The Psychology of HGTV and HELOC Abuse

SoOCOwner_IHB

SoOCOwner_IHB

New member
The posts the last couple of days have got me thinking. I wonder just how much some of the home improvement shows have to do with the amount of HELOC abuse going on these days? 15 years ago, the only home improvement show that I can remember was "This Old House". Today, there are so many, I can't even count them - yes, I'm probably addicted myself. I was watching one the other day where the show's host actually made the homeowner feel guilty because she had only replaced her kitchen counters with granite, without replacing the cabinets! The host told her that now she would only be able to 'paint' the cabinets, which was considered "not as desireable". I can't help but think that shows like this are contributing to the country's HELOC abuse. I fear some folks watching these shows believe they are missing the boat if their homes don't meet the "bar" set by the show. I'm smart enough to see through this b.s., but I have a feeling some others just use these shows as a way to justify their HELOC abuse.



Just my thoughts . . .
 
The old This Old House with Norm Abrams were awesome. He's a world class finish carpenter. Watching them work on those old houses and restore them to better than new condition was thrilling.



These guys today who work in drywall have no skills. My mom could do one of these shows and her abilities stop at hanging pictures.
 
Thread Bump.....HGTV has a new show "Real Estate Intervention." The premise is to have a "real estate professional" tell the homeowner why their property is not selling. Last night, the homeowner insisted on relisting his house $20,000 higher than advised. (Albeit $10,000 lower than it's first listing price.)



Nothing was ever said about how much was owed on the house, which was in Alexandria, VA. The listing price was $570,00, and the homeowner (homedebtor?) said he paid $250,000 and did about $125,000 remodel. The professional said to expect a sale at about $530,000, and not to list above $550,000. The owner was extremely resistent to this advice, sure that his house was "better" than all the comps shown by the advisor, but with no tangible reason. I have to assume he owed more than the $375,000 quoted, or he'd be happy with a $530,000 sale.



They got one offer at $548,000, which they accepted, but it fell thru for unexplained reasons. At the end of the show, they said it remained on the market 6 weeks later, still listed for $570,000.
 
[quote author="centralcoastobserver" date=1246672750]Thread Bump.....HGTV has a new show "Real Estate Intervention." The premise is to have a "real estate professional" tell the homeowner why their property is not selling. Last night, the homeowner insisted on relisting his house $20,000 higher than advised. (Albeit $10,000 lower than it's first listing price.)



Nothing was ever said about how much was owed on the house, which was in Alexandria, VA. The listing price was $570,00, and the homeowner (homedebtor?) said he paid $250,000 and did about $125,000 remodel. The professional said to expect a sale at about $530,000, and not to list above $550,000. The owner was extremely resistent to this advice, sure that his house was "better" than all the comps shown by the advisor, but with no tangible reason. I have to assume he owed more than the $375,000 quoted, or he'd be happy with a $530,000 sale.



They got one offer at $548,000, which they accepted, but it fell thru for unexplained reasons. At the end of the show, they said it remained on the market 6 weeks later, still listed for $570,000.</blockquote>
That is exactly why prices can be sticky on the way down with organic sellers. Most all sellers think that their property is special and better than all the other comps and it causes them to have an unrealistic valuation of their home. I think I may have seen a similar show either on HGTV or TLC but there was a couple in Toronto that was looking to sell their property and move to California. They bought the place for like $200k and put $40k into and would not even consider accepting an offer under $240k even though the realtor told them that a realistic sales price was closer to $200k-$220k given where the market was at. They listed the property for $250k and got an offer for $220k and they countered back with a final counter of $240k which the buyers rejected and the property sat for months and the show ended with the husband saying that they will just wait until the market rebounds than sell for less than $240k.
 
No amount of badly produced cable TV shows could have motivated the "keeping up with the Jones's" MEW abuse we've seen. To paraphrase... "Greed, is good, Greed is American..." and that environment of unchecked greed would have thrived no matter what the media would have told us to do, right or wrong IMHO



My .02c



Soylent Green Is People.
 
My favorite shows (being sarcastic) were the flipper ones where they had a summary of the upgrades they had done over the past 30 minutes, accompanied by the sound of the cash register sound and a dollar shaped graphic at the bottom of the screen, with the amount they had "made" by installing the upgrade.



At the very end of the show they would announce to the homeowners how much their house was now worth, and of course everyone was dancing up and down because they were now rich by flipping their house. There are a few threads around here highlighting some of the flips gone wrong, and the homes never came close to the stated value on the show, even a year afterwards.



It would be nice to see more This Old House type of renovations, with a focus on historical properties with a real interest, not just the same old, slap granite, hardwood floors, and new cabinets and we're all millionaires crap.
 
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