Monday 30 May 2011

House Hunters in Amsterdam - Condos under construction.

I only caught one show of interested on the weekend it was house hunter international and this show they were in Amsterdam.

First off I was very surprised by the housing prices in Amsterdam this couple was looking to spend around $400,000 in USD and what they were getting where small apartment condos that were actually in the middle of renovations. And when I say small I mean very small I could not imagine living in those small homes.

Now mind you they were looking to buy right down town in the most expensive area so perhaps the house hunt was a bit mislead. But I was not wanting to live in any one of these homes which in unusual for me.

In any event as normal their REALTOR showed them 3 homes and they picked the one that required the most construction. When the show visited them 4 months later the apartment condo did look ok, but still not a place for me.

Friday 27 May 2011

Property Virgins - An Early Show

I saw an episode of Property Virgins earlier this week. It musth have been one of the first one that they did. The format was pretty much the same, but the production values did not have the polish of the current show. Plus this one was clearly filmed in Toronto Ontario which is where most of the early ones are from.

Of course that brings up an interesting question the host cannot have a real estate license in all of the areas that they film the show. I guess that they must work with a local REALTOR who is "the team" they mention in the latter shows.

Not so much note worthy in this show the buyer ended up with the choice between over paying for a unit that was fully upgraded or buying a condo for a lot less that she could upgrade herself and spend less over all. It seems that the point of the show was that the buyer couldn't see past the existing state of the lower cost unit and choose to spend big!

Thursday 26 May 2011

Million Dollar Listing - 4.5 million for a construction site

I think that Million Dollars Listing is quickly becoming my new favour real estate show. I think that it done in more of a realty show style flair, similiar to The Hills or The City. The real estate agents are the main characters in the show and the MLS homes they are selling are more of a supporting cast.

Anyways in this weeks show we have one REALTOR taking a listing of a home that was under construction which has now stopped leaving this home a construction site. I was amazed to learn that it would require another 8 months to complete but once you see the size of the property you can see why. In any event the difference between spending another million to complete the work or sell it now would double the value of the home from $4.5 million to $9.0 million.

If that was me I would want the $9.0 million but didn't seem to be the issue to the current home owners so it went on the market for $4.5 million.

The other interesting property was an amazing beach front home for $13,995,000. What was interesting here is that the seller wanted to use two REALTORs and did not tell either of them before they both arrived at the same appointment. It was fun to watch!

Wednesday 25 May 2011

House Hunters - California & Rome

So I caught two shows last night the normal house hunters and house hunters international.

In house hunters the buyer was looking to spend around $400,000 on an apartment condo in California. I do not remember the city but all of the condominiums seemed very nice. However they clearly got smaller (with less building perks) the closer you got to the city centre. In the end the buyer picked the condo that was the mid point balance between location and size. Which I think was a good trade off.

On the other hand in House Hunters International we had a buyer looking to spend $500,000 in Rome. And I must say $500,000 does not go very far in Rome. I would have taken any one of those in California over the Rome condos.

Of course if you look at my past post $200,000 in Virginia is an amazing deal!

Tuesday 24 May 2011

My First Sale - Some Ugly Purple Carpet

My First Sale was on as well last night. This show was about selling a very nice home some in the Philidephia area.

In my opinion they did everything correct, the REALTOR gave them a lot of tips to get the house ready for sale, they priced the home mid range to other properties selling in the area and they seemed very flexible around showing times.

It seems that they ended up with a decent numbers of home buyering looking at this house. However, after 9 months on the market the home did not sell. This is the second time I've seen this show and both times the house has sat on the market not selling. You almost need to feel bad for the producers of My First Sale since they have clearly started to make this show at the wrong time it's probably taking far longer to create each eposide than they expected!

If I was going to critical of anything it would be the ugly purple carpet covering up the great hard wood floor. At the start of the show the real estate agent told the home owner to remove the purple carpet and show off the hard wood underneath. Well the home owner removed some of it from an upstairs bedroom and it looked great. However, it was decided that it was just too much work to remove it all from the stairs and main floor. That was a big mistake in my opinion, the real estate agent should have been on them to show the main floor hard wood. I think it would have helped a lot!

Until next time!

Monday 23 May 2011

Property Virgins in Richmond Virginia

I watched an episode of Property Virgins tonight, this one was in Richmond Virginia. I did not realize it at the time of watching the show but now that I have blogged it down, I'm thinking that I should comment on the word play of Property Virgins in Virginia. Ok now that I've made my clear reference back to real estate tv blogging.

This shows couple was wanting to buy a home in the the country with a lot of privacy. So the first home that they see happens to be in the country with 2 acres of land around and an ok sized homes. Well it turns out that despite this house being what they asked for it happens to be just a little too far from the city.

Well the next two homes are a lots closer to the city and have good lots, but one of the homes happened to back on to a highway and there was lots of noise. So it did not end up being much of a surprise as to what home this couple purchased.

I also started to watch a show called "My First Place" but it seemed a little too much like Property Virgins but it was missing something to me. I did not get past the first TV break. May be I'll try it again another time.

Saturday 21 May 2011

New TV Show - Decked Out

Well I'm not 100% on if it is actually a new show, but it was new to me last night, the ads on HGTV while it was playing lead me to think it was in it's secound season.

If you have not season this show before it's about a team of builders creating some very amazing back yard decks. The show I saw had them install a pool behind a massive home and then build a deck around it with not 1 but several cabana's.

I was most impressed with the size of the deck, it appeared that they had about 8 people working on it and it took them close to a month to complete .... I would estimate the value of this deck at around $150k by the time to factor in the labour plus materials. Not to mention knowing how much the quotes on my little backyard deck have been.

Until next time.

Friday 20 May 2011

Selling Your Home with Real Estate Video

This one should probably have been one of my first blog posts but I'm finally getting around to it tody. If you have not seen this Real Estate marketing video yet you should since if real estate videos had a top 10 billboard chart it would have been a #1 with a bullet hit.

The production value of this video is top notch and I cannot imagine the cost of it however it is very innovative. With a SWAT team being sent to rescue a girl at the home that is being sold. Over the course of this marketing effort you get a great description of the home and of course you get to view it as well.

Bottom line of course is that it is a very good home selling marketing effort. However since it's on the other side of the world I'm not certain if I'm the target market they are trying to sell to.


Thursday 19 May 2011

Expensive Homes and Tossing Millions Around

New season of Million Dollar Listings seems to be on now and last night I watched a show. What amazes me most about this show is that some time they are tossing millions of dollars around as if they are nothing to buy some of these expensive homes.

I saw a home deal for what must have been an apartment condo start at a listing price of near $20 million dollars with an opening offer of $15 million. These real estate agents negotiated down to $18 million, $17 million and up from $15 to $15.8 to finally end up at $16.5 million. Watching them it was as if these millions of dollars where mere single dollars.

It would be nice to have that type of money and invest in real estate wouldn't it.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Buying a New Home - Do you want Lava or Tsunami Issues?

I was watching another eposide of House Hunters last night. This one was located in Hawaii and the views are amazing and it looks like it would be a wonderful place to visit some day.

However, I had to laugh at the options the REALTOR presented to home buyers. The first home was in a lava spillway, the 2nd home would require Tsunami insurance and the 3rd one looked like it was on the moon.

With options like that I do not think that I'll be buying real estate in Hawaii but I do plan to visit it one day.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

House Hunters International in Turkey

I watched another show last night call House Hunters International and this show was located in Turkey. I had seen the domestic version before but never this international one. Watching it made me want to retire to a sunny exotic area .... not likely to happen any time soon.

In any event this show had a couple looking to buy a place in a beach town in Turkey. In the end they picked a large place far from the beach but personally I would have gone with the smaller condo near the beach.

Monday 16 May 2011

My First Sale - Selling the Priciest House on the Block

I just finished watching an episode of My First Sale called Selling the Priciest House on the Block  it was on HGTV. I found this show interesting since at one point the homer owners recruited a psychic to help these sell their home.

Personally I wasn't impressed with their agent to start with as they priced their home $10,000 over the compariable homes based on their agents suggestion. I didn't see any pressure from them to over price their home but that could have been editing of course.

In any event over the course of the show we watch the home owners slowly reduce their price until they are priced correct and then start to receive low ball offer. I am happy for them that they didn't have to sell, I could imagine the desperation of somebody needing to sell there home at any price.

In any event not a bad show to watch.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Million Dollar Agents - Old School

I was surfing some real estate video and came across this old Million Dollar agent show. It must have been one of the first ones from back in 2005. The production value seems a little low today but it was probably fine at the time.

It is interesting to see this new real estate agent who gets lucky enough to be profiled on a new TV show. Not certain why she would start off going after the really big fish to sell their  home first. I think you need to learn to walk before you run, but heck this reminded me of Bud Fox from the original Wall Street Movie.

Saturday 14 May 2011

Property Virgins

Well I wanted to start off with a big shout out to one of my favourite real estate TV shows which is Property Virgins. Initially I did not think that they would be able to get away with the title of the show, but lately they are starting to play it up a bit of sex innuendo. You can check this out in their latest TV spot, which I have attached below.

Personally I really enjoy the show I am amazed at how little new home buyers know about the process they are starting on. Of course I often wonder if they are playing this up a bit too.

New Blog to discuss Real Estate TV & Videos

Welcome to my new blog!

After thinking about starting a blog for awhile now I have finally got of my couch and started it. I have decided to start off focusing this blog on one thing that I am passionate about which is Real Estate TV shows.

I really enjoy watching HGTV, home flipping shows, first time buyer shows and the Million dollar agents. Thus I think I have a lot of content to talk about but since I'm not going to limit myself to just being a TV reviewer I have also included video since I can always find good video content.