HGTV might need a regional Detroit office after this summer.
Already underway on the cable network is a new season of “Bargain Block,” the home restoration series that finds Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas turning ailing and abandoned homes on Detroit’s west side into design showcases.
On July 13, “Rehab Addict Lake House Rescue” premieres, the latest “Rehab Addict” spin-off from Nicole Curtis, who’s renovating a 1904 waterfront cottage in Lake Orion that will become her family retreat.
And on Saturday night, Cristy Lee, the TV personality best known for her automotive-themed shows, will debut her HGTV series “Steal This House,” which features her guiding prospective buyers through the process of choosing a more affordable home — the “steal” of the title — and fixing it up into a place that matches their ideal abode.
According to Lee, the goal of the show, which was shot in the Motor City region, is to help potential home buyers who’ve been searching without luck for exactly the right house: “They’ve been looking and looking and looking, and they just can’t find that perfect home.”
With Lee’s assistance, buyers stop trying to check every box on their wish list and instead embrace a house that could become amazing with some major improvements — and viewers get to watch as the makeover happens.
According to Lee, choosing a “steal” is a strategy that she thinks is more important than ever in the current real estate market of soaring prices and limited availability.
“Everything is just constantly changing. It’s extremely aggressive. It’s almost even slightly volatile. Finding the right home is even more challenging than it ever has been,” she says.
For Lee, “Steal This House” is the latest chapter of an entertainment career she has been building for more than 15 years.
Born and raised in the Daytona Beach area of Florida, Lee grew up surrounded by cars and motorcycles and absorbed the mechanics of them at her father’s garage while also studying dancing. When she was about 20, she decided to move to Michigan — specifically, metro Detroit — to pursue real estate investing.
“It’s a time in your life when you can make big changes like that,” says Lee. “So basically I broke the lease on my apartment, I sold my motorcycle, I packed up my Volkswagen Jetta and drove all the way to Michigan.”
Lee learned about the various aspects of real estate while buying and selling properties and having rental homes. But she also was busy with modeling and dancing. During the mid-2000s, she earned a spot on the Detroit Pistons dance team (then named Automotion) and was later part of the Spark dance team for the former Detroit Ignition indoor soccer team.
From there, she found on-air work as a traffic reporter and DJ at WRIF-FM and as an in-arena hostess for the Detroit Red Wings, two jobs that fueled her interest in broadcasting. “That’s when I was like: ‘Hey, you know what? I kind of want to do this TV, on-camera thing,'” she says.
Lee has since become famous for her stints on “All Girls Garage” and “Garage Squad” for the MotorTrend network, where she was able to show off her skills at auto restoration and customization. As a host and pit reporter for motor sports, she has appeared on Fox, ESPN, ABC and several other networks to cover events like the XGames and Monster Jam.
More:Ann Arbor couple take ‘Great Muslim American Road Trip’ for PBS docuseries
More:Documentary about Detroit martial arts academy wins top film festival prize
Last year, Lee and British TV host Ant Anstead teamed up for “Celebrity IOU Joyride” on the Discovery+ streaming site. A spin-off of HGTV’s “Celebrity IOU” starring Drew and Jonathan Scott, aka the Property Brothers, the series gave celebrities a chance to conceive and create — with Lee and Anstead’s aid — dream cars for deserving people in their lives.
Among the stars who participated were Renee Zellweger, Danny Trejo, Octavia Spencer and James Marsden.
With “Steal This House,” Lee says she has been able to “kind of come full circle” and tap into her early experiences with real estate.
Says the former pro sports cheerleader with a laugh: “I’m not sure I’m going to do a television show on dancing anytime soon, but stay tuned.”
Lee says the season’s six episodes will feature a variety of buyers, home styles and budgets. The home seekers, she stresses, are the ones in charge of the decision-making, while her job is to share her advice and knowledge.
“It’s not about convincing them. It’s about helping guide them. … I think that can be a really scary thing, considering a renovation, for potential home buyers.”
Besides helping buyers through the transformation process, Lee also will take a hands-on role by doing metalwork projects for the homes such as fireplace surrounds and range hoods.
The houses spotlighted in the episodes are located across southeast Michigan from Canton and Royal Oak to Grand Blanc, with one road-trip detour to northern Michigan to renovate a home in Leland near Traverse City.
“I think maybe there was just a little bit of regret for us working through the water on that one,” she says. “They get a lot of snow up there!”
Lee says filming started in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the show’s premiere until this year. She sounds excited that viewers will finally get to see the series and its twist on the familiar house-flipping format of doing renovations for profit.
Says Lee: “It’s not my money. I’m not investing in the house. I’m investing in the home buyers. I’m using my experience, my skill set, my time in the industry to help them.”
Lee, who lives in Oakland County, says she has stayed in Michigan and made it her adopted home state because of the pride she feels in it and what it has meant to her.
“I feel like my roots have been so deep in this state for so many reasons, professionally and personally.
“My adulthood, my professional career … it’s all happened here. I have Michigan to Detroit to thank for a lot of amazing things in my life.”
Starting this weekend, you can add starring in “Steal This House” to that list.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected]
‘Steal This House’
Series debut
9 p.m. Saturday
HGTV
