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Never Bet Your Home in a Poker Game and Other Lessons From This Week’s Reality TV
Elenathewise/iStock; malamus-UK./iStock
Buying a home is always a bit of a gamble. Will its value rise or fall? If you embark on a renovation, what terrifying weirdness might you find hiding behind those walls? Real estate reality TV is filled with homeowners who win—and lose—such wagers.
Whether you love watching Chip and Joanna Gaines in “Fixer Upper” or Drew and Jonathan Scott of “Property Brothers” (both with new episodes this week), you can learn a ton from their decisions.
Check out some of the hard-won wisdom below in this week’s real estate TV recaps.
‘Fixer Upper’
HGTV
Chip and Joanna Gaines, arguably the most popular married couple on real estate renovation TV, are back for a new season of remodeling homes in Waco, TX. How many seasons can they go before they run out of houses to work on in this small Texas town? Anyhow, they show clients Andrew and Brittany three homes, discussing remodeling plans for each one. On the inside, the houses look quite a bit alike; outside there’s no competing against the one surrounded by huge, awesome oaks.
Lesson learned: You can add new rooms, you can add new appliances, but you can’t add new full-grown trees (at least not easily). Even though the Gaines had to cut a few substantial branches to make room for a new pitched roof, those oak trees added stateliness to the outside of the property that matched the stateliness the Gaines added within.
New episodes air Saturdays at 9 p.m. on FYI
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‘Property Brothers’ Take on New Orleans
HGTV
Jonathan and Drew Scott, the “Property Brothers,” find out that the Big Easy is not so, well, easy as they attempt to restore homes in New Orleans. As usual, they’re competing against each other to see who can increase a home’s value the most, and their first project is a historical, side-by-side shotgun duplex—actually, one house divided in two with a wall running right down the middle. It needs a big-time restoration, because it’s completely trashed inside and out. Complicating things is that all exterior work must be approved by the New Orleans Historical Society!
Lesson learned: It never hurts to ask. When the Scotts go shopping, they find reclaimed doors, windows, and shutters, and instead of paying full price, which would be a budget buster, they haggle with the store owner, who gives them a deal.
They also ask the Historical Society rep for latitude on reconfiguring the interior, which he gives them. Phew! In this case, it’s easier to get permission than forgiveness—one false move, and they’d have to tear everything out and start over.
New episodes air Saturdays at 9 p.m. on HGTV.
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‘Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles’
Bravo
Josh Flagg gets a Beverly Hills, CA, listing for the former home of Zeppo Marx, the youngest and least-interesting of the Marx Brothers, who built the one-story, Mid-Century Modern property with his wife, Barbara. Then Marx lost the home in a poker game, and lost his wife to Frank Sinatra (presumably not in a poker game).
In an attempt to commiserate with the owner, Flagg reveals that his grandfather lost a Santa Monica beachfront property to William Randolph Hearst in a poker game, too! What the heck? Talk about a coincidence. Enough with the high-stakes poker, people.
Lesson learned: Don’t bet the farm, ever. Most of us would never think of gambling our homes in a card game, yet it’s not uncommon to take out a second mortgage to finance business ventures or other risky endeavors. If you can’t afford to lose a home, think twice about using it as collateral in any form.
New episodes air Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
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‘Downtown Shabby’
FYI
John and Erin have an absolutely gorgeous prairie-style home in Evanston, IL, that used to be an inn. It is huge, but it has a tiny kitchen and small baths, as was the style when it was built in 1909. Professional restoration and remodel experts Frank and Sherry Fontana decide to knock out a wall and remodel the powder room and master bathroom to modernize the house without robbing it of its traditional character.
Lesson learned: It’s always worth the extra bucks to bring a home up to code. John and Erin are disappointed when they find out their family room, which is about to become part of the kitchen, is wired to their massive living room and most of the entire first story of their home will have to be rewired at an expense of $5,000 beyond what the couple had budgeted. But Frank explains they’ll need to do it eventually, so why not do it when the rest of the house is torn up? John and Erin end up spending just over $100,000 to remodel their home, but Frank estimates the value is up at least by $150,000.
New episodes air Saturdays at 9 p.m. on FYI.
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