Yeah, no one watches porn for the romance.
If it was the odd case sure but there are so many of them, who would not know basic prices or laws in a place they will sink big bucks in?
Of course there are some sane people who buy/rent homes/apartments on House Hunters International - people who have done a modicum of research and have at least been to the foreign destination often enough to know what to expect. I like those shows the best as they really give a true feel of adventure that is going to be fun and successful.
But the others who are clueless are usually an embarrassment that make me shudder and understand why locals in any country (USA included) sometimes find foreign investor neighbors nothing more than idiots with too much money. I suppose you could say this is a great show for anyone thinking of one day up and moving to a new land and starting over - it shows what to do and what NOT to do.
I was about 24 when a friend and I went to Crete - had never been to Greece before and the island of Crete was about as foreign as it gets. We rented a small house in the town of Matala - for a grand total of $30 a month. As Americans, you can imagine our faces when we saw the house: a one room shanty with bed carved out of stone into the back wall of the one room building. The place had one bare light bulb for light, a sink with cold water only, a kitchen table, two chairs and one window that faced the sea. The toilet was an outhouse and when you sat on it you could not close the door and had a nice view of the Mediterranean, and anyone on the Mediterranean looking up had a nice view of you. To “flush” the toilet, you then took a hose and aimed below.
We gladly took the place and not once did we complain about a damned thing - that was how many in that village lived. It was an adventure in every respect and we loved it!
We also learned you can live quite nicely with fewer creature comforts than you might normally be used to.
My point is that you have to open your eyes and see where you are. You should know that, for instance, kitchen fixtures and cabinets are NOT always included in many European apartments and is considered furniture like bringing in beds and sofas and desks, etc. You should know that old buildings were built with a different mentality - smaller bedrooms were easier to heat. One bathroom was normal. Kitchens were separate rooms sometimes because the “hired help” worked there and sometimes to keep kitchen odors from getting into the other rooms. These are things that you would find in a small apartment of even in large palaces - that is how they built things hundreds of years ago. Open your eyes and think for a minute before you open your mouth and bitch about the fact that this historical building doesn’t look at all like your ranch home in Tulsa and “…where are we going to put our king size bed?”
Speaking of which, why do people schlep furniture half way around the world to a home, sight unseen? We are not talking family heirlooms, we are talking Ashley furniture crap and LazyBoys. The cost of shipping it would most likely allow you buy buy inexpensive “starter” furniture in the local economy? Furniture that fits both in style and space requirements!
Maybe I am weird, but you could plunk me down in Botswana, Laos, Uruguay, Fiji or anywhere in the world and I would at least spend a few days looking around and seeing how the locals lived. If I had the money, sure I might upgrade to a “nicer” home but I would still take just a tiny second to consider local architecture and traditions to understand why this house/apartment has/doesn’t have certain features. And call me silly, but I believe they sell paint in every country on earth and a dark green bedroom would not be a deal-breaker.
If they are relocating on a job offer it is often free, paid for by the company.
I read that often the people have already bought/rented the house/apartment and they are just going through the motions so to speak. They are told to discuss positives and negatives, so while it seems like they are nitpicky it is probably because they are told to be. As for them not knowing anything, that is also built into the show because the audience is supposed to learn about that countries housing market along with the people, so they aren’t really that clueless. I’m not saying it explains everything, but it does explain some of it.
My favorite episode was the guy who left France to go make cheese in Mongolia.
I would very much like to see some “real” people on the show and for them to stop the faking if that is what they are doing, the voice over or realtor can give us the exposition.
“Real” in this sense means someone who is going to work where they are moving, and I wish they would cover more details about immigration and stuff. I’d like a better sense of whether the places they are looking at are average, middle class, or a new construction that is the most expensive in the entire country(offhand comment by the realtor in the Tanzania episode).
As I understand it, at the time of filming, the couple has already bought a place. Two of the sites they visit are straight-up decoys. The drama within the couple is all manufactured, because they’ve already made up their minds, and they have to come up with something bad to say about the properties they’re not buying.
I wonder how many of the people are thinking “awww ffffff…” when they’re seeing the two decoy places. I can think of at least two episodes where the place they bought was decidedly inferior to other ones they looked at.
One was a young woman who decided to run away to Paris for a year; she looked at a gorgeous one-bedroom with a brand new kitchen and bathroom and a wall full of windows. She ended up with a weird combination of closets and hallways that faced a brick wall.
The other was a weirdo who was running away from Wall Street to live in Tokyo (he reappeared in a later episode claiming he was from South Dakota, so ???). The realtor showed him an ultra-mod sleek-as-snot place with plenty of space for one person, in the city, and under budget. He ended up, if I remember correctly, with a multi-tiny-room mess 45 minutes away.
I have also heard that, IIRC from someone on this board who knew a family that appeared on the show.
Also, relevant avocado bathroom link. 
Just curious why you put bride in quotes? I remember that episode and they seemed to be a genuinely nice older couple. Who as you noted, picked a normal, realistic property; which is the main reason I remember that episode… I didn’t want to hurl a heavy object at the set, unlike the majority of the episodes I’ve watched.
I couldn’t live with it!
It’s always fascinating to see how some people are willing to totally uproot themselves. I remember one with an Eniglishman who was starting a business in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia. He was accompanied through the house hunt by a woman who was described as his business’s local assistant, but at the end the show told us that they had gotten engaged. I remember marveling that Ulaan Bataar apparently has a major traffic problem.
Another involved a couple who was house-hunting in (I think) Brisbane. The wife had grown up on Norfolk Island, a tiny flyspeck with 2000 residents, hundreds of miles off Australia’s east coast. Her culture shock was intense.
The Paris apartments are always an entertaining mixed bag. I saw one place that appeared to have been carved out from servant’s quarters in two adjoining buildings; it had a half staircase in the middle because the two buildings were on different levels. Another place had literally no windows except for a glass-roofed living room. In case of fire, jump really high? I also seem to recall one with a half-bath so small that you had to slide your knees under the sink in order to sit on the commode.
Speaking of porn, I’m almost certain that I’ve seen at least one of these couples somewhere other than HHI, if you follow my meaning.
I keep waiting for Wifey and Hubby to show up on this show.
They might have been worried about immigration trouble, or something dunno.(might be better legally to pretend they fell in love after he was there).
She was from Bakersfield. I know this because I, too, am from Bakersfield and screamed at the TV at how fucking ridiculous she was. She had the most redneck-attempting-to-be-pretentious-British accent I’ve ever heard in my life.
I mean, on some level, I get some of their complaints: you’re used to what you’re used to. That said, these folks do need to learn to be a bit more. . . realistic. . . in their pursuits.
Let me ask Dopers this: how many times do you find yourself COMPLETELY disagreeing with their choice? I’d say 4/5 times, I don’t agree with the house hunters AT ALL.
I just have real issues with someone shown 3 absolutely fantastic half million dollar properties, and they can’t seem to find anything nice to say about any of them. Like that pretentions dumbass ‘dance choreographer’ from NZ [?] Her parents were turfing in a couple hundred thousand dollars towards the place, and she picked the one that would have made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Almost every European one has the couple who wants something atmospheric and close to cultural attractions, and they’re shown the above mentioned tiny closets/no central AC or heating/kitchen last remodeled when there were Habsburgs in power, etc., BUT with absolutely TONS of atmosphere and walking distance to cultural and historical sites. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single family pick this, though, when shown the alternative of blander architecture and suburban setting but more U.S. bourgeois culture level. Has the more interesting/less comfortable place ever won out?
I remember a couple moving to Hong Kong (I believe- large Asian metropolis in any case) who were shown several places with Chinese architecture and features. They ultimately rented (or bought- don’t remember) a McMansion that could pass unnoticed in a Tort Lawyer Estates suburb of Atlanta or Des Moines or Sacramento- total cookie cutter that at once defeats the whole purpose of living in China but also probably eases transition.
I meant no harm. I agree they seemed like good people–who long ago were the Black American GI & his blushing fraulein; but they’d stood the test of time. The places they checked out looked like rather basic apartments thrown up quickly where older buildings had been bombed out during the war. But they found a little place they made cheerful–close to public transportation & the family members. (Coming up in a few minutes–a new episode set in Berlin.)
Some of the Hunters are fairly interesting people. But I really watch for the chance to snoop into people’s houses. Since the final one has already been picked, the others we see are often already other people’s homes. Really, how else can you visit apartments in Ulan Bator, Mongolia?
accidental double post deleted…
That would be awesome! Perhaps a mob of fans can suggest they try to get on the show?