The Property Brothers Warn About This Before Getting Into Real Estate

Home renovation experts Drew and Jonathan Scott, better known as the Property Brothers from their HGTV show of the same name, know how to completely transform a home and all the rookie mistakes you can make when getting into real estate. For instance, they told The New York Times some of their biggest pieces of home buying advice in 2019, including how to identify a reasonable fixer property.

"Find a home where the bones work and you're merely changing things on the inside," Jonathan Scott, the contractor of the two, told the outlet. On top of that, you need to watch out for when fixers claim a home is a full renovation, but it was actually just minor cosmetic changes. "I can't stand it when I go into a house that's listed and they say it's been renovated, but all they've done is they've ripped out a kitchen and put in brand-new cabinets into the exact same bad layout," Jonathan added. That is one of the things the Property Brothers want you to remember when renovating. 

The two agreed in their NYT interview that sometimes you need to hire professionals to do the job justice. Yet, that is far from the duo's only advice about getting into real estate. After all, it can be a costly business that has been on the downward swing in returns in the last few years.

Television makes things seem easier than they are. Someone could be the biggest "Property Brothers" fan, and having seen every episode, they have the impression that renovating a house is a piece of cake. That is when people get into trouble. In their new series "Backed By the Bros," which is a bit like a real estate investment version of "Shark Tank," the brothers choose which investor to help. That's why they spoke with Page Six about the mistakes people make when delving into the real estate market. 

"So many people want to get into real estate, they want to invest in real estate, how cool would it be to convert the garage and bring in some revenue. And they jump in headfirst and realize they don't know what they're doing and they are toast," Johnathan Scott told Page Six. Unlike what the expert brothers do on their shows, getting into home renovations takes a lot of preparation or risk failure. 

"With construction — if you have a project and you don't know when you're supposed to get a certain permit, or you don't have a certain trade lined up before another, if you mess up the order of things, it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars, it can cost you months and months of time," added Drew Scott. The advice of these brothers really goes to show that the time is money adage holds true.

Above and beyond being prepared for the actual labor of renovating a house, "Property Brothers" Drew and Jonathan Scott emphasize knowing the market, too. Jonathan Scott told Realtor that there is no bad time to buy property — what matters is understanding the market in which you're buying. 

"Do the math," he told the outlet. "If you're getting a good price on the house, it doesn't matter what the market looks like. Right now is really a time where people should be extra cautious so that they are definitely making a good decision, not overpaying. And make sure that they've got a little flexibility so they have that buffer if they need some money for improvements." Those improvements could include the appliance upgrade that the brothers swear by. 

Even for sellers, the two both suggested understanding not just the real estate market in the time they're trying to sell, but also the buyer market as well. In their interview with Realtor, Drew Scott explained that a good seller needs to understand the home's value as well as what someone is willing to pay for it. While Jonathan added that sellers also need to know what buyers consider a value-adding feature before just adding it to the home — consider these items the Property Brothers think every house should have. Sorry pools, Jonathan says you're not always a value add.