Page 8 - Canadian Industry Online

CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - DECEMBER 2015The Scott BrothersJONATHAN AND DREW Scott, co-hosts of HGTV’s Property Brothers, Brother vs. Brother, and Property Broth- ers at Home (which are aired in over 150 countries) may have only become household names in recent years, but don’t be fooled into thinking they’ve had “overnight success”—their incred- ible achievements are two decades in the making.Co-founders of Scott Brothers En- tertainment and Scott Living, Drew and Jonathan are bona de real estate and entrepreneurship innovators—and are enjoying the fruits of their labour, and rise to celebrity status. The brothers have a wealth of experience and knowl- edge in real estate, and as they grow their empire, they want to help other entrepreneurs in the business by shar- ing their lessons in the game.How critical is education to having success in real estate development?Drew: When home owners or buyers don’t have the right educa- tion, they almost always run into a lot of problems when it comes to renovat- ing houses. You need education on the value of homes, what is costs for major improvements like electrical and foun- dation work, and education on what materials actually help improve home value (and what buyers are willing to pay for a home).There is another mistake you can make: over-renovating, which means essentially renovating yourself out of a pro t by investing too much money into nishings and materials that ultimately don’t make a difference to the pro t. We have made this mistake ourselves, where we could have made a bigger pro t if we didn’t do every imaginable improvement with a renovation and spend so much on materials.Jonathan: I think a lot of people get themselves in over their heads be- cause they see a show on TV or a video and think ‘oh, that only takes a half hour, no problem’ but the reality is: it’s never that easy, especially if you do a full gut job on a house. Education really is im- portant: do your research, know what it costs, get quotes from contractors, and put yourself in a better position.“Education really is important: do your research know what it costs.”8 |Canadian Industry Online | July, 2017