My Biggest Complaint About HGTV Series “My First Foreclosure”

Remember just two years ago, HGTV and TLC were making a killing on the fix-it-up-and-sell-it tv shows. They convinced everybody that their homes were guaranteed money makers. Just renovate that kitchen and flip it. Easy money. In fact, if you ever watched any shows about real estate on HGTV you almost never saw anybody lose money (at least not that I recall). TLC had “Flip This House,” where even mom and pop were getting in on the action.

Fast forward to the present: the outing of the junk mortgage industry, predatory lending, and the collapse of home prices. Many people besides TLC and HGTV played a part in this including the real estate agents that were advising people, contractors, banks, the feds, the list goes on and on.

Now families, many of whom bear significant responsibility for their predicaments, are looking at being thrown out of the house that is worth less than the (junk) mortgage they got on it. Their rates have risen (which I’m sure was detailed in the papers they signed) and they can’t pay. It looks like the taxpayers are going to have to step in and bail them out (AGAIN). Meanwhile their children may not have a roof over them. It’s probably not going to get any better anytime soon.

My biggest complaint about HGTV is that they don’t have a series called “My First Foreclosure” or “Homeless Middle Class Families” or anything that even addresses the problem that we now have. Reality shows are great until the reality becomes everyday life for your viewers, huh HGTV? Things go south and your response is yet another annoying real estate host showing people how to make money in real estate.