I don't know about you, but I've gotten hooked on HGTV and similar programming. I love all the design shows with the transformations that they're able to perform (though I must admit, the first time I saw "Design on a Dime", it was pretty obvious that "on a dime" meant something totally different to me than it did to them). There are quite a number of those shows specific to Real Estate, too, that definitely peaked my curiosity. I've long been a great believer in "staging" a home, and "how you LIVE IN a house and how you SELL a house are two totally different animals". I've been a bit surprised by some of the "staging" that gets done where the "experts" convert the walls to bold greens and oranges and yellow and present a home for an "Open House" to all the ooooohs and ahhhhhs of their Open House Guests. Though I've thought some of those redos looked great with the current owner's furnishings, and of course made for great "TV", but I've not found that most buyers find it easy to picture THEIR OWN furniture in a home with an assortment of extreme color. And after all, isn't that the point of staging...to help a buyer "see themselves" in the house?
But I must admit, with as many shows as I've watched (generally late at night when I'm trying to fall asleep), there was one episode of "Flip this House" that nearly sent me over the edge...mostly from laughing so hard. The episode was set in California somewhere, and the "flip' was what we in the midwest commonly call a "quad" unit...you know, there are four units in a building (a first floor ranch, two interior two-story units, and a second floor ranch that's over the garages). They do come in a variety of sizes and there's some variation of the interiors, but I gather they're a popular alternative in many parts of the country.
This particular unit had recently been purchased for, as I recall, $240,000, and the new owner planned to recarpet, paint, and update the Kitchen and Bath, and put it on the market for around $300,000. Now, she indicated on the show that she'd had many successful flips in the past, so she was very excited about this particular one because is should be a pretty simple "turn around". Turned out not to be quite as simple...though not really bad either. She sold after a few weeks on the market for $280,000...not a bad profit for what she invested and a few weeks worth of work!
Now, that may not get you particularly excited or inspired, but it certainly did me...because I had just listed a property in Glendale Heights, Illinois...that looked like the same house. As the show host was giving us a 'tv tour' of the home, it was like I was touring my own listing! I felt like calling her up and saying "Hey, have I got a great deal for you!.....basically the same house, and we're only asking $100,000 for it!!!" Now, if I only could find out if that guy who paid her $280,000 has a brother looking for the same floorplan!
Like I said, gotta love that Reality TV!
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