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‘Fixer-Upper Gone Bad’: Chip and Jo-Designed Home Gets Hit by … What?!

Having a house remodeled by “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines has huge cachet on the market. But that’s not to say it comes without some real risks.

For the owners of one of their signature Waco, TX, remodels, that danger didn’t come in the form of faulty work or inflated prices. No, it came in the form of a very fast-moving, out-of-control car that recently plowed straight into and through the well-appointed walls of their home. Yikes!

Ken and Kelly Downs are owners of the “Three Little Pigs” house featured in Season 3—so named because the nearly 100-year-old Craftsman originally seemed so run-down that a strong wind could blow it over. But it wasn’t winds or a big, bad wolf involved in the mayhem that woke them out of a deep sleep early in the morning on July 8, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

It happened when 31-year-old Allen Wayne Miller came hurtling down North 19th Street to a T-intersection with Alexander Avenue, and failed to stop. As a result, his car smashed into the Downses’ one-story home at 1902 Alexander Avenue, breaking through an exterior and interior wall in their home office.

The Downses—whose bedroom lies farther back—weren’t hurt. Miller was charged with driving while intoxicated.

‘We feel deceived’

The accident leaves the Downses with not only a pile of shiplap-laden rubble to clean up, but also fresh doubts about their neighborhood—and the impact that the Gaines’ remarkable popularity has had on it.

“This is a fixer-upper gone bad,” Kelly told the Tribune-Herald. “It’s like the Wild West here. There’s been a lot of commotion coming from the bars and the store across the street. … It’s been a problem from the beginning. We’ve lived here a year and a half, and we feel deceived by the city of Waco and [the Gaines-owned] Magnolia Realty.”

Yet blaming the Gaines for a drunken driving accident seems crazy to many “Fixer Upper” fans.

“What a bunch of bull,” commented  Kristi Gaylor Linauer, a blogger at Addicted 2 Decorating. “Were these home buyers completely at the mercy of Magnolia Realty for any and all information regarding this house, the neighborhood, the city, etc.? Responsible home buyers take time to do their own research regarding the neighborhoods in which they’re considering buying a house.”

How’s the neighborhood? That’s on you to find out

The Downses learned a hard lesson that applies to all home buyers, regardless of whether they appear on a hit reality TV show: No matter how bowled over you are by a home, look beyond those walls and do your homework on the neighborhood, too. In fact, even if the Downses had grilled their real estate agent for the dirty details of the surrounding area, real estate agents can’t dish much on that front.

“Realtors^® can’t give buyers information on the type of neighborhood a property is located in, since to do so is referred to as ‘steering,’ which is a violation of the Fair Housing Act,” points out Texas Realtor Wendy Flynn.

All of this means it’s really up to home buyers to do their own research.

“One strong suggestion I make to my clients is to drive through the neighborhood at all times of the day and on the weekend,” says Denise Supplee, a Realtor in Philadelphia and operations director for SparkRental.com. “Look for things such as noise, traffic, and parking. Frankly, this homeowner purchased a home within close proximity of a bar. I’m not sure why they thought there would not be some issues.”

Could your home get hit? How to tell

Believe it or not, car/home collisions aren’t the one-in-a-million flukes you might think. According to Risk Management magazine, automobiles hit stores, restaurants, and other commercial buildings in the United States as much as 60 times per day. However, Supplee notes, “the risk to residential homes are minimal compared to commercial. And certainly the risk for theft, fire, and weather damage are higher than that of someone driving through your living room.”

Nonetheless, home buyers should certainly take nearby traffic into account when choosing a home, particularly if a residence sits near curved roads (one such house in Raleigh, NC, has been hit by cars six times in 12 years) or busy intersections—especially at the end of T-shaped crossroads like the Downses’ abode.

And even if a home is a sitting target for cars, there are things homeowners can do to stay safe.

“Clients of mine had a friend whose young daughter was seriously injured when a car ran into their home,” recalls Flynn. “This event had a significant impact on my clients. They lived on a bend in the road, and it is conceivable that a car could lose control and crash into their home. To ensure that this would not happen, they purchased large natural boulders and had them placed in front of the parts of the home that would be prone to a car running into it. The boulders looked natural and provided the clients with confidence that their home—and more importantly, their family—would be protected.”

Not into the boulder look? Lisa Simonsen, a New York City broker with Douglas Elliman, suggests installing “several metal posts in the front yard, but be sure to hide them behind strategically planted shrubs. When the shrubs grow, the posts will no longer be visible.”

So perhaps the Downses should try to stop feeling so down on their home, and the reality TV show that got them there. They have plenty of options—including selling for an outrageously jacked-up price (just check out this tiny “Fixer Upper” shotgun house asking for close to a million).

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