HGTV's New Focus: Helping Distressed Homeowners

May 8, 2009— -- Back in the go-go days of the housing bubble, when homes were gold-plated money machines, you could hardly turn on your TV without stumbling across another way to get rich with real estate.

It was a boom time for TV shows about housing, and no network did it better then Home and Garden Television, or HGTV.

But now, with the days of hand-over-fist renovation budgets at an end, HGTV itself is undergoing something of a renovation, with new shows for niche markets.

For new home buyers taking advantage of falling prices, there's "My First Place" and "Property Virgins." For selling in tough times, there's "The Unsellables." And for creative ideas for keeping the home you're already in, there's "Income Property," hosted by the network's new face, Scott McGillivray.

At age 31, McGillivray already has a decade of real estate experience.

"I got started when I was in university," he said. "A friend of mine and I decided to buy instead of renting, against all advice of friends and family -- 'you're too young, what are you doing, you've got student debt.' But we bought the house, rented part of it out, lived there and then we repeated the process 30 times."

"People need income properties now because equity is gone, people are losing their jobs, and you know, it's a gold mine," he said. "Most people are sitting on an empty basement. It seems like a no-brainer."

McGillivray says people have always wanted income properties as a way to make extra money, but says they "need" them now when times are tougher. Still, HGTV president Jim Samples concedes that the show probably wouldn't have been on the air a few years ago.

"In fact, when I first saw the show I thought, well, this is probably a small group of people who would be interested in this type of a program," he said. "But we took a chance with it."

HGTV, which is 15 years old, had only seen an upward market. The network has had to make a few adjustments to reflect the market.

"We began to emphasize those shows that are design solutions for better living, de-emphasizing those shows that were about quick things to do to sell your house, because sometimes there aren't quick things that you can do," Samples said.