Ever feel like you have deja vu when walking into a home you’ve never seen before? Right…this house has the same granite countertops, the same stainless steel appliances, the same wood cabinets that every other kitchen you’ve seen lately has. More and more commonly, additional features in this new-to-you home look exactly like other features in homes you’ve showed and sold lately as well.
No wonder! You and every client you have, has seen that same granite, stainless steel and wood on HGTV, liked it all and chosen it for their current or pending home remodeling projects.
HGTV is big business these days. According to Nielsen ratings, HGTV averages 1.5M viewers in prime time every day. The “Property Brothers” is even bigger business with its average of 2M prime time viewers from 150 countries every day. This kind of viewership translates into even bigger business for home remodeling/renovation services and products. What products viewers see on these shows, buyers want to buy. And what 64% of them buy is granite countertops, 85% of them buy wood cabinets and 79% buy stainless steel appliances.
With home remodeling in the U.S. anticipated to grow from $304B in Q2, 2017, to $324B in Q2, 2018, by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, and with HGTV and “Property Brothers” viewership growing, trends fueled by reality TV on buying, fixing and flipping houses will only become more ubiquitous. More houses, both fixers and newly constructed, will begin to look more alike as owners turn their new houses into their new homes.
The “Property Brothers” have a word to the wise, however, concerning remodeling costs and time frames. “Just because we remodel a home for x amount of dollars in x amount of time on the show doesn’t mean that you can do it. We would never be able to do it ourselves. First off, the show gets everything for wholesale…the show contributes approximately $10,000….the show doesn’t charge for its staff time to do the work…and even a regular construction company…would take 15 weeks, not the 8 weeks it takes to do three of four rooms, to do the work normally…” said Jonathan.
Another cautionary word from the “Property Brothers.” “Everyone likes to talk about real estate,” says Jonathan. And, “…everyone thinks they’re an expert,” says Drew. Both brothers stress the importance of paying professionals for remodeling jobs where quality and finish are front and center…even when those finishes are granite, stainless steel and wood. Make sure you’re always reminding your buyers and sellers of the same!
