Property TV Shows

Patrick's interview on Real Estate Talk with Kevin Turner

Buyers agents tell us that they are getting enquiries from buyers motivated by the recent spate of TV Renovation Shows. Unfortunately they have an unrealistic view about renovating and making a profit. We get a good grounded view from two buyers agents who tell it as it is. Click here to listen to interview.

For “The Block” enthusiasts, Sunday night’s finale was a flop with only one of the four properties selling under the hammer. Instead of popping bottles of champagne contestants were crying on each other’s shoulders. The program highlighted some important points and plenty of warnings that would be renovators should pay attention to as it goes to show that renovating and making a profit is not easy to do, even with significant resources and support.

This week on the Channel Ten show called The Renovators (episode 3) we saw two teams battle it out to renovate a terrace each – but they only had a 12 hour day to do it! The challenge was designed to see which team could add more value to their property based on ‘before’ and ‘after’ valuations. We saw skilled renovators hard at it all day investing in new kitchens, renovating the bathrooms, painting in and out, installing plants, putting up back yard fences, landscaping…. you get the idea it was a complete makeover.

Do you remember the old version of the Channel Nine Show ‘The Block’ with a series filmed in both Bondi and in Manly? Well, a recent article in the Daily Telegraph took a look at what happened to the sale prices of all the renovated apartments in the years since – and it’s not good news.

The new channel 7 program called Under the Hammer provides a couple of great examples as to why buyers need to take the time to better understand the real estate market before parting with several hundred thousand dollars.

This week’s episode highlighted the nerves of buyers attending auctions as well as those who are prepared to bid against themselves during the auction and in the post auction environment – even to the tune of $60,000. I nearly fell off my chair when I watched a buyer bid 60k against himself which was almost 10% of the final purchase price.