bbc progs on property development

Doozergirl

leitmotif wrote: »

That's another underhand comment. Please, Doozergirl, I really don't deserve to be addressed this way. The apology would have been much appreciated had it not been undermined by this statement, which is laced with sarcasm. I didn't say anything about her intelligence; naivety refers to having or (as in this case) showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information. Please just drop the attempts to get one up on another poster and stick to the topic in hand. Thank you.

Honestly, if you had been perfectly nice about your friend yourself then I wouldn't have thought twice about apologising to your friend. It's your double standards that wind me up when you're the one gossiping about your own friend and then telling me off for a throwaway comment?

I retract any apology that I may have made to you. Please send the link of this whole thread to your friend. When she posts I will tell her that I'm really sorry for suggesting that she thought that you were stupid. That I do now understand that she is actually just naive and that it was just my misunderstanding of your bit of gossip about her.

It's like being at school. Excuse me for pulling post-count weight but I've never been told off for being spiteful or for the way I've spoken to someone so you'll have to forgive me for thinking you might be over-reacting.

leitmotif

Doozergirl wrote: »

Honestly, if you had been perfectly nice about your friend yourself then I wouldn't have thought twice about apologising to your friend. It's your double standards that wind me up when you're the one gossiping about your own friend and then telling me off for a throwaway comment?

I retract any apology that I may have made to you. Please send the link of this whole thread to your friend. When she posts I will tell her that I'm really sorry for suggesting that she thought that you were stupid. That I do now understand that she is actually just naive and that it was just my misunderstanding of your bit of gossip about her.

It's like being at school. Excuse me for pulling post-count weight but I've never been told off for being spiteful or for the way I've spoken to someone so you'll have to forgive me for thinking you might be over-reacting.

It's a great shame that you feel that my use of an adjective to describe someone other than yourself entitles you to address me with spite and sarcasm, and then to retract what was not in fact an apology because it was undermined by said spite and sarcasm. I have only been 100% polite to you and will continue to be so.

westlondonbuyer

Shall I tell what *really* bugs me about these sorts of programmes?

That my parents didn't insist I learnt a manual trade! It winds me up something chronic that people can renovate a whole house for less than it cost me to get my bathroom up to scratch. The other thing that really annoys me is the type of people you see on Relocation Relocation who are moving to gorgeous parts of the country because their employer will let them work from home. What are these jobs?

Running_Horse

123robint wrote: »

IMHO programs that glamourise the refurbishement of property are hugely misleading and downright fraudulent

homes under the hammer
to buy or not to buy
escape to the country

The latter two programmes almost never deal with refurbishments, just buyers too dumb to use Rightmove.

I love HUTH, especially seeing some total slum brought back into use. We need more people refurbishing this country's appalling housing stock, not less.

In fairness they also mention "the usual professional fees" when talking about any profit.

What else would they show during the day that's cheap? More Oprah and Ricki Lake rubbish? If you don't like it, switch off or switch over.

mostlycheerful

“Occupation
Retirded”

Retirded? Fantastic, love it.

“Possibly a typo and the OP meant to hit the 'a' key but hit 'i'.

Oh the irony!”

Occupation !!!!!!!

Tee hee, even more very funny

Anyway, yes, indeed, re the point of the thread, those telly progs don’t show the disasters and botches and the thousands of novice muppets losing loads of money. I’ve often thought, yeah yeah yeah, loads of profit every time you buy something at auction, likely. If I did that I’d probably get a real turkey and then have a terrible time getting ripped off by the builders. And probably end up with a shell, half falling down.

Some of the presenters are so smug and there’s one in particular who always does a weird grin all the time and you can sometimes see the punters bristling at the relentless smug smarm and then some of the others start doing it back, like people laugh and yawn when then see other people doing it. Quite revolting.

Of course smiley grinning smoothy irritating little fat northern boy made good who fronts one of the progs also runs a property company signing up people to expensive lectures and “courses” and, as I remember it, some sketch about giving them loads of money and then they flog you property in some supposedly clever way - or maybe I’m confusing that with those two notorious pay us thousands then use your credit card to start a buy to let empire companies who recently went bust due to credit crunch. So it’s in his interests to always show people making an easy fortune and not to warn anyone off. Perhaps a conflict of interest there. In the flashy advertising blurb bumf that I got sent, with his grinning smack me hard mug all over it, it actually said that mostly he doesn’t even turn up to the roadshows in his name as he’s busy doing more telly shows – or more likely taking baths in fifty quid notes and champagne, the jammy self satisfied so and so.

Of course there are the other programs that only focus on the disasters so in a sense that kind of balances out the skew of the feel good shows. But yes, I’ve also thought what a load of old fanny and why don’t they ever show how up and down the reality is.

Of course maybe it’s true that auctions are money for old rope and anyone can bowl in and make an almost instant fortune flipping distressed properties being sold at below market value. I’m tempted to believe the hype and it’s definitely true that some people do very well out of it. So would lady luck smile on me if I took a punt. Or would I just get shafted. Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there.

spirit

I like Homes under the hammer - just to be nosey to see what developers do with them.

On the other hand i like DIY SOS with Nick Knowles. I'm not sure how much of that is staged. I mean are the houses really that bad?

Davesnave

twirlypinky wrote: »

what about the one with Sarah Beeny where the people on the show always ignore her advice? That one is a more accurate reflection. I love the way she says at the end "Of course, there was a rising market and the money they made on this house would've been made if they'd done nothing at all"

I'd love to go on that show purely because i'm very good at doing as i'm told. I'd be her star pupil.

Yes, but they wouldn't choose you!

It's fairly certain that the researchers for that programme used personality profiling to locate those least likely to take advice. Without the headstrong idiots, 'Property Ladder' would have been far less 'entertaining.' Only mad HPI saved the majority of them and rescued the programme from being car crash TV.

Unfortunately, reality isn't always so funny.

Just before we bought our present house, we came across a 'developer' whose lack of skill had led him into serious financial difficulties at a time when the local property market was bombing. I won't forget the dismal, wet day when he showed us around the wreck he'd created, water dripping into the 'conservatory' he'd erected. Because of his change of layout, passing right through this 20' monstrosity was the only way to reach the stairs! Apart from the roof and the windows, done by others, there was nothing I wouldn't have ripped out.

The guy was flat broke & his wife & family were long gone. I don't think Beeny would have rescued that one!

dori2o

Running_Horse wrote: »

The latter two programmes almost never deal with refurbishments, just buyers too dumb to use Rightmove.

I love HUTH, especially seeing some total slum brought back into use. We need more people refurbishing this country's appalling housing stock, not less.

In fairness they also mention "the usual professional fees" when talking about any profit.

What else would they show during the day that's cheap? More Oprah and Ricki Lake rubbish? If you don't like it, switch off or switch over.

Very true and it should start with the local councils doing just this instead of of bringing in HMR (Housing Market Renewal) shemes which for some reason can legally force someone out of their home, even if they own it (via compulsory purchase), and then knock down that home despite the fact that although their may be minor problems (damp,leaking roof etc) the homes, usually terraced stock, are better built than the ones they replace them with.

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of empty properties in the area I live in (Greater Manchester) all earmarked for demolition under HMR schemes when in reality the councils could save thousands/millions on demolition and building when all they realistically need to do is refurbish.

Maybe it's just me but I'd rather look at terraced houses that have a bit of character, than a stock of new builds, especially these so called eco-houses.

Jowo_2

Davesnave wrote: »

..

Unfortunately, reality isn't always so funny.

Just before we bought our present house, we came across a 'developer' whose lack of skill had led him into serious financial difficulties at a time when the local property market was bombing.

I don't know how much the TV programmes were an influence but some amateur developers (ex-neighbours) bought 4 properties, sold the first one with some profit but had the remaining 3 repossessed after they had refurbished them!

They bought a flat in my tenement for 125k at the height of the boom, tried to sell it for offers over 139k when they refurbished it and its now on sale following repossession for offers around 120k which is the maximum that a 2 bed flat goes for round this way.

For some reason, they decided to turn the dining kitchen into a third bedroom, move the kitchen in an extended cupboard and fit a wet room without a bath, thus managing to make a 3 bed family sized flat unpopular with families. It didn't sell and I would have thought the trendy bathroom and the fact that actual 3 bed flats were on the market for similar prices that still had dining sized kitchens was an influence.

Apparently, after the drains of their almost complete third property were sabotaged, possibly by unpaid builders, they fled to Thailand to take up kick-boxing and live in a shack on the beach. Apparently failed business people can live like kings on pennies over there.

poppysarah

Running_Horse wrote: »

The latter two programmes almost never deal with refurbishments, just buyers too dumb to use Rightmove.

Nah ones who are clever enough to know they can have a free trip out for appearing on the show. They're filmed over 2 days so I'm taking a wild guess that our BBC licence fee goes towards the cost of putting people up in a guesthouse.