Who watches Designed to Sell on HGTV?

[disykat]

We've also gone house hunting and not even walked in the door of some houses because we were greated by the smell. We were amazed at the filth.

I like both shows, but I like Designed to Sell better. Sell This House has the same people walking through before and after and they seem to just be looking at the decor and not the house. While I understand that first impressions count, I do think most people understand that they are buying the house - not the furniture!

 

[pyrxtc]

I like both shows too. I like how on either show, it doesn't seem to take much to really improve upon the house. I don't like how when people come in to see the house and they comment on the decorating style of the photo's or furniture..etc... They are getting a fully furnished house, look past it. If I had done that with the hosue I live in now, we never would have bought it. It was dirty, yellowed walls from smoking and filled with junk. Nothng had been updated since the 60's furniture or decor. But after a little cosmetic work, i love my house.

 

[chrissyk]

I like both shows too. I like how on either show, it doesn't seem to take much to really improve upon the house. I don't like how when people come in to see the house and they comment on the decorating style of the photo's or furniture..etc... They are getting a fully furnished house, look past it. If I had done that with the hosue I live in now, we never would have bought it. It was dirty, yellowed walls from smoking and filled with junk. Nothng had been updated since the 60's furniture or decor. But after a little cosmetic work, i love my house.

Well, I think that the point is that many people ARE sold on the cosmetics. I've also bought a couple of cosmetic fixers, and gotten great deals on both. However, plenty of people will pay more when the house gives the impression of looking upscale (even though the stuff won't stay with the house).

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

When a house is well-kept, right down to the decorating, it gives the impression that the owners are concientious about caring for their house. That may or may not be true, but impressions DO count. Not everyone can look beyond the bad decorating, etc, to see the potential.

 

[Morganpics]

Both DH & I love Designed to Sell and House Hunters. We have to chuckle, though, over the Designed to Sell "there is way too much clutter here" and the other comments made by the Realtor, especially Donna, and yet on House Hunters nearly every one has "stuff" everywhere! We are also amazed at the prices that owners get for their house. I'd surely get sticker shock if I moved to California!

 

[Parkhopper]

When we were house hunting two years ago, we went into one Open House where a Realtor was sitting all day in the house, and couldn't believe what we found! The carpet was brand new and the walls were freshly painted, (although they painted walls and ceilings with a high gloss paint and you could see EVERY brush mark). What we couldn't believe was the smell in the laundry room (turned out to be mildewing laundry left in the washing machine) or the smell in the kitchen (some kind of fish). The kitchen countertops were covered in a greasy film, the range had no knobs, all mirrors in the house were blurry like they were wiped with a dirty rag and the unfinished basement smelled so horribly of pet urine that I began wheezing.

Why bother going through the motions of painting and laying fresh carpet if you can't clean (or hire someone) to clean the rest of the house?

That said, this house sold for $15,000 OVER asking price (2003 was a hot, hot, hot year in Maryland!)

Suzi

 

[DisneyMomOK]

I haven't been house-hunting in 25 years (I am the one with too much clutter; working right now to dump a bunch of it), but these stories are sooo tragic, but funny. We did buy a home at the lake a few years ago (and sold it since then) and in one home there was a dead squirrel in the L/R (realtor couldn't figure out why it smelled funny, until my kids pointed out the dead animal). I love those shows, too. Right now I need all the incentive I can get to dump the crap I have accumulated during the past quarter century (Yikes!! that sounds awful).

Sharon