Property Brothers: Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

When it comes to HGTV stardom, it doesn’t get much better than twins Jonathan and Drew Scott thanks to their hit television series Property Brothers. Since January 2011, fans have tuned in for nine seasons of the series that feature the two brothers showing home-buyers a house that has everything they want, except it is almost always over their budget. The Scotts then show the couple a house without all the bells and whistles, but can be renovated into their dream home thanks to the creativity and skills of Jonathan. Due to the brother’s easy charm and amazing skills, the show has taken off and has spawned so many other successful HGTV shows featuring the handsome twins. Of course, there is so much more to know about the show with everything that is not shown on-camera! Check out 10 behind-the-scenes secrets from Property Brothers:

10. Timeline and Offers

It is quite obvious that the show operates on an accelerated timeline in order to fit enough episodes and renovations into a season, so how do they do that? It turns out they have three experienced crews who work on the house from start to finish for 4-7 weeks maximum. Although the buyers pay for the remodeling, the show does provide $20,000 to $25,000 of furnishings.

2

9. Must Haves

There is no doubt that many fans would love the opportunity to work with the Scott brothers on a new home, and many wonder just what goes into the application process and what producers are looking for when choosing which prospective home-buyers they do an episode with. Some of the must haves to be on the show include having a partner of some sort. Whether it s a spouse, partner, or even a friend, applicants must be in it with somebody; Property Brothers does not take on individuals. Of course, applicants must also have some money for Jonathan to work with and the show requires applicants to have a renovation budget of at least $65,00 USD and they also require a 25% contingency fee because as fans are well aware, something unexpected always goes wrong.

3

8. The “Crazy Cat Lady”

It is very rare to see the brothers clash with any of the home-buyers, and most episodes follow a basic format and ease when it comes to Jonathan and Drew working with people to create their dream homes. There have been a few “difficult” cases, however, and Jonathan spoke out about one person in particular that made it hard for them, it was for an episode of Property Brothers: Buying and Selling, but it was too good to not include! “We discovered part way through an episode of Property Brothers: Buying and Selling that one of the homeowners was a crazy cat lady,” Jonathan explained. “She came in after we started the reno – and we already didn’t have enough time to do everything that we needed to do – and she told me that if her cat walked into the room of the house that we were working on, all work has to stop until the cat decides on its own that it’s going to leave.” She insisted that the workers couldn’t try to shoo the cat or encourage it to leave, he added.

4

7. Not The Whole House

Given constricted time limits and the inevitable unexpected problems, it isn’t surprising to learn that 4-7 weeks is definitely not enough time to renovate an entire house. Although they make it seem like they have worked on the whole house, the truth is they ask participants to choose the four rooms they want the renovation budget to cover. Unfortunately, the houseowners also have to choose between two of the most often renovated spots of the house – the kitchen or the bathroom – they can’t renovate them both! This is because they are the two most expensive and time-consuming rooms when it comes to renovating, according to Jonathan and Drew.

5

6. Preview

Every episode begins with Jonathan and Drew meeting with the home-buyers, going over their wants for a dream home, and then Drew showing them that house and how much it would cost, followed by Drew showing them usually two or three other fixer-upper houses to turn into that dream home. Drew doesn’t go blindly into this, however, on the application for the show, a space is provided for home-buyers to put an address of a house they are seriously interested in or when they’re closing on a house if they already purchased it! This way Drew already knows what the couple is looking for and can get a head start.

6

5. Lost Things

After working on so many homes across North America, it seems that the twins have found quite a few hidden treasures inside walls, under floors and in the roofs of houses that they have renovated. They discovered some hidden vintage Playboy magazines in a secret bathroom cabinet once, but that’s just the beginning. “Twice now, I’ve found hidden safes that the homeowners didn’t know about,” Jonathan has said. For one in particular he said, “The people passed away who owned the house, so the family sold it through probate, and the new owners, who were my clients, when we ripped everything back, found the safe. We managed to get a hold of the safe company, we got it open, and sure enough there was all kinds of jewelry and pictures of when the house was built and things like that. So we managed to find the children of the original owner and we got it all back to them.”

7

4. Be Ready to Help

It seems some of the home-buyers didn’t get the memo, but the brothers make it clear that they need clients to appear on the show who are able to help! Of course all of the major work is left to the professionals, but with a constricted timeline they do expect the homeowners to get their hands dirty and to help with some of the demolition.

8

3. Secret Tradition

Aside from finding hidden treasures and safes during many different home renovations, Jonathan admitted he also leaves some of his own. “I’ve found time capsules in the walls before, cute little things. I’ve planted a lot of time capsules too.” Planting time capsules has now become a secret tradition for the master renovator and his clients.

9

2. Making it Personal

Clearly, Jonathan and Drew have no problem going above and beyond to give clients the home they want, and Jonathan loves making sure it is still personal and unique to the individuals and families. “If I’ve got a family who’s really nostalgic like that and they really want to take part in something a little extra, or if there’s kids as well and the kids want to do something kind of cool, then I’ll make a project. I really like to incorporate kids into our renovations.”

10

1. Be Ready

A lot more goes into being on Property Brothers than simply needing a dream home on a budget! Applicants have to be prepared for lots of things, and first and foremost they have to be free to film for at least eight full days total out of the six to seven weeks of renovation. They also make sure prospective clients who are chosen for the show understand that things have to move quickly and they need people who are quick at making decisions, they don’t have time for people to ponder over things. Last but certainly not least, applications to be on the show require the prospective home-buyers to prove they already have finances and funding lined up to buy a home and renovate it.