TV Property Shows

poppysarah

Agreed that Beeny is the best of the lot for developers - but she should have been allowed to slap a lot of those people (That horrid bathroom floor in Manchester)

McCloud speaks fluent everything and is a charming man and his Grand Designs is worth watching.

mr_fishbulb

When adding up the sums at the end, they miss off a lot of costs.

E.g. "Well you bough this property for £450,000, and sold for £600,000 after spending £50,000 doing it up. That's £100,000 profit."

Err what about;
Buying costs of original property (including £13,500 stamp duty).
Selling costs of property once done (including £7,500 EA fees @ 1.25%)
Interest payments on the mortgage between buying and selling (unless they buy outright).

seabright

I think you're guaranteed some top entertainment in one of these programmes when one of the "developers" says :
1. To save money we didn't have a survey
2. Yes, it's listed, but I don't really know what that means

Guaranteed disaster for them & great viewing for me! Agree with other posters that Sarah Beany & Kevin Mcloud are the best.

Any views on Sunday night's Restoration Man? I am blinded by his dazzling white straight teeth and find it hard to concentrate on anything else!

Sammy85_2

I love Grand Designs, purely because its about building something amazing rather than cashing in on the property market. People build some really interesting (and whacky) houses. Its brilliant.

marcg

Can't stand McCloud. The man's an interior designer - he talks like he knows his bottom from his elbow when it comes to building technology. The poor mugs on the show do amazing things, teaching themselves stuff on the fly that it takes years to learn and he just throws snide remarks at them right up until the end where he says a few nice things so they don't punch him.

Apart from when he covered Damian Hurst's projects, that is, when he couldn't see for having his nose between DH's bum cheeks.

The other thing about the programmes in general is that they completely leave out the consultants - the architects, engineers, technicians, planners, and of course all the guys on site who make the thing happen. The people who ask the awkward questions before the mistakes get made. To watch the programmes you'd think the thing was done in five weeks by the couple who borrowed the money.

Another vote for Beany though. I really feel for her when she gets exasperated with people: "But you could have done nothing for six months and made the same profit!!!!" (Back when house prices were rising)

DaddyBear

These programs are "enterteinment". Don't take them seriously. They also don't seem to understand the difference between estate agent valuation and selling price.
I'd love to put all these property "experts" in a bus and roll it off a cliff.

Hailstorm

I find there can be some weird peverse humour in it sometimes. If you have someone who knows what they are doing it is boring but when the developers do not have a clue it is funny in a cruel way. It is like a car crash in slow motion, you can see exactly where it is heading, it is just a question of whether the driver will notice in time to apply the brakes or steer onto a different course.

deanrm

Thanks again everyone for your input and taking the time to answer my question.
My other major concern is that after watching about 30+ hours of these shows (mainly Property Ladder and HUTH), I have seen so many obviously bad developers who made every mistake in the book and were constantly being berated by Beany, yet almost every one of them, by the end of the show, had miraculously created a master-piece! I think I have only seen two failures. Everyone always seems to be a winner. While I am personally happy for the individuals involved, surely this cannot be approaching even the vaguest reflection of the real world. Yes, these shows are entertainment, but I would really like to see some "failures" in order to remind us that it is not that easy.

Shakethedisease

Can't stand McCloud. The man's an interior designer - he talks like he knows his bottom from his elbow when it comes to building technology.

Oooh I know.. but he's always been my guilty 'god I really fancy a roll in the hay with him' secret.. Sad but true. Got to get out more.

As for property tv. Well, I get annoyed when Martin and the blonde women keep crapping on about 'investments' non-stop. I'd far rather they talk about folks buying a HOME to live in. But guess it's a sign of the times where people on these programs buy 'property' and have the estate agents filmed nosying round for potential 'rental' income rather than Martin going back saying 'oh you've moved in, how wonderful..'

As for Phil and Kirsty. I don't think they've had anyone on their program for YEARS that hasn't sold a LONDON flat for an obscene amount of money.. so the said yuppy-type couple can waltz around the poorer and more rural areas of the country snapping up 5 bed houses, ( 4 bedrooms are 'too small' )..just for the 2 of them, with 1 acre gardens and a 'crash pad' ( which never gets bought ) back in London... I also had a bit of a crush on Phil for a while sadly..

Sarah Beeny is good. However, I get the feeling she does the voice over's months afterwards only when she's got positive confirmation that her 'voice of doom' of that mistaken '4th bedroom at the expense of an en-suite' is 100% proven right. You never get to hear that she's recommended they DON'T do something.. the developers do, yet it actually HAS netted the vendors another £10,000 by ignoring her advice. She can't be that 'right' in every single program. My Hubby fanices her though !

In other words. Property tv is all edited to suit the presenters viewpoints. I wouldn't believe a word of it..

PasturesNew

Buy for £100k, budget £30k to do it up ... it'll be worth £175k ... only it doesn't work like that.

Buy for £100k
Plus buying fees, solicitors' costs, searches, survey
Budget £30k to do it up
But actually spend £42k because you didn't realise X, Y and Z needed doing and they turned out to be pricey
It's actually 'worth' marketing it at £165k, to accept £155k

It's taken you 10 months, not 3 and you don't find a buyer for 9 months, totalling 19 months of mortgage interest to fork out, at (say) 5%, which is £750/month so that's cost you about another £14k.

You also spent every spare minute/hour of every day/week/month working on the house, driving back and forth, buying bits and pieces you didn't even add to the expenditures list. You let down your family/friends as you couldn't get to see them and do stuff you promised; you cancelled your holiday. You argued, sweated .....

Now spend out on EA fees and solicitors to sell it.

So now the figures show:
£100k + £2k + £42k + £3k + £14k = £161k

And your buyer's offered you £140k.

So you've worked for 19 months, ruined your life, to lose £21k (+ stuff you forgot to add into the costings).