The house in its original state, which the couple got for free.
The house in its original state, which the couple got for free.
A Texas couple who had their crumbling home renovated in a dramatic episode of HGTV's Fixer Upper are now trying to sell the tiny one-bedroom house - which they got for free - for a jaw-dropping A$950,000 (NZ$993,000)
Cameron and Jessica Bell's house was abandoned and on the verge of falling down in 2015, when they enlisted the help of Chip and Joanna Gaines - the husband-and-wife duo at the center of the renovation show.
The renovation is one of the most memorable the Gaines have taken on in their four seasons of the show, for just how dramatic of a difference they made on the property.
The house after the couple received a free renovation.
When they first showed the 1920s home to the couple, it was boarded up and abandoned, with refuse piled up in the corners and weeds forcing their way in through the windows.
But the Gaines tore the home apart and rebuilt it again with new walls, paint and fixtures. They modernized the home with an open layout and added much-needed square footage by raising the roof and adding a loft.
The Bells, who are both 31, ran into issues early on, when a developer snatched up the crumbling A$24,000 shotgun house they had their eyes on.
But the developer cut a deal with the couple, allowing them to have the home for free if they moved it off his land.
The couple agreed and the Fixer Upper team got to work on the project on its new 0.15-acre lot, just steps from Baylor University and the Gaines' own Magnolia Market Silos, which have now become a local landmark.
On the episode, which aired in season three, Chip said that the house was one of only two historic shotgun homes left in the city of Waco.
Shotgun houses were prevalent in the south from the end of the Civil War to the 1920s, and were named as such because if the home was shot at from the front - the bullet would go through every room of the house before exiting at the back. The homes were common in poor and densely-populated black communities.
Original shotgun houses were set up in compartments, with a living room in the front, a bedroom in the middle and a kitchen in the back.
Chip, who works on the construction side of the business, took down the first separating wall to turn the majority of the home into an open-plan living area.
The original bedroom in the home. The couple decided to put the kitchen in here.
The bedroom and kitchen were switched so that visitors wouldn't have to walk through the couple's private space to eat.
Since the roof had to be taken out so the house wouldn't hit any powerlines on its journey to its new lot, the Gaines' raised it considerably, adding space for a lofted office, accessed by a ladder that moves up and out of the way using a pulley system.
During the episode, the Bells acted like they were excited to move into the new space.
The new kitchen.
The pair, who were living (and still live) in the Dallas area, claimed they wanted to move back to Waco, where they started dating in high school.
The high school sweethearts married in 2012 and both work at a cardiac drug company in Dallas, he since 2013 and she since 2014.
"It's so surreal that this is our house, that we get to stay here," Mrs Bell said in the final scene, as they hosted their families over for a backyard BBQ at the house.
But Jennifer Roberts, one of the current listing agents, told the Waco Tribune that they've never actually lived there and "view it as an investment property".
Instead, the couple immediately turned the home into a bed and breakfast, charging A$325 a night, according to Airbnb.
All-in-all the couple spent A$139,000 on the home, buying the lot and renovating it. With 1,050 square feet, that's about A$132 a square foot. Now, they're trying to sell it for A$950,000 - an A$811,000 mark up from what they spent on the property.
The old kitchen was converted into the main bedroom.
Roberts, of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty in Dallas, said that the home has been used as a successful bed and breakfast adds value to the property.
She said that the home has had about A$40,000 in bookings and is 90 per cent booked going out.
'That business would be conveyed with the sale of the property,' she said.
Roberts added that she's received about a dozen inquiries about the home.
The new bedroom.
Still, other real estate agents in the area have been left boggled by the asking price.
The Bells' asking price of A$950,000 equates to about A$905 a square foot. Trammell Kelly, a residential specialist with Kelly Realtors, told the Tribune that most properties in Waco come in at A$100 a square foot or below. Sometimes up to A$200 for custom homes.
"I've never, ever seen one with that kind of price tag on it, like it's on a beach in California. But if someone pays that, more power to them. It will be a game-changer for the local market," Kelly said.
Even Chip, who was obviously proud of the work he had done, gave a much lower estimate of what he thought the house would someday be worth.
"You think about this neighborhood and how it's really a new area, one of these days you may look up at this thing and you might have A$20,000 or A$30,000 in equity," he said on the episode.
When Julie Pendergraph, a residential sales specialist with Keller Williams Realty, saw the listing, she said the A$950,000 asking price was "probably a typo".
The interior post renovation.
When informed that it was indeed the correct asking price, she said: "You're kidding. There is no way on God's green earth that they are going to get that kind of money. That's A$905 a square foot. It's a nice house, with one bedroom and one bath, and it's over there by Magnolia Market, but still."
The Bell's home was put up for sale nearly a year after it was revealed that at least six of the Gaines' former projects in Texas were being rented out on Airbnb or other rental sites.
At the time, the couple's spokesman Brock Murphy told USA Today that they don't have a problem with their projects being turned into rentals, but would be 'more strict' when it came to Fixer Upper clients in the future.
"We want to honor our national viewing audience," Murphy said. "We want to do remodels for clients' homes. That's the true intent of our show, and we want to ensure that does not get lost in this new vacation rental trend."
Cameron Bell, who worked for years as a hunting guide, leading expeditions to hunt alligators through the Louisiana swampland and led exotic game trips in Tanzania, founded a company called Korongo which makes outdoor bags. His Facebook says he works at Dabula Safaris. Jessica's Facebook lists that she works in healthcare.
