Radio Show News

Home Work Smarts

New data from a talk radio show indicates that homeowners are getting smarter about home improvements, as related sales keep climbing

NEW YORK, NY (Money Pit News Bureau) 4-5-06 – When Tom Kraeutler started “The Money Pit,” a nationally syndicated home improvement radio show, 10 years ago, there were few websites about home improvement, even fewer related shows on TV and a whole lot of confused homeowners calling in.

 “Listeners didn’t have the knowledge or resources to feel confident about their choices of products, projects or décor,” said Kraeutler. 

That’s all changed in the last decade, according to show producers who began categorizing and analyzing questions from the show’s audience three years ago: 

• Questions about basic techniques and about which type of product or tool will achieve the desired results have posted a decline.
• Questions about whether a specific product, technology or project will achieve the desired results have increased. 

“We still get confused homeowners calling in, but the questions are much more sophisticated than when I started 10 years ago,” Kraeutler said.  “Homeowners are a lot less intimidated and feel more comfortable spending on home improvements.”   

He may be right.  Remodeling spending is at an all time high, even as the home buying market is cooling..

Kraeutler attributes the increased home work smarts to three factors:

1. The Internet: easily searched information and interactive tools like project calculators.
2. The popularity of home improvement cable TV shows, a phenomenon that includes Kraeutler’s co-host Leslie Segrete, the long-time on-air talent for TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “Trading Spaces.”
3. Home improvement retailers and manufacturers innovating to make the process less intimidating to homeowners, with products that are easier to install and maintain.

 “The trend in questions from our audience indicates that homeowners will keep spending on ways they feel are safe, secure and less stressed,” Kraeutler said. 

Home Improvement: Housing’s Un-Bubble
The Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) expects home improvement product sales to break the $300 billion mark in 2006. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is forecasting that 2005 remodeling expenditures will break the $200 billion mark when the final Census Bureau numbers are released later this spring.  HIRI expects home improvement product sales to grow at a steady rate of 4.5 percent per year through 2010. 

Some of that spending on products and professional remodels is related to the epic hurricanes of the last two years.  Yet even that impact is not just rebuilding and repair.  One of 2005’s most popular topics on The Money Pit was about mold prevention and cleaning, from across the entire country—even the dry West—following the coverage of moisture damage. 

Natural disasters aside, a lot of little disasters can also trigger spending on remodeling.   “Our top project category in 2005 was flooring, with questions ranging from the repair of squeaks to the installation of engineered hardwoods.”  Kraeutler said.    Kraeutler and Segrete are also getting more questions about energy-saving products and strategies concentrated in the project categories of walls, ceilings, doors, windows, roofing, and HVAC systems. 

Kitchen and bath questions—the top project category in 2004, dropped to second place for 2005—are almost always about how to create a more modern kitchen or more functional bathroom. “For some, that’s slate countertops and wood floors as part of a $30,000 kitchen remodel.  For others, it’s a toilet that flushes well for $200,” says Kraeutler.

Women Less Inclined to Ask for Directions…Until Perhaps Too Late
The Money Pit is the nation’s only male/female hosted home improvement radio show.  Almost half of the audience is women, a fan base bolstered by Segrete’s popularity on cable TV.  Yet women log only about one third of all the questions that come in, and are more inclined to email the show, rather than call. 
According to a study released just last month from strategy and marketing company Cerebellas LLC, 97 percent of women surveyed said that a single person capable of answering all their questions was one of the most important services a home improvement retailer could provide.

“That’s actually why both genders call us, they need someone to help them sort through advertising claims, and they see Leslie and I as unbiased, expert, resources,” Kraeutler said.

On a lighter note, The Money Pit data also showed that while men are one-and-a-half times more likely to pick up the phone to ask for help, women are four times more likely to ask how to “fix a project gone wrong.”  “Not that we can prove cause and effect there, but it really doesn’t look good for the guys,” Kraeutler said.

From Online to On the iPod®: Almost 30,0000 Downloads in One Month
Money Pit data demonstrates that emerging technology goes even further to help homeowners tackle home work.   During March 2006, The Money Pit registered 29,669 downloads of the weekly podcast.   At NAHB’s annual International Builder’s Show, Kraeutler and Segrete also hosted private podcasts about the show for a sponsor who only promoted it to the sponsor’s database of contractors.  Those podcasts alone registered more than 3,600 downloads. 

“This is not exactly an industry known for being early adopters,” Kraeutler said, noting that the demographics of home enthusiasts and contractors is almost 20 years older than the typical podcast enthusiast. 

The bottom line, says Kraeutler, is that homeowners are hungrier than ever for good quality information that helps them make more satisfying investments in their homes: whether for resale, repair, or to improve the quality of their lives. 

“Far from feeling like their homes are out-of-control “money pits,” consumers today are far more empowered, inspired and engaged to create a home that is exactly what they want it to be.”

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