House Hunters - General Discussion

[CrazyInAlabama]

13 hours ago, laredhead said:

 

Another episode that my DVR recorded involved a man searching for a house in Clovis, NM, and his budget was below $200,000.  None of the houses he looked at were attractive, IMO.  He did have a good rapport with his realtor, and was concerned that the house be suitable for his elderly mother who would be visiting for long periods of time.  He finally settled on a bungalow style house, and although he kept talking about wanting a house where he could showcase his collection of things he had acquired from his world travels during his job with the Air Force, the reveal didn't show anything like that.  He talked about having an off site storage unit for his off season clothes, and he also owned another house in Florida.  It was sort of an odd story.

I used to live in New Mexico, if you want something in his price bracket, there isn't a ton of selection.    The houses aren't huge either.    There are some newer cookie cutter homes, but I think they're over the house hunter's budget.      

[buttersister]

Ok, rerun but it’s not as if I’d forgotten that Vahale lives for bargains. How could anyone, he said so every five minutes as he and fiancé had spent a year and three agents losing homes because of his lowball offers. In Bergen County NJ. They’re “100% Armenian” and her father’s foot is on Vahale’s neck to get his girl a HOUSE before they can get married. The drama! Best line was Anoush’s, which sounded a bit like the end of The Amazing Race— one year, three real estate agents, how long am I supposed to wait?! LOL. 

So they go for the fell-out-of-escrow fixer with projects that she didn’t want, that the agent kept saying was the best for them, that had the dreaded slanted ceilings in Paramus near million dollar homes. It needed a lot of work—wrecked hardwood—which she implied he did (alone?), but I guess it was mostly cosmetic, although that kitchen was a gut job. He got it for 20-30K less than asking, but I think the sellers wanted to move on. I know I did.

[Dirge]

Twin sisters looking for a house for one of them near Detroit. 

So. Much. Vocal. Fry. 

The woman ended up going over budget for a fixed-up house in her desired area. 

One thing that stood out to me: the twins mentioned their mother (the house hunter was currently "living with Mom and Dad)" but she doesn't appear at the at-home scene, and only the father and the dog appeared at the new house. I didn't realize how much I expect to see both parents if they're mentioned. Props to Mom for saying "No."

 

[Grizzly]

Atlanta, GA. Wife keeps complaining about dark rooms. Does she realize the sun moves during the day? What is dark in the morning could be quite bright in the afternoon. And there's this great invention called a light bulb.

[chessiegal]

Meh. We've heard light/natural light so often that it must be part of the script options given to house hunters.

[laredhead]

The husband in the Birmingham couple on last night's episode was showing some common sense with his remarks about older houses and replacing big ticket items in them.  Loved it when he saw the old HVAC system in one house, and commented that the sellers had painted it black which was like putting lipstick on a pig.  He was in the HVAC business and knew it was going to be at least $10,000 to replace that system which was old.  Their reason for wanting to get out of the house they were selling was because it was small (1,300 sf), and the basement had a history of flooding - ugh!  I wondered how easy it had been for them to sell a house with a history of basement water problems. They bought the house with the old HVAC system, and were planning to expand the primary bedroom, so they must have had some $$ in reserve to take care of those things. 

 

[snarts]

Royal Oak, Michigan: she choose the best option out of the three presented but appalled that she choose to wallpaper over the cove in her coved ceiling. 

Plus, that kitchen was never going to be any bigger. I hope she's within walking distance of downtown RO. Otherwise, at her price point ($300k) she would've had far more updated options in adjacent Ferndale, Berkley or Clawson. 

Birmingham, Alabama:  if Bluff Park is a flood zone, why was she so interested in finding another home there? They seemed pleased to see the sump pump, but that told me it was installed because there was a previous issue.  Maybe that's why the HVAC system was painted black, to hide the rust.

The ever persistent storyline of the man wanting oodles of land and no neighbors is tired and I wish they'd just stop trying to force conflict in every episode. 

Edited 22 hours ago by snarts

[Baltimore Betty]

4 minutes ago, snarts said:

The ever persistent storyline of the man wanting oodles of land and no neighbors is tired and I wish they'd just stop trying to force conflict in every episode. 

If you are talking about that episode the other night, that guy was odd.  He wanted a huge back yard, he'd have to fence it in if he has a dog, he has to landscape it to make it look like anything cared for, he has to mow it, it's not like he had kids so no play equipment or ball playing, etc...why did he need so much land? 

Once again, I am shocked at how many houses are three bedrooms, one bath and I do not know why that gets me every time but it does. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Some places I've look at moving to (before I retired) one bathroom homes were standard.   That's even if it's a 2 story, with a basement.   

[Notabug]

8 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Some places I've look at moving to (before I retired) one bathroom homes were standard.   That's even if it's a 2 story, with a basement.   

I lived in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home until I was 16 including one that was a new build.  It is only in the last 40-50 years that more than one bathroom became standard for new homes.  Older homes with more than one bathroom often got that way due to major renovations.

I currently live in a 80+ year old 3 bedroom 1.5 bath home.  The half bath was added by a previous owner.