The Good Life in Austin Texas

I came across this real estate brokerage in other video and they looked very interesting. It seems that they are moving to save the environment by going to near 100% ipad use to sell homes in Austin.

This was a short video clip outlining their program for becoming an paperless agent. I'm happy to see somebody is putting the ipad to use as a business tool. Up to now I've always felt it was an expensive but very cool toy. I wonder how long it will be before we see an agent using one on House Hunters, Property Virgins or 1 of the "Selling" shows.

Do you have an tablet that your able to make use of in your business?

House Hunters Denmark to St. Lucia

It's been awhile since I saw this show of House Hunters International, but since I went to St. Lucia on holidays a few years back I wanted to make sure I covered this amazing island!

In this show we follow a couple moving from Denmark and have a great budget.

There options are:

1) 1 millions for a condo with 2 bedrooms in a resort.
2) 1.6 million for a nice home on a hill with a great view, but not near the water.
3) 1.7 million for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom with 2,500 feet of room and a great location but it was a major fixer upper.

In the end they choice option number #2 with it's 3,000 feet of room, 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and it's great view of the Pitons.

NY to Melbourne

I learned that real estate and homes are expensive in Melbourne. In this show of house hunters international we covered a family moving from NY to Melbourne. The most important thing to the wife was a home with a pool.

But in the end for 900k they purchased a nice home, next door to a beekeeper and his bee hives. Not a place I'd want to be swimming!

A Rental in Rome

House hunters international and it was covering a single woman moving from America to Rome.

The home hunter taking a new job in downtown Rome, (which appeared to be teaching english) and she had a small rental subsidy from her employer. So this ended up being a rental search and not buying a home.

The problem was that the rental rates are out of this world. She had a budget of $5,000 a month but the homes we saw where $6,500 , $6,500 and $7,500!

The location looked exciting but she was not getting a palace for that price. In the end her REALTOR® was able to get the price of the property down towards the affordable $5,000 level and she got a great place to live.

Expensive Homes in London

House hunters international again yesterday and this time instead of showing a big move it was expensive real estate in London.

The home buyer was more of an investor and was looking to buy property in the 1.2 million dollar range in the Hyde Park area of London.

Well it seems that you cannot get much for 1.2 million in London, it's an expensive city.

The options we had where:

1. A nice sized home that needed major work because the prior owner died in the middle of renovating it for 1.2 million.

2. A small, narrow home in a unique location for 1.23 million or

3. A nice, fully upgraded and complete home for 1.7 million.

I think in this one the choice of pretty clear the investor picked home number 1 and was able to purchase it for "only" 800,000!  After some good rennovations the show indicated it was now worth more than twice that amount!

Takes money to make money!

Toronto to Mexico

Another show of House Hunters international I watched last night was covering a couple moving from Toronto to Mexico. Except that they were not really moving from Toronto, it seem that they were just staying there for a bit after spending the last 3 years living in a 300 square foot apartment in Japan.

The home buyers were looking for a luxury villa in the 200k range, and amazingly they had several very nice options. All with personal sized pools in their backyard.

In the end they ended up purchasing a home for over their price range for 220k. But it was clearly the best of the lot.

House Hunters - Cincinnati

Well house hunters covered home buyers looking in Cincinati last night. Personnally my only experience with Cincinati to date was watching the old classic TV show WKRP.

However, the city seemed very nice from what I saw and real estate pricing seemed to be very reasonable.

This episode covered a young couple looking to buy their first home. Of the three homes we saw my guess was that they would be buying number 3.

I though that the 3rd home was the best fit being a bit bigger than the rest despite the lack of privacy due to it backing onto a high school.

However, in the end they picked home number 1 which must have been in a better area of town.

London to the South of Spain

Well this House Hunters International show was fairly unique. It followed the same formula with a home buyer moving from London to the south of Spain. What made this interesting however was that the buyer had a price point in the mid $550k range and that they were looking for something in the country that was very isolated.

Isolated means that you end up owning lots of land all around you! This was not about buying a small unit in a city.

The views of 3 of the homes we saw where amazing! In the end the home buyer purchased a house in the middle of know where but in a classic spain lay out. Lots of room to expand if they needed!

House Hunter St Louis

I've been to St Louis a long long time ago so it was very nice to see a city that I've been to on House Hunters. Always makes it interesting as you try to see if you recognize any of the locations and their seemed to be a few of them.

In this show of HH we had a couple looking to buy a home with older charm that had been updated. The price point was in the 200k to 300k range and their seemed to be a lot of options availalble at this very reasonable price point.

In the end the buyers picked the one home that seemed to meet all of their requirements but didn't seem to have the street appeal that the other ones had to me.

Cali to South Korea

This was the first house hunters internation show that I've seen that takes place in South Korea. Normally when people are moving it tends to be to a much warmer climate.

In this show we follow to Americans who are moving to South Korea to teach english as many have done before. And as is common as foreigners they cannot buy a home but must rent.

The intersting twist was that in South Korea they required a Key Money deposit of between $15k and $50k! Key money seems to be a lot like a security deposit on the rental unit but it certainly would be a significant barrier to moving out on your own for the first time.

In the end this couple of ending up moving into the cheapest and smallest place available. They tended to come up with reasons why they didn't like the more expensive homes but my gut told me that it really was the money issue.

House Hunters Denver

Denver House Hunter was on this week.

Home buyer were looking in the $600k to $700k range. You can get some very nice homes for that price point in the Denver real estate market it seems.

A wide varity of house where offered to the buyers ranging from an older 70's style with lots of work required to a large fully updated palace.

In the end these home buyers wanted to do the work to tailor the house to their needs so they purchased the older 70's home.

London to Rio Brazil

House Hunters Internation last night! This show was about a man moving from London to Rio Brazil to live with his Brazlian girlfriend.

The home buyer had about $400k to spend and was looking for an older house that was in need of some serious repair that he could fix up over the next year.

Well, only the first house we saw met those fix up conditions, the other 2 where newer and in better shape. So there was no much drama in which home he would be purchasing.

House Hunters International - Thailand to Australia

In this show we watch what appeared to be Australian ex-pats living in Thailand moving back to Australia for a work opportunity.

The twist her was that we had a spoiled wife living the life of luxury in Thailand with a nanny to look after her 3 boys and a cook. Thus she spend her days on the beach, something that wasn't going to continue back in Australia.

The buyers where looking in the golden coast area and the prices were all near 1 million with pools.

In the end the picked the home closest to work for the husband.

House Hunters New Orleans

I saw the end of a house hunters show last night which was about a couple moving from New York City back to New Orleans.

I wanted to comment that a lot of  New Orleans real estate must be doing better now. I was expecting that home prices in that market would still be in the dumps but we were looking at homes in the 500k range that had only 3 bedrooms!

Looking forward to getting a chance to watch the entire show.

House Hunters in Chicago

Another new show of house hunters was on HGTV this week. In this issue we have a couple looking to purchase a new home in Chicago nearly Wriggley stadium.

They ended up having 3 choices:

#1 Was an old converted Couch House with no outside land and no parking it was 440k and only 1500 feet.

#2 Was a 3 unit home which included 2 units for renting. Thus making the 575k price tag affordable. It also include 2000 feet of living space in the owners unit.

#3 Also had a single rental unit on the first floor, with a nice 4 bedroom 2 bathroom owners unit on the 2nd and 3rd floors. It had 1700 feet for the owners and some updates. However the 3rd floor was a converted attic with some small bedrooms in my opinion. However the price tag was 577k.

In the end the home buyers picked opinion #3.

House Hunters - Jupiter Florida

I saw one of my first new editions of House Hunter in a very long time over the holidays and I'm finally able to comment on it.

This house hunters took place in Jupiter Florida and covered a single woman looking to buy a home. The most notable thing about this show was that it seem very pro house owners association (HOA).

The buyer wasn't wanting to do much upkeep with the outside of the house and was thus the REALTOR was really pushing the advantages of an HOA. I've never seen this before and figured that it was worth a comment.

House Hunter International - NYC to Singapore

Even more new content with a discussion of last nights House Hunter International covering a move from NYC to Singapore.

I found that the real estate was a side bar in the eposide. It covered to 2 brothers moving to Singapore to establish a new business. The older brother who was paying for everything was moving from NYC. While the younger brother was taking a year off from school in Australia to help out with the project.

So there where looking for a place that could both double as an office/workspace and a home to live in and needed to be downtown. The new business was an attempt to merge a Shopping and a Social Networking website together, which I ended up finding that I was more interested in learning more about than the actual real estate rentals these buyer where looking at.

House Hunters - Tybee Island

House Hunters really kicked it up a notch when they went to Tybee Island in Georgia. The Island community looked like an amazing vacation area, the video of the area had an old style 1800's feel to me.

The home buyers in this show were an older couple looking to buy a vacation home for themselves and their family. Plus wanting the option to rent it out when they were not using it.

They had the standard 3 home options:

1. 549k for a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom, & 3000 foot home.
2. 515k for a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, & 2400 foot home.
3. 525k for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, & 1700 foot home.

The most interesting thing I saw was something called a ship ladder stair well in home number 3.

However at the end of the day the couple purchased home number 2 since it seemed the best combination of everything they were looking for.

House Hunters in Sicily

Another House Hunters International on HGTV last night and this one took place in Sicily.

This show was the standard setup with a family of 5 (2 parents plus 3 kids) moved to the Sicily area of Italy from England. The family had a budget of approximately $500,000.

Well one of the homes was a half built home that was pitched as a great investment. And once you saw it you knew that this was the home that they would be purchasing given that is what happened that last few times we saw an unfinished home on House Hunters.

And in this case that is what they did, but unlike similar purchases there was no follow up 3 months later showing the home still in an unliveable condition.

However the best line of the night was from the daughter after being introduced to the construction site that her parents had just purchased: "I though you said you bought a house!"

House Hunters Mississipi to Dubai

Another interesting show on HGTV of House Hunters International.

In this one we follow a newly wed couple where the husband has been transfered from Mississipi to Dubai in the UAE for his consulting jobs. The twist is that the wife is a nurse and also needs to find a job in Dubai.

As often in these foreign exotic locations, the house hunters are not legally allowed to buy property in Dubai so we follow them as they try to find something to rent. The requirements for this home search seems that it's required to be water front near a marina.

The first apartment we find is in a hi-res building 2 bedrooms and 1300 feet, the only problem is that it's too high up for when the grooms family comes to visit. The next property is a nice villa which is way to far out of town and the 3rd property is a similar apartment to the first one except that it's lower to the ground but as a result there is far to much street noise!

Can you guess which one these home buyers picked?