The HGTV effect has long left remodelers grappling with sky-high expectations of homeowners who assume major problems can be fixed in no time at little cost because that what's shown on television. A glimpse behind the scenes has been provided by one of HGTV's top-rated programs, "Windy City Rehab," as the show makes headlines for work stop orders, permitting issues, and, most recently, a lawsuit for selling a "defective property." In the wake of the ongoing lawsuit, the Chicago Tribune spoke with real estate and construction professionals to dispel many of the common myths propagated by home-improvement television shows.
Myth: Rehabbing your home can easily be a DIY project
When it comes to rehabs, Maurice Hampton, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors and owner of Centered International Realty, said he thinks the shows do an injustice to the industry. Putting an addition on a home, for example, takes a lot more heavy lifting than blowing the walls out, running a drawing by the city and wrapping up in a couple weeks.
As for budgeting, because TV shows rehab in volume, their margins are much different than the average Joe, he said. Picking up an inexpensive property and rehabbing it as cheaply as possible could be disastrous.
“They run the risk of destroying the property worse than what it was,” he said. “It creates a lot of part-time rehabbers that don’t know what they’re doing. That’s what happens when somebody sits in front of a television for 30 minutes and says ‘Oh, I can do that,’ and they slap lipstick on a pig.”
K. Tyler, partner with Morgante Wilson Architects, sometimes watched “Windy City Rehab” and said the narrative portrays the construction process as fast and fluid—and almost always with a happy ending—when it’s actually a long, winding road that takes a lot of patience and stamina.
Myth: What you see is what you get
Real estate professionals warn buyers to not expect things to happen at a reality show pace. Tyler said there are hundreds of hours of site observation, general contractor questions and coordination of finishes and fixture selections that go into achieving the kind of results witnessed on television.
