House Hunters - The Reality of the Reality.

Hey everyone!

Throughout my real estate career, I've heard a lot of people talk about things they have seen on HGTV. Many people tune in to watch all the shows about buying and selling homes, renovating, designing, and so on. I get it. I like to watch them too. However, all is not what it seems where most of these shows are concerned. Today, I want to focus on one of the most popular programs - House Hunters.

The concept of House Hunters is simple: someone wants to buy a house, an agent shows them three homes, and they pick one of those to purchase. If only it were that simple. In the real estate world, it's not uncommon to show at least ten houses to a buyer before they decide on one. I once showed a buyer over fifty houses. We actually wrote a contract on two and had them both inspected before writing a contract on a third home that we actually closed on. This is the reality. Therefore, it shouldn't come as a shock to learn that the buyers on House Hunters go through the exact same thing.

The truth has come to the surface by way of interviews with the folks featured on the show. In most cases, the camera crew doesn't even show up until AFTER the buyer is under contract on a home. Sometimes they don't show up until after the buyer has already closed on the home. They then go back to look at two more houses that they actually walked through while they were shopping. That means every reaction you see is faked. They fully know what to expect when they are filmed walking through these homes because they have actually already seen them.

House Hunters also leaves out the escrow period. You almost never see these buyers go through the most stressful points of the purchasing process. These include price negotiations, getting all the information for the lender, having an inspection and negotiating any possible needed repairs, etc. These things can drag out the purchase process. You may have to postpone your closing date a time or two to allot time for all this to come together. While your agent can take most of the stress off your shoulders, it's still a time-consuming process that can wear on you.

These shows typically also feature inflated prices. What you have to understand is the fact that these people are not buying homes in Everytown, USA. In the earlier seasons, most of the episodes were filmed in Canada. Those filmed in the USA are usually filmed in large metropolitan areas where the cost of living is sky-high. That 3 bedroom 2 bath rancher the House Hunters couple bought for $400,000 would only cost you around $130,000 here in Eastern Alabama. Plenty of people have been scared to buy because they assumed the prices shown on HGTV were representative of prices in their own town. On the flip side, a lot of sellers have assumed their $150,000 house is worth $425,000 just because they saw a similar house sell for that much on HGTV.

You can learn a lot from these programs - and they can definitely be entertaining. That said, you shouldn't let them influence you when it comes to buying or selling a home. Keep in mind that these programs are produced for entertainment purposes and not everything you see is factual. The reality of the reality show is there isn't a ton of reality to it at all.

Jeremy Reaves - The Realtor Guy

Questions or comments? Let me know below, or send an email to jeremyr@era-king.com!