Reply #23: Blame this on house flipping

[jmowreader]

I don't get around much, because there's a fucking Reality Show on Discovery Home called "Flip This House." You know your shit's weak when they're making a reality show about the thing you're pulling.

The Discovery people have a fansite for this show, and on it they talk about "Cindy's High Style Hollywood Flip." Oh. My. God. The woman bought an "undervalued" house in Hollywood (which means the termites have only eaten half of it) and wants to sell it for a million dollars.

In the text they say Cindy went to Ikea to design a budget kitchen that "looks expensive." Got news for ya, hon: someone with a million dollar line of credit knows what an expensive kitchen looks like, and they also know the shit don't come from fuckin' Ikea, 'kay? For a million skins, that joint better have at least Thomasville cabinetry (if not custom-made), stone countertops and Miele cooking equipment with a Sub-Zero refrigerator.

House flipping has two effects and they're both bad. The obvious one is that it inflates the prices of the houses being flipped way past any semblance of reality. The less-obvious one is that it fucks up the comps--if three houses on your block were flipped from $65,000 to $120,000, all of a sudden your place is also worth $120,000--even if it's really only a $65,000 house. Which means your house won't sell because no matter what the price tag is, it ain't going for more than $65,000.