<p>Thanks - very interesting !!</p>
<p>[Trading</a> Spaces: Where Are They Now? | Apartment Therapy](<a href=“http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/trading-spaces-designers-where-136905]Trading”>Trading Spaces: Where Are They Now? | Apartment Therapy)</p>
<p>Vern and Genevieve both have done very well. I’d love to have Genevieve do a room or two for me!</p>
<p>Ema, I’ll pm you</p>
<p>LOVE House Hunters International! It is my fantasy to live in a million dollar beachfront house somewhere while working on the internet! How are these people doing this? How do such young people buy such expensive houses? </p>
<p>Lots of questions while watching HH and HHI.</p>
<p>I think a lot of families are helping their kids buy real estate these days. It’s something I’ve seen among my peers. I have a friend at work whose house is certainly worth two or three times what mine is, even though I am sure his family makes about the same as we do or maybe even less. They had a lot of help. But, that help came with strings-- they are expected to support their children the same way someday.</p>
<p>That said, a lot of kids are living at home for a long time and saving up. That is why we could afford the house we could, which is nicer than what a lot of my peers could afford though it’s nothing extravagant by any means. My fiance saved almost every penny he made the first 10 years of his career for that downpayment to keep our monthly payment affordable.</p>
<p>Agree with ema. I saved a ton to put down on my house.</p>
<p>Also I just watched a few episodes of the Reno raiders. Neat concept. I like that they mock it all up ahead of time.</p>
<p>I like watching Reno raiders, but would never have them do my house. By definition, no tile, no real hardwood floors, nothing that takes time. Maybe they come back and do those later? I noticed they took an exterior door and it’s molding off to get pieces in for a recent show, and in the reveal the wife keep standing in front of this door that did not have the molding put back on yet.</p>
<p>I like really like rehab addict and flea market flip. They both inspired me to get a old table I’m reworking and refinishing now.</p>
<p>Ucd, I noticed that too. The host actually said during the end of the episode that they got it all done but the molding around the door.</p>
<p>I started watching HGTV when DH and I were decorating a new house. Remember “Room By Room” and"Decorating Cents"? As a young couple, we loved their budget friendly ideas. I miss the decorating shows that inspired me to tackle home projects. Current shows are more for entertainment and I’ll watch only when I feel like being a couch potato.</p>
<p>I remember those old shows. But in doing it on the cheap (at least on design on a dime), they always used draperies with no lining, and I just can’t stand that. I like simple drapery panels, but that is a little too cost conscious for my taste.</p>
<p>I’ve found my favorite thread!!! About HGTV.</p>
<p>I have been an HGTV addict forever. About 4 yrs ago I actually took the opportunity of a layoff with large severance to start doing my dream - renovating houses for resale (commonly known as flipping, but I don’t like to use that bad word). I joke with my husband that the hours spent watching HGTV over the last 10 years were Important Research for my occupation ;)</p>
<p>In my geographical location the recession and large number of foreclosures finally made the purchase of property reasonable - lot of distressed homes waiting. It is getting very hard to find properties now, a lot of hedge fund and big money competition has flooded the market.</p>
<p>I find that I do not watch HGTV as much as I used to. Maybe because my entire day is spent on projects, cleaning up everything you can imagine, Home Depot three times a day. Not as glamorous as anyone thinks. However, in the end the transformation of ugly duckling to beautiful swan is amazing. Probably the closest to describe is Property Brothers type transformation. Although I don’t get the luxury of all the gorgeous furniture they have. I don’t know how that furniture fits into the budget… we had to move into our first home with a dorm room couch and a mattress on the floor.</p>
<p>I don’t watch House Hunters much anymore, but still addicted to House Hunters International.</p>
<p>Can someone explain to me how the House Hunters ‘fake’ works? Have always been curious</p>
<p>Coral, that sounds really cool. Give us an example of a house reno you have completed- what did you have to “flip”???</p>
<p>Said this on another thread, but will repeat. I’m such an HGTV junkie that when we moved into our new house, our audio visual guys installed a switch on the wall (looks like a light switch but is a push button) in the family room and master bedroom which turns the TV on when you enter the room, and it always turns on to HGTV. I don’t have to hunt for the remote or anything. I can also do it from my i-Pad or i-Phone, but I love coming upstairs to my room at night and just hitting that button on the wall as I head to the recliner.</p>
<p>Lazy, I know. :o</p>
<p>love love love the Property Brothers. They don’t overdo it… not fakey. They seem sincere and professional. But why are they single?! Both are so cute in different ways :)</p>
<p>Cant stand Love it or List it. I wish they had more Landscaping shows on… especially for the midwest. Seems like they are all CA or SE :(</p>
<p>Also used to love the HGTV Dream Home drama… but even that has lost it’s appeal.</p>
<p>I record love it or list it, but the formula is SO very predictable that I just fast forward to the third house David shows them, which is usually over budget and not in their desired neighborhood. Then I watch what Hillary was able to do, which is never what they plan as there has always been some big stumbling block that the usually nasty sellers probably always knew about. Of course the couple is always willing to increase their budget for the new house, but they never give Hillary an extra dime, all while acting like the fact that their furnace is 100 years old is her fault and proceed to act like jerks both to her and behind her back while the audio is still running. I always turn it off before the “decision” because it seems to me that they’ve always decided beforehand what they were really going to do. That annoys me since the show is set up as a competition between David and Hillary, but it’s actually basically been rigged in advance by the home owners. </p>
<p>Do they advertise for sellers by saying “must be mean, rude, entitled, and unrealistic”? I mean, how else to they find these awful people?!</p>
<p>Well, you asked so I would be only too happy to show my latest project. I hope I can link to pictures. </p>
<p>I usually buy homes at the foreclosure auction on the courthouse steps. I am the only woman that is buying at the courthouse steps and I think I am the only woman that is doing this type of business overall in our area. I don’t have a big ‘presence’ with websites or anything because I can only do one project at a time and I always overdo it because I cannot stand the cheap crap that the ‘big boys’ do. They have some type of design formula and they are all stuck in the 90s or something. I recognize every one of their projects - cheap Home Depot in stock cabinets with black granite and the cheapest stainless steel appliances for sale. </p>
<p>My gut feel right now is that buyers are looking for ‘whiter’, cleaner kitchen lines. The darker cabinets and dark granite are going out. On this flip I used high end gorgeous granite with a little bit of natural mica sparkle. I used quartz countertops in the bathrooms because I like the clean looking material. I used Carrera marble in the shower and bath. </p>
<p>I actually bought this house on regular market. House was in original condition (my nice way of saying it was absolutely disgusting, no one would touch it). Bad layout with a weird hallway between kitchen and 3rd bedroom with a bathroom in the hallway. I closed in the hallway, tore out the existing bathroom, turned it all around towards the large bedroom and created an attached master bath, small walk in closet and tore out the closet that was eating up square feet in the master bedroom. Gutted kitchen and other bathroom, opened wall between kitchen and living area, installed all new dual pane windows, opened up master bedroom with large French doors to back yard, and refinished original hardwood floors. The original hardwood floors were underneath THREE layers of disgusting shag carpet. I have never seen anyone that laid new carpet right over the old carpet. Really weird. But, the floors were in immaculate condition because they had always been carpeted.</p>
<p>Purchased the house from heirs after death of original owner for $366,000 and sold it for $465,000 after $45,000 in renovations. You’d be amazed how much renovation you can do with that money if a)house is vacant, b) you have great sources for labor and materials and c) you do as much yourself as possible. I have learned from many many mistakes over the years and have finally found really good sub-contractors. I kept a lot of them busy during the last four years of the recession and they have loyalty to me and keep their prices low. (Not to mention baked cookies and free sodas when they work on my projects !!)</p>
<p>I’m going to figure out how to link to the photos so you can see before and after</p>
<p>OK, found a way that I can link to the AFTER photos. The listing shows on Trulia. Have no idea how to show the before pictures. House used to be pink on the outside !</p>
<p>[6713</a> Rolando Knolls Drive, La Mesa CA - Trulia](<a href=“http://www.trulia.com/homes/California/La_Mesa/sold/6870528-6713-Rolando-Knolls-Dr-La-Mesa-CA-91942]6713”>6713 Rolando Knolls Dr, La Mesa, CA 91942 | Trulia)</p>
<p>Coral, how long did it take to flip the house? </p>
<p>I actually thought about buying a fixer upper years ago that had three layers of carpet too! I was gong to have to put in hardwood, a new roof, reconfigure some stuff, and upgrade the kitchen. In the end I decided not to do it because it didn’t have a basement and I wanted that for potential growth since it was a small ranch house.</p>
<p>I have created a link to the local MLS that has the photos from the BEFORE listing. Remember that these photos are trying to make the house look nice, there were definitely areas of the house that were horrible and not shown in the photos. Hope this works</p>
<p>[Email</a> View](<a href=“Sandicor.com”>Sandicor.com) </p>
<p>I started work on this project on March 5th and had the property ready for photos and listing by April 20th - about 6 weeks (or should have been 6 weeks, had to wait for kitchen cabinets). Long lead time items are kitchen cabinets and windows (had to be custom ordered for measurements). I get those ordered the minute I get into the property and can take measurements. Lead time is a big factor on who I will buy from. I make sure that I don’t buy anything else that requires a ‘lead time’ - has to be off the shelf or ordered on Internet.</p>
<p>I watch a lot of the flip shows on TV - I can really relate to ‘Flip Men’ that buy foreclosures and all the crazy stuff they find in their homes. My biggest horror was buying a really nice condo that looked great from the outside because it was maintained by the HOA. It was a foreclosure so I did not have any chance to inspect interior. It was occupied by a hoarder (a whole other set of TV shows out there), who luckily did not have pets/feces all over, just trash and junk. Very delicate month inching her out of the place with as much compassion as possible. She knew she had to move, she hadn’t paid mortgage or HOA dues for over a year and a half and she was grateful that I worked with her on the transition, rather than evicting outright.</p>
<p>If you need more details on cost and timing I would be happy to provide.</p>
<p>Sorry, on the Email View link above, you need to click on the photo in the upper left to see all of the before photos</p>
<p>Coral, that is gorgeous! Nice work! I can’t believe you did all that work so fast. </p>
<p>There is a show on now, where one guy is at the courthouse and the other guy is at the property. They are bidding on these homes, but can’t see the inside. The show ends with the winning bidders entering the homes and the rennovations being tallied. It’s really interesting and sounds like what you do.</p>
<p>Oops. Just saw your mention of Flip Men. That is probably the name of the show.</p>