A chat with the Property Brothers

Jonathan and Drew Scott, stars of the popular HGTV show “The Property Brothers,” are the headliners at next weekend’s Downtown Raleigh Home Show.

The 37-year-old twins will speak at 1 p.m. Feb. 20 on the event’s main stage.

We had a chance to chat with them on the phone earlier this week. Before we get to their answers to our questions, here’s their backstory in case you don’t have cable or don’t watch HGTV.

The 6-foot-4 twins grew up in Vancouver, Canada. They were aspiring actors attending the University of Calgary when they flipped their first home, netting a $50,000 profit. Jonathan eventually earned a degree in construction and design while Drew got his real estate license. After about a decade of running their business, Drew decided to focus on acting again. When casting agents heard during a 2005 audition about him and his home-rehabbing twin, the Scott brothers were soon on TV.

Their show, “Property Brothers,” is now in its seventh season. They also have a couple of spin-off shows, “Buying and Selling” and “Brother vs. Brother,” as well as a two specials on renovating their Las Vegas home and a family friend’s Canadian ranch. They have their own furniture line, a book coming out this spring – “Dream Home: The Property Brothers’ Ultimate Guide to Finding & Fixing Your Perfect House – and their own production company, Scott Brothers Entertainment.

The brothers were, of course, not in the same place for our conference call. We started the call with Jonathan, and Drew joined us a few minutes later.

The conversation has been edited.

Q: Have you ever been to North Carolina?

Jonathan: Our furniture line is based out of High Point. I’ve trekked around a little bit, but I haven’t spent any significant amount of time. We want our fans to tell us what we should make sure to see when we’re in Raleigh. (Send them suggestions via Twitter: @MrSilverScott and @MrDrewScott.) We usually get recommendations during our live appearances. You’ll see if you are there. It is a very interactive. We show videos. We also engage a lot with the audience.

Q: It sounds like it is more of a stage show.

Jonathan joked: It has pyrotechnics.

Basically, we still want folks to get some takeaway information and stuff that will help them with their projects. We discuss ways to structure your budget, get a little more out of your renovation, and things to watch out for that will quite often cost extra if you are not planning ahead. Then we answer a lot of questions about the shows because people always have burning questions. We just have fun. I’m a strong believer that people will soak up more of the information if they are letting their guard down and they’re laughing and they’re having fun. That’s definitely a lot of what we do.

Q: I asked people what I should ask you two. The majority of the questions were: Is what we’re seeing on TV real? One question was: Have you ever had an episode where a homeowner didn’t like the renovation?

Jonathan: Fortunately – knock on car console – I haven’t. Quite often, there may be an individual piece of art that a person doesn’t care for, and that’s fine. But I’m a very collaborative designer. I’m working with these homeowners. I do inspiration boards for them. I show them lots of samples, a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it on the show. By the time we get to the final reveal, I already know they are going to like it.

Everything on the show is real. These are real people. On “Property Brothers,” they are still paying for the majority of the renovation. That’s why they get really emotionally involved. Production gives them about $10,000 cash toward their budget. We get another $20,000-$30,000 in free stuff for them. Otherwise, they are paying for the renovation. Sometimes, they get a little loco. It’s all part of having your money on the line for something major.

The biggest misconception people have is: They think you’re renovating an entire house for $100,000. On “Property Brothers,” we’re only renovating three or four rooms for that price. Nobody is going to be able to renovate a kitchen for the same price as I do. I don’t charge a general contractor fee for myself; right away, that’s huge chunk of savings. Anytime we get a wholesale price from any vendors or suppliers, that price is passed along. So there’s a lot of savings that we get for these folks on the show, which makes it very valuable.

(Drew joins the call.)

Q: What is the silliest question you have ever been asked in an interview?

Drew: What style underwear do you wear? And then they gave me options like a European speedo and a few things that I would never wear in a million years.

Jonathan: One of the questions that I thought was really funny was someone had alluded that Drew and I were not actually two people and they asked if we used CGI (computer-generated imagery) graphics to make it look like there’s two of us hosting the show. I paused and said: “We don’t have Lucasfilm budgets so no we don’t.”

Drew: One question I get all the time and it’s less of a silly question and more people don’t realize there’s other stuff that we do. They always say, “Drew, what’s it like to be the brother who does no work?” I always laugh and say, “OK. First of all, I do a ton of work.”

Jonathan: That’s me who asks that question.

Drew: He does say that all the time.

People always assume Jonathan is a contractor so he has all the hands-on work for “Property Brothers.” People forget the fact that there’s a lot of it on the buying end. There’s a lot on the house hunting. Aside from just the shows, Jonathan and I run several companies. We have our own investment properties. We have a production company where we produce shows that we’re not in. We launched our book. We just launched an app. We have a lot of stuff that is outside physical construction work. I have no problem not being the one doing all the construction work.

Q: People may not realize that Jonathan is also an illusionist and Drew is a TV director. What drew you both to those other pursuits?

Jonathan: When we turned 8, my dad said, “Well, get a job.” We were looking in the paper and we ended up seeing this ad for a parks and recreation course, “Learn to Be a Clown.” They would teach you to juggle and face paint. Once you take the course, they’d hire you for parades. We thought, “OK, this sounds cool.” We took the program as 8-years-old and became apprentice clowns. Eventually, Drew didn’t like doing the makeup and all that stuff, and he got more involved in basketball. I enjoyed it. I started doing more magic. I won all kinds of awards. I used to do all my own woodworking and metalworking when building my props. That’s how I got hands-on. We started doing our own independent, short films and we started to realize Drew had an affinity for directing those. So now Drew directs some of the episodes of our show and some of the other projects we work on.

Drew: I have just always loved it. My dad was in the industry when we were kids. So he had taken us to a couple of sets. We met John Travolta and Kirstie Alley when we were kids. Just seeing the action on set, it really motivated me. I love acting. I love getting into a character. Even as a director, I love taking a script, taking something from paper and then using my crazy imagination to make it something big and impressive and commercial – something that people will love as much as I do.

I love the diversity. We host. I act. I direct. We run businesses. We’ve done sketch comedy and stand-up. We have all these different outlets. It’s the same for acting. I love getting into different types of characters to show people range and the different things I can do.

Jonathan: Over-achiever. (Cough. Cough.)

Q: What do you enjoy most about this crazy life and what do you enjoy least?

Jonathan: Our show is a very positive message. We’re helping people get into a home that they would never be able to get into on their own. More than that, we’re trying to inspire people. That’s through our philanthropic efforts and the show. It’s really been an adventure.

Drew: It’s pretty cool when Jonathan and I can go to Italy. We have people stop us. We don’t even speak the same language, and yet we can see the passion in their eyes and the excitement of how we have inspired them. That’s kind of cool. The one thing that is the negative side. It’s kind of negative but kind of not because we’re workaholics, especially me. We do work crazy hours just for the shows we host. We do 60 hours of programming a year. We don’t get a lot of downtime just to spend with family and friends.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 4:58 AM with the headline "A chat with the Property Brothers."