Cincinnati renovation duo Collin and Christina Beck are best known locally as “The Renovated Family” on Instagram, but the duo recently took some time off from their company, Vero Home, to put their DIY prowess to the test by knocking down walls on HGTV's newest home renovation show, “Flipping Showdown.”
Photo by Christina Beck
The show premiered on November 17 and will air every Wednesday (the Becks posted updates on the renovation on Instagram). Hosted by HGTV's Ken and Anita Corsini, the show assigns three teams to renovate a home within a budget, with the winner taking home a $100,000 prize.
We caught up with the charismatic couple to find out more about what it's like starring on an HGTV show in Atlanta, hundreds of miles from their hometown.
Tell us about Vero Home and the work you've done here in Cincinnati.
Christina: We started flipping houses on the side in 2016 while working our full-time jobs. Colin was a field salesman and was on the road most of the week, so we did it on the weekends. We thought we'd start by buying a home to pay off some debt, so we did buy one. I think we made a pretty good profit because we were proactive about it.
Colin: One business led to another and I continued doing it as a side hustle until 2019 when I finally decided to go all in. I quit my full-time job, wrapped it all up, and started getting serious about flipping as many businesses as I could.
Let's jump right in and ask about “Flipping Showdown.” How were you scouted to be on the show?
Christina: You [flip houses] Post beautiful before and after photos [on Instagram]It's not that unusual for a production company to contact you. They're usually looking for something pretty specific. A few companies we'd spoken to before didn't really materialize anything. So when I got another message on Instagram, I was like, oh, I don't know if this is going to happen.
Colin: When they pitched the idea for the show to us – that it would be a six-week series with two teams renovating two houses – I thought “Let's do it! That sounds like a lot of fun.”
How does something like this actually happen? What are we not seeing?
Christina: I watched the episode and I was like, wow, this is so funny! What everyone sees is a very condensed version. Once we started, we just rushed through it. It was pretty hard because we had three teams on three houses. Everybody was running to get their house, figure out what they needed to do, say this is the budget, and get the best value after the renovation. They brought in the general contractor, but it was up to us to design, order, manage the project, and keep the budget within the schedule. So that was it in terms of how to renovate a house.
What are some common misconceptions about flipping homes?
Christina: A common misconception about flipping a house is that it's like putting lipstick on a pig. [replace] We put carpeting down and sell it for a profit. People always say it's an easy way to make money, but we really care about the quality of the home. We know that when someone moves in, it's their home. If there are repairs that need fixing behind the walls, we'll fix them, and if we have the opportunity to make the mechanicals work and make it a safer, more comfortable, beautiful place to live in, we'll do that. It costs money. The budget is the hard part. That's maybe what makes us different on this show. Here at Cincinnati Flipping, we set a budget and decide how much we're going to spend on the home, which means what our profit is. On the show, Ken and Anita set a budget and expected profit and timeline. We had to make choices based on the parameters that were set.
Can you give us a little behind the scenes look without any spoilers?
Christina: Getting to know the film crew played a big role. They followed us everywhere. When they saw people working, they would stand outside and talk about it. When we were putting up the beams for the house, as soon as they were done they would say, “Come on out and tell us how it felt.” Most of the time, [interviews] It's something that happens in the moment. They call it “on the fly,” or OTF. Even now, I joke with Colin that when we're in the house, I'll say, “Hold on. Hold on. I've got to OTF on this.” We were constantly talking about why we were doing this and how we felt about it. It was like a mini-counseling session. It was so good.
