I've watched a bit of The Vanilla Ice Project, though I have to admit it was mainly for the novelty of seeing Vanilla Ice flipping houses. It's entertaining enough though, I suppose.
I used to religiously watch House Hunters (both US and International) as well as Extreme Home Makeovers when we still had cable, but I don't find myself or my wife really searching for them on either Hulu or other online web tv channels. I still do get sucked into a This Old House episode on Public Television on Saturday mornings when my kids wake me up.
I actively searched for this kind of shows because I thought that would be a great way to learn a bit about real estate. I can't remember the name of the show I watched, or even the channel where it aired, but the show was pretty dumb. It about guys who bought houses without being able to have a look inside, and they all competed with each other... But instead of being really about real estate, it was about this guys making obviously scripted jokes, and other type of reality TV stuff which I can't stand. Nice list there @springbreeze (does this even work?) I might watch some of those before going to sleep tonight.
You're totally right. There's more to buying a house than getting a loan and pulling out your check book. And some realtors don't make it any easier for the buyer. The one thing I've noticed with these buying shows is that the realtor always shows the buyers a home at a price above the buyers stated limit. And of course the house looks better. If the buyers fall for this trick, they end up paying more than what would make them comfortable, which then can cause problems later on. What buyers always have to keep in mind is: the higher the price of the home, the more the realtor makes. So, there's always a bit "conflict of interest". Thanks Colebra! As for it working... these shows should be used like cliff notes only. There is so much more to this business than buying, fixing, and then selling. Just like with any other profession or business, people need to do their homework: research, talk to other people in the business, go to workshops, get trained, make contacts. And if you pay attention, these flippers use different studies, for example: business, construction, interior design, accounting...
I find television is a waste of time, so, no, I don't watch any such reality programming. In fact, I don't even have a television connected to cable or antenna, but instead just catch the news and a few shows on the web.
I don't watch too much of these shows but I have watched Extreme Home Makeovers and a long time ago I also watched This Old House. I know I have seen others while flipping channels. If I'm in the mood then I'll watch reality shows about real estate and I like learning new things.
Yes, I watch a few French shows that one, repair houses for poor families, sometimes almost rebuild them and another one that makes changes in order to raise the house's value and sell them more easily. It's usually about making fixes, changing the decoration, etc...
I do, I love the shows but sometimes you get so caught up in them trying to explain things they tend to not be very open about all the mess that goes on with trying to renovate a home. No one tells you about the cost of the license or permits when your watching someone bring in a brand new sofa to go with the $500 paint they can afford to use becuase Lowes donated it. LOL
I do watch a lot of real estate reality shows, such as Flipping Out, selling L.A., Selling New York and the House Hunter shows. I find it to be less stress because I am not financially involved. lol
