Looking for Recent Home Buyers for HGTV Show

[househunterscasting]

Hello,

I'm a casting assistant on an American TV show called "House Hunters International." I visited Lithuania last spring on vacation and have convinced my executive producer that we absolutely must feature this beautiful country on our show. Therefore, we are currently casting episodes of our program in Lithuania and are looking for contributors.

Our show follows house hunters through their search for a home in countries around the world. Participating in our show is a lot of fun and a great way to document your exciting search for a home and new life abroad. In addition, you will receive compensation for your time and efforts. Contributors should be fluent in English, between the ages of 25-50, and have bought a home in the past 2 or so years.

If you are interested in participating with our show or learning more, please contact househunterscasting@leopardfilms.com.

Have a wonderful day.

[Gene]

Might be a silly question, but if your show "follows house hunters through their search for a home in countries around the world", why would you be seeking someone who already bought a home? Wouldn't you rather find someone who is looking for a home?

[abc]

My thoughts exactly Gene.

Also,

search for a home and NEW life abroad.

So only participants whose current place of domicile is not in Lithuania are eligible? Eligibility lies with expats/foreigners only?

[househunterscasting]

Because the time it takes to find the right home is not compatible with our production schedule, we look for people who have purchased a home in the past few months and then recap what their house hunt was like. Hence "Recent Home Buyers" and not current house hunters.
We are looking for people who may currently reside in Lithuania but have moved there within the past few months from outside the country.

[Gene]

It is still a bit confusing. In your initial post you said "have bought a home in the past 2 or so years.".

Most people I know in Lithuania rent. One of the reasons is that rent is relatively cheap here.But also over the past two years or so real estate prices have been falling like a rock. Have a look at this link. It is in LIthuanian, but I think you will get the idea:

http://www.edomus.lt/?act=statsAvgPrice.main

Can you imagine buying a house in that economic climate?

The few people who I know (including myself) who have thought about buying have been waiting for some sign that property values will settle down. Otherwise, if you buy now, it is very likely you will immediately lose a serious amount of money. Interestingly, many landlords are holding off on offering their properties, because they do not want to lose money on their investments. So, the market is pretty stagnant at the moment and has been for sometime.

[abc]

Gene, that's a steady drop in prices. Would you know what is the economic forecast for the housing industry in the next 3-5 years in Lithuania? Is there a demand or shortage of rental properties given that potential home buyers are holding-off on buying due to the unstable housing climate?

[Gene]

There is currently a surplus of rental properties and rents are going in the same direction as purchase prices... down, down, down. We just moved to a new flat that is about 30% bigger and is costing us about 40% less. Over all more than 50% decrease in rent per square foot. Our previous landlord was trying to rent our flat for two months before we moved and only 2 people came to see it. Neither rented it.

I think that alot of flat owners who want to sell their flats are renting them instead and wating for the housing prices to recover. Otherwise, they will lose a great deal of money on their investements. Also, due to the bad economy, alot of foreigners have left and alot of high paying jobs have disappeared. This has meant that alot of more expensive flats are sitting empty and landlords are renting them at a fraction of their previous rents. When we were looking for a flat to rent, we would easily be able to negotiate large reductions in rent. Landlords are desperate.

As far as the future goes it will all depend on the economy. According to this article:

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews ... on=article

A slight growth in expected this year. If the economy indeed grows, we can expect a slow turn around in the housing market. But it will not happen overnight. Usually the housing market follows the economy by about 1 year or so. So, if the economy grows slightly this year, we can expect that the housing market should stabilize this year and grow slightly the next year. But I have my doubts about whether this year will see growth or not.

[abc]

Thanks Gene. Hopefully the economy will pick up under the Euro dollar. I'm also presuming things will be more expensive then and it'll be preferrable to visit Lithuania before the Euro kicks in.

[Gene]

Yes, things will definately change after the Euro kicks in!! All over Europe prices went way up with the Euro, same will happen here as well. But I am reading that Lithuania will not enter until 2014..so you have plenty of time..