House Hunters - General Discussion

[CrazyInAlabama]

I've never liked jetted tubs, and if I ever buy a house with one, I'll  be calling the plumber to replace it with a regular tub.   

There must be a way to clean out the jets and tub.    However, since I'm sure they gutted the bathroom, then a new tub would probably be a good idea so it would be fancy enough for the woman.      I think some house hunters just want to spend a lot of money to impress the rest of us.  

Edited November 3, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[chessiegal]

I love my jetted tub. I've had one in another house I used on a regular basis. I've used them in hotel rooms. I'm not sure what kind of disease I'm supposed to contract from using them, but so far I haven't suffered any ill effects.

[Ohwell]

I think jetted tubs are nasty and one can get diseases such as UTIs if not cleaned properly.   I'm not willing to take that chance.   

[topanga]

22 hours ago, Grrarrggh said:

Those jets are a bacteria trap. I wouldn't want to use a tub that someone else has used either. And I wouldn't want one that only I or my family would use. It takes ages to clean and sanitize them. Not worth it. 

20 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I didn't see the episode but if it was a tub with jets I wouldn't want to use it either.  A plain ol' regular tub is fine with me. 

I feel the same way about jets. No spa tubs or hot tub parties for me. But this lady was germ obsessed about everything. 

But they currently live in an apartment. How many dead skin cells were in that home when they moved in? 

Edited November 4, 2019 by topanga

[irisheyes]

I’m not a fan of jetted tubs (too much stuff that can break), but I will take a garden tub every time. I love soaking in a bubble bath on a Friday night after a long week. Bliss. 

[chessiegal]

My 69 year old arthritic bones love a jetted tub. I've never had one break down. Nor have I gotten a disease. 

[DanielleBowden]

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2019 at 9:59 AM, laredhead said:

The Chicago wife was talking about having a baby soon, and I guess it will be parked in that small, windowless room.  Children come with stuff - toys, high chairs, etc. and that 1400 sq foot space is going to get crowded.  She mentioned wanting to be near a good "support system", and I figured she wants built in baby sitters for when she wants to be out going to to all those bars and restaurants that were so important to her.  She said her parents live in the city, so I figure she will be leaving the kid when them a lot.  Life changes when you have children, and all of the things that come with them.  

I liked the house in the suburbs more, and of the city places I would have chosen the 3rd one.  The loft was a no go for me.

That house was in the city proper, but couldn't place exactly where, my guess is Northside, near Edison or Jefferson Park.  The giveaway is the street signs, green with white lettering means Chicago.  The collar suburbs around Chicago will have different distinctly colored street signs.  Lots of pockets within the city which are more residential and less congested, not to mention more affordable, than downtown.  Houses with front and back yards and are within walking distance of schools and parks.   Most areas will have districts with restaurants, bars, and shopping that are walkable as well.    

Edited November 5, 2019 by cecehe

[StatisticalOutlier]

I found out the hard way that jetted tubs and bubble bath do not mix.  Or, they mix too well.  The bubbles got so high I had to get out.

[KLovestoShop]

The North Carolina husband is such a drama queen, walking out on the third house. And what was his whining about being so scared about price, and about a lot of other things.  This is one couple I see not making it past 5 years, especially with the wife and her “decorator” notions. 

[buttersister]

Noticed that the Chicago expressway video is 7 years old, which predates Uber and Lyft, so traffic has exploded, but that’s the situation throughout the city. I’ve been in River North 25 years without a car (not so popular then), and wouldn’t trade it for more space and lose the ability to walk to work, restaurants, museums, concerts, etc. Not to mention having to mow a lawn or shovel all winter. 

North Carolina husband! Does he perform in dinner theater? Because honey, you bought that house. Who you kidding? Without house #3, your life would have been a living hell.

Edited November 7, 2019 by buttersister

[Chippings]

Another couple (North Carolina) for whom it's obvious they shouldn't last another five years. She was so demeaning toward him - maybe he could live with it for sixty years, but he'd be miserable.  She wasn't listening to any kind of logic.  Actually I dozed off before they made their choice.  Was it #3?  If so, he deserves the 60 years of grief.  

[laredhead]

Chippings, yes, they bought house #3.  In the final scene she was shown using a sledge hammer to tear out cabinets, and they showed a bathroom that looked like it had been gutted.  I have no idea if she or the husband has any DIY skills as far as putting thing back together, but she certainly wasted no time in tearing it apart after that fake promise of no renovations or changes for one year.  If he was concerned about the purchase price, the renovations price is going to be a sticker shock to him as well if they cannot do some of the work.  She says she works a 3-day week so she has plenty of time to do the projects.  I would love to see the finished product and the truth about who really performed the work.  She was also pushing for a baby, and they had been married a little less than a year.  Yet another HH wife with a plan and a timeline, and Katy bar the door if the husband isn't on board with it.   

[Empress1]

I was watching that Wilmington NC episode like " ... The fuck is this?" Like, the show is fake, but this is the storyline the couple chose to put out there? The hell? They both looked like assholes. She's got her timeline and he was acting like a kid. It was one where I thought "Should y'all be married?"

Also, is she actually a designer? She said she'd studied it and then did it for a few years but she does something totally different now; does she know what she's doing?

On another note, at one point they were in a park or something and they walked by a body of water and there was an alligator in it; is that normal for NC?

[CrazyInAlabama]

Alligators are very common as far north as North Carolina.    Not only do they have a wide travel range, but sometimes they are driven north or inland by storms.    Then the people that get a baby one, and then abandon it, can transport them anywhere.    There was one that was captured in Michigan recently, and it is suspected to be a dumped pet.     

The NC people were odd.    I wonder if her 'designer' talk was an exaggeration?   I hope they have plenty of money to replace what she tore out, and they better hope there aren't any surprises waiting behind those walls.  

My number one criteria for Wilmington would be, never flooded, and not in a flood plain. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[chessiegal]

On 11/6/2019 at 11:55 AM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I found out the hard way that jetted tubs and bubble bath do not mix.  Or, they mix too well.  The bubbles got so high I had to get out.

Me too!

[chessiegal]

I was interested in Wilmington NC because at one time we considered retiring there. We had a much larger budget, so what they were looking at was nothing we would have considered.

They certainly were an odd couple. Did they think it was funny to portray themselves as such a dysfunctional couple? They deserve each other. Neither one of them should procreate. 

[Pickles]

The Wilmington episode. Were the agent and wife related? Other than their hair color, they looked exactly alike in the face. 

I agree, this couple was a mess. Don't see it lasting.

[chessiegal]

I just watched the beginning of the NC episode. I had forgotten about her growing up in and not wanting a cookie cutter house because she wouldn't be able to figure out which house was hers. Good grief woman, do you realize how stupid that makes you sound?

[Ohwell]

I wonder if that Wilmington, NC couple was trying out for the 967th HGTV renovation show.

[suebee12]

8 hours ago, Pickles said:

The Wilmington episode. Were the agent and wife related? Other than their hair color, they looked exactly alike in the face. 

I wondered that also but since they just moved to Wilmington I figured no. However, when there was a profile shot, boy their beaks, oops, I mean noses looked exactly the same.

[chessiegal]

13 minutes ago, suebee12 said:

I wondered that also but since they just moved to Wilmington I figured no. However, when there was a profile shot, boy their beaks, oops, I mean noses looked exactly the same.

They really did look alike. So much I wondered if the "agent" really was a real estate agent. I found her on line, and she does sell real estate in Wilmington. It also listed other places/states she had lived, but no mention of being on HH. Also I didn't see the house they bought on her listings of houses sold. I don't remember where the couple said they moved from. 

If they're related, interesting that wasn't part of the story line.

[LittleIggy]

8 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I just watched the beginning of the NC episode. I had forgotten about her growing up in and not wanting a cookie cutter house because she wouldn't be able to figure out which house was hers. Good grief woman, do you realize how stupid that makes you sound?

I hope she isn’t that stupid. She said she was an oncology nurse. 

[chessiegal]

2 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

I hope she isn’t that stupid. She said she was an oncology nurse. 

I hope so too. When I was in graduate school (chemistry) as a teaching assistant for undergraduate nursing students going for their BS in nursing, boy howdy did we have some dolts. Hopefully the smart ones got through.

[cameron]

16 hours ago, Pickles said:

The Wilmington episode. Were the agent and wife related? Other than their hair color, they looked exactly alike in the face. 

I agree, this couple was a mess. Don't see it lasting.

Thought the same thing.  All three resembled each other.  Hated the eye makeup that the wife wore.

[biakbiak]

I don’t usually watch HH because I find a lot of the houses boring so I don’t know how old the episode I caught last night  was But I watched because it was in NYC and the HH was one of the only contestants I liked on the last season of Worst Cooks in America. 
I thought they were three good options but I knew they would go with the brownstone. Though I hated that they painted the brick.

Edited November 8, 2019 by biakbiak

[Ohwell]

I liked the NYC opera singer and his female roommate.  I was curious to see what they'd find for $1.5 million because I watch Selling New York where the price ranges are usually much higher.

[Empress1]

The NYC house hunter was interesting. I found it refreshing that he said that he was buying a place with inherited money; if he hadn't I totally would have wondered how a freelance opera singer afforded $1.5M. I also thought it was interesting that he was close enough to his ex's family to live with his ex's little sister (though I thought she was weighing in a liiiiiittle too much; he kept saying "we," but I doubt she was on the mortgage or the deed).

I chuckled when he described Harlem as "sleepy." I knew he'd go with the first one too, if for no other reason than If he wanted to be close to Lincoln Center (west side), Harlem makes more sense than the East Village or Turtle Bay, which is also on the east side. I used to live in the East Village so I was trying to see where the second place was; at one point First Avenue was behind them.

I too hated that they painted the brick.

21 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Then the people that get a baby one, and then abandon it, can transport them anywhere. 

Wait what?! Who the fuck is out here buying alligators as pets?

Edited November 8, 2019 by Empress1

[topanga]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

I don’t usually watch HH because I find a lot of the houses boring so I don’t know how old the episode I caught last night that I watched was because it was in NYC and the HH was one of the only contestants I liked on the last season of Worst Cooks in America. 
I thought they were three good options but I knew they would go with the brownstone. Though I hated that they painted the brick.

43 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

The NYC house hunter was interesting. I found it refreshing that he said that he was buying a place with inherited money; if he hadn't I totally would have wondered how a freelance opera singer afforded $1.5M. I also thought it was interesting that he was close enough to his ex's family to live with his ex's little sister

I liked that episode. The HHs were nice. And the owner had a beautiful baritone. 

Those restored Harlem brownstones are gorgeous. And right on the subway, so they're in a convenient location. 

And yet... I can't help but sympathize for all of the black and brown Harlemites who were displaced or otherwise pressured to move because of gentrification. Not trying to get political. I just can't ignore that Harlem didn't always have resorted brownstones that people were clamoring to pay 1.5 million to purchase. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Lots of people vacation in Florida, and either find one, or buy it.    People actually think an alligator is a cool pet.    

I did like the Harlem episode, and other other NYC homes.   

[Empress1]

5 minutes ago, topanga said:

And yet... I can't help but sympathize for all of the black and brown Harlemites who were displaced or otherwise pressured to move because of gentrification. Not trying to get political. I just can't ignore that Harlem didn't always have resorted brownstones that people were clamoring to pay 1.5 million to purchase. 

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought when I saw those two in Harlem, and I thought it some more when he described Harlem as sleepy. I would guess venturing above 96th St. was a relatively new thing for them (he basically said so, given the way he talked about the UWS and how he said he was unfamiliar with Harlem).

4 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Lots of people vacation in Florida, and either find one, or buy it.    People actually think an alligator is a cool pet.    

That is fucking bonkers to me. Where do you put an alligator? And more importantly, what if it eats you? I remember a story years ago about a man who had a tiger that weighed hundreds of pounds in his NYC apartment and just ... I mean, these are literally man-eating animals! I saw a few episodes of a show in which a man's job was to ... remove alligators; this was in FL. A woman had one in her pool and I was thinking, "if that were me the alligator could just have the house. I'd move."

Edited November 8, 2019 by Empress1

[suebee12]

13 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

I saw a few episodes of a show in which a man's job was to ... remove alligators; this was in FL

This happens quite often in FL! The gators are being driven out of their swampy areas as builders drain and build on them. Thankfully I never saw a gator in our neighborhood but many people east of town saw them all the time since their habitat had been taken over. Unfortunately, this is going to happen more and more as "people" take over. I do wonder who is selling baby gators tho', I thought it was illegal.

[CruiseDiva]

48 minutes ago, suebee12 said:

This happens quite often in FL! The gators are being driven out of their swampy areas as builders drain and build on them. Thankfully I never saw a gator in our neighborhood but many people east of town saw them all the time since their habitat had been taken over. Unfortunately, this is going to happen more and more as "people" take over. I do wonder who is selling baby gators tho', I thought it was illegal.

In Louisiana we call the gator catchers Nuisance Alligator Control.

[cameron]

NYC opera singer.  While the Harlem condo was very nice, would have gone for the third co-op on 50th street in Midtown.  Not a bad walk to Lincoln center from that address.

[StatisticalOutlier]

23 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I just watched the beginning of the NC episode. I had forgotten about her growing up in and not wanting a cookie cutter house because she wouldn't be able to figure out which house was hers. Good grief woman, do you realize how stupid that makes you sound?

I've actually thought about that myself, especially if coming home at night.  I have a friend who lives in an older neighborhood that is all little brick Tudor houses, and I have a devil of a time telling which one is his.  I guess if you're driving you'll develop muscle memory for when to turn into the driveway.

A cop in Dallas coming home after her shift thought she was entering her own apartment but was on the wrong floor.  She opened the door and saw a guy in there and thought he was an intruder, and shot him.  He's dead, and she's serving 10 years in prison.

.

4 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Wait what?! Who the fuck is out here buying alligators as pets?

Wally and the Beaver did.

3 hours ago, Empress1 said:

That is fucking bonkers to me. Where do you put an alligator?

If you're Wally and the Beaver and need to keep it a secret, on a sponge in the toilet tank.

[biakbiak]

14 minutes ago, cameron said:

NYC opera singer.  While the Harlem condo was very nice, would have gone for the third co-op on 50th street in Midtown.  Not a bad walk to Lincoln center from that address.

It was 400k more and even though they were never mentioned the monthly maintenance charges also had to be significantly more.

[Pickles]

21 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

It was 400k more and even though they were never mentioned the monthly maintenance charges also had to be significantly more.

I wonder what the monthly maintenance fees would be in a place like that? A lot, I am sure.

[LittleIggy]

NYC: Who on earth drinks champagne through a straw? Is this some kind of annoying hipster thing? 🙄

[LittleIggy]

9 hours ago, cameron said:

NYC opera singer.  While the Harlem condo was very nice, would have gone for the third co-op on 50th street in Midtown.  Not a bad walk to Lincoln center from that address.

The Harlem condo was the only option since it was obvious that the other two places were inhabited. I don’t like it when two of the three choices are obvious decoys. BTW, I liked the farm animal fireplace tile.

[cameron]

4 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

The Harlem condo was the only option since it was obvious that the other two places were inhabited. I don’t like it when two of the three choices are obvious decoys. BTW, I liked the farm animal fireplace tile.

Actually the Midtown condo is really for sale.  It's on the internet.

[chessiegal]

Last night's "new" HH in Dauphin Island AL was a Beachfront Bargain Hunt rerun. We recognized the couple and the houses They used to air new HH episodes every week night. My husband says the lack of truly new shows says they have sold every house in America. I wonder if they are doing it for budget reasons or they are running out of people who want to be on the show. I suspect it's the former.

[answerphone]

North Carolina assertive blonde wife and miserable behind his smile husband:

That episode appeared as if it was produced by a reality show team.

Maybe those incompatible newlyweds will be on a Bravo show soon, fighting and slamming doors.

They're headed for divorce court, or Dateline NBC, after one of them kills the other.

[Pickles]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

Last night's "new" HH in Dauphin Island AL was a Beachfront Bargain Hunt rerun. We recognized the couple and the houses They used to air new HH episodes every week night. My husband says the lack of truly new shows says they have sold every house in America. I wonder if they are doing it for budget reasons or they are running out of people who want to be on the show. I suspect it's the former.

I thought that couple looked familiar. I usually avoid the beach episodes, but had it on in the background last night.

[LittleIggy]

6 hours ago, cameron said:

Actually the Midtown condo is really for sale.  It's on the internet.

That’s beside the point. On HH, if the house is fully furnished, it is not actually the option. The empty house(s) will be.

[Grrarrggh]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

That’s beside the point. On HH, if the house is fully furnished, it is not actually the option. The empty house(s) will be.

Really? When I was looking for a house I looked at places that were furnished, either by the current owner or the agent. 

[LittleIggy]

11 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:

Really? When I was looking for a house I looked at places that were furnished, either by the current owner or the agent. 

HH is fake. The buyers have already picked the house and, I believe, have a contract on it when the program is taped. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

My understanding is the current house hunters either have already bought the house, or are about to close.    That's the only way to do a show like this, or any other remodeling or real estate show. 

Unfortunately, there is no other way to do the real estate, and remodeling shows, because if a deal falls through, there is no show.     Some people house hunt endlessly (a friend's sister looked at over 200 houses before she finally bought one), or look at houses way above their capability to actually buy.     I love to look at the houses, and the various places they show, and I really don't care about the back story. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[chessiegal]

I prefer to think of HH as staged and scripted, rather than fake. The people shown really were looking for a house, as noted by the requirement to be on the show.

[chessiegal]

Per HGTV's web site, they are still looking for people to be on HH.

Do you want to be on House Hunters

Quote

If you're getting ready to buy a home, then we'd like to put your story on TV!

HGTV is looking for energetic individuals, couples and families who are passionate about their search for a new home or vacation property to be part of the House Hunters television series.

[LittleIggy]

5 hours ago, chessiegal said:

I prefer to think of HH as staged and scripted, rather than fake. The people shown really were looking for a house, as noted by the requirement to be on the show.

At some point in time! 😆 I don’t care if it is fake, scripted or whatever. I just like seeing what houses and prices for them are like around the country.

[chessiegal]

My only experience of hearing about filming HH. They filmed an episode in New Orleans some years ago that featured a decoy house that was across the street from my stepdaughter's house, I recognized it, and sure enough a shot of the neighborhood showed her house and car parked out front. The house had been damaged by Katrina, and sat in disrepair for years. Finally someone bought it as a flip and fixed it up. My stepdaughter said there were 5 people for the filming - couple looking at the house, camera man, sound man, and producer. She said they were at the house about 4 hours, getting film outside and inside. The house was about to be put on the market. I can't remember if it was empty or staged, but there was no one living there when they filmed.

ETA: Correction on number of people at the filming - 6, including a RE agent.

Edited November 10, 2019 by chessiegal