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?

Boothbay wrote:
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)

HGTV has a be on HGTV link right on the home page, not hard to find
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/be_on_hgtv/...V_3222,00.html

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.



wrote in message
...
On 9 May 2006 06:24:00 -0700, "Boothbay" wrote:

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?
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

On 9 May 2006 06:24:00 -0700, "Boothbay" wrote:

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?

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.

On Tue, 09 May 2006 15:39:06 GMT, "John‰]*
************************************************** *************"
wrote:

In article .com,
Boothbay wrote:

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?

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".

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.

"Boothbay" wrote in message
oups.com...

snip

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?


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.

C & E wrote:
"Boothbay" wrote in message
oups.com...

snip

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?


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.