks I bought for the occasion. He is not going to be isolated in the kitchen whipping up dinner while his guests frolic in the living room :-).

He said he loves to grill, so I imagine he'll be spending more time out there than in the kitchen.  Drinks and snacks from the kitchen though, for sure.  (I'm having flashbacks to my 20's).   

[Dehumidifier]

The show that is scheduled to be on OWN tonight at 8:30 PM Eastern time has no episode number. It says "Aired September 30, 1999." I an eagerly waiting to see this one. If that is accurate it should be interesting. Could that just be when this program started?

[chessiegal]

2 minutes ago, Dehumidifier said:

The show that is scheduled to be on OWN tonight at 8:30 PM Eastern time has no episode number. It says "Aired September 30, 1999." I an eagerly waiting to see this one. If that is accurate it should be interesting. Could that just be when this program started?

Wikipedia says that the first HH aired October 7, 1999. If it is from 1999, it will have Suzanne Whang on camera, won' tell you where it is, how much the houses cost, and they always pick house #3.

[Bastet]

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

If it is from 1999, it will have Suzanne Whang on camera, won' tell you where it is, how much the houses cost, and they always pick house #3.

And they will pretend they get a call from their real estate agent telling them their offer was accepted and the house is theirs.

[Dehumidifier]

We'll see.🤨

[CrazyInAlabama]

The first years were all in the L.A area too.  

[Dehumidifier]

3 hours ago, Dehumidifier said:

We'll see.🤨

It was MMXII which is 2012 if I remember my Roman numerals right.

It's so nice not to hear "white kitchen, white kitchen, white kitchen" in these old episodes.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Dehumidifier

[ByaNose]

On 7/1/2021 at 10:34 PM, Grizzly said:

D.C. A 25 year old with an 800k budget?! Where did I go wrong? Georgetown is an expensive area. A single guy who wants more than 1 bathroom? His parents should be happy that he was sensible with his money. 

We went wrong with poor parenting. LOL!!!! I’m 3 times older than him and I still don’t have that liquid money. I guess his parents paid for everything while he had a high paying job, lived at home and he saved. I had 2 out of three. I had a job that wasn’t high paying and I lived at home. He seemed really nice and even brought up that his profession paid a lot to keep people like me wondering how he has a $800,000 budget. That said, even with that huge budget his place wasn’t that great. The deck was too small and he had one bathroom and no closets in his bedroom. WTF?? I think we are doing fine. I know where I went wrong. I didn’t go to college. I’m sure you’re doing fine, too. We all take a different path but all watch House Hunters. We must be doing something right. LOL!!!!!

Edited July 4, 2021 by ByaNose

[amarante]

4 hours ago, chessiegal said:

Wikipedia says that the first HH aired October 7, 1999. If it is from 1999, it will have Suzanne Whang on camera, won' tell you where it is, how much the houses cost, and they always pick house #3.

And occasionally they bought nothing and there were a few shows where they toured a lot of homes. Some were perfunctory but the chyron showed House #43 or whatever.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Yes, I remember one of the early seasons where a man toured some homes, and he supposedly put in an offer, but got a job offer in Asia and moved there.    I don't even remember if he moved to Singapore, or Hong Kong, or somewhere around there, but they really switched that one around.         

There was another one where the woman looked at two homes near L.A., and ended up at the third house, a rental instead of buying.   

They also tried to disguise that the 'house hunter' already owned the house, with dust covers on the furniture, and it was obviously their own furniture.  

Then one of the women from American Gladiators was a house hunter, and I think they had a few others that were in show business. 

[amarante]

26 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Yes, I remember one of the early seasons where a man toured some homes, and he supposedly put in an offer, but got a job offer in Asia and moved there.    I don't even remember if he moved to Singapore, or Hong Kong, or somewhere around there, but they really switched that one around.         

There was another one where the woman looked at two homes near L.A., and ended up at the third house, a rental instead of buying.   

They also tried to disguise that the 'house hunter' already owned the house, with dust covers on the furniture, and it was obviously their own furniture.  

Then one of the women from American Gladiators was a house hunter, and I think they had a few others that were in show business. 

LOL - I had forgotten about the dust covers. There was one episode where there was a lot of furniture in the same place and it was pretty obvious when it was off for the end reveal.

Of course now they try to hide bulky items like pool tables or large dining room tables by stating that seller is including them or leaving behind or whatever

But the biggest current "tell" is the house that the seller has mysteriously stopped renovating right in the middle of the renovation. I have never seen a HH where the house in mid-renovation wasn't the one chosen. There was one in Florida where the house was only in the early stages of being built and they were fake dithering about whether they wanted to deal with the stress of building. :-).

[BrownBear2012]

On 6/30/2021 at 9:11 AM, Dehumidifier said:

I think it was being near her mother for babysitting.

I think the tiles are for coolness also. Weirdly there was an episode with a house on Long Island recently that had similar white tile in the living room.

The flooring Florida has to do with humidity...wood flooring doesn't do well in the heat and humidity for obvious reasons and carpeting has problems if your house floods.

 

 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, amarante said:

But the biggest current "tell" is the house that the seller has mysteriously stopped renovating right in the middle of the renovation.

Other than a very few scattered episodes, I haven't watched in quite some time; do they still do that a lot?  Back when I was still regularly watching, they seemed to have backed off that storyline a fair bit, so I thought maybe they were still casting fewer people mid-renovation.

I've been watching a few old "Where Are They Now?" episodes on Discovery+ (my parents have an account, so I have access) recently, and laughing anew at recaps of the regular episodes where "Which will they choose?" was readily answered with, "Um, the one they're already in the middle of renovating because literally no one sells a house like this?" this show used to churn out. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

One episode near D.C. was dated 2012 (I'm not great at catching the Roman numerals for the copyright date), and I had to laugh at the prices even then.    Another episode in Texas was almost that old, and I wondered if the house flooded during Hurricane Harvey or the other floods they've had in Houston.      However, I guess that a lot of the people on the show have moved on, since so many seem to be moving for jobs, and keep talking about moving for work.   

The OWN Saturday night episodes are so entertaining to me, because the house hunters are looking for features, like Cherry cabinets, that if they were looking today they would be calling dated, or wanting to gut the kitchen.    

[chediavolo]

22 hours ago, cameron said:

Didn't think that you can technically call it a bedroom if it doesn't have any closets in most states.  Maybe DC is different.

Very old homes I don’t have closets in the bedroom. Is this just for new homes ?

Edited July 4, 2021 by chediavolo

[amarante]

8 hours ago, chediavolo said:

Very old homes I don’t have closets in the bedroom. Is this just for new homes ?

Very old homes were generally built before there were any kinds of housing codes.

Not sure when it started in other places, but NY first enacted requirements for ventilation in 1879 and then revised them in 1901. Homes built between 1879 and 1901 are called Old Law Tenements and after 1901 are called New Law Tenements.

If you are familiar with New York City housing much of the housing stock in a place like the East Village is Old Law which required that all rooms have some form of ventilation. Typically this was achieved by the use of an air shaft which is hardly what most people would think of as adequate ventilation.

New Law Tenements can be recognized because they were built around large central court yards. They were typically large apartment buildings. A lot of the housing on the main avenues on the Upper West Side are New Law tenements although there are some on Second Avenue below 14th Street which were constructed for a more affluent resident than those on the side streets. 

The brownstone townhouses were originally built as private homes although some were remodeled as the neighborhoods changed but they were not constructed as being Old Law Tenements.

I don't think there was a closet requirement 

[Johannah]

I recorded some of those old episodes you all are talking about and now I can't wait to watch them.  I had forgotten some of the things mentioned above and it will be fun to see them again.  AND will be nice to see someone wanting something other than open-concept (not my favourite) and white cabinets.

 

[stewedsquash]

On 6/24/2021 at 8:38 AM, cameron said:

Cary is in the hub of the Research Triangle area.  Convenient to UNC, Duke and NC state, which is why  it's so desirable.

All three of the locations they showed are in the same area and convenient to all those things that you listed and also to the major airport (it is closer to Cary). Head up I40 and you can get off at the Garner exit. Keep going about two exits and you enter the 440 beltline. Merge right and you will soon exit for Knightdale. Merge to the left on the beltline and you will head towards Cary (and pass the exit for Raleigh while heading there) The whole area is connected much like the beltway areas around DC/MD/VA with the actual town beginnings and endings smudged because of all the buildup of houses, stores and businesses. I just watched an episode of Love It Or List It and the couple was from Durham. Keep going around the beltline and you will find the exit for that town and Duke University. Garner just opened a huge major Amazon distribution center and there are all kinds of what would have been called factory houses? back in the day being built directly around the center. Garner is also Scotty McCreery's hometown (American Idol).

All that to say, the whole area is becoming less and less southern and more and more global.

The couple seemed more like they were roommates or friends who just wanted to be on tv. I was annoyed when she went outside and exaggeratedly stomped/splashed in the flooded yard then immediately walked back inside the house and walked on the clean floors. 

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by stewedsquash

[Grizzly]

Charlotte, NC. I missed the very beginning, why does this unmarried couple with grown children need a huge house? I'm not an architect expert, but house #2 has to be the biggest Cape Cod I've ever seen. Glad the dog is enjoying the yard.

[Empress1]

I know Black don’t crack but I was shocked when the Charlotte GF said they each had grown kids. I’m guessing they were both young parents (GF said her grandmother was 85; cool that her grandmother got to see great-grands grow up) because they are both young-looking.

[LittleIggy]

3 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Charlotte, NC. I missed the very beginning, why does this unmarried couple with grown children need a huge house? I'm not an architect expert, but house #2 has to be the biggest Cape Cod I've ever seen. Glad the dog is enjoying the yard.

I saw all of the episode and still wondered the same thing. I was like “Why do they need a McMansion?”

[Texasmom1970]

Charlotte, NC. Beautiful home but too much house for two people and a dog IMO. Personally I despise white cabinets but to each their own. All I kept on thinking was man thats a lot of house to clean!

[amarante]

NC couple didn't say where family was located but the woman said she had moved from San Diego to complete her PHD studies.

I would imagine their adult children would be coming and they might have children as well. The woman also mentioned that she wanted a bedroom on the ground floor for her grandmother when she visited. Maybe she is also thinking that grandmother might move in permanently at some point when she can't live independent - they didn't mention where grandmother still lived.

I think often you need extra bedrooms in some areas to get large common areas like living rooms and kitchens. While extra bedrooms might be needed, a more modest 3/2 for example would also come with smaller living room and kitchen as well as not have a dining room.

I did agree with her comments regarding the "dining room" configurations being removed from the kitchen. I also think this makes no sense if one is actually planning to use the dining area because unless you have a butler and footman to bring in the food and serve, everything has to be brought into the dining room and then removed. A lot of work. I live in a place where the balcony is removed from the kitchen so cooking and eating on the balcony is a bit of a hassle since you have to shlep everything there and back again. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I wonder if the woman (NC) already had a job offer, or was completing her Ph.D. for her current job?      I know a few academics that did exactly that.     If she was buying, but might need to move when she finishes her Ph.D., then it might have been a mistake to buy.

Sometimes people buy a larger house, because they're looking at resale value.    

Edited July 7, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Grrarrggh]

4 hours ago, amarante said:

I did agree with her comments regarding the "dining room" configurations being removed from the kitchen. I also think this makes no sense if one is actually planning to use the dining area because unless you have a butler and footman to bring in the food and serve, everything has to be brought into the dining room and then removed. A lot of work. I live in a place where the balcony is removed from the kitchen so cooking and eating on the balcony is a bit of a hassle since you have to shlep everything there and back again. 

What lot of work? It was less than 10 steps, not in a whole other wing of the house. 

[Cetacean]

5 hours ago, amarante said:

I also think this makes no sense if one is actually planning to use the dining area...

No butler, no footman, use the dining room every day to, well, dine.  It's not a walk from a subterranean kitchen, it's just around the corner.  Not a hardship at the least.

[buttersister]

Watch alert! New episode with couple, 4 kids, who no longer want anything to do with an open concept home. 😂😂😂 The day I’ve been waiting for is here!

ETA: please don’t be assholes.

Edited July 7, 2021 by buttersister

[Grizzly]

15 minutes ago, buttersister said:

Watch alert! New episode with couple, 4 kids, who no longer want anything to do with an open concept home. 😂😂😂 The day I’ve been waiting for is here!

ETA: please don’t be assholes.

Wife is not winning me over. But they did get a good deal.

[Grrarrggh]

I want to see what her "design" would be in the anti-open concept, aka Sane, house. 

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

Wife is not winning me over. But they did get a good deal.

She got a great husband!