I never much cared about the "oasis in the dessert," a/k/a Palm Springs, until I started watching Desert Flippers. While I still would never want to live there, at least now I have some knowledge about the place, thanks to Eric & Lindsey. They are classic Midwesterners - I can picture them on a Wisconsin dairy farm, visiting folks back home, fitting in just fine. Everyone there laughs at Eric's terrible puns. That's why he still makes them - he grew up thinking his corny jokes were funny. To tell the truth, every once in a while, they make me laugh, but even when they make me groan, I do it with a smile. Lindsey loves, loves, loves demo, even more so than the men in her family. Even while pregnant, she was willing to get her hands dirty. She's not the delicate Southern or Coastal lady designer we are used to seeing in couple's flip shows - she's more Nicole Curtis than Joanna Gaines, and I like that about her. She also grins & bears her husband for the cameras.
Not being locals had to have been hard for them, breaking into the real estate market in Palm Springs, especially after expanding their family to include 3 sons. I'm sure the HGTV money & exposure helped, because the market wasn't doing well when they first started, from what they said. That's good for getting flip homes at low prices, not so good once you flip those homes and want to sell them. Like the former California couple, the El Moussas, doing tv probably was, at first, a means to help save their business. That's just a guess on my part. They certainly have had to keep costs down, which denotes a more "realistic" budget (i.e., they don't seem to be pumping their tv money into their flip business, but using their actual profits, as a true flip business operates) from other flip shows I've watched. They also give us a more realistic view of how homes are flipped - flipped homes don't normally have "wow" designs, they have, "this home needs to appeal to as many buyers as possible" designs. Most of their budgets - as nearly all flippers make painfully aware - goes into the systems hidden in walls, ceilings, basements, etc. Really, at the end of the day, if you're a home owner, that IS what ends up mattering the most to you, because that's what's most expensive to fix - and least possible to live without. What makes a home function, a working HVAC system, or the kind of tile in the bathroom? They spend the money where it needs to be spent, and produce reasonably-priced homes for the market in which they live. They don't take their homes out of the price range of the average Palm Springs home buyer. I admire that. If they made the pact that I think they made - that the tv money is separate from their business - they are smarter than MANY viewers are giving them credit.
The only real head-scratcher for me, since Season 3, has been, what happened to Lindsey's brother, Michael, a/k/a Uncle Mike? We didn't see him at all in the 3rd season, and no one mentioned his name. He wasn't in the background, among the crew, anywhere on camera or at home. Was there a family problem? Or did he just strike out on his own, no longer content to be babysitter and construction foreman? It's really none of my business, except that he was there for 2 seasons, then all of a sudden he doesn't exist anymore, and no one speaks his name. At least that leaves more work for local crews, and it kind of amuses yet infuriates me to see that much of America is clueless that many residents of California are of Latin American ancestry. Especially considering, parts of that land used to belong to Mexico! Seriously, Mexican-Americans aren't exploited every time they get a job, especially people who work in blue collar trades; that's being racist.
I believe that Lindsey & Eric give us a refreshing view, season after season, of a real husband & wife real estate flipping business. Neither overly frugal nor extravagant, they aren't trying to make enough money to buy up the town or a $4M house, they just want to renovate run-down homes, make a modest profit, and make time for their children. Their interactions are as corny as an Iowa farm - so what? If seeing a loving couple bothers you, you really have a problem, not them. They really love their lives, love what they do for a living, and at the end of the day, that's success. I'd take a man like Eric - bad puns & all - over anyone else I've seen on tv any day. If I was a man, I think I'd probably be impressed by Lindsey's attitude, and she's cute as a button to boot. But the fact of the matter is that they know their real estate, construction, and market - they are technically sound. They aren't trying to impress viewers, they are trying to sell houses. I hope they're in production for Season 4, because I miss them.
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