Scott McGillivray

“And personally, one of the secrets I guess you can say with success on HGTV, for not only myself and a lot of other individuals who have shows, is that we truly do love what we do. We're passionate about real estate. We love design. We love seeing transformations. We love working with our hands.”

“If you're struggling to get on the same page as your partner and you're not able to agree when it comes to renovations, my suggestion would be to consider hiring a designer. The introduction of a third party moderator with expertise can help break the tie and offer a voice of reason.”

“I can confidently say that I have a great relationship with my siblings, though I know not everybody does. I would hope that my children have a very similar relationship with each other.”

“So if the wall's cracked or you've got leaky faucets, or you've got mold issues, or some sort of damage to your home, selling a home that's got that kind of distress to it is the biggest mistake you will make, because immediately people who are fearful will walk away.”

“I love a big steak or seafood dinner, but the next day I'm running outside for miles. While of course listening to music. I have to have the music on.”

“Trial and error does not work in real estate. It's way too expensive to learn from your own mistakes, you need to learn from others' mistakes.”

“The biggest mistake that I see homeowners make all too often is not doing a proper inspection of the home and falling into a project that is a lot bigger than they probably anticipated or budgeted for.”

“I think a lot of people try to time the market when it comes to buying or selling a property or investing in real estate, but the real secret to real estate is not timing the market, but time in the market.”

“On average, you will pay less for a home on a Monday than you will on a Saturday and a Sunday.”

“Buying a home is a very emotional process. It's important to remain rational and stick with your price limit while buying.”

“A lot of times people get caught up in bidding wars, and will go way over what their price needs to be because they love the house so much.”

“Buying a house that needs work can be one of the best ways to stretch your budget. Why pay for someone else's upgrade?”

“One of the biggest challenges is that once somebody realizes that they're ready to buy a home, then they realize that they haven't prepared properly, and it takes a while.”

“I think the speed limit should be increased by 20 km/h on every single road - that would save me so much money.”

“The kitchen is the most valuable room in the home, so a smart kitchen reno will bring great return on investment.”

“I'm in a BMW rut. My last three cars have been BMW 3-Series.”

“I never thought I'd be doing TV shows about real estate.”

“Technology has really created new markets. For instance, Airbnb has created a high demand for executive short-term and vacation properties. Even 10 years ago, it was hard to find tenants without newspaper ads.”

“I try to work on houses not cars. If I was as good at working on cars as I was on houses maybe I would. But I'm not.”

“You have to care about the transactional cost. You have to care about the future value. You have to care about maintaining value in your home through repair and maintenance.”