re: #162 freetoken

The McMansion blog author has a long rant about what is wrong with HGTV, but I believer her observation extends well beyond that one outlet.

Put simply, through the skilled manipulation via advertising and the appeal to vanity, America has turned into a get-rich-quick scheme.

Flipping houses is one of the often pushed methods, and quite a few shows are based around this proposal.

One of the problems that these flippers create is that they sell the most superficial improvements to a property as something important. Trivial things, and frankly stupid things too.

But instead of substance the important thing is to get rich.

We’re a nation full of people who want the tackiest and most insubstantial.

We’re the Walmart nation.

I confess to an occasional weakness of watching those house-flipping shows when I visit family with cable TV service. Like you say, the common theme is finding a property that shouldn’t require more than cosmetic improvements (which is sensible from a buyer’s POV) and making those improvements as cheaply as possible (which is sensible from the potential seller’s POV). The underlying message is the flipper gets as much money as possible while sticking the buyer with a shitty property that will probably need further work down the road. IOW, the seller absolves himself from any responsibility to sell a quality product.

House flipping also artificially raises neighborhood property values and taxes, even on houses that have not been improved.