One of the Frat Boys was an agent. He MLS listed the property himself. The show made it a point to mention that the Frat Boys saved $$$ because they found a buyer that was not represented by another agent. I think Anthony from the Father/Son Townhome rehab was an agent., presumably he listed it on MLS himself. But I think every one else used agents to list their property. I remember seeing agent signs and paperwork in the Texas twosome teardown. If these people were selling for sale by owner, you would think there would be shots of them fielding phone calls from buyers, and preparing advertising.
The deceptive practices of the producers on this show to make the final result look better than it really was is causing me to loose interest. I’m just not believing that the MBA Mom with negative rehab skills went $21,000 over budget and still made $25,000 on that house. And what was the Mentor’s cut of the pie?, am I supposed to believe he was spending time on this project just because he is a nice guy? I want to know the property address of one of those TX properties so I can research the public records to confirm the numbers, and ask the buyers what incentives they were offered.
I have a wife that does interior design so I am set
I am not sure why they kept mentioning MBA. Having a MBA does not mean you are a wiz in keeping a business financially sound. Sure does not mean you are not prone to wild shopping trips
Remind me to have wine and caviar at my next showing. I knew something was missing.
I don’t question the quickness of the sale much because the areas they are showing are very desirable (I mean neighborhoods not cities).
I am waiting for the show:
“This is Gary. He has a GED from Alabama High. He bought this manufactured home for $5,000, plans to put his last $300 that Jed lent him in repairs and will try to sell it for $8,000. He hopes to sell in just 2 weeks because he has no food and is out of Chew.”
My wife was laughing because I kept calling the MBA “Princess Gucci”. If you didn’t ccatch on, her main vocation (beyond the ‘baby factory’) is SHOPPING! She way overspent on the kitchen and did squat in the bathrooms that REALLY needed help.
Then, she invited about 10 of her pricess buddies over to paint. I know no of them really had any skills but it didn’t look bad when they finished. I think that the producers get someone to fix it up when they’re ‘done’.
Another highlight was the first plumber that dug the trench, started the work, and then blew her off. I think that is probably pretty prevelent when construction guys deal with inexperienced people, especially women.
I would have loved to have a dollar for each time the word “manicure” was mentioned (and I don’t mean in connection with any groundskeeping!)…
I wonder too why on every show they furnish the place. But I think on the first episode they remarked that he couldn’t find furniture he liked so he used his own, but that doesnt explain it. I know some realtors will rent furniture to stage a home.
I missed the first couple minutes but shouldn’t an inspector have been able to point out the bad foundation and plumbing, and even the leak in the wall? I could see that woman skipping the inspection process but what about the mentor?
I wish they would take 5 minutes for the buying process too, since if there’s one thing I’ve learned on this forum its “buy it right”. She sold the house for 100k more than she bought it for. Thats a big difference. Was it just a regular MLS listed house?
Also, is that a real nice part of Houston? I thought it was cheaper than that?
I watched the whole thing and the word “inspection” never came up. I was wondering the same thing…the problems that turned up were relatively easy pick-ups for a qualified inspector.
My gut feeling is that they passed up on the inspection to save a few bucks (ALWAYS a bad idea for a neophyte investor!)…
The minute me and my wife sat down and saw the house, we spotted potential water damage in that room. I mean, how did you not notice it. As someone who has experienced water leakage and mold cleanup, I know a “itty bitty leak” can be costly.
As to Houston, that home was in a desired area inner loop. Go to other areas like outside the inner loop (IE Conroe, Cy-Fair, Katy, etc) and homes in general are less. I am sure someone who lives there can chime in with exact streets and such.
Here is the 4 BILLION dollar question. The lady hired a bad plumber then hired another, which was a guy recommended by her mentor. So why did he not tell her to hire him first? Was she just a prissy who had to do it on her own or was he not really helping much?
It seems like this lady wanted more of a social event than a business. Paint Parties LOL. Get in, get your job done and move on. This applies to any business.
I think she is a bored homemaker who has a big time Husband that brings in all the money and calls the shots. You could tell by her words. She just wanted to prove she could do something.
Flawed? Sure. Entertaining? You bet.
As to the furniture, it helps your potential buyer visualize the potential. Even if their furniture is junky, they will imagine the ones at the home are theirs. It is a great selling point. You would take the stuff with you when sold unless you wanted to include it.
Same principle new homebuilders use to sell. You don’t, normally, go into an empty model. You see it all decked out, which gets most people excited and ready to buy.
How many people here stage their properties to sell? Do you rent furniture, or do you own a whole set of furniture that you move from site to site when showing?
My wife is into design, curb appeal, etc. When we are selling or renting a house, she does a minor “staging”…some flowers, colered bathmats and towels, a couple of lamps, etc…no furniture. She gives otherwise dull rooms (off-white walls, beige carpet, etc.) a “splash of color”. we usually get very positive comments about it, She just uses stuff we already own for a few days. She has a great sense for that stuff.
I like tonight’s episode of property ladder. The couple in Texas tried to pull rehab work in a low demand market. They overpriced the house and suffered the consequences.
Yea, the TX couple couldn’t even sell it will the fancy furniture. They were doomed from the start, they paid too much for it. They paid $117,600. How did they expect to remodel it and then sell it for (I think the original, pre furniture sales price was $140,000), and make a profit? I think they said that their website was walterproperties.com, but I could be wrong, said site is under construction.
Crown moldings are a B!tch, but there is no geometry involved.
Tivo could be one of the most important investments for a RE Investor. I figure that with the amount of shows that I am able to watch that has to do with anything “home”, especially property ladder, I am getting a great education. I have to admit that I am an adict, and Propery Ladder gets me fired up to get out there. Then again, I live in Northern California, so a fixer starts at $500k, so it is a bit tougher out here. But the appreciation is great.
Anyway, between TLC, HGTV, DIY, Discovery Home, and even BBC America (BBC is where most of these shows originate) there are a lot of great ideas to keep the brain going when looking at the ugly houses.
We watched it…luckily that guy is not married to MY wife…she would have been in the yeard doing some concrete work so she could have killed him and no one would have ever found the body. What a complete @$$hole!
The wife was busting her butt and doing what I thought was a passable job. Her husband, Richard Cranium, was building Gantt charts and whining that he’d have to show her a thing or two about scheduling. He was building his charts in a vacuum with no real idea how long each task was going to take or without factoring in that her crew consisted of a 12 year old and a three year old (who should have been in daycare, NOT on the jobsite!) What a mess he made of the frame around the bathroom mirror! The miters were 1/2" from mating…
Jack9 is right on the money, there was not much room in the deal from the start. They could have gotten $10K out quickly but the hubby was too smart for that! He was going to list it and sell it himself…putz!
So, I saw it and Property Ladder is much better in my opinion. First of all, Flip this House doesn’t even show THE HOUSE BEING SOLD! I don’t want to watch a show just to see what they do to it, it is all about what they are able to make on it. And, did you see that she spent 10k on it…what were those guys working for, minimum wage. I think she did a fairly good job with the house, and if she made that much profit in a month, good for her.
I watch for entertainment and upgrade ideas mainly.
These shows are full of such holes that showing what someone made or if they sold is just fanfare.
It is like the show on HGTV that shows homeowners fixing up their home to sell for just $2000. They leave out the labor, which on some of those shows would have run $10k+.
I plan to check out the new show this Sunday to see how good/bad it is.
This reminds me of Poker. Couple years ago it starts going really mainstream and little shows start popping up. Same thing here. We will probably start seeing more new shows on rehabbing and the like.
:o
Man, I love the shows. Not that this show moved my wife and I to consider REI but has confirmed a fact for me. If those complete Nocommpooops can do it ANYBODY can. The Mom was in Houston area for sure, I’m in DFW and there ain’t no way to get that much water here even with a plumbing leak ;D.
I agree, I really don’t have a clue what her M.B.A. has to do with REI. I have a doctorate and my wife has an M.B.A. - so what. I think I can do this because I rehabbed our first house myself (a foreclosure) and about the pocket the equity. We just bought another foreclosure to live in. Small deals, we walk in with $35K equity and a house we will like living in-might as well do some to make some cash, too. Education in real estate is OJT.
That particular show cracked me up. Did you guys see the house she lives in? That’s a freakin Texas mansion. Probable facts are “hubby” makes enough dough that this was just to keep wifey busy cause she ain’t living in the “real world”. More than likely they have enough dough to lose money on that project. However, if true, she made money by being completely incompetent proving once again…If they can do it-anyone can. (Sounds sexist but I just had a point to make-that’s all)
And no thanks to that useless “real estate investor” friend. If that guy knew what he was doing Home Depot would be the last place I’d be shopping for cabinets…an investor that doesn’t know any wholesellers/contractors isn’t an investor they are a consumer (retail). I love it when he thought the flooring contractor said it was “$260 to redo all her hardwood floors…uhh no that’s square footage and $4K bubba”.
In a nutshell ALL these shows are great b/c it also shows how easy it is to spend tens of thousands and go bust (the other Texas show (couple)). That house should have been flipped-no repairs. Fast nickel not slow dime.
Others I love…Designed to Sell (although all Ca. homes is really not a challenge to sell-everything is going over asking price. Try doing that in Texas.). These all seem like copycat shows of ones I’ve seen on BBC in England.
I’d like to see how these guys bought the properties-everybody here can probably do a better job on rehab and selling than the guys I’ve seen on the shows. ??? The host (hottie) says she’s flipped about 40 props and is an actress/model- I believe it. I saw one show and she looked about 1 1/2 feet taller than the other couple. Whew. But she does have really good observations. Good show but I think it will scare as many people off as it attracts.
All the host does is swing the sledgehammer once and she is off. They should show her getting all hot and dirty working on a house. Perhaps a break to be doused in water. Viewership would probably go up
I still think the Bar Girl Condo episode was a classic.
