Anyone else obsessed with Extreme Home Makeover?

You know who makes out HUGE in the deal? SEARS!!!

Notice the extra long like one minute Sears commercial that airs towards the end of each show? And often you see Sears boxes rolling into the house w/ new appliances in them... Sears gets BIG TIME free or very low cost advertising, and what did they give in return? Some appliances and electronic equipment? That's no skin off their noses!

Again, I'm NOT dissing them in anyway, because anyone who helps out the people/families that are as needy as these ones are wonderful!!!

And Slip, I heard about that family... it reminded me of the Oprah audience who were all given cars and a lot of them couldn't afford them because they had to pay sales taxes in order to get their cars registered!

~Tara
 
Sears gives them all the appliances, tools used in the build, and a good deal of the furniture they put into every home.

They can probably write most of it off as charatable donations, and what they dont get back from tax write offs, they probably get from the advertising.
 
I saw on a tv show that explained how they get around the tax thing. They said that they take over the people lease for the week and everythign they do to the house during that time is exempt from taxes. here is a link that explains it a bit better http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=2552

Seems like a good idea but i'm not sure that it really works
 
Interesting article, thanks valerie!

"one recipient of an "extreme home makeover," who was deployed in Iraq at the time of the show, was extremely dissatisfied with the quality of the work, which was estimated to be worth up to $250,000, but he was unwilling to complain as long as it was all free."

I find that odd... if someone wanted to redo my house to make life better for me and/or another family member, I certainly would NOT complain!!

I would think that the IRS would take pity on these people -- I mean it's not like you or me, everyday people with healthy families, are applying for home makeovers!!! These people's lives are a mess until their houses are renovated... I again turn attention to the little girl who was allergic to the sun!!!!
 
Hmm... Well I certainly hope it takes them longer than 7 days to redo a house. I know for times sake they stick with the standard "7 days to a perfect home" deal, but I think I'd rather live in a sturdy house that is about average than I would a seemingly nice house, but which falls apart within 10 years because of substandard craftsmanship.

Regarding how much the show makes, who knows. All I know is ‘Everybody loves Raymond’ pays a huge amount of money to Ray and the others for each show... same deal when FRIENDS was on. The actors/actresses got so much more money in comparison to other sitcoms, who's to say Extreme Makeover doesn't reap similar benefits?
 
valerie said:
I saw on a tv show that explained how they get around the tax thing.
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Thats how the family avoids getting taxed on the prizes/awards'. But property taxes can still rise, and there is no way to avoid that, besides decreasing the value of your property... Which would leave them back where they started.
 
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dwayne said:
I would think that the IRS would take pity on these people --
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Its not the IRS taxing them, its local and state property taxes. The IRS is concerned with income and prizes/awards. The owners income doesnt go up (disposable income does if the show reduces their cost of living) and they can avoid the lottery/gift taxes by taking over the homeowners lease during the time of construction.

The local and state goverment meanwhile will go and reasses their property, and will raise the 'value' of your property if any improvements have been done.

There are certain states/cities/towns with no property taxes, but those are mainly in the more rural parts of the country.
 
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dwayne said:
Interesting article, thanks valerie!

"one recipient of an "extreme home makeover," who was deployed in Iraq at the time of the show, was extremely dissatisfied with the quality of the work, which was estimated to be worth up to $250,000, but he was unwilling to complain as long as it was all free."

I find that odd... if someone wanted to redo my house to make life better for me and/or another family member, I certainly would NOT complain!!
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I would personally be really ticked if shoddy work was done in my house, free or not. Remember, this isn't This Old House where the crew takes over a nearly condemned house. EM handles perfectly sound houses that could just use an upgrade. In that case, if the work was sub par you could actually end up worse than you started.

I understand your sentiment though. It seems to me that these contractors do a decent job. They throw about ten times the man power they normally would at these jobs to get them done in time.
 
dwayne said:
Sears gets BIG TIME free or very low cost advertising, and what did they give in return? Some appliances and electronic equipment? That's no skin off their noses!
~Tara
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tara, I HIGHLY doubt its no skin off their noses, you better believe they are paying a lot more than just a few appliances to have their equipment/store featured on the show. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pay a few million just for the show placements, let alone the advertising spots...
 
geoffgarcia said:
tara, I HIGHLY doubt its no skin off their noses, you better believe they are paying a lot more than just a few appliances to have their equipment/store featured on the show. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pay a few million just for the show placements, let alone the advertising spots...
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You think so geoff?? I bet it's an even trade... or maybe a little bit of money paid to abc for the placement... I'm going to look into it, because now I'm curious!!!
 
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