Well, the new Hawaii ep was interesting, but I was kinda distracted by thinking how much the damned thing must cost, and then wondering if the husband ever said more than three words at a time. Even though the house tours are obviously recreated for the cameras, he could at least have looked at the bedrooms in that one place.

The show with the couple that was living with her brother--they said that they had two [or was it three?] dogs, a cat, and a bird that were staying with friends and relatives. One of the reasons they wanted their own house was to bring their pets home.

So do the producers REALLY think that we're stupid enough to buy the situation that they considered a 1000 sq ft condo? I know that the Kabuki-rigid format of the show demands that they have three places to consider, but they oughta make it at least realistic.

The theme music to this show is a thousand times worse than Divine Design's scat. (Ding-dong) kachow (knockknockknock) chachow (buzz).

Just awful.

The music is pretty bad. It always remind me of Seinfeld. I haven't watched the Thursday episodes in a while. Have they been away from California?

I try to remember to turn it down. The doorbell sound always gets my dog barking and running to the door. The rest of it sounds like a bad porn movie. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Yeah, they've been branching out of SoCal a bit. They've done eps in Santa Rosa (Heh. I said "a bit"), Hawaii, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, Long Island, and probably a couple more I can't remember.

It's fun to see a bit of other places. Double Agents seems to be sticking pretty closely to the D.C. metro area, so it's in a rut, too.

Although there's a new (?) real estate show on BBCA called Escape to the Country. The host/realtor interviews the HOs, then previews several houses (with the cameras) for them. The HOs then watch the tape and pick two they want to visit in person. The format's pretty standard, but it's great fun to see some British houses for a change.

I've read all the posts and haven't seen anyone mention the one with the retired lady who was handicapped and mostly in a wheelchair. She was looking for a condo suitable for her with an ocean view to accomodate her handicap. What surprised me was the fact that she didn't find one she liked better than her original one. So she stayed where she was. I hadn't seen this aspect to the show before.

In last nite's episode (the young couple with small child who lived with his parents for a year to save for a house) did anyone else notice that big pole right by the stairs going up to the attic? I thought instantly of Norm Abrams and Tommy on "This Old House" and wondered if the previous homeowners removed part of a load bearing wall to open up the space and inserted that pole (strut?) to hold up the attic floor. It just looked very out of space to me and I can't imagine how it would have fit into the original 1910 structure.

Oops - that was supposed to read "out of place" - it's too early in the morning!

I've seen at least 2 episodes where they've dropped the horrible phone call, "we got the house?, OMG, I can't believe it!" and they're trying to change up the ending by making us guess which house they chose. It's 1000% better without the lousy acting of the homeowners.

I almost always wonder how they can afford the houses. Like the guy recently who went from a 2 bedroom condo to the architect designed house on the fairway with the "chill room", I don't recall what they said he did for a living.

I saw an ep the other day featuring a young couple who was staying with the wife's brother after returning from an extended world trip. He was a musician and she was something vague like "educational consultant." They ended up with a Craftsman house (painted a fugly brown), and blah, blah, three choices...

The whole time I'm distracted by wondering to myself: How can they freakin' afford this?

I'm probably much nosier about peoples' finances than I have any right to be, though.

I am totally hooked on this show. I will watch even if I had seen the same episode earlier in the week (or day). The only one I cannot watch anymore and have to change the channel is the one with the woman living and running a day care center in her mother's house. She may be a very sweet, nice person, and nothing personal, but her voice just grates and is at least two octives too high. Everything has to center around the kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids. "Oh, look at this roooooooom. It's niiiiiiiiice, but where are the kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids going to put their stuff?" "Oh, look at the yaaaaaaard. It's niiiiiiiice, but there's too much graaaaaaaaass. Where are the kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids going to ride their biiiiiiiiikes?" "Oh, look at all the ceeeeeeeement. Where are the kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids going to plaaaaay?" It seems as though the kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiids have the run of the house while she and her poor little girl are relegated to a couple of little rooms in the back of the house. For pity's sake, buy a house for YOU and your DAUGHTER and lease a bit of commercial space near a park in your neighborhood for the kiiiiiiiiiiiids!

Ugh, that lady bugged me too. I didn't mind her yapping about the kids as much as the sea-ment. Her pronunciation grated on my last nerve.

wyndham, if you think of something to add once you have submitted your post, please edit your original post instead of posting twice. See the FAQ for details.

I live in Southern California and I find my self thinking this same thing almost every episode. Especially when someone is moving from an apartment to a house. How do people save up 80,000 for the down payment?

Like the girl with the awesome Duplex apartment and then she bought another duplex that came with a tennent.

It's sad but I am addicted to this show and completely jealous of everyone on it, I want a house!

He was a real estate developer. Nice Porsche in the garage, too.

That was a small house so I was surprised they picked it. And she was pregnant at the end so with a small child I see them moving and soon. I think they liked the backyard on that one. Certainly not a deciding factor when I looked a houses. Well, it worked in the equation but the house had to be big enough to fit all my stuff.




I totally hated that episode for the same reason, so WORD Arabella.

I'm starting to appreciate HH more these days -- at least the hunters almost always find a place in the end. Those danged buyers on Double Agents end up not buying about half the time. HH also does a much better job of showing the people moved in and the house decorated at the end. It makes for a tidier finish.

And of course Suzanne Whhhhang is greatly preferable to that awful Double Agents host. Stop screeching at me, Jillian!

Would anyone mind telling me what channel shows Double Agents, I am unaware of this show and cannot locate a thread for it?

I think I want to watch it!

It's on the Discovery Channel. The regular one -- not Health, or Style, or War, or whatever else crap they have. It airs daily at 2 p.m. in the Mountain time zone.

Hee.



Yeah, it gave the impression that he had no say in which house they got anyway, so why not just sit outside in the sun and wait for the wife to let him know where they were moving. He seemed almost “slow” [for lack of a more appropriate word] but I doubt that he really is.

Not going to quote here, but two general statements that I want to agree on:

(1) Yeah, sometimes it seems like these people must have purposely lived in semi-poverty to put away everything they made to make a giant step in home ownership!

(2) I am amazed at the difference in the homes they show to the same people. From small to huge; run down to move-in condition; price differences ranging $70,000.

Do the realtors listen to their clients?
"I want the home move-in ready."
"This house needs a little work, new carpeting, kitchen, bath... Want to put in an offer?"
"Ummm, no."
Loved it last night when the realtor wanted to show his client the garage and she said, "I don't think we need to do that..."

Last night [the other ep] a couple was desperate for MORE room. The first home... "It isn't any bigger, but will the couple give up size for a more interesting design plan?" They loved the home they were in, but needed more room, so I'd have to go with NO! Sheesh.

On a more positive note...

Suzanne's shirt last night was incredible!!! Probably the first, and only, time I'll ever say, "Forget the houses, show me Suzanne's blouse again! Can I get pillows in that material???"
--In case you didn't see it, it was a beautiful rich red with some green and... well, you can't describe it adequately. It was beautiful material.

Didn't the wife's voice sound exactly like Drew Barrymore? It was freaking me out towards the end of the episode.

I caught part of a rerun last night of a 2002 episode, where a single lady was looking for a condo or townhouse. She was very tall, and had a rather unfortunate figure - long, thin legs, a tiny rear end, and a giant torso. She wore the absolute most unflattering clothes that someone with that shape could ever possibly wear - tight pants and shirts that fit like a second skin, and just screamed, "Hey, look! Here's where I keep my fat rolls!". It was so distracting, I didn't even get a good look at the homes. I'm really not trying to be ugly about her body, because we all come in different shapes and sizes, and can't all be supermodels, but damn. There are a million pieces of clothing that would have been flattering for her, and less dangerous to the eyes of the viewers. It was at least a verification that there is no make-up or wardrobe assistance on this show, except for Suzanne.

Also, she found a condo she was all excited about, but had hardly any furniture to speak of, so the "8 weeks later" was kind of a bummer. She sat on the floor next to the fireplace "reading a book", and her office consisted of a fax machine and a folder sorter sitting on what looked almost like a footstool. But, she really didn't seem to mind because she loved the place so much. I didn't hear much of the dialog, so maybe it was mentioned that she was waiting on new furniture or something, but it was a very different follow up than I'm used to on this show.

I saw the same episode. I got the impression that money was an issue, so she didn't have enough money to furnish the place all at once. She said she was going to do it a little at a time. But she did say that she got rid of some of the furniture she had in the apartment before she moved. What could she have gotten rid of? She hardly had any furniture to begin with, and yes, she did have very unfortunate taste in clothes. It was as if she dressed to accentuate her figure flaws, rather than hide them.

I'm not really interested in the "8 wks later" or "3 months later" part of the show unless they did something structural or changed something about the house, itself. I could care in the least where they put their furniture, or what furniture they buy. I do like it when they redo the kitchen, paint, put in hardwood floors, stuff like that.

I didn't see the ep you're talking about. I saw the two that came on at 10pm. Was that the earlier one?

Yes, it was the earlier episode, and it wasn't the first time this episode aired. It was from last season.

I thought the guy they had on tonight was kind of sweet. He was so concerned with finding the perfect house for his dog. And after he bought the house with the big yard and no steps to go up and down, he kept repeating, "Valkyrie likes it here! Valkyrie likes it here!'
It kind of reminded me of myself when looking for a new place to live. After a roof and running water, the only two "must haves" are a fenced yard for the dog and a quiet street to lower the odds of the cats being crushed under a car.

Went house hunting on Saturday and... OMG, I just realized... We really liked the THIRD house!!!

We didn't put an offer on it though. It was just our first day out and this is too huge a decision to make after just looking at four houses. I have a feeling, though, that if we had seen that house after being out for a month or so, we would have jumped on it. Maybe. Sigh.

--oh, dear, I just thought about it a bit more and the first house we looked at needed a lot of work, definitely a "no", the next one was pretty nice, and we liked the third one...

where were the cameras??? I didn't know House Hunters was a secretly filmed show!!! I'll let you know when my episode is shown... [unless they don't show it because we didn't put in an offer and hence, no dramatic phone call reenactment from our agent...]

Heh. I was just wondering the other day what's in it for the HOs. At least on design shows, they get some free stuff, even if it's crappy stuff. I really don't know why people looking for houses would put themselves to the trouble of having cameras along for no good reason. Maybe they get paid a small amount?

Maybe they get paid the difference between the crappy house and the nice one they eventually buy?
"This is what you can afford, but we're going to confuse the home audience by giving you $70,000 and letting you buy this really nice place!"

I thought maybe being on the show would help in getting a decent house, because the realtor wouldn't want to look bad on tv.

The person who really benefits is the realtor, because he/she gets free advertising. Maybe the show pays the realtor's commision on the chosen house, and lowers the price by that same amount. These are not big budget shows.

Did anyone see the recent [or recently rerun] episode about the guy in Florida? The single father, son's name was Hammond, or something, and he had two boats?

After the first home, I thought, "And it goes up from here?!?!?!" Damn that place was gorgeous!!!

But, it really didn't make sense for him to get that one, since it wasn't on the water.

The one he did get was nice even before he fixed it up!!!

And there was one last night at 11pm. The artsy/antique-y couple. She was pregnant, he had a bunch of motorcycles... I thought they did a good job on the place they bought [a fixer-upper], but their color choices weren't really to my tastes. I thought the outside looked better [the colors] before they changed them and most of the inside colors, too.

I have wondered this forever, what do they get? I am thinking it's probably a few thousand for some rennovations because I have never seen anyone just move in and not fix something. I would love someone if they can answer what the homeowners get.

Or maybe they get help getting their homes redone for the they've lived here for four months and look what they've done part of the show? I've lived in my new home for eight months now and I'm just beginning to accomplish what seems to get done in two months on this show.

I've never bought a house so I'm not sure what the HO's could get. Are realtor fees expensive? Perhaps in exchange for the publicity, the agents waive those fees. Or the show helps with closing costs...whatever they might be.

They can be. The realtor usually gets paid from 1% to 6% of the selling price depending on the agent. In high cost areas such as New York City or San Francisco this means the realtor makes a nice amount of money even if they charge only 1 or 2 percent.

Here in Texas (at least the parts I've lived in) they get 6% but the seller usually pays the realtor.

Yeah, I loved the house he picked, too. It was a little run down but had great style. Being right on the waterway didn't hurt, either. I like that the show is talking more about cost, too. Just so my jaw can get some exercise from all the dropping.

The realtor in Dallas who was moving back to his old neighborhood was interesting. It's not the house I would have picked, but it worked for him. I liked the townhouse that he sold, too.

Did anyone see Double Agents on Friday with the family who had seven kids? The parents only seemed to be in their early thirties, too. They kept looking at these huge, 6000 sf houses, but I kept thinking, "Too small, too small." As it was, they only ended up with four bedrooms.

Queasy, I did see that one - made me wonder what that man did for a living that he could afford a 6 to 800,000 dollar house and seven children. Maybe we should take this over to the Double Agents thread.

Here in Austin TX, common practice is for the buying and selling agents to evenly divide a 6% commission paid by the seller. During economic times like this when houses are sitting vacant for months [even years] on end, it's all negotiable. My realtor told me at a holiday party that selling agents are routinely taking 2% or less just to get the property sold. It sure beats 0%!

Here too, the 6% commission is split by the two agents but it's still 6% to the seller. That's a lot of money. I was able to pay just 3% when I sold my last house because I was a FSBO and paid 3% to the buyer's agent.

ETA, do you think the HOs go on this show just to be on TV? I think it would be kind of fun. Since you'd already be house hunting, why not do it on TV? It's not like you have to put up with Hild* or anything.

What is Double Agents? Another house hunting show?

I'll go check out that thread [so, please, don't fuss too much with me, TWoP PTB], but the reason I am also asking here is that if that show, or any others, are about house hunting and looking at lots of houses, could y'all please let me know what they are and what channels they are on and days/times??? I love these shows so much more than decorating shows, but don't know which is which - until they pull out the purple paint. Thanks!

Sigh. Well, I checked out that thread and it seems a perfect show for me: lots of houses and in my own area, too, but unfortunately, I'm at work when that thread said the show was on. Damn this whole self-sufficiency crap!!! Somebody find me a rich husband!!!

My husband and I went apartment shopping over the weekend. I went from room to room, each time saying in a voice attempting to mimic the children's day care lady (my "favorite" episode), "Wow, this is so niiiiiiiiice." Once I even got to say, "Wow, I'm not sure I like this caaaaarrpet." It took a sharp jab in the ribs from my husband to get me to stop. He didn't think the leasing agents got what I was doing, but I think they did.

But was it nice enough for the chuldrin?

Hee

That episode is one of my favorites. The other one that cracks me up is the one with the hat wearing realtor lady with the strange accent, that says "You have to kiss a lot of frogs..." When mr jrkstl and myself were house hunting, we'd say that after all of the craptastic houses we looked at. Maybe I need to go look at some open houses so I can talk about how "niiice" and "spaceeous" the rooms are. Good times.

Chillin' if you get BBCAmerica, check out Escape to the Country: non-London house porn, sometimes at very reasonable prices even with the exchange rate. Half an hour like HH, but a fairly high percentage of the prospective HOs don't buy one of the houses the agent shows.

Porn? House hunting AND porn! I gotta see that show!!! I think I can even get my boyfriend to pay attention to this one!

Hee. The worse thing is, I haven't a clue what you meant to type! [and you did mean to type something different, didn't you?]

But I get BBCAmerica, so I'll look for it!

I've never understood this part of the show because my husband and I have been in our townhouse for 6 1/2 years and we haven't completed a lot of decorating. Just trying to come to a decision on paint is a huge project!

Closing takes at least one month, doesn't it? It took us about a month & a half.

I Love This Show...my husband and I laugh at the music though. pica, picaaa

Term I accidentally brought from another board. House porn- looking at pictures and videos of pretty, pretty houses in the same way others would look at pictures of scantily and not so clad people. If it's drooling over a beautiful kitchen, a living room with amazing decor, or an incredibly detailed craftsman staircase, you're moving into house porn territory.

Two nights ago I saw an episode of HH and it was in New York. A single woman was looking for an apartment to renovate. I liked the apartment she picked and it had a wonderful terrace but I did not catch the price. Is anyone familiar with this episode and do you know how much she spent on her new home. Homes are not cheap in New York City.