The Untold Truth Of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

The Untold Truth Of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Even though the show wrapped up in 2012, Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition lives on in both reruns and the gorgeous homes they built during their
nine-year run. Host Ty Pennington and his team created dream
homes for some of the most deserving families you could ever meet. While the show was a positive light in the
world of reality television — full of arguing housewives and drunken roommates — it had
its fair share of scandals and heartbreaks, too. From dishonest contestants to shady tax practices,
there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than we ever could’ve known. So allow us to “Move that bus!” and give you
a sneak peek at the inner workings of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. When contestants lie Sadly, even a feel-good show like Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition is not immune to people trying to scam the system. While the participants each went through a
thorough background check, one family may have embellished, or even fabricated the truth,
in order to be chosen. In 2009, Chuck and Terri Cerda were chosen
for the show after Terri shared that she and their two daughters Molly and Maggie suffered
from severe immunodeficiency diseases, causing them to have to wear masks at all times. The Cerdas were given a massive home complete
with high-quality air ventilation systems, but the story didn’t end there. When the family was unable to afford the utility
bills, they sold the house and moved to Oregon, where the kids’ new doctors questioned the
family’s diagnoses. Ultimately, those concerns were reported to
child welfare offices, and the girls were actually removed from the Cerdas’ home after
practitioners found that they were not chronically ill but had instead been the victims of “medical
child abuse.” No such thing as a free house You’d have to be emotionally dead to make
it through an entire episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition without a few tissues. Seeing a hardworking family being given their
dream home made you feel good. However, while the house was free to the families,
the rest wasn’t. Many of these families were left with giant
mansions that required higher taxes, utility bills, and upkeep, which means there’s been
a sad pattern of Home Makeover families losing their homes to foreclosure after the show
airs. The reality show did help the new homeowners
a little, by doing some serious acrobatics to help the families avoid paying taxes on
their makeover. An IRS loophole says if your home is rented
out for less than 15 days per year, you do not need to pay taxes on that rental income. With that in mind, the show explains to families
that they are “renting” the house from the family for a week, and the improvements are
the rental payment, meaning they don’t have to pay taxes on the improvements. While this plan helps families up front, they’ll
still be responsible for the future property taxes that will undoubtedly rise with the
increased value of their home. And, in many cases, that has caused the new
homeowners to lose their financial bearings after the fact. Legal troubles It’s hard to imagine a scenario where you
would actually sue the people who built you your dream home for free, but it happened
in 2005. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition built a house
for the Higgins family, five orphans who had lost their parents to cancer and heart failure. The home was built for them and the Leomitis
family who had taken them in. The show built them a nine bedroom mansion
and even provided new cars and groceries, but after the cameras left, things got ugly. According to the Higgins children, the Leomitis
family launched “an orchestrated campaign” to force them out of the new mansion. The family allegedly used racial slurs, verbal
abuse, and physical abuse to drive out the orphans. The Higgins children moved out and promptly
sued ABC, stating they were promised a house which is not in their name. Though ABC did not make an official statement
on the case, they did remind fans the show was intended to build a home for the Leomitis
family, who had taken in the orphaned kids. Not such a fairy tale story for those ones
left behind then, huh? Unhappy neighbors One of the best parts of Extreme Makeover
Home Edition is seeing the community come together. Friends and neighbors drop everything for
a week to pitch in and create an incredible house. It seems like it’s usually a happy experience
for everyone. But what happens when that family turns around
and sells? If a family can no longer afford the taxes
and utilities, they may have no choice but to downsize. The problem comes in when the neighbors don’t
approve of the new buyer. In 2010, the show built a new home for Larry
and Melissa Beach in Houston. The Beaches had fostered and adopted 85 children
with special needs over the years, but could not keep up the cost of their new mansion. The neighbors began to worry when the home
was sold to Butch Woolfolk, who turned it into a high-end drug rehab center. The Daily Mail reported that after donating
their time to build this house, many neighbors were worried it would now hurt their own property
values. Not to mention the fact that no one was thrilled
about now living next to a drug rehab facility. Not their first (or last) reality rodeo Thanks to its unbelievable success, the hosts
and designers from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition seemed like overnight stars. While their fame shot up thanks to the show,
many had done television before, including designer Jillian Harris, who started out on
ABC’s The Bachelorette before signing on to be a reality show designer. Meanwhile, host Ty Pennington got his start
as a model, went on to star in TLC’s Trading Spaces, and became the host of the talk show
The Revolution. In 2014, Pennington became the host of TNT’s
cooking competition show, On the Menu. He must have liked the food world, because
he’s since become the host of the Food Network series, American Diner Revival, where he and
his team help struggling diners get a makeover — sound familiar? Thanks for watching! Click The List icon to subscribe to our YouTube
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100 thoughts on “The Untold Truth Of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

  1. Kind of like winning the lottery. Winners quit their jobs, buy expensive homes and cars, then end up broke again when they realize they cannot sustain this lifestyle. Really sad that they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and blew it (literally).

  2. Thank you. I never understood how any of these families who seemed like they were struggling to survive could keep up with the heating, electrical, water, and tax bills associated with the new property. Honestly I used to watch this show when I was little and never thought about money. Just that it made the family happy. Once I got older I realized how sick it was that this camera crew and abc came in and gave them a dream home they could never afford. I don't know how any of the cast or camera crew could live with doing that and being a part of making those homes if in the long run they would be foreclosed and forces to leave.

  3. EHM was in my small city a few years ago. The couple that was chosen were about to file for divorce when they found out so put that plan on hold. The husband coached boxing for area youth and took in a young man who also happened to be a promising young athlete. (They had several of their own children as well). Along with the house makeover, there was a full size gym built on the property to better serve the youth in the community. I understand that having the new facility inspired the coach/father… to coach the area youth that could afford the fees he began to charge for use of the facility. So much for benefitting the community.
    As soon as the project was finished, the wife began doing house tours… for an admission fee. The young athlete they took in was still in highschool and before he even graduated, got his girlfriend pregnant.
    During the filming, the swarms of onlookers were there all day every day, destroying the neighbors' lawns, and neighbors were livid because spotlights during late night filming poured light into their homes as they tried to sleep.
    The hype died down pretty quickly after the crew left. I can't even remember now if the couple finally got that divorce.
    I knew people that were on the construction crews, people who lived next door, and one of the kids was in my daughter's classes.
    In the end, the general consensus was that having the show filming there did a lot more harm than good.

  4. OMG!! I love how you exposed them. That was one of my favorite shows until i seen how they was doing people. I feel like Ty was a scammer all along, he just helped people to take off the heat.

  5. I worked on this show and the contestants lied a lot. The producers lied on every show and they wanted to build everywhere without paying for permits. They wanted police and EMTs for free. They told the cities and towns they needed more money for the families. BULLSHIT. They needed more money because they had a shitty deal with ABC but still wanted their raises. I didn't see one show where at least one big lie wasn't woven into the families back stories.

  6. "deserving" bitch there's people that don't have HOMES!. MAKE A SHOW ABOUT MAKING PEOPLE NOT HOMELESS

  7. what shit bags show that say how much they say to help to hope one can say hell keeps getting bigger to all those how kill for money eat shit and look hell will open its month

  8. Folks, if these people never had a lot of money then they weren't armed to handle the HUGE expense once they got the big house, sometimes mini-mansions!! This show just took advantage of poor ignorant people. Money grubbing aholes.

  9. I guess im emotionaly dead, or i just think most reality tv is scripted and bs. I dont trust or belive any "reality" tv.

  10. You can't help some people. And some don't even deserve it. I think the show did their best, but good things can't last forever. Eventually all houses will change owners. I think it is the gift of happiness that matters. It wasn't ever going to be permanent.

  11. If they are going to build them a free house, they should have paid all expenses for a couple years to give them some time to save up to afford all those bills

  12. I my country there is a TV show that in 5-7 days fixes and renovates houses for reaaaaaaaally poor people (poor poor (house falling apart, no electricity or water type) not this type of "poor"). But it does not make houses bigger or luxurious just normal places to live. Also they donate to families money, groceries and some house products.

  13. Idiotic concept, idiotic show. Building mansions for ppl who can’t even afford to pay their utilities 😩

  14. everybody knows the houses are higher taxed and higher utilities. what you should have done is expose Ty and a few others taking credit for special rooms which they NEVER lifted a finger to design or build…. i was part of one of those episodes and Ty only came out of his trailer at the beginning and the reveal, other then that he was off limits to all and if you saw him he was rude and belligerent and were not allowed to even speak or look at him..
    They also ransacked neighbors properties with no financial compensation whatsoever, noise all day and night.
    and left garbage all over after it was done leaving the mess for neighbors to clean up after..

  15. The show came to our economically depressed area and solicited funds, services and volunteers.

    Everyone was so happy and excited! Our local ABC affiliate promoted the heck out of it.

    When the big day came, all the volunteers were picked up and driven OUT OF STATE, so “our” house could be built in a wealthy community.

    I haven’t watched ABC since.

  16. So those 5 kids lost both of their parents and get kicked out of their house and are no homeless or whatever? Wtf that's seriously messed up

  17. One thing that kind of irked me about the show was when it came to little kids' rooms like if the kid loved firetrucks they would go so far out with that one thing, like a firetruck looking bed, walk art, toys, etc. But I would question…what happens when the kid gets older and grows out of that stuff? Now the family has to repaint remodel a whole bedroom to fit the now older kid.

    Don't get me wrong I know it's a little kid's dream to have a room to their liking but at least make it fixable or changeable so when the kid does get older and probably out of that stuff it can easily be removed.

  18. It's messed up yet hilarious that this upbeat music is being played in the background while the woman talks about cases of medical child abuse, foreclosures, and orphans being backstabbed by their foster parents.

  19. I remember the episode with the two girls. They said that they weren’t allowed to go to school due to the risk of catching a cold and not being able to fight it she was 7.

  20. Sometimes having Extreme Makeover help you doesn't really help at all if you can't afford to keep the house they just built for you. I also think when they do these special rooms for the little ones, once they grow up living in a princess castle isn't going to work anymore.

  21. Their are some real pieces of work in this world. I suspect some who have put there homes up for sale could not afford them and the couple that lived in Kansas well they may have left because they could not afford it or the neighbors who help build it kept throwing in there faces that they got the house because they all built it for them acting like they owned the home too. Or the tornados that hit Kansas may have drove them out.

  22. Probably didn’t really use racia slurs. Always record conversations with black people they will Lie about racism at the drop of a hat

  23. I can´t believe, Ty Pennington used to be a host of a food show of any type. In EHM, in one place, they fed the kids, brought over a pizza stall and some veggie trays, and he went like – brocolli? Blahhhhhh, Nooooo! And made kids booo with him. Then: Pizza? Yeeeees!!

  24. Funny how you can bash addicts in your video but not once mention that Tye Pennington has attended rehab himself for a cocaine addiction…pfft

  25. so what is this event actually like? is it official and free? Is it true that participants in this event are asking for money? even though this is a page view, actually I like to see this program.

  26. everyone did harm to show deserving that does dozer put down by people they a good thing for people no lies about I loved the show and miss this show Corinne Mattinen

  27. i feel bad for those children who lost their parents and got adopted by monsters
    Those people pretty much used those children too get that house
    pitiful truly pitifulI do hope something bad happens too those so called "foster parents"

  28. You can assume that that family lied, but going off what some practitioners said isn’t good enough. There’s a very big difference between good doctors in a bad doctors, and most are mediocre and simply follow the main stream rather than doing their own independent research. So I’ll just take that with a grain of salt.

  29. Media bias at its worst.

    The Beach family didn't lose the house because it was too much, they gave it up because they left the foster care program. Early in 2014, a full three years after they got the house, a toddler with severe chronic health problems died while in their care, and that upset them so much they decided to stop fostering. Now, in most states including Texas, the funds allotted to these families is defined by the IRS as 'non taxable income', and one of the allowable uses for those funds is housing expenses, which is why the family struggled only after they left the foster care program, and without those funds from the state, they couldn't afford the house. Therefore, this instance was merely the result of a change in income and was not because of the show

  30. My thing of this is on those who had to sell, you got a damn house for free. So waht you cant afford the upkeep? Sell it and downsize, you are still better off than before they built your damn house and at least now with the money you make off the house you sell you can invest in a property that may not be as luxurious but is much better than what you had before, unless your wasteful and don't use your money right.

  31. Why put one really show good show down and make everyone on that sound some lier the not wright to me they sound like good people because I LOVE THIS SHOW

  32. Their In my hometown in Palmdale but I’m not going to do it because they are a scam because they build families who cannot afford a home into Huge Mansions and I am not touching extreme makeover for the life of Me. Banks are too greedy to get your money too. It sucks.

  33. Here's what they should have done built them a house they could afford ask them what there budget was behind the scenes so the people wouldn't be financially screwed after or atleast don't destroy there house fix it up let them know what there getting into

  34. I Can't belive this are you kidding me I Watch That TV show everyday not knowing what's going behind the back .

  35. I wish they never end this show because there are many more needy families because of the cost of living…..especially in the state of Hawaii it's not a paradise anymore it's a dumping ground for all kinds of people and our state officials really doesn't care…..

  36. I been waching extreme makerover for a long time.and each time i cry a lot. I believe god plants his childrened for his purpose. And this show is his purpose. Thanks you guys god bless you all.

  37. After the cameras where gone most of these contestants where left with home they simply could not afford with the utilities and upkeep.

  38. I loved this show; we'd watch it every Sunday night. We got to go on a Saturday, when I had a day off from work, to Rose Hill, KS. My daughter, Eve, wanted so much to meet Ty Pennington.

  39. Holy shit that orphan story? That's crazy i have to look that up. How does a family adopt 5 orphans when they have a shit house. Get a HUGE house that practically need people to live in it. Then kick them out??

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