The other day I made mention of my most favorite show on television, House Hunters. You all watch it on HGTV just like me? Right? If not, you are MISSING OUT. That Suzanne Whang is one terrific, wiggly house hunting television show host. For your viewing pleasure, House Hunters can be seen at noon, 7:30, or 10:00 Monday through Friday. Just call me, Jennifer, your house hunting show hocker.
I look forward to watching it each night and have probably seen every episode. When we moved to Indiana and went on our own house hunting excursion, I pretended that Suzanne was narrating the whole day…”What will they pick? The ranch with finished basement and cah-ah razy colors? The two-story overlooking the pond, but with a choppy floor plan? Or the gorgeous two story new construction home on the tiny lot?”
I’ve been keeping very informal data about my success rate in guessing which home the people choose. Tate is almost always correct, with about an 85% success rate. I’m not as good, I only guess correctly about 50% of the time since I let my personal taste do the choosing. If real estate agents didn’t have to work evenings and weekends, I’d like to be one. Of course, I’d have to learn to not walk into a house and say things like, “OMG what IS that smell?” Or, “What WERE these people thinking when they put up this hideous wallpaper?”
Here are some things that I wonder about the show…
1. Do the people get paid to be on the show? It seems like everyone goes well over budget OR they do a complete remodel. They MUST get paid to afford to do this.
2. At the end of the show, the new home owners are always holding coffee cups. Why? I mean, every few episodes is alright, but every episode? And seriously, it’s obvious the cups are empty, so they look pretty silly holding empty coffee cups while they talk about how much they love their new home’s layout and hardwood floors.
3. Have the guests on the show already bought one of the houses? It seems like the real estate agent often shows two houses that are clearly not at all what the people are looking for and one house that’s perfect. “Here’s a crappy house beside a cemetery, train tracks and airport, another one that’s $150,000 over your budget, and the last one is on a cul-de-sac in the right school district and near the beach!”
4. Why do so many homes have tile countertops? Aren’t they a bitch to clean?
5. How do people leaving on either coast afford homes? Seriously? How?
6. What does everyone have against popcorn ceilings? I don’t really LOVE a popcorn ceiling, but is it really that big of a deal? On a sidenote: Mmmm, popcorn!
7. I’m thinking way too hard about this show, aren’t I?
I hate popcorn ceilings and I’ll tell you why. Because every cheap crappy filthy nothing-works floor-is-uneven what’s-that-brown-water sleazy apartment I’ve ever lived in, had popcorn ceilings.
It is for the same reason that I cannot paint anything “off white” and I twitch when I see brown or tan carpeting.
Hey I never said it would be a rational explanation.
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i can’t tell you how much HGTV i watch, because then you’d have to enter the witness protection program.
it’s seriously illegal.
i don’t know how they a- afford the homes and b- how ANYONE affords all the furniture they have in their homes for ANY show on HGTV. do you think they bring IN furniture for some of those shows?
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ugh. see. I’m the a-hole who goes insane when this show is on – the constant repeating of “we did this… we’re doing this… here’s what we did, here’s what we did first, here’s what we did next, hey did we mention what we did first?” I have to put it on mute or I lose my mind.
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Hello! I’ve just started reading your blog and really enjoy it.
We just moved to Indiana as well and although we are renting for another year have been doing the house searching!
Ding, Dong – I love Suzanne Whang and Househunters. I even love the commercial where it shows different couples going, “House #2!”
Great post.
You had me at popcorn (yum!)
I have a mild real estate obsession (I can’t believe we haven’t discussed this!) The housing in our city has gone completely mental and I have no idea how anyone can afford to buy anymore. And we are probably still in a reasonable area – I can’t imagine trying to buy something on the coast.
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I live vicariously through the people on that show!!!
Also, I just noticed the other day that Suzanne is the same lady on the Las Vegas TV show who works in the salon. (She’s a total nut job on the show!)
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LOVE that show.
But I always wonder — who ARE these people who can afford these places? Are we that underpaid?
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I am coming out of the lurking recesses of the internet to say this…
Tile counter tops are allll California….a total pain to clean and the grout they use is always “old food” colored so the mess blends.
Random fact…same counter tops they used in Poltergeist.
As if the ghosts weren’t scary enough.
I just don’t get it.
I DVR all of the HH and HH Int’l b/c my husband won’t let me go to model homes. I’m with you – I pick about 1/2 the time, but I’m always right on the one they SHOULD pick.
I’m SO glad they started telling us how much the houses cost. This way, I know where I wanna move to. They pay WHAT? WHERE? I’m moving….
I know someone who is going to be on the show in the next few months. She throught it was going to be in May, but it was held back. She was looking for a vacation home in Hawaii – they flimed that portion of the show first. She actually did purchase the home. They didn’t flim the turn of the current living space (Alaska) part until 9 months later. They wanted to wait for winter to have snow. Show the different climate of where she lives to where she vacations and may retire. Funny thing, they didn’t use her actual real home. She borrowed a friends home. Not sure if that was her idea or the shows.
So many people hate popcorn ceilings because they associate them with asbestos. It’s really nothing to worry about as long as you don’t disturb the ceiling.
I just happened upon this blog on a Google search trying to determine when the HH episode featuring the Disney fan who moves to New Orleans will be aired again…and guess what I’m watching HH as I type this, and someone just dissed a popcorn ceiling. The other observations in the blog and the comments are cracking me up as I wonder all the same things!
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I agree with your question about how these (mostly VERY YOUNG) people afford these places. I am way over 45 and when we bought our dream home 5 years ago we were nowhere near their price.
Who do they work for anyway?
I have watched it a few times. It can actually be a little informative to watch. But I don’t watch much because the homes are virtually all priced in the stratosphere.
Honestly, who can afford $500,000 for a house???
I just don’t understand this. I am a well-paid computer engineer with good savings, a 401k, the whole bit. No way can I afford houses like this.
I guess these people just mortgage themselves up to their eyeballs and won’t pay off their house until they are 85 years old.
I stress this so much because I wish the show would show more “human-priced” houses – houses priced UNDER $200,000. It would be a lot more interesting if they were shopping through houses that I could actually buy.