From the Desk of Beth

HGTV Appearance...

On March 3rd, I was a featured real estate expert appearing on HGTV's high profile show, "My House is Worth What". The property highlighted is located in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. The episode will re-air on May 11th, at 12pm. Check it out!

Also, I was interviewed about the experience by the "Back Bay Sun" paper. Below is the article that was published March 14th.

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Well worth the effort: Back Bay resident featured on HGTV show
by Kim Cannon

With homeowners across the country experiencing a roller coaster ride in the real estate market over the last few months, home-selling and home-value shows have never been hotter. One of these shows, HGTV’s My House Is Worth What?, made a stop in the Back Bay in an episode that premiered last week. Eric Drysdale, owner of a one-bedroom 694-square foot apartment on the corner of Newbury and Dartmouth, found out along with millions of viewers just how much his home was worth.

My House Is Worth What? travels from city to city and profiles homeowners who have done work on their homes to improve the overall value. Local realtors tour the homes and give homeowners the pluses and minuses of their properties before revealing the home’s appraisal.

“It was fun, kind of a novelty thing,” Drysdale says. “Although I have a background in real estate and I knew exactly what my house was worth. I didn’t need a free appraisal.”

The inside scoop on how Drysdale ended up showing off his home renovations on national TV starts with an email that realtor Beth York of Cambridge’s Coldwell Banker received from the My House Is Worth producers asking for applicants to be on the show. York, who has a background in broadcast television production, quickly pulled together an audition tape she made walking through her own home, and soon she found out that she’d been chosen.

York was then charged with finding a property in the Boston area that the show could profile – one to which the homeowner had done considerable renovations but one that also wasn’t currently on the market. She immediately knew where she’d look.

“If you’re going to come to Boston, you have to go downtown to the Back Bay,” she says.
York is friends with Drysdale and knew he had done a lot of work on his apartment, and she was betting that he would be open to the prospect of sharing his home finances with the nation. “It’s slightly intrusive – some people don’t want everyone to know how much their house is worth,” she says.

Drysdale agreed to participate because of his friendship with York – even though it meant he had to miss a day of work for the filming. (Participants are not compensated for their appearance on the show other than homeowners receiving free advice from a real estate expert.) “Beth seemed excited, and I figured I’d help her out,” he said.

The show was taped during one day at the end of October. York gave host Kendra Todd -- a former winner of The Apprentice, a real estate expert and an author – a tour of Drysdale’s apartment for the cameras. She and Todd discussed where Drysdale had invested in renovations -- $19,500 in the kitchen, $1,700 in the living room, $2,600 in the bedroom, $10,000 in the bathroom. They also talked about where there was room for improvement – storage, flooring and staging.

At the end of the day, York and Drysdale filmed the “reveal” scene, where York gave her appraisal. Those who watch the show know that it is famous for staging this scene for the most possible drama, with the camera panning back and forth between the realtor and homeowner several times before the amount is revealed.
“At the end, they do have us pause for dramatic effect, and they say ‘Wait,’ and they pan, and pause. It was pretty funny,” York says. “But his reaction was totally accurate.”

York gave Drysdale an estimated value of $429,000 for his apartment, which was $21,000 less than Drysdale’s guess of what his property was worth. But Drysdale says he wasn’t discouraged since he doesn’t plan on moving any time soon.
Both have been amazed at the reaction to their appearance on the show. York organized a viewing party with family and friends and has enjoyed getting calls from friends saying they saw her on TV. And she’s getting ready to film another segment for the show later this year at another Boston-area home. She is eager to show the country that Boston is still a place for homeowners to get value for their real estate dollar.
“A lot of sellers are believing the hype that prices need to fall,” she says. “But that hype really hasn’t hit Boston and Cambridge.”