Bored Panda spoke with Philippa Main, the professional realtor from Tampa Bay who went viral for her brilliant and insanely funny listing description about “the worst house on the street” eight months ago. Philippa was happy to share some insights into home improvement and renovation projects, as well as shared some very useful advice with our readers.

“During the pandemic, people started a lot of smaller home improvement projects they could tackle themselves that may or may not have gone according to plan. Either way, now people are turning to hiring professionals whenever they can, because post-pandemic they either realized they don’t have the time—or the skills—to do the job right themselves,” Philippa said.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who waited to have work done on their homes (either for budget reasons or for fear of having people into their homes during the pandemic) are now finding that the cost of their projects has gone up 20% - 50% and that quoted estimates are only valid for a few days before price increases take effect.”

Philippa added that this is down to reduced supplies, reduced skilled laborers to perform the work (which was happening before the pandemic), and increased demand.

The professional realtor urges anyone who's thinking of renovating to “not cut corners just because they think it will be ok or because it’s fine for them. They should look at it as if they were selling their home and a picky buyer was coming through to look at it,” she said and added: “Because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a client love a home, but ultimately not submit an offer on it because so many DIY projects were done so poorly that it made them question whether there would be actual major issues with the home.”

Philippa explained her thought process, which is like “if the seller cut corners on this, what else did they cut corners on?” She also shared one such case: “I recently showed a home where originally the refrigerator door couldn’t open all the way without the handle hitting the wall. Instead of buying a new refrigerator with a different style door (an easy, affordable fix), the homeowner cut open the wall into the adjoining bedroom.”

She continued: “He then built a floor-to-ceiling semi-circle-shaped alcove for the door to recess into that took away essentially a third of the usable space in the bedroom just so he could open his refrigerator.” It turns out, "it looked ridiculous, took away from the functionality of the house, and left me and my client extremely confused. So even though the rest of the home had a lot to offer, she passed on it.”