5 complaints about HGTV House Hunters-type shows (jumping on the bandwagon)

[rootbeer1]

1. As beeftenderloin and dewittar have commented today, would-be homeowners on House Hunters-type shows are constantly rejecting potential homes on the flimsiest of cosmetic reasons, i.e., "I don't like the paint color in the foyer," that sort of thing. One $20 can of paint and it could be the house of your dreams, but you're too stupid to realize it.

2. "I like the crown molding." Would-be homeowners must be coached by HGTV producers to say this upon entering any room with any kind of crown molding. Frankly, I don't care about crown molding and it's one of the last things I notice about a room. And if a room doesn't have it, you can always put some up. Crown molding is like paint, so far as I'm concerned. These would-be homeowners act like it's the most important part of the room, over the room's size, shape, general condition, lighting, window placement, etc.

3. "The countertops aren't granite!" Quelle horreur! God forbid the kitchen countertops should be butcher block, marble, formica, tile, quartz, concrete, laminate, Corian or any other perfectly serviceable countertop material. I'm convinced HGTV coaches people to say this, and gets some sort of kickback from the granite countertop people. The realtors on house-flipping shows also sign off on this -- when a kitchen is renovated, they always mention this, as well as ...

4. "The appliances aren't stainless! Same thing. White ovens, black ovens, white fridges, black fridges -- they're unacceptable substitutes for stainless steel. It comes off like HGTV is also lining its pockets with kickbacks from the stainless steel appliance people.

5. "This kitchen/bathroom is dated." Just like those precious granite countertops will be, honey. I guess it's perfectably reasonable to reject a house because the kitchen/bathroom is a slightly different style than what you were expecting. God forbid you should have to adjust to a slightly different style!

If a house isn't 100% perfect -- reject it!

Comments

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Steve - I, too have wondered if the future homeowners are 'coached' to facilitate product placement ... or at least "false drama".

Sean/zombietruckstop worked on a (more dramatic and scripted) reality show for awhile, and said that latter was just a matter of course.

After several years of these types of shows, one does begin to wonder. :>)

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

So many of these homeowners say the same things ... HGTV's coaching needs to be a little more subtle.

I think 'false drama' is the key -- there needs to be some sort of conflict, or where's the excitement. HGTV probably doesn't want people coming in and saying, "Very nice, it's all very nice."

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder that too, but I also wonder if at the time these shows were video taped that some expectations weren't already there by the homeowners to start with?

It has seemed to me that so many people have come to expect granite and/or stainless steel counters in a typical kitchen. Look at many reno's they do exactly that. Where is the imagination?

Believe you me, I've seen enough of these shows to wonder myself who's got a false sense of reality here, the buyer or the seller?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have the testimony of my realtor that it's not just tv househunters who fixate on granite countertops and stainless appliances. Together with maple cabinets and oak floors, she refers to them as the "four horsemen" and has had clients tell her that the won't even look at apartments without all these elements. That doesn't mean that HGTV (and other media outlets) aren't ultimately to blame for putting in people's heads that these are the only acceptable fixtures in any sort of dwelling, but I don't any direct coaching is required for the show.

Keep in mind that, IIRC, the shows mostly feature first-time buyers, which is why they are so thoroughly clueless about what's a small fix and what's a deal-killing flaw. Every place I've lived has taught me a little more about what I can live with and what I can't, but it takes owning a place to learn about what's really important.

[jrjarrett.livejournal.com]

Er...when I do redo my kitchen, I am going with stainless appliances. But some sort of composite counter; I hear granite is hard to maintain. I think stainless appliances against wood is a nice look.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrjarrett/2609694408/)

[jrjarrett.livejournal.com]

THIS is what galls me:

"Oh. There's no master suite."

or

"Oh, the master bathroom is too small."

In 80+ year old houses?

Gimme a break. They didn't HAVE more than one bathroom in the whole house.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

I think HGTV chooses people with unrealistic expectations on purpose. I've yet to hear anyone on those shows say anything like, "The bathroom's small, but that's to be expected in a house built in the '20s."

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've noticed the same thing in a lot of those shows, as well as in the remodeling/renovation related shows as well. It's all too easy to want (or feel you want) the same old stainless steel/granite/recessed lights/hardwood floors/etc from watching these shows and reading print ads and what have you. Thing is, it's all becomes the sameness du jour. In some years, the look will peg the style in a certain period and people will want to move to something else to keep from looking dated.

[jrjarrett.livejournal.com]

Sadly, though, isn't that what happens?

Re: Avocado green and harvest gold of the '50s & '60s?

[beeftenderloin.livejournal.com]

I think people don't know how easy or how much things cost. Crown moulding is $400 per room, big or small. Small rooms like a tiny vestibule are HARDER to do then a big living room. It takes so much more skill to do the small room because you can't make up a wall slanting difference in a short run.

Appliances shouldn't be sold with the house. You buy your own -- whatever color or metal finish you like upon moving in, unless the previous owners abandoned them. The stainless helps you visualize how YOURS will look but I'm not throwing in $4000 worth of appliances.

Ugh, we both have too much time on our hands. This unemployed business is not supposed to happen to A-List Bears like us! LOL

[abearius.livejournal.com]

I was overjoyed to find that my place does not have granite ANYTHING! As countertops, it looks like a big pool of puke that you have to design your whole home around!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

And another one. Some young blond bitch was adamant that she needed an ISLAND. Not all kitchens, new or old require them. I sooo wanted to slap her silly.

And so many people "think" they need big kitchens when I'd wager most don't cook much, if at all. I cook in a small double galley kitchen w/ a 20" apt stove and can live to tell about it. Geez...

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

I think most of the "cook's kitchens" you see in modern homes go mostly unused. They're for show/status.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I always have to laugh when people talk about stainless steel appliances, especially refrigerators and “matching” microwave ovens. They clearly have never owned one. Stainless shows anticipatory fingerprints: someone just walks in the front door, trust me, their fingerprints show up on the appliance before they walk into the room. I keep waiting for this to be a plot development on a CSI.

I get why people would want granite, but it's not the end of the world. Plus, it's easy to get.

For me, it's all about lighting. I'm that gay.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

it's all about lighting

This!

I normally cower from the light, but when I am cooking, I want to have several suns-worth of lumens surrounding me.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Not to get too "meta" or whatever. But really when it comes to Reality TV I tend to avoid shows that star or feature regular folks and an art form or trade. The show tends to really run on the concept of comparison and ego. Like "how am I better than/the same as these people in this fabulous situation?". Because producers need broad appeal they choose pretty average people most of the time. Which is a double edged sword because average people are actually pretty average. Therefore drama is almost always scripted to get people through all 7 commercial breaks.

Where design and reno reality TV still shines is the whole genre of professional reality TV. Where real actual professionals who are reasonable, budgeted, talented and with original vision have their process documented. Not that these shows are without their confabulated drama but I find the concept of watching somebody definitely better than me more interesting than watching some prissy newly-weds debate the shade of oh-so-2004 slate in their bathroom.

[pilosus.livejournal.com]

I actually read an interview with some designer recently where he said that granite and stainless were over, so 90s. Now it is composites and custom face appliances.

whatever...

[shake-it-up.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was talking to my roommate about granite counters the other night, because I walked in and HGTV was showing some. I was wondering if they will go out of style or if they will just seem practical forever.

I think we put some in a project I was in charge of. There was a local source that was cheap. Also, I have installed a Sub Zero fridge in a homeless housing facility. The only criticism was that the interior was just plastic, it could have been more industrial. I could check on how it has performed (only 15 years after completing construction).

[auntie-lukers.livejournal.com]

Thank Yew!

The H&G shows are like back alley Home Depot dealers. All the stuff they say MUST be in a house for it to sell are going to be so dated in 5, 4, 3, 2, oops. Gone.

I walk into any space and see immediately what I would do to it. I'm technically on my second fixer-upper and I delight in putting things in that would make these people recoil in horror. Haw Haw.

[timzilla.livejournal.com]

You're watching way too much television.

[progbear.livejournal.com]

3. "The countertops aren't granite!" Quelle horreur! God forbid the kitchen countertops should be butcher block, marble, formica, tile, quartz, concrete, laminate, Corian or any other perfectly serviceable countertop material. I'm convinced HGTV coaches people to say this, and gets some sort of kickback from the granite countertop people. The realtors on house-flipping shows also sign off on this -- when a kitchen is renovated, they always mention this, as well as ...

Wow, great minds think alike. I’m so sick of these yuppie twits shrieking about granite like trained parrots! And I hypothesized that HGTV was actually owned by a granite mining concern.

The absolutely priceless bit was Carter Oosterhouse saying that granite countertops were environmentally friendly. Um...only if you happen to live right next door to a granite mine!

What, no mention of people moaning about the lack of a dual vanity? I guess that goes in with #5 above.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

Ack! The "there's only one sink in the bathroom!" folks also bug me. And I've also seen "there's only one oven!" people. Jackasses.

Granite

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I read that granite countertops can lead to radon poisoning in a house because the gas is locked up in the rock. Not that I wouldn't put some of it in my house but it's not the "end all" of countertops.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

One nice thing about the Property Virgins show is that it's all about disabusing first-time buyers of these ridiculous notions (which HGTV gladly pushes on all its other shows).

I've been starting to notice hints that granite is considered "over," as a previous person commented.

I agree there's a lot of false-drama-building going on. It's especially egregious on My House Is Worth WHAT where they delay the "reveal" of the list price a realtor would assign a house for a loooong time, with many faux-significant glances between the realtor, host, and seller/victims.

At this point I take it as comedy. They're entertaining us precisely by pissing us off about how stupid the average buyer is (or, how stupid they can make them look).

Yes I watch HGTV a lot. What? ;-)

[robearal.livejournal.com]

I hate the "Get this dump ready to sell" shows for similar reasons. Excuse me? Did you say I had to spend a couple thousand dollars on paint and carpeting/flooring to sell my house? How do I know it won't be ripped out/painted over by the buyer who has a different color scheme? Those type of pre-sell "improvements" just burn my biscuits.

[jrjarrett.livejournal.com]

And the gratuitous over-use of MDF to hide a variety of sins.

It's very Monet.

From far away it's okay, but up close it's a big ol' mess.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

Fred and I used to tune into the last 10-15 minutes, since they only get the third home shown ANYWAY, or alteast they did for a while.

[closeted2.livejournal.com]

All these home lookers buyers expect the current owners to do all the work, and they can move into a perfect home, which they always change in the end. I bought my unperfect house, but had enough imagination about what can be done to it. And after 10 years, I still look foward to a new kitchen. If the current home ownwers want to put money into the house to fix it up, why move? HGTV must find whiney, unimaginative people for this program. But the entertainment value of listening to the whines is priceless.
Also, the fixing up shows say this is no good, and that is no good, on the selling shows they say the same things are great. The silliness of this that all the shows contradict eachother. The biggest is ceiling fans. OHH I wanted ceiling fan, the prospective buyer says. Take out the fan it is dated, the designer says.

[maverick1303.livejournal.com]

I agree to an extent about the coaching etc...I also agree that things such as appliances and crown molding and paint are simple and can be easily fixed (having bought and sold 2 houses myself, for me it's all about location and floor-plan).

However, buying a house is a huge investment and I can totally understand how someone would not want to purchase a home that they have to put a lot of work into on the outset. Some folks may just not be that handy or may not have the time available to invest in working on the house.

If a person is spending 500K on a home, then they should be picky and get what they want. What is potentially a good home for one person, may not be a good home for another.

[rootbeer1.livejournal.com]

"A lot of work" is different from the minor cosmetic fixes that disqualify homes for some people on these shows, who can't seem to separate the home as it easily could be from the home that it is now.

I mean, we've seen people complaining about the furniture!

...

[dorisduke.livejournal.com]

We did two house hunter episodes from Phoenix and no, folks are not told what to say. But they are told to say something. The thing they say the most that drives me crazy is... the ceilings are tall... NO they are high, the walls are tall.

...

[dorisduke.livejournal.com]

Also the buyer already has a contract on the house before they start taping. The other two are just there for something to reject.

As for stainless appliances, most are stainless faced not actually stainless construction. So the wow facter is gone unless it is really a sturdy stainless appliance, but no one knows any different it seems.

Granite counter tops…

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

Are the norm here. I have black granite counter tops in my kitchen. Granite is cheaper than the synthetic alternatives like Corian™ and Silestone™. Ceramic tile is also popular here, but usually just for the walls. The tile in my kitchen goes from floor to ceiling.

Chuck

[lodgersf.livejournal.com]

Without reading any of the other comments--I think this is a hilarious:

Beyond the most obvious reason (all that you say is true), the fact that we homos are going on and on about home improvement/HGTV is classique.

A more front and center reaction when I watch those shows is that I actually find myself projecting the thought "Any person who backed out of buying a home in the last year or so for WHATEVER reason is thanking their stars". They jumped in with a purchase at the VERY WORST TIME IN RECENT MEMORY.

I was house hunting aggressively this time last year and I am very very thankful neither of the two condos i bid on worked out. And yes, they were both required some work!

:)