Those design stars must have been rehabbing houses since childhood.
They weren’t always the moguls running a hit show, magazine, shop, and bakery.
Before their HGTV fame from their reality design showFixer Upper, Chip and Joanna were actually broke.
“He always had a wad of cash, but we were broke.
If I needed to go grocery shopping it’s whatever was in his pocket.
That’s how we paid the bills.”
The couple was never looking for fame.
“All of this sort of fell into our laps,” Chip toldFox News.
“We were just living our life out here in little bitty Waco, [Texas].
We had dreams and aspirations like most folks, but this has really been something else.
Nicole Curtis
Nicole Curtis is another HGTV rags-to-riches story.
In college, she couldn’t decide on a career path.
She actually attended school in three different states:Georgia, Florida, and Michigan.
She also changed her major from pre-law to education.
Rehabbing houses was never the plan.
After college, Curtis paid the bills by waitressing at restaurants likeIHOPand Hooters.
She also started cleaning houses before and after her restaurant shifts.
The only reason that Curtis started rehabbing houses was out of necessity.
“I got interested in rehabbing because I was poor,” she toldAZ Central.
And the rest was history!
Two handsome and funny brothers battle it out amid gorgeous homes and incredible transformations.
And it seems like they were always destined forHGTVgreatness.
The two have a history in both real estate and performing so they were made for this.
Both Scott brothers had their hearts set on acting since they were young.
In an interview withGlamour, they revealed that they even had some success.
They both had roles on the Canadian seriesBreaker High.
Drew also appeared onSmallville, and Jonathan had a small role onThe X-Files.They even tried their hands atunderwear modeling!
Their real estate career began when they were only teenagers after watching a late-night infomercial.
It might be surprising to learn that HGTV was actually the third online grid she worked for.
Originally from Minneapolis, Gorder moved out to Oregon to attend Lewis & Clark College after high school.
After falling in love with her graphic design class, she scored an internship with MTV in NYC.
She then transferred to the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and graduated with her bachelors in fine arts.
Oosterhouse was the youngest of four kids raised in Michigan.
As a kid he loved all sports and actually received a full-ride scholarship to Central Michigan University for rugby.
There, he studied nutrition and communication before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his modeling and acting career.
But building and real estate was always in his blood.
So a lot of people are always remodeling and building,” he told HGTV in a since-deleted interview.
“For me it was just a summertime job, just to make some money.”
It wasn’t long before he discovered his carpentry talent and it seems to run in the family.
Both of Oosterhouse’s brothers are carpenters, and his sister is an interior designer.
The El Moussas were Orange County real estate agents before HGTV fame.
When the housing bubble burst, the couple needed to find a new way to make money.
They moved out of their$6,000-per-month mortgage homeand found a roommate to share a $700-per-month apartment.
They sold their cars and actually split Subway sandwiches for dinner.
They began buying rundown properties and fixing them up themselves.
“We just started flipping houses and we took a long shot and sent a production company an e-mail.
They liked us and said to send a home video.
We did, and they liked it,” Tarek toldCountry Living.
“A year-and-a-half later, HGTV picked us up for a pilot.
It didn’t.”
And it wasn’t just hard work that helped Soto land multiple roles on HGTV.
It just may have been fate.
Sotoshared withAlejandrathat she learned about the movieThe Secretand the law of attraction shortly before scoring her first television appearances.
“My friend told me about the movieThe Secretand I thought it was a little crazy.
She gave it to me to borrow and I let it sit on my desk for a long time.
The next day, Soto logged onto Craigslist to look for jobs on television and nabbed one.
“It was crazy, it was the day after I watched the movie,” she said.
That’s why I went to art school.
I wanted to be a Disney animator,” he toldSouth Florida Gay News.
“I was obsessed with anything Disney.”
Bromstad actually did work for Disney as a visual merchandiser for six months.
He then went to the sculpting department where he was sanding sculptures all day.
“It was a great learning tool for bringing perfection into my work,” he explained.
But I learned so much."
It’s no surprise then that Bromstad was drawn to interior design.
He was able to use his creative flair more freely, compared to spending hours illustrating or sculpting.
Once he started hosting and designing forColor Splash, he was hooked.
Rather than follow in her family’s footsteps, she chose to go into radio.
However, eventually she decided that real estate might be where the money is.
When that flip made money, Sherrod invested in another property and then another.
From then on, she split her time between her two loves of real estate and radio.
When she was offered a radio job in Atlanta, HGTV jumped at the chance to filmProperty Virginsthere.
Scott McGillivray
Scott McGillivray may have one of the best pre-HGTV lives.
Before starring inIncome Property, he was in a legit ‘90sboyband called Next Element!
Sporting cornrows and metallic pants, McGillivray bravely shared the above hilarious picture with his Instagram followers.
Sadly, he moved on from the singing and dancing when he found a new passion: real estate.
At age 21, he bought and rented out his first house while still in college.
He did it again and again until he owned five properties when he was just 23 years old.
His first television appearance was on the Canadian showDebbie Travis’ Facelift.
He began as a crew member and then became one of the designers.
Go for it!
It doesn’t matter if you are currently waiting tables at Hooters or performing some cheesy boy band choreography.
All that matters is that you have a love of design and a desire to learn.
I especially love that so many of these HGTV stars started out completely broke.
Next time your furnace breaks down or door needs replacing, try doing part of it yourself.
You may even end up with your own reality show!
