Million dollar listing

[BikeRider]

I saw that show ‘Million Dollar Listing’ last night. One of the sellers made a statement that drove home the house as an ATM. I now understand how and why homeowners are doing it, but it still seems crazy to me. I mean, if the lady had never tapped her house for money, she probably could still afford to live there. But since she tapped it, now she has higher mortgage payments, so has forced herself from the home. The lady (the seller) was a nut case. At some point in the show she states how she just can’t make ends meet each month, so she has to take out a loan on her house. The sale of the home has upset her so much, she must see her therapist. She’s chugging some kind of alcoholic beverage out of a plastic cup while she speeds off to her therapist. I could see why she couldn’t make ends meet….she’s spending her money on a therapist, that did some kind of nutty relaxation thing to her. She’d bought the house I think in 1995 for $280K and I think listed it for 1.2 million. Something like that. I was wondering while watching the show just how much she owed for ATM withdrawals on the house. The realtor made $32K off the deal.

[lamoneyguy]

I saw another episode where the blonde realtor was the listing agent for her ex-boyfriend’s 1.1 million dollar place. A lady walk that comes to the open house loves it and expresses interest. The realtor asks if she is working with anyone and signs on to be her buyer’s agent, thus working both sides of the deal. Well, as expected when the buyer and seller don’t agree on some terms she struggles to fairly represent both parties (an impossibility in my estimation).

~lamoneyguy

[BikeRider]

I guess it was three shows back to back. I saw that too. Man, the realtor was trying to be some kind of model. Too made up for my taste. Wasn’t it funny how she wouldn’t walk around with anyone at the open house until the young guy came in and she was interested in him, so THEN she walked around with him. And you are right, she was not properly representing the seller once she was getting both commissions. She stood to get $110K in commission until the seller (her x-boy friend) pulled the listing. And wasn’t he something…. the buyer asked to have a light switch wallplate replaced. He is all pissed off about it and says no way. He stands to make $710K off the sale and won’t replace a wall plate (at a cost of probably $1). These people are from some planet that I have not visited.

[Chrispy]

That wallplate saved the buyer a lot of money – imagine if the ex-BF said OK to replacing the wallplate and the buyer had actually bought the place for 1.1 million, only to see the home decrease in value over the next few years.

Never thought an argument about a wallplate could save someone $100K plus over time!

[no_such_reality]

What kind of lunatic agrees to a $110,000 commission on a million dollar home?

Usually as the home price goes up, the commission as a percentage goes down.

[PerryChase]

Looks like because i don’t have cable, i’m missing some interesting programs on TV.

[BikeRider]

Sometimes I feel guilty about the money I’m spending on cable. Some of what bothers me is I can’t choose the channels I want. To get channels like TLC, Discovery, etc, I have to buy a package that contains other channels I could care less about. But then this past weekend our dish crapped out. We were cable-less for three days while I resolved the problem (ended up being bad coax from dish to receiver). Anyway, I was in withdrawal and realized that I really do appreciate some of the shows I like to watch.

Even though you only get to see what the director (or I guess editor) lets you see, these ‘reality’ shows can be really facinating. Though how real are people being with a camera in their face. Maybe after a while they forget it is there. Anyway, I feel I have learned a lot watching shows like Property Ladder, Flip This (and That) House. Not real estate, but I really like Over-Haulin (I guess because I am restoring an old 1973 Bronco) and other shows about restoring old machinery.

The real estate shows can be really fun to watch. My wife and I will be watching, see something crazy going on and look over at each other wide-eyed.

[technovelist]

I wonder what people 20 or 30 years from now will say if they see these shows. Will they believe that anyone could really be so stupid and/or insane as some of these people?

[lamoneyguy]

What kind of lunatic agrees to a $110,000 commission on a million dollar home?

I could be wrong about the purchase price. It may have been quite a bit more. I can tell you that she planned on charging the full 6%, despite representing both sides, selling high end, and the seller being an ex-boyfriend.

~lamoneyguy

[BikeRider]

That was the commission and I think lamoneyguy is correct on the selling price. This X-boyfriend must have been out for more than just his home sold. Near the end of the show the seller was regretting that his X-girlfriend was the agent and was representing both parties. And the buyer stated that she thinks it was bad the agent was so emotionally involved with the seller.

I think if these shows even survive for 30 years, and we haven’t destroyed the earth by then, people will find all of these reality shows totally nuts. Or maybe, the direction TV is heading, there will be even more bizarre goings on and this stuff will be ho-hum. 40 million dollar fixer uppers on water front property in Nevada (since California finally fell into the ocean back in 2020).

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