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CalGalTraveler

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I saw two episodes of Vacation Rules. I found it fascinating, however the two episodes had the same formulaic rules. Perhaps others would be different.

As an owner of a vacation rental in a top resort area. Their calculations on rental income were way off. They showed renting in northern Michigan (or perhaps Canada?) for 6 months as $60,000 a year in income for a home smaller than ours. Not even close. Need to factor in seasonality - you won't get top dollar during low season and it won't be rented every week either. They must have taken rates from an event week and multiplied by 52.

The other factor is whether you would get the increase in rental income for all of those fancy renovations. We need to update the floors and kitchen soon, but wondering if renters even care vs. charging more per night to cover the additional reno on a home that is nice but not grand.
 
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DaveNV

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I miss the old ones, going way back to Holmes on Homes,

"Holmes on Homes" is shown on the DIY channel, if you want to try and find it. There is also a newer series, "Holmes & Holmes" where Mike Holmes works with his son and daughter doing similar kinds of renovations. The Holmes kids were part of the original series, as teenagers. It's kind of fun to compare their ages between the two series. They're now both about 30, and are as good at things as Mike is. Good show.

Dave
 

DaveNV

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I saw two episodes of Vacation Rules. I found it fascinating, however the two episodes had the same formulaic rules. Perhaps others would be different.

As an owner of a vacation rental in a top resort area. Their calculations on rental income were way off. They showed renting in northern Michigan (or perhaps Canada?) for 6 months as $60,000 a year in income for a home smaller than ours. Not even close. Need to factor in seasonality - you won't get top dollar during low season and it won't be rented every week either. They must have taken rates from an event week and multiplied by 52.

The other factor is whether you would get the increase in rental income for all of those fancy renovations. We need to update the floors and kitchen soon, but wondering if renters even care vs. charging more per night to cover the additional reno on a home that is nice but not grand.

Are you factoring in Canadian dollars? The rentals are in Canada, so the rates will be different than in the USA.

The shows are bound to be formulaic, since the premise is for Scott to help the owners turn their non-producing vacation rental into one that can/may be rentable. Potential rental income is only as much as could be made, I think. No guarantees. (One episode I saw, the lake overflowed its banks and flooded the property. It'd be hard to rent during a time like that, when you'd need a boat to get to the front door.)

Dave
 

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I saw Curb Appeal - The Block just the other day. Great show. John Gidding is more than a good TV show host - he has a genuine degree in architectural design. So a lot of what they do on the show are his ideas.

And I agree with Vacation House Rules. Great concept, and Scott McGillivray knows his stuff. The woman who helps him with design is great at her work. I think they're based in Canada, so perhaps they get a better class of renter. I'm sure there are exceptions, but my experience is that Canadians are generally a pretty respectful bunch.

Dave

I'll be looking for this one. Scott McGillivray could have a show where all he does is go around replacing switch/outlet faceplates and I'd watch every minute because he's that easy on the eyes. :cool:

Talking about British renovation shows, I just finished binging hours of "Escape to the Chateau" on Peacock with a very-likable British couple who bought an abandoned French chateau and re-did it as a wedding/fine food/guest house business. It's another that makes you wonder where the money came from but not enough to stop watching.
 

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My mother and daughter watch a LOT of HGTV together when they are down here (my mother doesn't even own a TV in Maine.) It's really the only TV my mother watches, besides the weather channel and baseball games, so I get a lot vicariously through them.

I really liked the original, first season of "Flip this House," which followed a team/company out of SC...they flipped stuff in Myrtle Beach and Charleston and stuff in-between. I found it very realistic, and not as staged or formulaic. It was on A&E and not HGTV; apparently, it ended in a lawsuit, which the builders ultimately won. The later seasons weren't nearly as compelling or interesting.

My spouse and I were also big fans of Trading Spaces (we actually got to meet Genevieve Gorder in 2006, who looked at pictures of the built-ins in the living room of our then-brand now house and said, "You don't need me." She was my spouse's teevee girlfriend at the time. ;) We also really liked Clean Sweep, and even today, we'll do a "30 minute sort" and my spouse will start to hum the theme song.

I think, back in the early aughts, those shows were more, well, real, less formulaic, and less staged. And we clearly had more time to watch them before we had a child in 2006, LOL!

Now on HGTV it's just so unrealistic:
"I sort colored pencils in my basement, and he's a dried butterfly collector. Our budget is 1.5 Million."

House Hunters International does make me question many of my life choices, however. ;)
 

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Replying to my own comment in #42 above: The series is called "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes" on Netflix. Incredible architectural homes, very innovative and clever stuff. Totally worth viewing. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Dave
 

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... (we actually got to meet Genevieve Gorder in 2006, who looked at pictures of the built-ins in the living room of our then-brand now house and said, "You don't need me." She was my spouse's teevee girlfriend at the time. ;)

Oh! I LOVED Genevieve! She was so personable and her trips to the fabric stores in the fashion district were very interesting. I was actually misty-eyed watching the multi-episodes of her own apartment's renovation when her daughter was born, thinking about how happy she'd be there.

...Now on HGTV it's just so unrealistic:
"I sort colored pencils in my basement, and he's a dried butterfly collector. Our budget is 1.5 Million."

:ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! This is priceless!!!
 

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I’m with you, Dave. I probably watch more HGTV than anything. I like the beach shows mostly. Beach Hunters, Beachfront Bargain Hunt, Buying the Beach, Caribbean Life, etc. I also really enjoyed the recent Renovation Island. It was interesting to see everything they had to overcome to get that place ready.
I used to watch HGTV a lot at the gym. It was very easy to turn it on when I was on the bike or treadmill, and turn it off when I was done. I really didn't care if I missed the beginning or ending of a show as I really didn't care how they'd gotten then, or what happened in the end. :cool:
 

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Now on HGTV it's just so unrealistic:
"I sort colored pencils in my basement, and he's a dried butterfly collector. Our budget is 1.5 Million."

I just snorted coffee out my nose. Thanks. :D

Dave
 

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Renovation Island was amazing. That couple has a ridiculously solid marriage. I think any other marriage would have crumbled. (And I never did understand who paid for it all? Did their company buy the hotel? Were there investors? With all the cost overruns, their debt must be enormous. I'm sure the HGTV people paid them, or paid for, a certain amount. But at the end of it all, do they own and operate the hotel? Questions, questions... ;)) Dave

Here are your answers, Dave!

I thought that this "Renovation Island" show you were speaking of sounded an awful lot like our "Island of Bryan" so I did some internet research. Yup, one and the same show, except that up here in Canada we got to watch it waaaaay before you guys! And I watched it all, week by week.

Yes, it is a real resort, yes it did open but is now closed due to Covid. Their website says re-opening Oct 24th.

Speaking of their website, it is VERY well done https://www.caerulamar.com/

And everything you would ever want to know about the show (and then some) is on wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Bryan

Byran and Sara have had other shows on HGTV Canada, and they are always fun to watch.

LeAnn
 

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Here are your answers, Dave!

I thought that this "Renovation Island" show you were speaking of sounded an awful lot like our "Island of Bryan" so I did some internet research. Yup, one and the same show, except that up here in Canada we got to watch it waaaaay before you guys! And I watched it all, week by week.

Yes, it is a real resort, yes it did open but is now closed due to Covid. Their website says re-opening Oct 24th.

Speaking of their website, it is VERY well done https://www.caerulamar.com/

And everything you would ever want to know about the show (and then some) is on wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Bryan

Byran and Sara have had other shows on HGTV Canada, and they are always fun to watch.

LeAnn
They have another show, Renovation Inc. running now in the U.S. It supposedly is about how they got started working together and was filmed prior to Renovation Island. I do like it, also.
 

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Here are your answers, Dave!

I thought that this "Renovation Island" show you were speaking of sounded an awful lot like our "Island of Bryan" so I did some internet research. Yup, one and the same show, except that up here in Canada we got to watch it waaaaay before you guys! And I watched it all, week by week.

Yes, it is a real resort, yes it did open but is now closed due to Covid. Their website says re-opening Oct 24th.

Speaking of their website, it is VERY well done https://www.caerulamar.com/

And everything you would ever want to know about the show (and then some) is on wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_Bryan

Byran and Sara have had other shows on HGTV Canada, and they are always fun to watch.

LeAnn

Thanks, LeAnn! I've seen Bryan before, but not sure in what context. May have been on a CBC renovation show or something when I was in Canada. (We lived close enough pre-Covid, that we'd go to Vancouver often.) Bryan does good work, and Sara's design sense is pretty awesome. They're now doing a show called "Renovation, Inc." which is a similar concept, except they're working with homeowner's homes and budgets.

Dave
 

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I wonder if that new show might be similar to his longstanding "Leave it to Bryan". On that show, the homeowners show him several areas (generally 3) of their home that they would like changed/updated and give him their budget. Then they hand him the keys and he picks ONE of the projects to complete, but they don't know which one until they come back. It ran for many seasons and is well worth a watch if you can find it!
 

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If you want to talk about "How did they stay together?" renovation shows....did you ever watch Grand Designs? It's on Netflix. Oh. My. God.
My husband and I call that "Bad Decisions" Did you see the one where they were handbuilding it with straw and mud? It was some very old style. By the end, he was divorced, kids gone, new wife gone and it was like 15 years later!
 

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My husband and I call that "Bad Decisions" Did you see the one where they were handbuilding it with straw and mud? It was some very old style. By the end, he was divorced, kids gone, new wife gone and it was like 15 years later!

Noooooo! Like a train wreck in slow motion.
 

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DaveNV

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If you want to talk about "How did they stay together?" renovation shows....did you ever watch Grand Designs? It's on Netflix. Oh. My. God.

Just watching an episode now. Thanks for the head's up. I've seen it before, but didn't know the series name. Great show!

Dave
 

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Every time I see these couples picking an island house on the beach, it reminds me of the episode from Andy Griffith where Howard Sprague retires to some Caribbean island, and ends up totally bored. He ends up a bum and comes back to Mayberry.
 

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Honestly, I look at the ones who want to be right on the beach and think, "Really? Right on the beach? Just not worried at all about that?"
 

sue1947

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Talking about British renovation shows, I just finished binging hours of "Escape to the Chateau"

I watched this on PBS earlier this year. It's just mind boggling what they did and the work involved.

I saw two episodes of Vacation Rules. I found it fascinating, however the two episodes had the same formulaic rules. Perhaps others would be different.

As an owner of a vacation rental in a top resort area. Their calculations on rental income were way off. They showed renting in northern Michigan (or perhaps Canada?)
Scott is another one of the Canadian HGTV folks. He's based in Toronto?? The Vacation Rules houses are in the lake country in Ontario.

I always enjoyed watching the different HGTV shows in Canada like Scott's show on fixing up rentals or Leave it to Bryan or Holmes show. Way back, before Love it or List it was on the US HGTV, there was one in Vancouver with a brother and sister team doing the real estate/designer schtick. They seemed more down to earth vs the snappy chatter of the newer teams.
 

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Back in the 70'S long before HGTV my older Brother was a flipper. He would buy a property, live in it while renovating it. Most took several years and he always had really creative ideas. He spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh saving pieces of old mansions that where being torn down and then used those saved pieces in his renovation...the last property he did he used mahogany doors as panelling in his study..it was beautiful. Around his 3rd property, he bought an old run down hotel and when they were maybe a third of the way through the reno , they went to Florida for vacation. It was winter and some local kids got into the basement and started a fire to keep warm and burnt the whole place down. It was heartbreaking for them but my SIL said it was a good thing my brother wasn't there because he would have died trying to get things out. He was also a "picker" buying and selling antiques and really anything he could make money on.

Around the 5th property, my SIL put her foot down and said this is the last... she wasn't moving again. DB had to go get a real job and no more flipping.
 

rickandcindy23

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Our son and DIL just love Property Brothers. They watch all episodes on demand, so they don't have to record them. Our son has been watching our renovation of the townhouse and said we obviously are watching the show because we have white cabinets, white counters, gray floors, white trim, etc. I told him I just chose neutral everything. It's going to be beautiful, but with cleaning Rick's stepmom's house of 48 years of junk, we haven't been able to get back to it. We are about 3 solid weeks from being done.

Edit to add: This would also be the busy chimney cleaning season, which keeps us both busy--me answering phones, Rick cleaning chimneys. It's made for a lengthy, crazy-long remodel on that townhouse. I think I would like being over there more, if I could access our online schedule from there, but returning calls is something I don't do well.
 
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