Poor Babies

Yes, the snark is running wild this afternoon. I’ve spent most of the day working and took a break a few minutes ago. As I usually do, I scanned the headlines on various sites and came across one off of Yahoo that simply had me shaking my head. Let’s see what you think.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with HGTV and some of their offerings, one of thier most well-known shows is Fixer Upper. Chip and Joanna Gaines help their clients find homes in the Waco, TX area and then renovate them according to the clients’ tastes and how much money is to be spent. Pretty basic stuff for networks like this.

Now, the Gaineses have helped make Waco know for more than just Baylor University. They have opened their own store, bakery and who knows what else. The show has been great promotion for the city and has brought in not only business but has helped increase tourism. Believe it or not, people go to Waco just to visit the Gaines’ store.

So, on to the article. I’ll let you read all the details but the basic facts are this. A couple appeared on the show and bought one of the houses the Gaineses showed them. Purchase price for the house was $35,000 and they spent approximately $215,000 on the renovation. Now, I don’t know about you, but that right there would be my first clue that the house might not be located in the best part of town.

Anyway, moving forward.

According to the homeowners, they feel like they were used, even lied to, by the Gaineses and by Waco. You see, they claim to have been harassed by others in their neighborhood and even by business owners because their house raised property taxes in the area. Now a drunk driver has plowed into their house and it is all Chip and Joanna’s fault.

Not only no but hell no. For one thing, no one twisted their arms and forced them to sign the purchase contract. My guess is they saw the potential problems of the area but they were outweighed by the low cost of buying the house and by the fact they would have their 30 seconds of fame on national TV. Now that the shine has worn off some, they are having buyer’s remorse.

That is no one’s fault but their own.

My son bought his first house a year ago. He did his homework. He took time to not only tour the house but to drive through the neighborhood several times and at different times of the day. He wanted to see what the neighborhood was like. He had a title search done and he checked the crime reports for the area. He checked how often houses in the area sold and he researched the HOA. In other words, he educated himself before signing on the dotted line.

Something these folks either didn’t do or they didn’t take seriously what they claim has been happening since before they moved in.

Hell’s bells, I would have had concerns before moving in just based on what I’ve seen of the show. Yes, a lot of the houses Chip and Joanna show are in better neighborhoods but there are those that just cry that they have been neglected and aren’t in the best of locations. If you can see that on TV, surely these folks could have seen it in real life.

Anyway, as I noted in an earlier blog post, it seems like I’ve been blogging a lot about consequences. This is another such post. In this one, the people are reaping the consequences of their decision to take part in a TV show and buy very cheaply so they could renovate and have the “house of their dreams”. In doing so, they apparently ignored all the warning signals. To come back now and blame Waco and Chip and Joanna — and probably HGTV — is foolish and disingenuous.

This is a prime example of “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”