Sarah Beeny program...A con?

trumpton

The problem I have with these shows is that they are edited/filmed in such a way as to exagerate for dramatic effect. I would imagine most of the people featured actually have a very good idea of the state of the house they have bought - but it's more exciting tv if they are in tears at the prospect of subsidence or living on beans because the drains costs £5k they 'didn't have'.

Basically, buy a run down house and have Channel 4 pick up the renovation bill. All you have to do is play dumb, look shocked at the cost of stuff and pile on the angst.

I didn't like last nights house much - right on the main road, no garden?, looked over a school yard - and I really didn't like the finished style at all. Ok for a B and B but not a good family home imo.

CambridgeAngel

Now lets see if I can answer any of your questions:

Firstly we did get a full structural survey done ! The crack was there when we looked at the property and the survey said it was historical and not going anywhere (told to patch it up and monitor it). The drain issue was not picked up on the survery. The roof was obviously in need of repair but not to the extent that it needed totally replacing - remembering that the house is Grade II listed there is no way we would of been allowed to completely replace it. What we did do is strip it right back and repair what was rotten / damaged etc and that was all done by Sarah Beeny's expert who agreed with us and not her.

The Change of Use was put in before we brought the property and was part of the agreement when they sold it to us ! and nothing we did needed Planning Permission - it all needed Listed Building Consent which took 6 weeks !

The reason the kids rooms look shoddy would be because we havent done them yet - the tv show was just showing that the kids now all have their own rooms ! In 6 months we completed 5 rooms (remembering it took 6 weeks to get consent and a few more weeks agreeing on how we were going to change the layout)

With the market the way it is I think we did rather well - brought a lovely big house for pennies, are doing it up well within our budget and will make a profit at the end of the day (when the kids have all left home !) .............

Oh and Channel 4 pay nothing towards it !!!!!!!

If you want to see the actual before / during and after pics - and actually see the new stuff that has been done since filming finished in Jan 2010 check out our website carrickhousefareham !

dander

Nothing? Wow! That really surprises me. I have always imagined that the incentive to be on shows like this (especially property ladder) was that there was a fee of a few grand that helped with project costs.

Off to cross that money saving idea off my list

NeverInDebt

This program makes people like you CambridgeAngel stupid though whether you had a structural survey done or not this careful shown that way to give it the wow factor and certainly gives the impression no survey was done, although I suspect many people have done

Another thing it also implies people do get help because its always shown they have no money or not enough yet always come out on top with expensive bathrooms and kitchens

I dont dispute you dont get paid although I am surprised by that given the level of how skint they always make out although you did state you had a budget of 130k to be fair many others haven't but always come out on top in the end, I suspect its deliberately done that way for the wow factor

CambridgeAngel

The experts that come in don't charge ie, they get the publicity !! Then its down to our negotiations with suppliers as to what discounts we get (again for the publicity). But saying that - most of the discounts we got would be the same as you would get if you went on "Sale" days. With all the pressures of filming schedules alot of suppliers back out anyway and its hard finding workmen who are available at such short notice and can guarantee their timescales !!!

Twiggy007

I didn't watch last night's episode (i don't really watch the show), but once when we did happen to stumble on it, the only reason we kept on watching it was because the house they were showing happened to be my sister in law's old family home which her parent had sold about 8 years ago... she was devastated to see how poorly the house had been kept because the house now has rats, sewage leakage and subsidence, all occurring at once... its true, the family in the show did claim to be very tight for cash and ended up getting their insurance to help out with the structural problems... and in the end they did end up with a very nice kitchen and brand new furniture... but i didn't notice any advertisement boards...the house is definitely real.. but whether the family's financial situation is or not, God knows!

spirit

keystone wrote: »

All progs like this are a bit of a con one way or another really. Its called dramatic licence isn't it? This is one of the better ones IMHO.

Cheers

And have you seen Homes Under the Hammer recently? When old fat boy asks them if they've viewed the house, done their homework/read the legal pack, that often times it's a resounding no?

Utter madness. Then they spend tuppence ha'penny on it and miraculously they can get megabucks on the rental market for it?

Owain_Moneysaver

CambridgeAngel wrote: »

Now lets see if I can answer any of your questions:

Firstly we did get a full structural survey done ! The crack was there when we looked at the property and the survey said it was historical and not going anywhere (told to patch it up and monitor it).

It's very interesting to have some feedback from someone who's been in one of these programmes.

Do you have any recourse against the surveyor and his "historical" crack? t's obviously not that historical if it's moved against a 7-year-old wall!

I really liked the expanding foam underpinning.

The drains blocked with fat are probably typical of ex-B&B...

The final "reveal" where the dining table was set was so obviously staged!

Personally as it's a big house on 3 storeys (no cellars? I like cellars) I would have kept a working fire alarm system.

27col

Nice to hear from you CambridgeAngel. I live a couple of miles away from you in Fareham and as an avid watcher of property programmes it was fascinating to see something local, and learn something about how these programmes are made. Personally I wouldn't touch a listed building with a barge pole, but I am glad someone is taking them on and maintaining the appearance of some of our interesting old townscapes. I thought that the foam underpinning was brilliant. I can visualise that method really taking off in the near future. I wish you every happiness in your new home.

dizziblonde

Sarah Beeny annoys the living daylights out of me anyway - she moans whatever any of the people in her programmes do, then tries to twist it to being down to her awesome advice when it invariably turns out ok in the end.

This programme's more irritating than most though - they all got themselves a bargain, and surprisingly - it needed stuff doing to it... time and time again every single episode... wonder why it was so cheap in the first place guys?!

On the Homes under the Hammer one - I had to laugh when one of the local letting agencies is plugging a house for rent as "as seen on Homes under the Hammer"... translation: as revealed on the BBC all the stuff that's wrong with this house and that your landlord has just magnolia emulsioned over the lot of it!