While some families were helped by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, others were buried in increased taxes, higher utility bills and maintenance expenses that were too high to handle.

“Move that bus!”

To the uninitiated, those words might have little meaning; but to longtime fans of reality TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” that phrase holds a magical significance.

When those three words rang out on camera, they signaled the reveal of a surprise home renovation for one of the “lucky” families who had been chosen to appear on the show and were then gifted with what appeared to be dream-property overhauls worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because, according to several of the home’s former stars, it was—so much so that they curse the day they heard those now ill-fated words.

More than 10 years after the original series wrapped, several of its former participants are now speaking out to reveal the horrors they faced when the cameras stopped rolling, from bitter financial hardships to theft and crime.

The extremely dissatisfied homeowners said the renovations led to higher mortgages, taxes, and utility bills that they simply could not keep up with. Some owners even suffered foreclosure, after being left unable to pay the enormous bills that started accruing after the renovation was done.

These situations have been brought to light in an episode of Vice TV’s new series “Dark Side of Reality TV,” called “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” The original show, hosted by longtime home renovation expert Ty Pennington, ran on ABC for 10 seasons, from 2003–2012.

It was briefly revived in 2020 for a season on HGTV, and there are some reports that ABC may reboot it yet again in the 2024-2025 TV season.

The Vice TV series focuses on two families in particular, featuring interviews with the children affected, who are now adults.

The dark side of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition emerges

The Okvath family from Arizona had a particularly harrowing experience. Kassandra was only 7 when her family was picked to appear on the show, revealing in front of the cameras how their lives had been turned upside down when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Her treatment had proven so astronomically expensive that Kassandra and her family—including multiple brothers and sisters—had been forced to move into a tiny rental house.

The family originally requested for the show’s team of talented construction workers to renovate the children’s cancer ward in Tucson, AZ, where she was being treated.

The EMHE crew decided to do that—and go a step further: Unbeknownst to the Orvaths, the crew purchased the humble rental Kassandra and her family had been living in, demolished it, and built a mansion in its place. They expanded it to six bedrooms and added a huge, state-of-the-art movie theater.

Needless to say, the family was overwhelmed when the bus moved, and they saw what had replaced their previous small rental. They had never even been inside a house so grand. The EMHE team handed the deed to the Orvaths outright—no more rental or house payments.

But their excitement was short-lived.

“It was an expensive house” said Nicole Okvath, Kassandra’s mother. “Our first electric bill was like $2,200, which was way more than our rent ever was, and I about died. I was doing everything on my end to get out from underneath these horrendous bills.”

The family ended up having to shut down half the house to keep up with the ever-increasing utility bills. And then there were the exorbitant property taxes they now had to pay. The Okvaths eventually borrowed $400,000 just to keep the family in the home.

Another unforeseen problem arose after their brand-new home—and all of the high-tech accessories it had been outfitted with, from computers to a home theater—was broadcast on national television: thieves.

The family soon found themselves being targeted by robbers and were forced to add extra security to the property at great expense.

Eventually, the pressure and expense of the home they’d never asked for became too much—they came within hours of foreclosure, before they worked out a plan to sell the home.

Unfortunately, that was in 2009, at the height of the recession and housing crisis. There were few buyers in the market for multimillion-dollar homes, especially in their neighborhood, where the other homes were far more humble.

The Okvaths ended up selling the house for $540,000. After paying off the many loans and debts they’d accrued, they walked away with about $8,000 in hand to start anew.

Kassandra looks on the sunny side, however. Now cancer-free, she is married, has two young daughters, and says she feels blessed.

‘Degrading and demoralizing’

The Higgins family had already experienced unspeakable tragedy when they made their appearance on “Extreme Makeover.” The five siblings, who were aged between 14 and 21 at the time, were suddenly orphaned when their parents both died within a few months of each other.

They were taken in by the Leomitis family, who lived in Santa Fe Springs, CA, and immediately applied for an extreme home makeover in order to create more room for their increased brood.

Producers loved the idea of helping two large families living under one small roof and proceeded to build them a nine-bedroom house filled with laptops and televisions, as well as brand-new cars for all the kids of driving age.

Siblings Jeremiah Higgins and sister Shari, who were 14 and 16 at the time, talk about what came next.

“The night after they finished filming, me and my brothers and the Leomitis had a meeting, and we were told we had to turn our cars in, so the dad could get a new truck,” she claimed.

It got worse from there.

“I constantly didn’t feel wanted,” relates Jeremiah. “There was always something about my family. It was so degrading and demoralizing, and it makes you not want to be there.”

It got so bad the Higgins siblings say they ended up fleeing with just the clothes on their backs. Jeremiah and Shari allege that they were not allowed to take anything with them nor return to retrieve their things, including the photos of their parents.

However, the Leomitis family claims that the Higgins children had misbehaved and refused to follow the normal family rules that had been set.

The Higginses ended up bringing lawsuits against the network and the Leomitis family, seeking damages on allegations that included fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of contract.

Things got very ugly from there. The suit against the network was dismissed; however, Jeremiah says he and his siblings were awarded $50,000 from the Leomitis family, which was split among the five of them.

Of course, the Okvaths and the Higginses are not alone in their complaints. It’s reported that, as of 2020, nine of the original show’s recipient families have given up their homes due to financial issues, which included two foreclosures.

In 2018, longtime host Pennington explained some of the losses to The Wrap.

“There’s a couple of stories that families lost their homes,” he said, adding that the show’s producers believed they’d done everything necessary to help the families maintain their newly renovated properties.

“We left them with a financial adviser,” he went on. “However, if the family chooses to triple-mortgage their house to start a business that they’ve never done before, just to see if they can get into it, that’s their own demise.

“That’s how you lose your home, is you’re like, ‘Oh, let’s use it as a lottery ticket and see what we can get out of it.’ And then you lose it because you can’t make the payment.”

It seems there are two sides to every story.

While some families were helped by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, others were buried by increased taxes, higher utility bills and maintenance expenses that were too high to handle.

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