Remember on the television show Friends, when Rachel wanted to date the obstetrician, and he said to her, “I usually can’t find women that will go out with me. I mean, you’re a waitress in a coffee house, right? So do you ever think to yourself, ‘I swear, If I see one more cup of coffee……'”
Suffice it to say, Rachel realized he wouldn’t have much interest in her. And even less use for her, at that…
As an occupational hazard, I have come to loathe real estate television shows, since I live and breathe real estate 24/7, and then when it’s on television, it’s like I just can’t get away from it.
But even if I didn’t work in real estate, I might still have a problem with these shows.
Here are the reasons why…
I took Sunday off – all day, every minute, and it was glorious!
I watched the Leafs game during the afternoon, and then the Valspar Championship into the early evening (that’s golf, FYI…).
But as is the case in many healthy marriages, my wife and I agreed that if I was going to watch sports all day (sans clothing…), she would commandeer the TV later that night.
And as you might assume from the topic of discussion today, she wanted to watch nothing other than a slew of crap on HGTV, Bravo, Slice – all having to do with real estate.
Believe me – it’s not like I sat on the couch next to her. I went on my laptop in the dining room, but I could still hear every word of every show, and I couldn’t help but yell back, “That would never happen,” or “Those buyers should get a grip.”
I hate real estate television shows.
And here’s why…
1) The prices make you shake your head, either way.
It doesn’t matter whether you live in rural Ontario, and you’re watching “Million Dollar Listing New York,” or whether you live in Toronto, and you’re watching an episode of “Property Virgins” that takes place in Georgia, either way, you’re going to see prices that you don’t understand.
For those of us that live in Toronto, we can’t fathom what the prices are like in other areas.
I recently watched a young couple shop for 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom houses in a small city in Georgia, where prices were around $185,000.
Imagine that.
You can’t even buy a 400 square foot bachelor condo in Toronto for $185,000, let alone a new 4-bedroom house!
What bothered me the most about this episode was that the buyers were bitching and complaining about everything! The host would take them to a house, priced at $195,000, and they’d say, “Oh, this is way over our budget. Why are you showing us this?”
The prices on some of these shows are absolutely outrageous, although, perhaps that’s why people watch.
If you’re living month-to-month, and renting a basement apartment, how do you feel about some jerk buying a $20 Million island for his daughter?
And if you’re about to enter your fifth bidding war on a Toronto house, how do you feel about seeing a 3-bedroom house on two acres of land in Ohio selling for 80% of the asking price, with the seller paying all the closing costs?
If you watch shows that take place in New York, and you see people paying $2,000 per square foot for a Manhattan condo, then maybe it makes you feel better about the prices in downtown Toronto.
But I’d say on the whole, I’m usually frustrated by the low-low prices of these detached, 4-bedroom family homes across North America.
2) The buyers bitch and complain about everything.
Just as I alluded to above, the buyers on these shows complain about the smallest damn things, and it drives me nuts.
I know that a lot of these shows are highly-produced, and somewhat scripted, and I’m sure that the buyers are encouraged to come up with negative feedback, comment on features they don’t like, or look for problems. But the things they come up with – as a Realtor watching the show, or as an average person – has to drive you insane.
When somebody walks into a house (often priced at $185,000…..), and says, “I really wanted stainless steel appliances in the kitchen,” it makes me wonder if these people realize that Home Depot exists.
What the $*@I($?
“I hate these paint colours.” Well, then why don’t you paint?
“This bathroom vanity is too old.” Okay, get a new one!
“There’s a huge tree in the backyard!” Then cut it down!
Buyers on these TV shows complain about the most inane things, and any “issues” they come up with are so easy to rectify. It’s almost like every buyer on every show has an IQ of 80, but this is kept secret from the viewer.
As a Realtor, when I watch a buyer complain that “the carpet is too soft,” I bite my lip, and wonder how I would handle the situation.
3) The shows glorify the business of real estate, and the job of a Realtor.
I think that part of the reason that there are 40,000 Realtors working in the GTA is because real estate TV shows glorify the life of a Realtor, and nothing about shows like “Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles” are what life is like working as a young Realtor in Toronto.
Each and every week, I run into young 20-something d-bags who you just KNOW went into real estate because they watched Josh Flagg on MDL L.A.
These guys keep sprouting up in the downtown core, with their 4-day beards, and their standard-issue 3-series BMW’s, and they know nothing about what it’s like to be a professional, respect your cooperating agents, and build your business for the long-term.
The way they talk on the phone is as if an audience was watching. They’d probably rather sit in their cars and talk through the speakerphone than use a handheld.
Million Dollar Listing” flashes the commission across the screen each time a character makes a sale, but Toronto Realtors don’t sell $10,000,000 homes every day like the guys on MDL do. People watch these shows, and go into real estate in search of $2 Million per year earnings, while working 20 hours per week. What they don’t know, is that they’ll start their careers doing leases for $1,200/month, making $600 commission, having their brokerage take 40% of that, and hoping to do 3-4 sales their first year.
They don’t know that about 1/3 of all Realtors do between 0-2 deals per year.
And as is often the case, when the income isn’t flowing, they cut corners, cut commissions, do anything to get a sale, and put their clients’ best interests well behind their own. They open the door to litigation, liability, and help promote a negative impression of the real estate industry.
I’ve watched the careers of several guys who fit this description, and the scenes play out like a pre-written script.
4) The process of buying or selling is made to seem too simple.
This is what I hate about “Property Virgins.”
They take these buyers to see three houses, and then the buyers weigh the pros and cons of each, bitch and complain a bit about menial things they don’t like which can be easily fixed, and then purchase one of the three houses for well less than the asking price.
How would “Property Virgins” be different if it featured a young couple trying to buy a home for $600K in Toronto in 2014? Show me an episode that features a buyer crying after losing yet another bid, and heading into the sixth month of the property search.
I know that every market is different, and I know that not all markets are like Toronto, but I also know that many of these shows are 100% fake, and filmed in reverse. I know that many of the casting calls they do (because I get the emails) are for people who have just purchased a home, who then pretend to go look at two houses, plus the one that they purchased, and then a 22-minute episode is written around it.
These shows have a LOT of influence on the buyer pool, and a lot of buyers come to me with illusions about how real estate is actually purchased after having watched these shows for years and years.
5) They are completely and utterly fake.
If the show portrays a $10,000 renovation, I would be willing to bet it would cost $30,000 for any normal human, but was discounted heavily for the show, and then the numbers were finessed even further.
If the show portrays a housing search that takes a five days, I’m willing to bet it was filmed over several weeks, and in the real world, it would take months.
If a phone call from one agent to the next takes ten seconds, I’m sure that phone call wasn’t real, and the actual call was twenty minutes, four days ago.
Just consider how “real” a show like The Hills actually is, and then consider that real estate television is no different.
I remember being forced to watch an episode of The Hills about a decade ago, and I was amazed! I said to the person I was watching it with, “This entire restaurant was probably rented out, and every other person dining in there probably had to sign a waiver. This ‘argument’ between this couple is completely scripted, and there’s nothing spontaneous about it, given there are four cameras (see the various angles), a boom-mike operator, several lighting people, and this had to take hours to set up. This isn’t real. It’s a TV show, like any other.”
Well, real estate TV shows might be based on reality, but there’s often very little truth to them.
It’s entertainment, and some of these shows can be instructional, but I hesitate to suggest than anything that transpires during an episode of MDL, Property Virgins, House Hunters, et al, is “real.”
.
Well, with that out of the way, I’m dying to know: what are your guilty real estate TV pleasures?
Come on – your comment handles are all anonymous, so why not share with the group? If you’re an HGTV junkie, let me know…
Brad
at 7:31 am
All entirely true! Given I have a large 1950s Cape Cod with some reno needs the timeline and budget pricing of lovely complete renos on these shows bugs the hell out of me.
…….I must admit to a weakness for travels to Europe and I do get sucked into the fantasy of House Hunters International in moments lol
moonbeam!
at 7:52 am
Another improbable, infuriating show is Love it or List it…. the buyer couple is given a choice between beautiful renovations on their current house (which they get to see!) or buying another house within the same budget…… talk about bitching & complaining! if only a total renovation was so fast & easy; if only finding a desirable property was so fast & easy!
The only part of HGTV that I like is the staging & renovation ideas, usually the last 5 minutes of a show… but impossibly quick, smooth, and cheap…..
Brad
at 8:00 am
Yes! I’d forgotten about Love it or List It. Like all ‘reality’ shows it’s totally staged but is so very irritating. Good call. OK, fairly coffee’d up here, onto the day.
jeff316
at 2:17 pm
Although the costs featured on Love it or list it are obviously discounted, I’ll give them credit that they do expose the problems or risks inherent to any reno, and more often than not they don’t fulfill the wish list of the home owners because “surprises” or issues that “pop up” or extra costs that were “unexpected”.
What annoys me about that show is that most of the participants are obviously on it to help fund renos and have no intention of ever moving. You can tell from the comments in the first segment of the show if you pay attention. A far-removed friend was on a different show, one where they pretend to look for a house and then reno it, and that guy had been in his house for almost a year – he just wanted a discount on the reno cost.
ScottyP
at 12:48 am
What annoys me about that show is that it sucks. Hard.
Darren
at 8:08 am
I can’t comment on the other shows, but on house hunters the people already have bought the place. They are told to complain and be picky.
It’s really easy to figure out which one they “choose” on most episodes if you are paying attention to the clues.
Jonathan
at 10:56 am
The worst is the YouTube channel with the Realtor who’s obsessed with school districts and Leaside… what is called – Pick 5? Also the production values of that show are terrible.
moonbeam!
at 11:21 am
hmmm.. let’s see… wonder how & what does your snide little dig add to the discussion……. or are you being cute?
ScottyP
at 12:51 am
Jonathan’s just sad because while David is busy Picking 5, Jonathan is stuck picking his nose. Or, another orifice.
Jonathan
at 9:46 am
Tough Crowd… I love Pick 5, don’t change anything David.
David Fleming
at 11:46 am
@ Jonathan
Don’t worry buddy – I got the humour in it!
In today’s society, it almost seems you need to denote sarcasm with a smiley-face emoticon! 🙂
ScottyP
at 11:13 pm
The lack of a smiley-face emoticon was the deal-breaker here, yes.
That, and I was drunk at the time. It’s not much, but there you go.
Gilly
at 2:09 pm
Having just done a hefty and lengthy reno on our older TO house (opening up main floor, new kitchen, 2 new bathrooms) the reno cost is the one that annoys me most on these shows. I usually just double the amount a show gives as the reno figure as I now know how much all these things plus labour cost. Same for the amount of time (ours took 4-5 mos start to finish, and that does not include the design phase and to-ing and fro-ing of the building permit application).
Gwen
at 3:50 pm
I love those Property Guys who do an entire main floor house reno in FOUR WEEKS!
Rob Fjord
at 12:49 pm
yeah property brothers, you dont often see a crew working, its mostly the one brother… makes it look like he is doing 80% of the work, in record time.. and its always the same old storyline…”oh oh, we found plumbing in this wall that we wanted to remove, gonna cost big $ to move it, there goes the budget”
M M
at 5:54 pm
David, not to nitpick, but you liked MDL NY and MDL LA less than a year ago, and you posted about it. They are still not real.
A Grant
at 6:46 pm
“Well, with that out of the way, I’m dying to know: what are your guilty real estate TV pleasures?”
Well, since no one is willing to, I’ll admit to one. Vintage episodes of Property Virgins set in Toronto.
I say this while agreeing with everything David said above (especially #5). That said, I enjoyed seeing what prices were like in the city in 2006-2008. What were considered “up and coming neighbourhoods” back then. In addition, there were a number of instances where homes were bought (or lost) in multiple offer scenarios. And Sandra was more willing to call out the unreasonable expectations of some of her “clients”.
jeff316
at 7:04 pm
Property Virgins, particularly the Toronto ones, weren’t so bad.
Pete
at 9:54 am
I agree that Property Virgins with Sandra was pretty good. While it usually just showed them looking at 3 houses, there were episodes where she showed them dozens, and others where it took months and months to find something. Whether that was real can be debated, but at least they made an attempt to show that it’s not as easy as House Hunters makes it look.
Darren
at 10:28 am
I think it was real. There was an episode where a guy bought a place behind her back. She seemed genuinely shocked and hurt.
jeff316
at 11:46 am
Yeah it was definitely less gimmicky before it went stateside.
ScottyP
at 12:47 am
The fact that the show even went stateside tells you everything you need to know about its legitimacy in the first place.
Unless, that is, Sandra really does know the ins and outs of Richmond, Virginia. Consummate professional that she is.
Mitch Murray
at 12:19 am
Unfortunately, it’s called ‘entertainment’ and even more unfortunately, many viewers seem to think it’s ‘real’. Same goes for the crap on R57. Most of the people on that show are not even qualified to speak on the topics they are supposedly experts on. Marketing in action – get a mildly telegenic person, throw some pancake makeup on them, give them a few sound bites that have been carefully vetted beforehand, along with the so-called ‘live’ call in questions….
It could be worse, Dave. They could start making movies about RE agents.
David Fleming
at 11:51 am
@ Mitch Murray
Other than Glengary, Glen Ross, I don’t know of a movie that was based on real estate agents, and real estate.
I thought “I Love You Man” was hilarious – the Realtor’s competitor asking him, “What’s your urinal puck situation?” The guy put his face on urinal pucks as an advertising ploy!
Raiana Schwenker
at 2:37 pm
Awesome article, made me laugh! Being a Real Estate agent in Niagara, and having lived in Toronto I am still always amazed by 26 year old couples buying $600,000 semi’s that need to be gutted, while in Niagara they would be $140,000, and 600k would buy 2400 sq ft detached in a beautiful neighbourhood with high end finishes. The difference in market is crazy.
The scripted dynamic on Love it or List it between the two hosts makes me ragey, I can’t even manage the corny-ness of a lot of these shows. I just don’t understand why it needs to be so gimmicky?
AndrewB
at 4:41 pm
The screen drama between Hilary and Clinton is horrible. The only thing worse is Love It or List It Vancouver.
T
at 4:14 pm
I work in the television industry I don’t agree with everything that is being said. First of all you can’t follow someone on an extended house search, first of all it would be too long and secondly no one would watch. The thing that is interesting about seeing people buy in different places across Canada and the US is because you see what different styles of houses are like, if you filmed 15 episodes in the same city it gets boring. Some shows might ask people to buy a house in advance but I know for a fact that some don’t, you are speaking about things you don’t necessarily know anything about. (how tv works) You know what i get it it’s not realistic to you, you work in that industry just like people who work as teachers wouldn’t want to watch a show about teachers etc. Also the complaining, if every potential buyer walked into every house and loved everything, you’d stop watching, and guess what people don’t love everything they see in every house because people have different tastes. Some hosts are better than others and some are just generally not nice people off camera. (Sandra)
ScottyP
at 1:16 pm
I don’t work in the industry, but I know how tv works: It’s a f*cking waste of everyone’s time.
Prefer not to say
at 2:01 pm
Having dealt with Sandra Rinomato and her husband, I can definitely say that they are NOT nice people off camera….
Yeah, okay
at 2:20 pm
Please look into the use of simple punctuation, such as full stops and commas. Your post was nigh on impossible to read due to independent clauses being incorrectly joined into long run-on sentences. Paragraphing is also a good idea.
You are right about Sandra on Love It or List It (assuming that is the Sandra you were referring to). She had the most repulsive, selfish, and rude personality I’ve ever seen on television.
AndrewB
at 4:39 pm
What about Income Property and all of these rental figures that get pulled out of someone’s ass to help “subsidize” the cost of home and renovation?
Krupo
at 12:20 am
Saw flyers at the home show for one of those reno shows (love/list?). Was interesting to see that you had to be prove to be willing and able to pony up $15,000 or more for the reno the show does.
The fakery in these shows reminds me of the disbelief on the cooking shows: the idea that all the contestants on Master Chef Canada know how to cook/bake certain dishes defies belief. If they were a ltitle more honest about the amount of “behind the scenes coaching” I’d be less annoyed, I’d like to think!
Sir V
at 1:44 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself…you’ve said all that I’ve been thinking when it comes to these HGTV shows..Completely distorted view of the business.
Misleading
at 7:14 pm
I find it funny that people take these “reality” shows seriously. There is nothing real in reality shows. They are for entertainment purposes only. A fine way to “wow” the audience is to script and make these guys look larger than they really are. Unfortunately, i worked for one of these agents from one of the shows. I will not say. Sorry to disappoint many fans and audiences. But the clients aren’t real. the houses aren’t in the market. (think about it) A 20 million dollar home cannot get sold in the matter of a week in each episode. At the end, it’s for people who easily get fooled and brainwashed. Such as may other things we see in the media, movies, ect…
TV is mind control.
Sandra
at 11:57 am
I agree that these shows are unrealistic however not everyone lives in Toronto or has to cope with Toronto prices. There are lots of houses in smaller towns and cities, even in Ontario that don’t cost $185,000. I know because I live in one of those towns. Toronto isn’t the only place to live in Ontario and I for one wouldn’t want to live there.
david eldon
at 4:01 am
I n my true feelings , Sandra is the most fake and unbelievable real estate person in the market , she has tried to sell properties in Toronto and Florida. and Mississauga. I would not trust this lady if my life depended on it. in my opinion she is the worst agent in Toronto. She is the reason why people do not trust real estate agents. Now she is trying to sell houses in Milton and aurora. Because every other market has
refused her . Although she may have a T. V. Show I would not trust this Lady at all . She is just trying to make money . And does not care whatsoever about her clients. She is the reason why Real estate agents have a bad name.