I've been watching these shows..such as Selling your home and etc, both with DIY and Home and garden. I tried to get info on how they choose there 'clients' or do the clients ask them for their services. Last show on DIY showed this segment of a couple updating their cottage to sell. All for the price of $2000. ..which is amazing to me, for the work that was done. They do not include the salaries the experts that they send over to do the estimating and work. I know the owners pay the $2000, but what about the cost of those workers? Is that gratis on the part of DIY and HG? A new front door in this case was quoted at the price of $184...in my area, the installation would cost almost double that. I also noticed that these homes are in rural areas. I would love for them to come to my house and fix it up for $2000. What are those chances?
The similar show that I've seen is House Detective. There, they use homeowner/host free labor for simple repairs and call in a contractor to do the larger stuff. They do seem to get a lot of work done at costs lower than a typical homeowner would pay, even for the contractor paid portion. It's likely because the contractor is keeping his charges low because he wants the free publicity from being on the show.
If you are interested in getting on the show, check out their website, there may be info there. It's probably going to be extremely difficult though, as there are probably lots of people in line. And many shows like HD tend to shoot in one area, use the same guys, etc., so if you aren;t where they are, it won't work.
Chances are pretty slim, but there is NOTHING wrong with getting your own materials and just doing the work yourself. Every project in my house I did myself. (all new drywall, added bathroom, finished basement etc etc)
I know people who have had the "TV show makeover" and they were very unhappy. It is really just a TV show and this is not a project, just a TV set. A lot of the work is superficial, just designed to look good on camera. If it is not on camera it doesn't get fixed and when the cameras stop roilling they go away, no matter what mess they have made
J
Johnâ°]Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Be sure you understand the tax consequences of these shows beforehand.
Some(but not all) are able to write off the expenses of fixing up your home by calling it a "contest". As they walk out the door they hand you a 1099 and a big fat tax bill for the full retail value of the prize you "won". That's how they are able to write it off as a "promotional expense".
HGTV has a be on HGTV link right on the home page, not hard to find
formatting link
but no, they do not discuss in any detail the expenses involved in the show. I have watched many of those shows and it is clear that it could be completely different for each show. Some do makeovers for no cost others chronicle large remodels mostly funded by the homeowners.
I assume there would be an appearance fee and any design services or labor rendered by the host or staff would be included but any outside contractors, labor and materials would be your responsibility. Though these costs may or may not be offset by manufacturers donating or discounting materials in order to get a mention on the show.
Some of the designers especially, I would not let them touch my house. I can't imagine some of the stuff they slap up lasting more than a year or looking good for more than 6 months.
There are somewhere between 75 million and 150 million homes in the USA, and iiuc they do 24 or 28 homes a year. So that makes your odds better than winning the multi-state Lotto. But like they say, you have to play to win. So you probably have to do something to get noticed.
Very good point. All those things people win on prize shows are taxable as regular income. Some people have to sell the prizes because they need money to pay the taxes. IIremember tax law, the only prizes that are not taxable are those that one does nothing to win. If you do anything to enter, prize winnings are taxable. Things like Nobel and Pulitzer prizes are not taxable because even though you had to do something, you did not do them to win the prize. Someone else nominates the potential winners.
If they wanted to just give you the money, a personal gift can be 5000 dollars a year from a person to each and every member of your family. But I don't know what corporations can give.
Rember that in the Millionaire, John Beresford Tipton gave a million dollars but that was after Mr. Tipton paid gift taxex on the total amount, and the difference was a million.
I also noticed that these homes are in rural areas. I would love
As one poster commented, those who like to so quality work on their own homes wouldn't have these clowns paint their mailbox let alone remodel a room. THey frequently fail to prime, fail to remove electrical outlet covers, drive nails or screws into a wall without the proper anchor or toggle bolt. I can only imagine how long it takes for some of that junk to begin to fall.
I noticed the same thing. On camera the job may look somewhat OK, but I'm sure that if you got up close to inspect, you'd see all the defects that the cameras don't reveal. Paint "spray" from the roller all over the floor, trim that's been painted over with the wall color, bad edging for the ceiling, tiles that aren't flush and centered, shelves that aren't level, dust / scotch tape / bumps on the wall that have been painted over, etc. They never prep up the walls before a paint job (cleaning, TSP, puttying, sanding, priming). Just slap on the layer of paint and not even let it dry overnight before applying a 2nd layer. I did that once to a room (my first time painting - I didn't know any better) and within a year I had so many small "nicks" on the wall where a watch, fingernail, or bracelet had scraped off a patch of new paint and revealed the previous color of paint, that I had to manually scrape everything off (huge pain in the ***) and redo the entire job properly.
Now, I realize that these shows are there just to get people to say "Hey, we should do this too!" and run out to Home Depot (their sponsors) to buy the material, but I really wish that they showed people how to do the job properly. My concern with buying my next house is that it'll have been renovated by people who were inspired by these TV shows, and that they'll have installed ceramic tile on top of a new subfloor on top of carpet on top of old hardwood floors :)
Then there are shows such as "Flip This House" that exaggerate the resale value of every home improvement job. The one that sticks out the most to me was when they installed $10,000 of handrails, and claimed that it brought in $30,000 of value. Or bringing in $5,000 of new appliances, and saying that it increases the house value by $10,000. Really? Wow, if that's the case, next time I go shopping for appliances I'll buy the most expensive ones that they have. Install a $4,000 fridge with a built-in TV, and get $8,000 back when I sell my house. On that show they claim a 150% to 300% return on investment on nearly every job that they do. I'm waiting for the episode where they'll install a swimming pool and claim that it increases the house value by 200% of the job's cost.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.