House Hunters International

We got a giggle out of the 'hurricane protection',too. Not long ago, on another House Hunters International they were down in Central America showing a couple who were looking at a condo that had bars on the patio area and windows. The husband asked what the point of the bars were and the realtor paused for a couple of beats then also said,'' Oh that's for when hurricanes come by. Just for protection during hurricanes...." *-) This particular condo was in a populated area. The condos she showed them that were in more secluded beach front areas didn't have bars. Would have made me go hmmmmm....;)

Why do real estate agents do that? When they tell an obvious lie, it destroys their credibility and the reputation of all agents. I would have walked away and found another agent. However the TV show must go on.
Pilatesgirl, you must have known that was an outright lie, I wonder why the TV producers didn't edit it out?

Good choice, I have always liked GentleWinds.

Not a lie at all. Grill work is used for hurricane mitigation, just look at your insurance paperwork. It'd be pretty difficult for a petty thief to climb the 2nd story of that building to break in.

LOL...grill work...me thinks that this thread will soon prove entertaining 🙂

Ya think that's the primary function of those security bars, ownonstx?

I get a giggle out of the term lowballed. Especially considering the pie in the sky pricing on real estate here that has yet to adjust to market not mention the 6% fee which is higher than statside fees why?

Grill work for hurricane protection,....maybe it will stop a flying tree but I doubt your insurance company will accept them in place of shutters.

Everyone knows they are burglar bars---yes, even on the second floor; burglars have ladders.

Bars might prevent things from striking the windows but no way would I want to look through them all year long, for a few months of supposed storm protection.

Bars are bars.
If they are for storms they should he hinged to open.

The bars on the windows are to keep the looters out after the hurricane. This helps you from being stormed.

Pirategirl
did your family sell the house in Ohio or is STX just a vacation home?

according to the show, this is a vacation home. the house in ohio sure is beautiful.

Was disappointed in a way that HGTV did not do what they typically do in a House Hunters or House Hunters International show.
1) They normally show or state the name of the properties. On this show I think Schooner Bay was mentioned but no mention of name of GW or Carambola properites.. They did not film the entrance to the 3 properties or state where they are "geographically located"on STX - but maybe it was edited out. Both GW & Carambola have beautiful entrances to the property. Only because I live here did I recognize the properties.
2) They typically have the client inquire as to HOA fees for condos or it is stated by the realtor or narrator. Never heard that or it was edited out.

Lastly I think some of the realtor's answers to pirategirl's q's were pretty lame.

Yes they have a lovely home in Perrysburg, Ohio and yes GW is a vacation home.

Jumbie on STX

we were also curios about why the condo fees were not mentioned. what answers did you think were lame?

Grill work. I love it. I grew up here in the Caribbean and grillwork doesn't mean lawlessness to me. Its practical and I think its pretty. But... it is for protection and safety. From criminals and from hurricanes.

When you live in a place where the weather is always warm like ours, you want to leave your windows and doors open most of the time, with just a screen door protecting you from the elements. If you want to step out, closing all the windows and doors is time consuming and means you will come home to a hot stuffy house. Grillwork is the answer. You just leave the windows and doors open, lock the grill work and go do your errands! It also very much provides protection from flying objects during wind storms.

That said, she should have been honest with them and said its for protection against break-ins, helps mitigate hurricane damage and is common in the Caribbean due to our open air lifestyles. Not a bad thing.

Thought there was lots missing from this show that normally is part of their overview..no mention of anything besides the golf at carambola...what about the tennis/shop, the restaurant, and access to the beach (used to be at least that the condo owners had a stack of beach chairs locked up for their use at Davis Bay, but perhaps this is no more..might have been during the hotel's closed years though), but I would think a mention of these other items would have been appropriate. My husband asked me what they said about the condo fees..perhaps they thought saying they were $1000 or more would be a negative overall... seemed to me it was a better program than the first STX one, but not their best...but still, nice to get stx even on the show.

That's an excellent point, LimeTime2. I never thought of that.... yes, with grill work you could leave for the day and leave the windows open for ventilation. Is the grill work typically "permanent", or is there some locking mechanism?

1) They normally show or state the name of the properties. On this show I think Schooner Bay was mentioned but no mention of name of GW or Carambola properites.. They did not film the entrance to the 3 properties or state where they are "geographically located"on STX.

The names of all 3 properties were briefly mentioned.

Pirategirl, I was wondering if the "3 months later" scene * was actually filmed at the same time as the house hunting visit. It would have been a lot of effort to come back just to film that.

* In the "3 months later" scene, the family had ostensibly closed on the contract, had returned to Gentle Winds, and were unpacking in their new vacation home.

limetime
Good points. Ventilation makes more sense to me than hurricane protection.

I have a mixture of accordians, aluminum panels, and plywood for storm protection. Do you feel grill work fully protects during a hurricane? Or do you take extra measures?

The insurace company ,Loyds,that insures the condo property I manage gives no value to security grilles as windstorm protection.The deal is to stop or deflect the wind and flying objects to prevent damage to the building envelope and keep the roof intact. You are better off with alarms, cameras and quality doors and windows.

I think the "hurricane" line caught everybody off guard. Remind me not to buy a property from this Realator.

In defense of the realtor....the producer of HHI about had a heart attack when I asked the question about the bars on the windows. For the sake of the island they did not want "crime" mentioned at all. I think they should have just cut the whole scene out. When we filmed the show we filmed 4 straight days on St. Croix and one day at home in Ohio. There was a lot of footage and unfortunately we did not have any say in what stayed and what got cut. I would have chosen some different footage....but....who am I? Overall...I think it made St. Croix look good...I mean what's not to look good. i just don't want too many people to like it...I like to think of it as my little secret 🙂 We love our choice and we love St. Croix!!

For now we still live in Ohio...but in my heart St. Croix is home 8-). We still have children in school....someday we will live in St. Croix full time. Meanwhile we get there as often as we possibly can!

We actually filmed about condo fees on every location...not sure why it was cut out.:S

Thank you for your feedback, would have loved to have seen the look on the producers and realtor faces when you asked the question about the hurricane bars. 😎 Glad you still love it here

In defense of the realtor....the producer of HHI about had a heart attack when I asked the question about the bars on the windows. For the sake of the island they did not want "crime" mentioned at all. I think they should have just cut the whole scene out. When we filmed the show we filmed 4 straight days on St. Croix and one day at home in Ohio. There was a lot of footage and unfortunately we did not have any say in what stayed and what got cut. I would have chosen some different footage....but....who am I? Overall...I think it made St. Croix look good...I mean what's not to look good. i just don't want too many people to like it...I like to think of it as my little secret 🙂 We love our choice and we love St. Croix!!

Did you look at other condos as well? If so, are you at liberty to discuss any of them? Curious because I have looked at a bunch of condos, including the ones in the show. But there are a lot of other choices as well out there.

Steve

To be honest... we had vacationed at Gentle Winds several times before we were ready to buy. We really felt GW was pretty special and worked well for our family. We liked how secluded it was and the amount of space the complex had. There are only 66 units on 66 acres....the grounds are beautiful and most important to us was it is on the beach. We liked how the pool was placed right next to the beach. We drove around the island to most other condos and there are many really nice places...but I think since we already stayed at GW before.....we had already fallen in love with it.:-) The previous owners had recently renovated our condo, we wanted to be able to come down...drop our bags and hit the beach! There is nothing negative that I have to say about the entire process of purchasing, filming the show or STX. As you can tell....I am one happy pirategirl:@)

Is it true that you bought the one at GW before you filmed at the other two?