More Youtube Real Estate Video

I had a lot of fun yesterday with my prior post on Youtube real estate video, so decided to do it again. I spent some more time searching Youtube videos and found this one I thought that I would share. This video showed up at the top of my search results for "real estate for sale" so a very impressive search result for this home.

Take a look:

As you can see the production value of this video isn't professional but it seems to get the job done for this REALTOR. I think that the music level was too loud for my liking. The biggest hold back of this video is that some of the underlying photographic images are poorly done and probably at a lower resolution than required in my opinion. However, it does seem to get the job done and probably would provide a lot of valuable information to home buyers in that area.

Top Real Estate Video On The Net

I just did a search on Youtube for the term real estate and the following real estate video showed up. It is clearly produced by a big brokerage. I'm not certain is they use real REALTORS® in the video or if they have hired some professional hosts.

What is interested to see is that the video covering the housing market for June 2011 so it is fairly recent but was able to rank up to the number 1 position. Of course if a number of real estate agents in the brokerage firm all post or link to it, it probably helps this video alot.

Tips I learned from the real estate video included the common repairs that people do prior to selling their home. They include: The Roof, Plumbing, Electrical upgrads and heating & cooling issues.

Hope you enjoy the video.

Lots of HGTV real estate this past weekend!

We are getting some nice weather around here now, but that didn't stop me from watching a lot of HGTV real estate shows this past weekend.

The problem is they've all started to blur together in my mind and I cannot give a good update on any of these home buying or home selling shows.

My general impression however is that real estate in the US is really really cheap now days. While homes in the rest of the world seem to start at $350,000 to begin to get anything nice.

Half Built House in Poland

In a new eposide of House Hunters International I saw some Canadians move to Poland to teach at an international private school. The school was giving them an apartment onsite to live in while they found a house to move to.

Well after looking at 3 homes on the show they decided to buy a house partially built and still under construction. Construction work that they would be responsible to complete and it seemed neither of them where handymen.

Well 6 months later the show comes back to them and we find them still living in the apartment and no construction had start on the home. Seems that they where having trouble getting the financing to get the job done.

Very funny!

Selling New York - Better This Week

I couldn't help myself and ended up watching Selling New York again this week. For some reason I found it to be a lot better. It maybe because I'm learning some of the REALTOR characters now or perhaps it is because they didn't focus so much on the individual condos or co-ops for sale.

Interesting things that happened in this weeks shows were:

1. A couple looking to buy a home near the WTC site had concerns about all of the construction in the area. They ended up getting a tour of development via construction models, video and the viewing deck of a building. I don't think that would have happened for them if the REALTOR didn't have the tv cameras going.

2. Big drama as they had to find a building that would allow a turtle pet.

3. A REALTOR was working with her daughters boyfriend to buy a 3 million dollar home when he decided that he was going to rent, so a $200,000 commission cheque turned into a $7,500 cheque which she declined.

Homes Inspection - Asebestos Over Reaction

I watched this weeks Holmes Inspection on HGTV and was disappointed in the show. Honestly I think we saw Mike overacting to the situation of some Asebestos being found in a home.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that Asebestos is dangerous and kills people. It is certainly a product that we should stop using and stop selling to people. However, that being said once it's been installed and if you don't touch it, it is not suppost to be able to harm you.

So that brings us to the Holmes Inspection show being discussed. In this case the home owner found (and Mike confirmed) a pipe in an other home wrapped in Asebestos. Now this pipe was in the basement, the basement was finished but the pipe was hidden behind drywall, with the slight exception of an unfinished furnace area which had the Asebestor removed. To me and probably a lot of other viewers the Asebestos pipe seemed hidden and had little risk of being moved and causing a problem.

In this case, if there wasn't a TV show picking up the bill, I doubt that the homeowner would have addressed the issue. Since Asebestos is very common in homes of a certain age, it is one of the things you expect when you look to buy an older home with character.

In any event it was interesting to see everything they needed to do to remove the Asebestos.

Location Location Location and International Real Estate

Ok so I was bored today and did some Youtube surfing for some good real estate video and came across the following:

Anyways I watchted this real estate video and I had to wonder about the name of the brokerage including "international". I mean real estate is always about "Location, Location, Location" and my location we mean local. Real estate is a local business so I really find it strange that you would be including the name international in your local real estate brokerage.

Thoughts or Comments anybody?

Selling New York - Same Show

Well this Wednesday came and went and I confirmed my worst fears that Selling New York has replaced Million Dollar Listings in HGTV time slot. Hopefully Selling New York will improve but I'm just not feeling it.

I watched both 30 minute shows tonight and it felt a lot like the shows I saw from last week. Yes some of the NY real estate was amazing, some of these condos (or co-ops) looked like the could be local townhouses inside of buildings. But something is just not there for me with this show.

The most interesting point of this week was the a couple selling their home wasn't going to follow their realtors advice to lower there price. In the end they made a slight price reduction and to the amazement of everybody it was enough to trigger an offer to buy there home.

It just goes to show you that sometimes you will just run into the right buyer at the right time.

Property Virgins in South Beach Florida

Interesting show of property virgins on HGTV last night, this eposide was in South Beach Florida. It profiled a guy who wanted to move to the South Beach Florida area. The problem was that he had million dollars tastes but only a $140,000 budget.

Now the show and the REALTORS did a great job finding him units that he could afford, since it apears $140,000 does not buy you much of a condo in that ara. So he was going to need to put up with a poor view of a parking garage, among some other minor issues.

His buddy was excited to buy some of the places he was being shown but the condo buyer was a bit "Meh" on them and decided not to buy anything.

Come back in a few year when you have a lot more money.

Selling New York - First 2 Shows

After giving a general over view of Selling New York I figured that I had best comment on the two 30 minutes shows that I watched.

In the first show we had 2 agents and their clients profiled. One with 2 days to rent singers wife an apartment. Now what was amazing about this was the rental rates of $10,000 to $14,000 a month that the apartment owners where asking.

Wow that is some impressive rent. The units where a nice size but that is a lot of coin for that location.

The other REALTOR was working with some clients who where looking to sell there $3 million dollar home (another apartment) to "free up some cash". They explain the "free up some cash" idea is needing it to send the kids to camp for $8,000 / week but I just didn't buy it. It felt like else was going on but the show didn't feel like it could tell us the truth.

In any event they looked at a few homes they could buy for a cheaper price or rent for less than there currently monthly costs. But in the end they didn't buy or rent either and we didn't get to see the sale of there home. It was kind of a let down.

The second show I watched was a bit more interesting in that we got to see some NY real estate actually being sold. Both of these home where impressive but in both cases the REALTOR defaulted to the same idea to sell these houses, which was to host a party for REALTORS, real estate brokers, agents and their current buying clients to see the home.

Good technic but I didn't need to see it twice in the same show.

Selling New York - New Real Estate Show

So I caught a New real estate show this week on HGTV called Selling New York. It is a half hour show and seem similiar to Million Dollar Listings in the same way that The City was similiar to The Hills. But like The City something seemed to be missing in Selling New York. However it is early yet so as we learn some of the REALTORS it has the possibility to improve.

However, I think that Selling New York may be a tough sell, since one of the things about Million Dollar Listing was the size and impressiveness of the homes in LA. In New York however, there is only so much you can do with apartments and I think that 1 view of NY City is going to start looking like any other very soon.

What are your thoughts?

End of Million Dollar Listings Season?

This past Wednesday I turned on the TV to watch Million dollar listings only to find a new show called Selling New York on in it time slot. Did I miss most of this season? I had though the season was just starting but thinking back now the end of last weeks show could have been a season ending cliff hanger.

I hope not but I guess that I'll find out next week.

Holmes Inspection - Part 2

Part 2 of last weeks Holmes Inspection was on Thursday evening. Clearly it was one way of helping to pay for that housing disaster with all of it's structual problems was to turn it into a 2 part show. I had forgot that it was going to be part 2 this week and was a few minutes late turning on this show. I did not instantly recognize the home from last week, I think that this was because they where doing a lot of foundation work on the front porch.

If you recall from last week this was an old home that with various renovations and expansions over the year had a lot of structural supports removed and it was amazing that it was still standing. In this weeks show they dealt with the area that had initially been the front porch of the home but had later been encorportated into the main house without improving the foundation structure below it.

Cheap Real Estate in Florida

It should be no surprise to anybody that real estate and homes are very cheap in Florida right now. I watched Property Virgins the other day and saw a couple looking to spend just under 300,000 on a new home in Florida.

Well the REALTOR was showing them some McMansions, the largest home I saw was 4000 square feet with 5 bedrooms all for an MLS asking price of $285,000! I had to laugh at these prices. What an amazing deal when you compare it to some of the House Hunter International shows I've seen where couple have been buying small apartment condos for between $400,000 to $500,000!

As they say Real Estate is all about location, location, location!

Holmes on Homes - Bad Kitchen Reno

I saw an eposide of Holmes on Homes yesterday that I had never seen before. In this show the home owner had saved up to get a quality, kitchen reno done, asked for the entire kitchen to be gutted down to the studs, got multiple quote on the project and did not go with the least expensive quote but rather picked the big name company that was doing a lot of advertising in his area.

Well it seems that 80 to 90% of the way into the job the home owner realized that this firm was not doing the job that they had been asked to so he kicked them out but of course they had 30,000 of his money at this point.

So since this is a Mike Holmes show you know that it was the correct choice to kick these contractors out Mike ends up doing a review of the house pointing out all of the area of poor construction then proceeds to rip out the original work and gut the kitchen the way it should have been done in first place.

Once again, it was amazing to see what was uncovered, lots of live wires and issues buried behind the nice outside.

Decked Out - A Different Episode Finally

I attempted to watched Decked Out 4 more times this weekend, the first 3 attempts resulted in finding the same episode beening shown (Massive deck around a new pool) so I just changed the channel. But finally on the 4th try a different episode!

The show was different than the prior, the house the builders where working with appeared to be either a semi-datched home or the last unit of a townhouse complex. It had a decent sized backyard that extended off to one side of the house (right side from the rear).

What the builders did was take advantage of the backyard extension to the right and ran the deck out that way instead of straight back flush with the home. It ended up looking amazing! It had an upper level for a BBQ area, a lower sitting area that made great use of the space plus a nice water feature.

I am looking forward to seeing some more episodes to see what other designs these builders can come up.

Holmes Inspection with Mike Holmes!

Mike Holmes must the be Oprah of real estate tv. As a person in the construction trades getting him to use your company on one of his tv shows must be worth a lot of new business to you!

Homes inspection is Mike's new show. I'm not certain what happened to Homes on Homes but Mike is still on TV so all is good in the world.

In last nights show Mike inspects a house in TO that has an open concept main floor. Well right away as a view you know that this is going to be trouble if Mike Holmes is their somebody has probably pulled out a structural wall.

Which is exactly what happened. The 2nd floor was sagging, loss of structural walls in the basement and the structures that did exist where not properly grounded in the basement. I am surprised that the house did not collopse.

Anyways with a quote of $300,000 to fix the house work got under way only to keep uncovering more problems.

Poor Wednesday Night This Week

Wednesday seems to be a great night for real estate tv. Locally HGTV seems to carry a lot of great shows on that day but this week it was pretty much a bust for me.

Million dollar listing - I only caught the end of this show, so I missed out on most of the action. However, I was glad to see that the one REALTORS (at Caldwell Banker) buyers agent was only leaving on vacation and not changing jobs as the previews had indicated.

Decked Out - I have only seen 1 show and this was a repeat of that. But isn't that always the way there seem to be some shows that you never watch but when you do have a chance to it always ends up being the same eposide!

House Hunters International - Same show as last week - Buying a home in Amsterdam.

Property Virgins - Ok this one was worth watching. I cannot remember where this house hunt was happening but it may have been in Toronto. What I liked about this one is that the buyer new that it was the right home for her and was just so excited that she immedially offered full price to make sure she got the home!

Thoughts On the First Month of this Blog

It's June 1st so the first month of this blogs young live if officially over. Now I know that I did not start blogging on May 1st. But when blogger archieves all of my blogs so far they are going to end up in the May 2011 folder and nothing else ever will. So a mile stone has been past.

In any event I wanted to share that so far I have been enjoying blogging. It has enhanced my enjoyment of watching real estate and home for sale tv as I am not watching out for some of the finer points. In addition I am hoping that it has enhanced my spelling and grammer, which is something that I had never mastered back when I was in school.

The other thing of course to note is that I'm certain as I continue to blog my style will develop and I'll become a better blogger, I'll look back at this earlier points and think, how poor quality, look how bad I was blogging back then.

But that is for the future, right now I'm hoping to get some readering and I'm really looking forward to my first comments and getting a conversation going with some readers.

Hint: Comments are very welcome.

Until next time!