# House Hunters outrage! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779 "2009-10-14T13:59:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/141 "2011-04-09T11:08:30Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I’m seriously getting to want to kill people who whine about not having stainless appliances. > > And I almost think the real estate agents on these shows should do a little coaching or educating BEFORE they start taping. > > “Look, don’t whine about the color of the walls or you look like a moron. There’s this stuff called PAINT and it’s really cheap. Don’t whine that the football field size bedroom is “too small”, or that the expensive corian counter top isn’t granite, or that the house doesn’t have every single thing you want. In fact, as far as that goes, just don’t be a whiny little shit at all because you’re just going to come off as a whiny little shit on TV.” Or a quick little lecture about how many of us in the US live in homes that cost UNDER $250K, and they are looking at a property that is worlds better than what we have, for twice as much, that will be their vacation home. We are having issues actually continuing to make payments because we were reduced in hours, or actually laid off and supporting ourselves on one income and they are whinging about nonsense … ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/142 "2011-04-09T12:42:13Z")
Then we have the flipside of the coin. Last night there was a working class couple from Pennyslvania who wanted to buy a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Their #1 criteria: ocean view. Their budget: $200,000. :rolleyes: They kept squinting off in the distance and whining, “I can’t see the ocean from here.” P.S. They settled on a fractional ownership ($57k/month and they bought two months) of a place that was a 2 minute walk to the community’s private beach. Oh, and the very next show was a couple from Alaska who wanted an ocean view in Kauai. Their budget: $400-500k. They ended up buying a place for $839k. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/143 "2011-04-09T13:37:28Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Then we have the flipside of the coin. Last night there was a working class couple from Pennyslvania who wanted to buy a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Their #1 criteria: ocean view. Their budget: $200,000. > > :rolleyes: > > They kept squinting off in the distance and whining, “I can’t see the ocean from here.” > > P.S. They settled on a fractional ownership ($57k/month and they bought two months) of a place that was a 2 minute walk to the community’s private beach. > > Oh, and the very next show was a couple from Alaska who wanted an ocean view in Kauai. Their budget: $400-500k. They ended up buying a place for $839k. :smack: The people were sensible and got their ocean view and access and under budget. What was their condo fee like? The alaskan hawaiians makes me wonder - doesnt anybody bother researching their possible vacation idea? I go online and regularly do a home search for fantasy living locations - I know roughly what I can expect if I want to live in Paris, Amsterdam, Munich … rentals, purchases, _room sizes_, locations. I read blogs by people who have moved to the areas, look at pictures, read message boards. Heck, I know roughly what it would cost to move into NY or San Francisco and what to expect for what my price range would be. And do they really NOT understand that when they are told that Costa Rica has a 200 foot _restricted area_ along the beach for natural habitat that means there is NO HOUSING ON THE FREAKING BEACH unless it pre-existed, and it will probably cost millions and not hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase _if_ one actually comes up for sale? ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/144 "2011-04-09T14:04:08Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > The people were sensible and got their ocean view and access and under budget. What was their condo fee like? It was funny because when they were looking, I said,“I wonder if they have fractional units available there?” In addition to their modest budget, I thought it would have worked better because they were in their mid-40’s and still working. Surely they couldn’t have been entitled to more than 4 or 5 weeks of vacation per year anyway, so why would they even want a year-round place? (They did speak of renting one side of a duplex fractional they were looking at, so maybe they were thinking they could rent the rest of the year…? But seriously, an ocean view on a $200k budget? Completely unrealistic.) FYI, their HOA fees were $110/month, I believe. But it didn’t say whether they owed that each month or only the months they bought. If it was a monthly fee, $1320/month ($110/month x 12 owners) sounded really high to me. But $110/month sounded really low. They never answered my question, though. BTW, the first home that the Alaska couple looked at in Kauai was a 2 bdrm condo for $399k. The HOA fees? $850/month. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/145 "2011-04-09T14:21:19Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Then we have the flipside of the coin. Last night there was a working class couple from Pennyslvania who wanted to buy a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Their #1 criteria: ocean view. Their budget: $200,000. Pennsylvania? Seriously? On one of the spinoffs, I asked about all the blue-collar and middle-class Brits that always seemed to be buying expensive vacation property in oddball locations. "Nigel works as a lorry driver, and Katherine is a nurse. They’re looking for a weekend getaway beach house in the Azores. Their budget is a modest £700,000. " :eek: ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/146 "2011-04-09T22:25:41Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Pennsylvania? Seriously? On one of the spinoffs, I asked about all the blue-collar and middle-class Brits that always seemed to be buying expensive vacation property in oddball locations. "Nigel works as a lorry driver, and Katherine is a nurse. They’re looking for a weekend getaway beach house in the Azores. Their budget is a modest £700,000. " :eek: I agree, the most amazingly odd people seem to have these huge budgets for vacation properties. I know the NZ Choreographer that is like 19 who had a budget of 500K got a majority of the money from her father, they were going to be ‘sharing’ the property. I know she was planning on spending 6 months of the year there. Hell of freaking vacation… ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/147 "2011-04-10T02:49:47Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Another thing I noticed-- if you were to go by House Hunters, you’d believe that 98% of the US is married, 49% are gay married and 30% of the straight married couples are interracial. I noticed that too. > [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Hear! Hear! > > I look at these two story family rooms and foyers and see a lot of air that needs to be heated before I can get warm. We bought our latest home on blueprint, we got rid of the double-height ceiling and added 4 extra rooms upstairs (about 20% bigger than the original). Double-height ceilings is great here in the tropics, except that there were no windows planned at the top, a very stupid design indeed. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I do, **Biggirl** , and you’re right - they were always so personally affronted that someone could DARE question their taste in decorative ducks for the entire house! What the hell was the name of that? We sold two properties (including our home) in record time and I credit the home staging shows for it. Each person that came to see our places, regardless of how it fit in their budgets/needs, wished they could buy ours. Clean and organized goes a long way. > [@PunditLisa](#): > > Then we have the flipside of the coin. Last night there was a working class couple from Pennyslvania who wanted to buy a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Their #1 criteria: ocean view. Their budget: $200,000. Damn, I missed that. I live in the DR. And yes, you are not going to get anywhere near a beach for that kind of money. Where I live (think small private republic) you can buy a mid-sized apartment 5 km from the beach for that price. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/148 "2011-04-10T03:32:27Z")
To be perfectly honest, WRT tropical luxury locations - I would actually rather have a lovely private place inland for a third the cost, with twice the space and an indifferent view. I would rather _go_ to the beach than live there. Let me explain why … I used to live at 8405 Atlantic Ave, in Va Beach. Lovely home, I had the ground floor apartment. We had our ‘driveway’ stretching the street frontage of the property, and just about a car and a half deep. Hm, I would say about 45 to 50 feet or so. From Oct 1 to maybe April 30 it was lovely, if you check google maps for it, you will see that there are about 3 or 4 blocks that are actually a little tail going off Atlantic Ave to the back gate of Fort Storey, and hence not actually heavily traffiked. Summer on the other hand, we would have to get people towed to be able to get in and out of our plainly marked NO PARKING and PRIVATE DRIVE house frontage. I caught people peeing or worse in my side yard in the shrubbery. I had someone try to steal out of my screen porch, my car, my back yard, toss all their trash in my trash bins and the upstairs neighbors trash bin, and the upstairs neighbor would catch people sitting in his deck and using his BBQ. I will never live in a heavy tourist area again. I will go inland and have real nice local neighbors where we can share recipes, trade babysitting or fruit, and have a quiet residence. [I do not ever seeing buying a vacation property unless it is that spiffy 2 bedroom place in Bali that you open the bedroom sliding windows and jump into the pool! We could rent that place out when we aren’t there!] ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/149 "2011-04-10T12:48:21Z")
I don’t live in a heavy tourist area, if you want an ocean view where I live you’ll need beaucup bucks (400K for a _small_ apt, or 10M for just a lot). But I perfectly understand your point. Ocean view doesn’t come without a lot of trouble and risks, _specially_ in the Caribbean. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/150 "2011-04-10T13:45:50Z")
Anyone else indulge in the porn that is _Selling New York_?? Some of the potential commissions are more than I paid for my house! I know New York isn’t your typical American real estate market, but I still can’t wrap my head around how much some people are willing to pay to live there. And the obsession with “the view” - um, you’re looking at a bunch of other buildings. A view is mountains or oceans or other nature-related things. Concrete and steel and glass? OK, if you prefer… Now that I think of it, it’s not porn, it’s more of a cartoon. Yet I still watch. Damn you, HGTV!!! ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/151 "2011-04-10T14:42:37Z")
The other thing that they never mention about the ocean front apartments is that the seabreeze will help speed everything you own to an early death. My parents lived by the ocean for about 7 years/ In that time, the seabreeze helped destroy anything that was gilded, the fridge, the gas connection for the stove and a bunch of printers. Printer cartridges didn’t last very long. Condo fees of $850 don’t surprise me all that much. I’m willing to bet that they were in older high rises built in the 60s with a ton of deferred maintenance and a bunch of people working in the building. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/152 "2011-04-10T15:42:03Z")
> [@Caffeine.addict](#): > > The other thing that they never mention about the ocean front apartments is that the seabreeze will help speed everything you own to an early death. My parents lived by the ocean for about 7 years/ In that time, the seabreeze helped destroy anything that was gilded, the fridge, the gas connection for the stove and a bunch of printers. Printer cartridges didn’t last very long. Heck, I lived two blocks from the ocean once and had the same problem (it was on a high rise). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/153 "2011-04-10T17:16:08Z")
“Oh look, we’re 20 feet from the ocean!” Ok. Not where I want to be in a storm… Or a tsunami. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/154 "2011-04-10T22:12:14Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Anyone else indulge in the porn that is _Selling New York_?? Some of the potential commissions are more than I paid for my house! > > I know New York isn’t your typical American real estate market, but I still can’t wrap my head around how much some people are willing to pay to live there. And the obsession with “the view” - um, you’re looking at a bunch of other buildings. A view is mountains or oceans or other nature-related things. Concrete and steel and glass? OK, if you prefer… > > Now that I think of it, it’s not porn, it’s more of a cartoon. Yet I still watch. Damn you, HGTV!!! the prices are unreal! and get this! for most of those condos, lofts, and apts you pay cash. there isn’t a morgage. i read a book about the major foo-foo buildings in nyc. you want a place in one of the big name buildings, you have to pass the building’s rigourous screening, and have way more in the bank than the price of the space. and you have to prove that you have more than enough money to pay the monthly fee. they can be more than 10 thousand a month. it is a really, really, different livestyle. and some of those living spaces are incredible! in nyc the buildings are the views… unless you can get a nice central park view. that view is megamillions. i did laugh at the fellow that thought doing a remodel of an apt. would be a too tight at one hundred thousand. that would buy an entire house in many places. he thought it wouldn’t be enough to do the bathroom and kitchen! ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/155 "2011-04-12T20:58:48Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > They also have a hugely inflated idea of the worth of their homes. Let’s say a home is for sale for 900k. Other, similar homes in the area have gone for around 825. And let’s say someone bids a reasonable 750k, as a starting point. The correct response is not to counterbid 895k :smack::smack::smack:. Also, when you show the landlord photos of a house that has a better location AND has offstreet parking in the city AND includes water, listed for $100 less/month, the correct response is not “But my fridge cost $2800”. I think my favorite ridiculous International show was about an extremely busy, overextended couple buying a 2nd place in New Zealand. They live in Arizona. They wanted a NZ place because that’s where they honeymooned. No way in hell will they ever have time to get away. To make things worse, in order to stay in budget they were going to have only a 2 bedroom place - even though they had children of both sexes :smack:. How is that going to work out when they’re in high school, guys? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/156 "2011-04-13T00:00:28Z")
Well if the kids were from a previous marriage, then technically they aren’t related. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/157 "2011-04-13T00:23:24Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Then we have the flipside of the coin. Last night there was a working class couple from Pennyslvania who wanted to buy a vacation home in the Dominican Republic. Their #1 criteria: ocean view. Their budget: $200,000. > > :rolleyes: > > They kept squinting off in the distance and whining, “I can’t see the ocean from here.” > > P.S. They settled on a fractional ownership ($57k/month and they bought two months) of a place that was a 2 minute walk to the community’s private beach. > > Oh, and the very next show was a couple from Alaska who wanted an ocean view in Kauai. Their budget: $400-500k. They ended up buying a place for $839k. :smack: I couldn’t believe those people. They could have owned an entire unit for the entire year for about what they would have paid for three months in the one they bought. But - the show said nothing about the rental potential of the units. There was some throwaway line about it, but since they do have full time jobs, they have the potential to rent it out 48+ weeks a year. That is the most important part of the financial decision for a vacation home, IMO, along with the associated management fees, linens and furnishings, etc. Too bad that place was a seven minute walk from the beach. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/158 "2011-04-13T01:00:45Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Anyone else indulge in the porn that is _Selling New York_?? Some of the potential commissions are more than I paid for my house! Actually, this should be called **Not** Selling New York as they rarely, if ever, actually sell something on this show. Plus, this show has perhaps the most obnoxious group of real estate agents I have ever seen - phony, insincere asshats, all of them. The Kleins are the worst - two-faced liars, and with absolutely no class whatsoever. The only reason I watch this show is to get a glimpse of the overly expensive apartments…having lived in NYC, it is fun to see what things are selling for now. Or better yet, what is not selling. Seriously, I don’t think they have “sold” a single unit in the last three or four episodes…looky-loos who spend lots of time going from place to place, and then not buying anything. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/159 "2011-04-13T01:41:09Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > …To make things worse, in order to stay in budget they were going to have only a 2 bedroom place - even though they had children of both sexes :smack:. How is that going to work out when they’re in high school, guys? Well I don’t think it’s that big a problem for a _vacation_ home, but yeah if they were going to live there fulltime it would be. Especially if these are step-siblings. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779/160 "2011-04-13T01:51:54Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Well if the kids were from a previous marriage, then technically they aren’t related. > > :eek: Alice, nobody likes a judgemental maid you know… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-hunters-outrage/513779.md?page=9)