Ā (Thank Goodness for Canada)
[Source:Ā Time, click to expand]
This is an amazing graphic on the progression of real estate TV shows.
I retrace my housing on TV experiences back to āThis Old Houseā with Bob Vila. He was interviewing Donald Trump during a years ago inspection of a Trump Tower apartment and commented, āthis kitchen is pretty smallā to which Trump replied, āIf you can afford to live in one of my buildings, you make āreservationsā for dinner.ā Perfect.
Smash cut to āTrading Spacesā on TLC which was more closely aligned to the modern day real estate TV format. Then āFlip This Houseā which became the catch phrase of the new TV genre.
When the US housing bubble burst in 2006 and flipping no longer worked here, many of the shows were produced (like many movies),Ā in Canada, where the market continued to rise (until now)Ā and the production elements removed city names and locations so it felt generic.
Smash cut now to reality programs like āSelling New Yorkā and āMillion Dollar Listingā with all their spin-offs which get more into the nuts and bolts of a transaction and puffed up melodrama to keep our attention.
To date Iāve been approached, or my name has been thrown in a hat to host 4 reality tv shows ā as someone who has the potential to bring bad news to nice people and possibly ruining their lives as a result. Iād never agree to do one of these but the fact they are approaching an appraiser means they are any topic in the real estate spectrum is fair game.
We canāt get enough of it.
My white noise maker TV show continues to beĀ House Hunters InternationalĀ which lets me test my valuation skills while I am usually doing something else.
Some in the real estate industry embrace the phenomenon and some harshly criticize it, but as this interesting Time Magazine piece which included the above graphic āThe House Shows Boom: How the Real Estate Market Is Reflected on TVā provided a quote from one of show stars:
āNo matter who we are, no matter how much money we have or donāt have, no matter where we are in the world, everybody wants to live better,ā he said. āWhen we watch shows that inspire us to make changes in our own homes, when we see how other people live, I think thatās a really powerful message.ā
Of course this doesnāt explain why I watched āIce Road Truckersā or still watch āCops.ā