The show House Hunters takes viewers behind the scenes as individuals, couples and families learn what to look for and decide whether or not a home is meant for them. Focusing on the emotional experience of finding and purchasing a new home, each episode shows the process as buyers search for a home.
Everything you know about house hunters is false news. It is all scripted for TV. “Yes. lets. move. on. to. the. next. house.” says the wife. “yes. I. think. that. is. a. great. idea.”answers the husband.
As a matter of fact, the home owners already have purchased the house that they choose and the real life roller coaster of emotions of buying a house is all done when the cameras aren’t rolling. The hopeful homer-owners-to-be stroll easily from room to room commenting on the hideous lamp shades and throw pillows (that don’t even come with the house) calm as can be as if they have the upper hand and have all the time in the world to think about the pros and cons of the house and if they can see them selves living there. The bias of this blog is to burst that HGTV cloud you are living on and tell you, it doesn’t work that way. Unfortunately.
My wife and I played “house hunters” on our very first date. It wasn’t supposed to be a date but in hindsight it was a date. Our hometown of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho hosts the “Parade of Homes” every year and as we strolled through each magnificent lake house we quietly made jokes about how awful the curtains were and made fun of every thing that would be considered staging and nothing about the bones of the house, making sure everything sounded as scripted as possible. “I could not live with this painting on this wall. It is just too, too paint-y.” Since that day in August almost three years ago, we have helped a multitude of families find, buy or sell their home. All having their own story of something going wrong and feeling deflated of hope of ever finding the right one. It starts feeling more like a job interview, and then three or four months in to the search you start pounding on the glass of your front living room window like the ending scene in the movie “The Help” yelling “I is Kind, I is smart, I is important PLEASE SELL ME THIS HOUSE!”
Something to keep in mind when working with a Realtor or if you are a realtor yourself. It is like a waltz. If you have ever been classical dancing you know there is a certain truth about keeping your arms strong, firm and up. If you are keeping your arms loose, something I call “Spaghetti arms” your partner is not going to take your lead very well and end up stepping on each others toes and end up frustrated and bruised. There will be tears, and fear of the unknown and what-if’s and ‘shoulda-woulda’s’ and seller’s remorse and the roller coaster goes up and down just like the market.
Another analogy is like spinning plates… the other realtor, the title company, the appraiser, the lender, the lies of zillow listings, the 5th 6th 7th time putting in a denied offer, the seller, the buyer, the inspector, the mortgage company, kids running around the open house and locking themself in the closet and yelling dark! dark! dark!, your wife waking in the middle of the night in tears about the closing cost, Tuesday night bible study praying you find the perfect house before your baby is due, the co-workers thinking you are crazy to even be buying a house, hhhhhhhh, TAKE A DEEP BREATH!!….. House hunting is emotional and exhausting. For the Realtor and for the buyer/seller. Those smiles on HGTV are for the cameras. However the end result is super rewarding, why be in a business I don’t like? Why take your lady whose guilty pleasure is also looking at houses on a date to see houses? All this to say, the offer DOES eventually get accepted, the file DOES eventually get closed, the commission check does finally get cashed and the closing gift to the elated new home owners does find its way to your long-awaited new address. Keep your Waltzing arms strong, and your doubts far behind you.