Launched in 2008, HGTV's Income Property is one of the network's most enduring series.
But despite its popularity, there's a lot fans may not know about this HGTV hit and
its host, Scott McGillivray.
When he started HGTV's "Income Property," host Scott McGillivray saw a way to encourage
others to do what he'd been doing: buying distressed properties, renovating them, and
then renting them out to ensure a long-term profit stream as a landlord.
He told Canada's National Post:
"It's one of those shows where people still have a lot of questions because unlike a lot
of shows that maybe just renovate and then walk away, we're really helping people start
a bit of a business."
For McGillivray, that business began when he was still in college after he and a friend
pooled their student loan money and bought a house.
They renovated the place themselves and then rented rooms to other students to cover their
mortgage payments.
One of the biggest things McGillivray has learned after all those years as a landlord
is that an income property may not make a quick buck, but it will deliver long-term
dividends for those with the patience to wait it out.
He explained:
"You need to be realistic about how to make money in real estate.
It doesn't happen instantly.
Real estate is about delayed gratification."
Undertaking home renovations isn't something that Scott McGillivray stumbled into.
McGillivray revealed in an interview with Remodeling that his father had always been
good at fixing things around the house and would even bring in some extra cash by doing
contracting gigs on the side.
Growing up in that environment, McGillivray explained, led him to have a natural interest
in building and renovating.
Speaking with The Costco Connection, McGillvray elaborated on how his dad's handiness around
the home sparked his own interest in renovation and real estate.
Looking back, he marveled at how far his childhood aptitude for home renovation had brought him.
He told Remodeling:
"You just don't know where these things will take you.
You've got to try everything and you've got to do your best and sometimes it just hits."
Scott McGillivray has built a successful brand, and part of that brand involves him wearing
a plaid shirt.
Speaking with Canadian Business, McGillivray discussed how plaid came to become part of
his personal brand, saying:
"When I first started doing the show, there were so many people telling me what to do.
And every year it was the opposite of the year before: too many jokes, not enough jokes,
too serious, not serious enough, not enough plaid, too much plaid."
What he and the series' producers ultimately discovered is that the show's viewers value
consistency.
Plaid, it turned out, was a big part of that.
He noted that he started wearing so much plaid simply because he owned a lot of plaid shirts,
but then stylists were brought in.
One of them decided to have him wear a bright yellow shirt.
When that episode was being put together, he said the editors asked who decided to choose
that shirt, presumably because it just wasn't McGillivray's style.
Income Property has been stylist-free ever since, and Scott's wearing all the plaid he
wants.
As he explained it:
"I play myself on TV.
I consciously decided to be totally authentic rather than trying to be someone I'm not."
Among the many factors that keep fans tuning into Income Property is the simple fact that
Scott McGillivray is easy on the eyes.
That did not escape the notice of People magazine, which named the hunky HGTV host its "Sexy
Man of the Week" in the 2014 edition of its annual "Sexiest Man Alive" issue.
McGillivray told People at the time:
"I can't wait to surprise my wife with the news.
I have to make sure I give her the copy of the magazine before any of her girlfriends
see it."
Other notable men who earned a spot in the "sexiest man" list that year included Chris
Pratt and Blake Shelton, with Chris Hemsworth securing the top spot.
McGillivray believes embracing the honor is simply good business, telling Canadian Business,
quote, "I have fun with it."
While Scott McGillivray is best known for his flagship series Income Property, he's
also helmed other HGTV shows.
There's "Buyers Bootcamp," featuring McGillivray partnering with amateur investors to buy investment
properties together.
With his own money on the line, the hard-earned lessons McGillivray teaches his rookie partners
directly affects his own bottom line.
"And we'll split the profits 50-50."
He has also been seen in HGTV Canada's "Moving the McGillivrays," a ten-part series that
followed McGillivray, wife Sabrina, and their children as they built their dream home.
In addition, in spring 2020, McGillivray launched HGTV Canada's "Scott's Vacation House Rules,"
in which he finds rundown cottages, beach houses, and other types of vacation properties
and gives each of them serious renovations.
McGillivray has also branched out online with Scott's House Call, a digital series shared
on Facebook and YouTube.
Each episode of Scott's House Call finds him meeting with a viewer who's reached out in
search of advice on one particular issue.
Since he and a friend jointly purchased their first income property as university students,
Scott McGillivray has turned a clever money-making opportunity into a multi-pronged empire.
A year after that purchase, he was able to buy his own home, renovating the basement
as an apartment he could live in while renting out the rest of the home.
According to an interview with the National Post, he lived there for eight years, ultimately
moving to a larger home when he got married and Income Property had started to take off.
During that time, he amassed more properties to renovate and rent; by 2013, McGillivray
told the Post, he estimated that he owned approximately 100 properties and had about
500 tenants.
While he admitted that being a landlord isn't always easy, it can definitely be lucrative
— for the right type of person, that is.
He explained:
"In the long term you'll do well if you make the right choices.
I used to say real estate investing is for everyone, but I now know it's not […] It
takes the right type of person and the right type of attitude."
"With this little shack, if we turn it into a rental it could be a consistent paycheck."
Purchasing a home with plans of renovating and renting in the way that Scott McGillivray
does it on Income Property requires a meticulous strategy, and there's not much margin for
error.
He told the Tampa Bay Times:
"It's way too expensive to learn from your own mistakes, you need to learn from others'
mistakes."
"Is anything installed in this house?"
McGillivray outlined the three things anyone following in his footsteps absolutely needs
to do:
"One, understand how the financing works because it can make or break you.
Two, work with a home professional, someone who knows how to renovate or a home inspector
or contractor who can give you the details of a home."
His third piece of advice?
Hire a local agent who's very familiar with the community and knows the lay of the land.
While prospective buyers may balk at the cost, McGillivray contended that hiring a professional
is money well spent.
And if you think it's too expensive, he cautions, just wait until you get the bill for the mistakes
you make trying to do everything yourself.
"$300,000 down the tubes?
Yes."
Considering that McGillivray has been investing in income-generating properties since he was
a university student, he's had to evolve his strategy to adapt to everything from changing
market forces to technological innovations.
The advent of Airbnb and similar online home-rental platforms, he told the Tampa Bay Times, has
made it easier to rent out short-term accommodations and vacation properties, a far cry from when
he used to take out ads in newspapers in order to find tenants.
One thing that hasn't changed over the years is the constant need for student accommodation,
and he told the Times that buying an income property near a university could be a solid
investment.
However, he also cautioned that, while renting to students can be lucrative, it's also, quote,
"a very time-intensive type of investment," presumably because college students aren't
known for keeping tidy homes.
"We're going streaking."
As the owner of numerous income-generating properties in both the United States and his
native Canada — and let's not forget his multiple HGTV series and associated media
projects — Scott McGillivray has been building up his bank account.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, McGillivray boasts a net worth of a cool $4 million.
As McGillivray told Canadian Business, his strategy for generating wealth has always
been keeping his eye on the horizon and not resting on his laurels.
He admitted:
"I like biting off more than I can chew.
Once I get something to the point that it's 'operating with excellence,' as I like to
call it, then I look for opportunities to expand."
It also helps, he explained, to be enthusiastic and engaged about whatever project is being
undertaken while remaining "authentic" to one's core beliefs, and that's definitely
the case for him.
"I am off-the-hook passionate about real estate.
I live and breathe it; I've got 10 renovations on the go at any given time.
Authenticity [paired with] passion really is the winning combo."
Most people have a shameful secret from the past, so what's Income Property host Scott
McGillivray's secret?
Well, it's the fact he was once in a boy band.
McGillivray wrote on his website about being a member of a boy band called Next Element,
which gained some regional popularity in his hometown of Toronto.
In the since-deleted post, he wrote:
"My bandmates and I were dedicated and worked extremely hard rehearsing songs and choreography.
We had a great opportunity to spend some time together in Nashville and perform at various
theatres in the late 1990s and early 2000s."
He joked about Next Element in a 2016 April Fool's Day Twitter post, sharing an old photo
of himself and the rest of the group with the caption:
"Excited to share that Next Element (my old boy band) is coming out [with] a new album
this fall!"
Some of his boy band skills have remained with him, however, as he's demonstrated his
dance moves from time to time.
"Alright, this is my moonwalk.
Not bad, right?"
Airing on HGTV Canada, Income Property spinoff Income Property: On Vacation launched in 2016,
and it placed a focus on how homeowners could improve their cottages and vacation homes
to maximize the amount of money they'd be able to make from them.
According to HGTV Canada, the spinoff follows Scott McGillivray as he takes Income Property's
winning formula to more exotic destinations to walk homeowners through renovations -- while
getting some sun and sand in the process, of course.
One family who participated in the show shared their experience with the Ottawa Citizen in
2016.
Family patriarch Patrick Dennehy described how McGillvray provided a $65,000 update to
his dated cottage, and he was ultimately pleased with the makeover it received.
A big piece of advice that Scott McGillivray has shared with prospective homebuyers is
to speak with the people who live near the house they're looking to purchase.
McGillivray revealed to Elle Decor
"One thing that has saved my bacon many times is talking to the neighbor about the property."
He explained that neighbors are often "transparent" about properties near them.
Because of that, McGillivray will see if any neighbors are outside if he's interested in
a house, so that he can chat with them and get information.
As he shared, getting friendly with neighbors has led him to receive some valuable intel
about houses he was scoping out that hadn't been brought up by the realtor.
"Once, a neighbor said, 'Oh [yeah], those guys should have fully fixed the basement
after the flood last year, but I know that they just dried it out and painted the walls.
That's a $20,000 tidbit of information right there."
Who knew those nosy neighbors could be so useful?
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