A man whose house will be featured on the new Phil Spencer C4 programme Secret Agent has revealed that his home is not even for sale – something that he says he told the producer about before filming even started.
The aim of the programme is for Spencer to try and sell properties that have stuck on the market, by giving them a facelift and showing prospective purchasers round.
But David Wood says his property is off the market.
Wood, of Bristol, also said how dirty crockery was piled into his kitchen sink for the purposes of filming a ‘before’ sequence: “The programme is highly staged and the usual de-cluttering solutions are offered. My house is in fact always very clean.”
Wood, a salesman, said he had tried to walk away from the filming, but the producer had phoned him and upped the amount that would be spent on giving the property a facelift from £1,000 to £2,000. People taking part in the programme are not otherwise paid.
Bizarrely, Wood’s house will be featured – some time within the next three weeks – even though he decided against selling it before filming even started.
He had advertised it on Sarah Beeney’s for sale by owner website Tepilo, which is where it was sourced by the programme makers.
However, Wood said that listing it there was a ‘waste of time’ and due to a change in circumstances, he decided he could no longer afford to sell the property and told the programme makers right at the start.
“I did have it on at £230,000, but then Santander said they would be stinging me with a £10,000 early redemption charge.
“When Phil came round, he valued my property at £190,000, which means that with the redemption penalty and the state of the housing market, I will never be able to get sufficient equity out of the property.”
Wood, who was made redundant from his previous job, is now hopeful of landing new work locally after an appeal by him on Twitter led to experts helping him rewrite his CV.
He said: “I have now had some job interviews, so I will be staying put and I made that clear to the producer.”
But a Channel 4 spokesperson said: "We contacted David Wood after his property was advertised for sale online and he didn't raise with us that he had changed his mind about selling the property before filming. We absolutely refute any allegations of scenes being staged - the programme will be a fair and accurage representation of what happened during filming."
The programme is screened at 11am each weekday.
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Comments
As one person I have worked with puts it...
"Welcome to you, the Graduates Of The Channel 4 School Of Estate Agency!"
Get a job then.
Aaah, daytime TV.
I have learned more about twigs in vases than I ever thought possible.
I have seen more people buy crap at auction than I care to mention.
My eyes are bleeding...
;-
Phil Spencer gives good advice, don't knock him. He recently advised viewers, if 75% of all accidents happen within 5 miles of home, why not move 10 miles away?
Good advice if you ask me
See my earlier point Brian about temporary subsidised loans to help those in negative equity. It's not a perfect solution, but it enables them (and the housing market) to keep moving.
Who are all these 'takers' you refer to. That's very generic.
Rantrave- One major problem, many of the 300,000 would not be able to get a mortgage again, so trapped and can't move.
At least they tried to look after themselves, far better than many just "taking" all thier lives.
I'd rather those 300,000 were encouraged to downsize to accommodation they could afford and / or relocate to other areas to find work. If tax money has to be used, it should be done so in the form of temporary subsidised loans to assist those who would struggle to move on due to negative equity.
Immigration is a separate debate (but one that is still relevant to the housing issue, for sure)
Rant: To be fair, I would rather have these 300,000 so called spongers, as apposed to the benefit and immigrant spongers that we have to pay out for.
300,000 families are currently sponging of the state to stay in homes they can no longer afford. Google 'Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme' since you're obviously not aware of it.
For ID- HPC perhaps “Hopelessly Pathetic Crappurveyors”- had a better “C” but thought better of it.
These are children who have no common sense, but can click and paste from endless articles they don’t understand as the green eyed monster teaches them to hate those that do not sponge of the state.
I've got my pitchfork ready
@AofS
Cripes!
Ray - you're in trouble now...I expect the mob to land at around 11 with their abuse to hurl at you!!
Hopeful Party Crashers
HPC - Help Punters Cope - (esp. FTB's) ;-)
HPC = House Price Crash
So vendors listen to the bloke off the telly to reduce the price and not their agent who has telling them for months.
"He had advertised it on Sarah Beeney’s for sale by owner website...however, Wood said that listing it there was a ‘waste of time’ "
Quelle surprise?
HD what is HPC?
No surprises from this programme then. If most unsold properties dropped their price by 17% don't you think they'd sell?
Of course its all staged.
Taped yesterdays one, house on for £210,000, had 90 viewings, had four offers just below £200k which vendor rejects.
Phil comes in, advises to paint the wall, install a new plug socket and some new carpet, and hey presto an offer comes in at £205k.
Bad news for HPC, if vendors are sitting at home in the daytime watching this.
Good.
Most of these 'shows' are nonsense anyway and the public is not best served by them.