As Seen On TV? Not Exactly
Real Estate Shows Help Educate Public, but They Skip the Drudgery

By Dan Rafter
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, November 1, 2008

Thea Rudland knows how hard it can be to buy and sell a house, no matter what you see on television.

She and her husband, Dave, closed on their new home in Frederick in late September. But first they had to sell their residence in Ohio.

The process involved multiple home inspections, reams of paperwork, a long-distance search for a new home and the stress of a job transfer for Dave.

It certainly didn't fit the half-hour story arc so popular on cable TV. "I think people watching those shows are led to believe that the process is easy," Rudland said about staples such as "House Hunters," "Get It Sold" and "Flip That House. "

"It rarely is. They show none of the negotiation process or any of the bumps in the road that can happen along the way. And they show a tenth of the paperwork that's actually involved in the buying process."

Thanks to the home shows that fill HGTV, TLC, A&E and other channels, homes are no longer merely places to live. Homes -- redecorating them, investing in them, buying them and selling them -- have become entertainment for many viewers.

But what impact have these shows had on buyers and sellers? Real estate agents say the shows have created a class of more educated customers. The shows pound home the message that sellers have to stash personal items, remove clutter and clean their houses until they sparkle before every showing, work that some in the past did not want to tackle. But the agents also said that the shows have created home-selling myths. The biggest? TV makes the process of buying and selling, not to mention renovating and then selling for a big profit, seem simpler than it actually is.

Eileen O'Neill, president of TLC, said that her network, which runs several home shows, has tried to reflect the new real estate reality. The station has added shows that directly address the struggles today's homeowners face, she said, and now features homeowners who don't always reap the kind of appreciation they want from their residences.

TLC's lineup now includes shows such as "Hope for Your Home," in which homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments receive cash to renovate their residences. The hope is that they can then either sell the properties or rely on a higher appraisal to refinance into an easier-to-pay mortgage.

Such a show would not have existed during the height of the real estate boom, O'Neill said. "People recognize that we've gone from a big booming market to a challenging one," she said. "You can't just put a 'for sale' sign in front of your home and wait for the buyers to come. I think our programming is now reflecting that."

For instance, shows that focus on flipping property -- buying a home, renovating it and then selling it a higher price -- now include disclaimers that flipping is a risky venture. The shows also offer updates on how well flippers have done, with many of these updates explaining that the owner still hasn't found a buyer.

"We remind viewers that because of market conditions right now, they have to be a little more cautious and mindful of the risks that they are taking when they renovate their homes," O'Neill said.

Still, Rudland, the recent buyer, said that the shows sometimes paint a too-rosy picture of buying and selling.

"Amazingly, the Realtors on the shows are always able to meet their clients in a sunny park under a beautiful tree, and there's only one paper to sign, as opposed to the hour or more spent in an office signing a mountain of papers that typically happens," she said. "They don't usually show the work that is involved in selling -- having to keep the house clean, needing to vacate for showings, wondering why no one is making an offer on your 'beautiful' home -- either."

Laura Reese, marketing manager for the Creig Northrop Team, a group of Long & Foster agents in suburban Maryland, said she is a fan of the home shows, as are several of her colleagues.

The shows do a good job, she said, of letting sellers know they have to strip many of their personal items out of a home when selling. It once was a challenge for real estate agents to tell owners that they had to store much of their personal photos and family memorabilia. Sellers have now "heard it a thousand times" on TV, so they don't flinch when their agents tell them to hide the family portrait that's hanging above the stairwell, Reese said.

But while the shows often portray families who renovate their kitchens or bathrooms before putting their homes on the market, they don't do an accurate job of explaining just how expensive the work can be, Reese said.

"They don't factor in the cost of the labor involved in such projects," she said. "Painting and remodeling a kitchen, ripping out cabinets: That all requires expensive labor. The shows may quote what people paid for the appliances and new cabinets, but they don't cover the cost of the labor involved in it. People could be misled on what it costs to remodel a kitchen or bathroom."

Add Terry Brown as another voice wishing that home shows would be a touch more realistic. Brown, an agent with Re/Max Allegiance in the District, said that the home shows should do a better job of explaining just how time-consuming, frustrating and stressful home-renovation projects can be.

"Some of the renovation shows make it all look really easy," he said. "In reality, though, renovation is a lot more than just picking up a hammer and swinging it."

Television never shows the struggles that homeowners go through just to obtain the proper construction permits from city and county agencies, Brown said. And you rarely see municipal inspectors demanding that work be done a certain way or not at all.

"People see the shows and think they can be renovators, too," Brown said. "But a lot goes into it. It's more than just saying you want to do something. It's real work."

Elaine Koehl, an agent with Re/Max 100 in Frederick, added that she would like to see the programs do a better job of showing viewers that buying or selling a home is a lengthy, complicated process.

Too often, television makes the experience seem simple and quick. But selling a home wasn't a quick and simple process even when the residential real estate market was booming, from 2001 through 2006, Koehl said.

She pointed to scenes that show couples signing perhaps a single piece of paper before taking ownership of their new homes.

It might not make for the best television, but producers of the home shows should give more information on how long it takes, on average, to buy or sell a home, and a better indication of the amount of paperwork involved in even "easy" transactions, Koehl said.

She said she also is disappointed that the home shows rarely depict the sometimes-tricky negotiations between buyers and sellers. Instead, they can make it appear as though every offer is accepted. And if an initial offer is rejected, the shows make it seem like a simple process to arrive at a compromise, Koehl said.

Unfortunately, in real life, the negotiation process is often complex, involving several rounds of back-and-forth between buyers and sellers, she said.

"Often on these shows, it comes across that you sign one piece of paper and you get a house," Koehl said. "It doesn't accurately reflect the hours it takes to get the papers signed."

This isn't to say that real estate agents dislike the home shows. On the contrary, they say, the shows have helped make their jobs a little easier, especially dealing with sellers.

Gretchen Koitz, an agent with the Bethesda office of Long & Foster, said that she enjoys working with sellers who are also fans of the home shows. "Part of my work is done for me," she said. "I don't have to constantly tell them to pick their dirty laundry off the floor before a showing. I don't have to tell them that some paint would be nice. They see it all the time on the home shows."

The one myth that local agents say they hate to see perpetuated on a home show is that sellers can name their price and get it, no matter what. The shows often picture couples renovating a home and then hearing from their real estate agent that the residence is now worth a certain number of dollars. But rarely do the shows demonstrate that sometimes homes don't sell for what agents say they are worth, especially in today's down market.

Fortunately, that myth hasn't taken hold in the Washington area, agents said, because housing prices here are already so high. When the home shows feature a large house in another part of the country -- especially in a smaller community away from a major metropolis -- the prices seem low in comparison with those here, agents said. Because of this, sellers watching the shows aren't tempted to overprice their homes, Koitz said.

"We are the opposite," she said. "We are such a high-priced market. If anything, we have people who see people paying $600,000 for a mansion in Texas. They come here and see that $600,000 in this region buys you a starter home. We see more misinformation from buyers who are moving here and are amazed at how expensive housing here is."

Local agents say they will always be grateful to the home shows for helping to create a buzz about real estate. During the housing boom, especially, the shows often functioned as advertisements for the investment potential of real estate.

But even this has its downside, said Paul Butterfield, an agent with Re/Max Realty Services in Bethesda.

"The one thing the shows have done is create some serial shoppers," he said. "People now like to look at houses. They come through an open house just to see how the house is decorated. That never used to happen before HGTV.

"That can be a little frustrating as a salesperson," he said. "This new group that just attends open houses for the fun of it, they can clog up a house a little bit."