‘Buy It or Build It’ HGTV Hosts Chris and Calvin LaMont’s Friendly Competition Keeps Client Top of Mind [Exclusive]
Buy It or Build It HGTV hosts Chris and Calvin LaMont may be twins who competed their entire life, but the real estate home building team says their client’s needs surpass their desire to win – even though neither twin is a fan of losing.
The LaMont twins host a series where they explore the options of either buying an existing home or building something new depending on their client’s needs and the market.
The ‘Buy It or Build It’ twins share how they work with new clients
“Chris and I work with the clients, we talk with them, we go out to eat with them,” Calvin told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
“We look at Pinterest’s they send us,” he continued. “And we look at their budgets, what areas they want to live in. We look at all the determining factors. And then we kind of put those things together.”
Chris would prefer to buy an existing house and renovate it. Whereas Calvin hunts for land where clients can build something new. They may be competitive, but they ultimately come together to create a property of their client’s dreams.
Winning is important for Chris and Calvin – for their client
The twins then do what they do best. “Chris starts to look for homes that are already, of course, there that we could buy and remodel,” Calvin said. “And I start to look for lots that I could work for what I’m thinking of. But it’s difficult to find lots in certain areas. That’s why you see on the show like episode 1, we found a lot that was good in a great area. But the size of the lot, I had to go up two levels to get the square footage. So I think that’s what got me the loss on the first episode.”
Chris admitted that neither brother wants to take the “L” but the Buy It or Build It HGTV hosts put the client’s needs above bragging rights. “Obviously, we’re brothers and twins and we’ve been super competitive our whole lives,” he said. “But once they decide if they want to buy it or build it, we’re coming together no matter what. And we truly do because [the client] is the one who is gonna be living in it.”
“But we’re excited either way because they are going to build or buy it on every show,” he continued.
Calvin agreed and added, “It’s about the client, and of course, we wanna win. We are competitive, we played sports growing up. ”
The ‘Buy It or Build It’ HGTV team had unique challenges this season
The Buy It or Build It HGTV hosts weren’t only competing with one another on the show. They also had to deal with the continuing pandemic, a rise in home and land prices, plus a sputtering supply chain. “Covid was coming into play, we were just coming out of that Covid protocol,” Chris recalled. “The cost of lumber shot up astronomically. So people’s budgets of what they thought they could have weren’t the same.”
“So we had to have the conversation that like, the $300,000 budget to build a house isn’t the same as it was last year,” he added. “We got through that but then we had to make sure we got it done on time. We’re doing a TV show and you know building houses take a long time. Especially the ones we’re doing. But we got through it, the show is on now. We’re happy, but it definitely was not easy!”
Calvin added, “The supply chain when we were trying to buy a new lot, the prices were going up. Can’t find lots. Also, time crunch because you want to move fast but not when people are moving super fast too, buying things from you and prices are going up. You would think the market would have slowed down because of the price increases, but because the interest rates at that time were so low, it was too good to pass up.”
Watch Calvin and Chris LaMont in action on HGTV’s Buy It or Build It, every Wednesday night at 9/8c.
