House Hunters - General Discussion

[StatisticalOutlier]

7 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

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.

I talked to a guy the other day who used to edit House Hunters and My First Place.  He said that in the early seasons, they really did follow people around on house hunts, and then the HH would lose his job and not buy a house after all.  After too many times of that or similar things happening, they started making the house be in the closing process and "manufacturing" the house hunt, which in turn has made the HHs into actors.

He said the early seasons really were close to "true," and certainly more "true" than what they do today.

He told me about a memorable HH couple, where he really wondered if the woman was an abused wife.  Like she'd flinch when her husband would raise his hand.  At one point when editing the show, he got a note from the network asking if he could make the wife look less abused.  😲

[cameron]

16 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.

Actually, the pictures on the realtor's site show it with all the furnishings as seen on the tv episode.  Most resales have the seller's furniture in place unless they have moved out or it's staged.

[biakbiak]

6 hours ago, cameron said:

Actually, the pictures on the realtor's site show it with all the furnishings as seen on the tv episode.  Most resales have the seller's furniture in place unless they have moved out or it's staged.

Right but in the case of HH it’s usually that they are not only under contract, they have moved into the home so they actually take their furniture out of the house and film it empty. Sometimes they leave one random piece of furniture and cover it up with a drop cloth and on a few occasions don’t even bother to do that. I always wonder what they decide to leave behind and what they don’t. 
If for some reason they can’t move the furniture out they say that it’s being sold furnished and have sometimes even included the homeowners collections or some other personalization that makes it obvious it’s their house.

[LittleIggy]

9 hours ago, cameron said:

Actually, the pictures on the realtor's site show it with all the furnishings as seen on the tv episode.  Most resales have the seller's furniture in place unless they have moved out or it's staged.

Never mind. 🙄

[jcbrown]

4 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Right but in the case of HH it’s usually that they are not only under contract, they have moved into the home so they actually take their furniture out of the house and film it empty. Sometimes they leave one random piece of furniture and cover it up with a drop cloth and on a few occasions don’t even bother to do that. I always wonder what they decide to leave behind and what they don’t. 
If for some reason they can’t move the furniture out they say that it’s being sold furnished and have sometimes even included the homeowners collections or some other personalization that makes it obvious it’s their house.

And usually if there is a TV mount on the wall, it means that is the house they bought.

[msmarjoribanks]

On 11/8/2019 at 11:17 AM, Empress1 said:

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).

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."

I was glad they went with the Harlem place, seemed like the best option to me, so long as they could find a way to get the piano in.

Re gators, big story in Chicago this year was that we had 2 gators found in the Humboldt Park lagoon.  The first one got most of the attention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_the_Snapper

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Second-Alligator-Found-at-Humboldt-Park-Lagoon-A-Mystery-513308411.html

People are idiots.

[CruiseDiva]

1 hour ago, msmarjoribanks said:

I was glad they went with the Harlem place, seemed like the best option to me, so long as they could find a way to get the piano in.

When I lived in the west side Chicago suburb of Hillside, my roomie's boyfriend was in the moving business and craned in her furniture for our third floor walk up apartment. They took the glass out of a picture window in the living room to get a big sofa inside easily and then just brought everything else of hers in the same way with the window removed. It was interesting. When movers brought my bedroom furniture a few days later they delivered it the old fashioned way--up the stairs.

The windows in the Harlem place didn't appear to be as conducive to craning since they weren't terribly large, but the HO said they'd crane in his piano at great expense.

[swissair100]

Quote

Last night's couple moving from a houseboat to a real house in Tennessee:  I found them pretty likeable; realistic budget, realistic expectations.  .... I also kinda fell in love with the blind pug with the collar with the 'bumper' to prevent him from walking into stuff. 

sad update on Benny, the blind pug with the halo bumper (& former therapy dog). He had a medical emergency & recently passed away according to a post on HH FB page.  

[LittleIggy]

2 hours ago, swissair100 said:

sad update on Benny, the blind pug with the halo bumper (& former therapy dog). He had a medical emergency & recently passed away according to a post on HH FB page.  

😥

[ehall1052]

A friend of mine was approved to be on House Hunters and when I asked him about it today, he said the HH producers canceled him and said no more HH will be made or produced. Has anyone read that the show is canceled?

[chessiegal]

27 minutes ago, ehall1052 said:

A friend of mine was approved to be on House Hunters and when I asked him about it today, he said the HH producers canceled him and said no more HH will be made or produced. Has anyone read that the show is canceled?

They had better update their web site, because they are still telling people to apply. New shows seem to be few and far between these days.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Maybe they're not going to film in certain cities any longer.   I'm sure there are a bunch of crews filming this.    I still remember the first seasons, where they were only in the L.A. area, and then they branched out.    It might be that they'll concentrate on fewer cities, and not go all over the country.    It must be super expensive to keep all of the film crews, and logistics in so many various cities. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[Pickles]

I thought HH was the highest rated show on HGTV. Surely, they will continue to produce new episodes.

[chessiegal]

And they just made a big deal about it being on 20 years. I can't find anything about it being cancelled.

[LittleIggy]

I figured it would be an inexpensive show to produce since it is so formulaic.

[SanDiegoInExile]

Scripps sold out to Discovery Networks last year.  Many channels in the Discovery *universe* are glad to air 5-10 year old programming on a regular basis.  Not surprising that they would trim the number of new HH episodes.  

I suspect that cost was the major reason we had the dreadful narrator-free episodes earlier this year.

[awaken]

Dauphin Island was weird since it was obviously Beachfront Bargain!  So odd how they show the HH’s outside chatting with the realtor, who then walks away and leaves them to look at the house alone!  

[chessiegal]

I don't understand why new episodes are now being shown at 11:30 pm EST. That's past prime time.

[SanDiegoInExile]

The schedule has been wildly erratic for a couple months now.  I use ATT TVnow and the Guide is almost always wrong for anything after 6PM ET.  I don't know if they are swapping shows out at the last minute or there is a hidden method to the madness.  

And trying to sync up the APP episodes to what is aired is nearly impossible.

I noticed a few years ago that HH was on a "13-episode season", which meant they were on Season 85 or something ridiculous.  Back then, at least, you tended to get a somewhat logical sequence.  They would air shows from the same *season*, although in randomized order, and not completely.  

Now there seems no logic to any of it.

ATT TVnow (formerly DirecTVnow) does have a handy "callback" feature in its guide, which is how I have caught a few episodes that the DVR didnt catch.  That has helped somewhat when my own DVR setting records some other dopey program.

Edited November 13, 2019 by SanDiegoInExile

[cameron]

Newest episode featuring Chicago couple.  Her voice drove me crazy.  Trying to sound like a Valley Girl in Chicago Land.  Did like the house that they ended up buying.

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, cameron said:

Newest episode featuring Chicago couple.  Her voice drove me crazy.  Trying to sound like a Valley Girl in Chicago Land.  Did like the house that they ended up buying.

Yes, that voice drove me nuts! 

[Empress1]

3 hours ago, cameron said:

Newest episode featuring Chicago couple.  Her voice drove me crazy.  Trying to sound like a Valley Girl in Chicago Land.  Did like the house that they ended up buying.

Horrible vocal fry.

[topanga]

4 hours ago, cameron said:

Newest episode featuring Chicago couple.  Her voice drove me crazy.  Trying to sound like a Valley Girl in Chicago Land.  Did like the house that they ended up buying.

I didn't notice her voice, surprisingly. And yeah, I liked the house they chose. I still don't get why a 15-month-old needs a huge playroom separate from his bedroom, but that's just me. 

What I didn't like was that the husband infantilized his wife a bit. Sure, he's a real estate agent who knows more about the housing world than she does. But when he said he put in an offer without telling his wife because he didn't want to get her hopes up, that drove me crazy. Why did he have to protect her feelings like she was a two-year old? Sure, she might have been upset if you didn't get the house. But I don't think she would've lost her shit and fell apart. She is an adult, and she is a mom with a toddler--she knows how to handle adversity. And on top of that, she works, so the two of you will be paying for this house together. So why couldn't he simply say, "I'm going to put an offer in. But I don't know if the sellers will accept it." 

I don't know why that little statement bothered me so much. I suppose it reminds me a tiny bit of TV shows and movies where a husband buys a house for his wife as a grand romantic gesture. But he's the one who picked it out without his wife having any input. Now that's infantilizing your wife. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

7 minutes ago, topanga said:

I don't know why that little statement bothered me so much. I suppose it reminds me a tiny bit of TV shows and movies where a husband buys a house for his wife as a grand romantic gesture. But he's the one who picked it out without his wife having any input. Now that's infantilizing your wife. 

I was super bugged by that, too. 

As well as his checking his phone while they were performing for the cameras. 

[Ohwell]

36 minutes ago, topanga said:

What I didn't like was that the husband infantilized his wife a bit. Sure, he's a real estate agent who knows more about the housing world than she does. But when he said he put in an offer without telling his wife because he didn't want to get her hopes up, that drove me crazy. Why did he have to protect her feelings like she was a two-year old? Sure, she might have been upset if you didn't get the house. But I don't think she would've lost her shit and fell apart. She is an adult, and she is a mom with a toddler--she knows how to handle adversity. And on top of that, she works, so the two of you will be paying for this house together. So why couldn't he simply say, "I'm going to put an offer in. But I don't know if the sellers will accept it." 

I figured since they'd already purchased the house that this was just another HH fakeout.  

[StatisticalOutlier]

10 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

I figured since they'd already purchased the house that this was just another HH fakeout.  

A pretty tone-deaf and insulting one, if you ask me.

[Ohwell]

5 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

A pretty tone-deaf and insulting one, if you ask me.

I agree, but the HHers obviously agreed to perform the stunt.

[chessiegal]

I didn't think the wife in Chicago had that bad of vocal fry - hardly any. I've heard much worse. She did have an odd manner of speaking. Expecting to drag a stroller and child up and down stairs in that 4th floor walk up was ridiculous. If I was paying that much money for a condo - I'd want an elevator.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, topanga said:

I didn't notice her voice, surprisingly. And yeah, I liked the house they chose. I still don't get why a 15-month-old needs a huge playroom separate from his bedroom, but that's just me. 

What I didn't like was that the husband infantilized his wife a bit. Sure, he's a real estate agent who knows more about the housing world than she does. But when he said he put in an offer without telling his wife because he didn't want to get her hopes up, that drove me crazy. Why did he have to protect her feelings like she was a two-year old? Sure, she might have been upset if you didn't get the house. But I don't think she would've lost her shit and fell apart. She is an adult, and she is a mom with a toddler--she knows how to handle adversity. And on top of that, she works, so the two of you will be paying for this house together. So why couldn't he simply say, "I'm going to put an offer in. But I don't know if the sellers will accept it." 

I don't know why that little statement bothered me so much. I suppose it reminds me a tiny bit of TV shows and movies where a husband buys a house for his wife as a grand romantic gesture. But he's the one who picked it out without his wife having any input. Now that's infantilizing your wife. 

I hate when men on TV & in movies do this. I would be livid if my dude did this.

[StatisticalOutlier]

54 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I didn't think the wife in Chicago had that bad of vocal fry - hardly any. I've heard much worse. She did have an odd manner of speaking.

I didn't detect much vocal fry, either.  It was more of an annoying squeakiness.

[cameron]

The Indian couple from the Bay area were too much (not sure who was worse). Door direction vs. entertainment space for his friends, coupled with not wanting to mow a yard.  Could go on and on with this couple.

[Ohwell]

I got sick of the Indian couple after about ten minutes and changed the channel.  I did not care at all about which home they chose.

[Chippings]

The thing that bothered me about the "Bay Area" episode with the Indian couple was that they never said what actual towns the houses were in.  Usually they do mention at least, is it the Peninsula, East Bay, over the hill in Livermore or what?  The husband mentioned he was with a major social media company, which would probably place his work around Palo Alto or Cupertino, but they never got so specific as an area, let alone a town.  

In that area $800,000 won't get you a 3 bedroom house with a yard, I don't think, so it had to have been a ways out.  Of course they didn't mention the commute at all.  All kind of frustrating, and unusual actually.  

[cameron]

16 minutes ago, Chippings said:

The thing that bothered me about the "Bay Area" episode with the Indian couple was that they never said what actual towns the houses were in.  Usually they do mention at least, is it the Peninsula, East Bay, over the hill in Livermore or what?  The husband mentioned he was with a major social media company, which would probably place his work around Palo Alto or Cupertino, but they never got so specific as an area, let alone a town.  

In that area $800,000 won't get you a 3 bedroom house with a yard, I don't think, so it had to have been a ways out.  Of course they didn't mention the commute at all.  All kind of frustrating, and unusual actually.  

Thinking Fremont, since their realtor said that he sells a lot to Indian couples in the area.  Think that $800,000 might get you something in Fremont.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I would have chosen the third house for the Indian couple.    I'm totally over the "house must face" a specific way too.    The four bedroom would have been better, the living/dining area was huge, and the kitchen was lovely.   The back yard wouldn't have been that bad to clean up, level, and they could have done a lot of maintenance free artificial turf, or something similar to minimize the yard work. 

The first house was OK, but is going to need so much work, that I don't think it was a bargain at all.    They could also hire someone to mow, and I bet  it wouldn't take 20 minutes to do the front and back, and if they got rid of any bushes they wouldn't have to maintain them either.    

I wonder how many of the "it must face a certain direction" couples really have that as a requirement, or if it's just for the filming?  

Edited November 17, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[kirklandia]

9 hours ago, Chippings said:

The thing that bothered me about the "Bay Area" episode with the Indian couple was that they never said what actual towns the houses were in.  Usually they do mention at least, is it the Peninsula, East Bay, over the hill in Livermore or what?  The husband mentioned he was with a major social media company, which would probably place his work around Palo Alto or Cupertino, but they never got so specific as an area, let alone a town.  

... All kind of frustrating, and unusual actually.  

I think this is the new normal.  It made me crazy in the recent Chicago episode.  Which neighborhood?  Which suburb?

It may be less frustrating to those who are extremely familiar with the area (they recognize, or can make an educated guess) - or to those who know nothing about the area (maybe don't care).  

With Chicago, I am somewhere in the middle.  Hence, really annoyed!

[LittleIggy]

The Chicago family got a much better house (loved it) for roughly the same price than the Bay Area couple. As for the door direction thing, why would you let an archaic belief drive your choice of a home? Maybe it was backed up by a legitimate reason like airflow in the past but it is just superstition.

Edited November 15, 2019 by LittleIggy

[Grrarrggh]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

The Chicago family got a much better house (loved it) for roughly the same price than the Bay Area couple. As for the door direction thing, why would you let an archaic drive your choice of a home? Maybe it was backed up by a legitimate reason like airflow in the past but it is just superstition.

The Chicago house was almost everything that's wrong with new builds. It lacked any kind of character or uniqueness. Ick. As for the door direction, you can ask that of any religion. 

[Empress1]

9 hours ago, kirklandia said:

I think this is the new normal.  It made me crazy in the recent Chicago episode.  Which neighborhood?  Which suburb?

It may be less frustrating to those who are extremely familiar with the area (they recognize, or can make an educated guess) - or to those who know nothing about the area (maybe don't care).  

With Chicago, I am somewhere in the middle.  Hence, really annoyed!

I think they did show the name of the suburb on the screen but they didn't say anything about neighborhoods.

With the Peekskill couple, that was another one where I was like "Do y'all like each other?" And I agreed with the brunette about the garage - with all the cold and snow, I would think that would be important - but I also agreed with the blonde that her moving appeared to be the bigger sacrifice so they should take more of her wants into account. (I am also admittedly pro-historic charm and have described modern as "sterile.") Did anyone else think that the condo they looked at was just another unit in the same place where the brunette already lived?

[laredhead]

I was so tired of the bickering Peekskill couple by the end of the episode that I didn't care which house they bought.  In fact, I really thought they would be happier breaking up.  I can't imagine what is going to happen when they have a child.  The brunette who says she's a clean freak with OCD is going to get worse (children are messy).  I don't enjoy being around people like that who constantly argue and snipe at each other.

[msmarjoribanks]

43 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

I think they did show the name of the suburb on the screen but they didn't say anything about neighborhoods.

With the Peekskill couple, that was another one where I was like "Do y'all like each other?" And I agreed with the brunette about the garage - with all the cold and snow, I would think that would be important - but I also agreed with the blonde that her moving appeared to be the bigger sacrifice so they should take more of her wants into account. (I am also admittedly pro-historic charm and have described modern as "sterile.") Did anyone else think that the condo they looked at was just another unit in the same place where the brunette already lived?

They actually said it was another unit in the same complex.

I agree with you about the rest, although as always I'm mindful it was likely for the camera.  I was surprised the brunette ultimately went for and seemed excited about the farmhouse, which was a tipoff, given how anti old house and being farther from the water she'd been.  Not knowing the area or where the places were (which is one of the most disappointing things the show does these days), so ignoring these factors, that was definitely my choice.

If they said the name of the Chicago 'burb I missed it, and it always makes me mad that they now won't say the Chicago 'burb (usually, at least) or neighborhood, which seems to be the thing these days.  I can often guess or figure it out, but it takes a little work, and it really influences my perception of the comparison.  Same for other places, but if I don't know them at all of course I would have to look up the areas to understand the differences more.

Edited November 15, 2019 by msmarjoribanks

[Pickles]

The Chicago couple bought that house in Hinsdale. It did flash up on the screen. That is a really nice suburb. And didn't they say that the husband's family lived there? So, you know that was their plan all along.

The Peekskill couple last night. I figured they would go with the first farmhouse place. It had the high tech locks on the front door and the one woman said she was really into technology. You know that she was the one who had the locks put in. Lol.

[Empress1]

When the brunette kept asking about smart technology I thought “just add it!” I think that about appliances too. “I wanted all new appliances.” Me: “ ... Then buy them.”

There’s no way I’d buy a different unit in the same complex when I’m “a few short years,” as she put it, from paying off the one I already owned. I wondered why renting it out wasn’t an option; it looked like the blonde was requiring that the brunette sell it.

[StatisticalOutlier]

35 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

There’s no way I’d buy a different unit in the same complex when I’m “a few short years,” as she put it, from paying off the one I already owned. I wondered why renting it out wasn’t an option; it looked like the blonde was requiring that the brunette sell it.

When it comes to having almost paid off the current condo, how is buying a different unit in the same complex different from buying something not in the same complex?  I don't understand why being in the same complex would be a disqualifier, if the new unit works better for them.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

When it comes to having almost paid off the current condo, how is buying a different unit in the same complex different from buying something not in the same complex?  I don't understand why being in the same complex would be a disqualifier, if the new unit works better for them.

I didn't see enough of a difference between the two units, though admittedly we didn't see much of the unit she owned.

[msmarjoribanks]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

The Chicago couple bought that house in Hinsdale. It did flash up on the screen. That is a really nice suburb. And didn't they say that the husband's family lived there? So, you know that was their plan all along.

The Peekskill couple last night. I figured they would go with the first farmhouse place. It had the high tech locks on the front door and the one woman said she was really into technology. You know that she was the one who had the locks put in. Lol.

Thanks. I believed they showed it, but missed it. 

Yeah, the "just saw it when driving to a family event" was really fake.

23 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

I didn't see enough of a difference between the two units, though admittedly we didn't see much of the unit she owned.

I think the one they looked at was quite a bit bigger.

[Lady J]

On 11/14/2019 at 8:01 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

I would have chosen the third house for the Indian couple.    I'm totally over the "house must face" a specific way too.    The four bedroom would have been better, the living/dining area was huge, and the kitchen was lovely.   The back yard wouldn't have been that bad to clean up, level, and they could have done a lot of maintenance free artificial turf, or something similar to minimize the yard work. 

The first house was OK, but is going to need so much work, that I don't think it was a bargain at all.    They could also hire someone to mow, and I bet  it wouldn't take 20 minutes to do the front and back, and if they got rid of any bushes they wouldn't have to maintain them either.    

The husband was a real A Hole , they picked a crappy house so he didn’t have to mow the lawn !

[cameron]

16 hours ago, Lady J said:

The husband was a real A Hole , they picked a crappy house so he didn’t have to mow the lawn !

They deserved each other.  Neither one was a prize.

[answerphone]

In regards to the two women who purchased the old farmhouse: 

I thought probably the brunette had lived in her place with a previous partner, and the blonde who was moving to be with her simply wanted a place without memories of the past.

[chessiegal]

1 hour ago, answerphone said:

In regards to the two women who purchased the old farmhouse: 

I thought probably the brunette had lived in her place with a previous partner, and the blonde who was moving to be with her simply wanted a place without memories of the past.

Could be, but they said they had been dating 2 years. That's a long time to hold that kind of resentment/concern. I'm with the blonde for not wanting shared walls. I've had bad experiences in both a condo I owned and an apartment I rented. Shoot, I'm now in a single family home, and have trouble with neighbors in the summer when they feel inclined to share their music with the whole neighborhood. Assholes.