House Hunters, please Buy Me: real estate shows

[whatever]

I just waded through the last 30 pages of the "Flip This House" thread at TWOP. Wow! Who knew there were such scandals in the world of house flipping.

This is the series on A&E that started out showing Trademark Properties (Richard Davis), and then started focusing on the Montelongos (Texas), Sam Leccima (Georgia), and the Connecticut guys. Davis is suing A&E for cutting him out of the show they agreed to share profits on, David Montelongo and his wife have split from the family firm, and Sam Leccima is under investigation for fraud. It's an interesting read.

Personally, I would not want to buy a house from any of these people, they all seem to do shoddy work. And Armondo's lowballing of the contractors is shameful. But overall, Trademark seems to be a mostly honest company, although their constant failure to get appropriate permits makes me wonder about them.

I do love the flipping shows.

[grumpygirl]

Are the trademark guys the ones in South Carolina? I hate them with the blazing fury of a thousand nuns.

[coley]

whatever said:

I just waded through the last 30 pages of the "Flip This House" thread at TWOP. Wow! Who knew there were such scandals in the world of house flipping.

This is the series on A&E that started out showing Trademark Properties (Richard Davis), and then started focusing on the Montelongos (Texas), Sam Leccima (Georgia), and the Connecticut guys. Davis is suing A&E for cutting him out of the show they agreed to share profits on, David Montelongo and his wife have split from the family firm, and Sam Leccima is under investigation for fraud. It's an interesting read.

Personally, I would not want to buy a house from any of these people, they all seem to do shoddy work. And Armondo's lowballing of the contractors is shameful. But overall, Trademark seems to be a mostly honest company, although their constant failure to get appropriate permits makes me wonder about them.

I do love the flipping shows.

Armondo Montelongo is the biggest douchebag I have seen in a while. I'm amazed he still has people willing to work with/for him. I wonder if people who did work for him now totally highball him after seeing how he lowballs them. And it made me furious one time when he planned on lowballing a subcontractor and he brought along his rottweiler to make the subcontractor feel uneasy while they were negotiating.

Oh, and the Trademark people always seem to have termite problems - is that just a South Carolina thing, or do they just buy old crap houses? I worry about the structural soundness of their houses.

[bloo]

The Trademark crew: Richard is soooo sleeping with Ginger.

[Deleted]

I agree. I mean, hell, if they're not sleeping together it's not because he doesn't want to. Something skeeves me about them.

As far as Flip This House, I think virtually everyone in the CT office is hot.

[coley]

I've always thought Richard was gay.

[Laira]

I love Buy Me. My favorite eps are 1) the nutbar 'artist' who tried to sell her ridiculously overpriced, insanely decorated, windowless condo overlooking an indoor rainforest and 2) the idiot who let her sister talk her into destroying the beautiful, classic, eleganthome exterior by converting the Georgian exterior to ugly 'modern' dormers.

[Deleted]

I enjoy watching Flip That House on TLC. While I'm sure it's faked to some small degree, it's not nearly as phony as the Flip This House on A&E. There was a woman who flipped a modern condo in L.A. for which she paid about $700,000 (I think) and got over one million when it was all finished. I'll never get over what she did to that kitchen with the metal cabinets—they were incredible.

Does anyone watch Sell This House!. I totally hate it but can't watch it enough! It annoys the ever-loving crap out of me when they haul in these "open house" people who complain about the furniture, the wallpaper, the poor decorating choices. Sure, I know people will notice these things—but that's not what's really for sale—the house is. I think they're prodded to make mean-spirited comments so the big guy with the barrel chest will have an excuse to use up-lighting and bedsheets for makeshift window treatments.

[Deleted]

Sell This House is so ghetto. I love it when he's like "And now we'll just overturn this used garbage can and put this old sheet on top of it and no one knows it's not a dining room table!" Yeah, that must look good.

I do like the host of that show. Tonya? She goes into some really nasty houses and she never seems judgemental when she says things like "Wow, this carpet is stained, is that from your dogs? Well, let's clean that up!" When any normal person would be like "Your carpet is covered in dog pee! What the hell is your problem? This room smells like a kennel! GROSS!"

I mean there's a difference between being so hard to please where you're like "Wow, this house is perfect, but the walls in the living room are blue so that won't work. Let's move on." and walking into an open house like the ones on Sell This House where the owners haven't cleaned in 10 years and there's a hole in the dining room wall and a mattress no the floor of the master bedroom and cat pee everywhere.

[grumpygirl]

bloo said:

The Trademark crew: Richard is soooo sleeping with Ginger.

I loathe Ginger. She's as dumb as a bag of hair and always has her mouth gaping open like a trout fighting for air. Stupid, mouth-breathing bimbo.

ETA: And Sell This House is totally ghetto. I love Designed to Sell, it's professional and they really make a different. Sell This House has that incredibly annoying host who's only job is to say "Tanya Memme" and show her cleavage. And the houses are gross and the fixes aren't that great. I guess it goes to show that the $2,000 budget and professional help make a really big difference. Oh, and is that $2,000 on Designed to Sell from the producers or the homeowners?