ET spoke to the comedian ahead of the second season of the HGTV series.
Retta is helping turn ugly homes into beautiful ones! ET's Lauren Zima spoke to the Parks and Recreation actress on set of her HGTV series, Ugliest House in America, where she's helping one lucky homeowner turn their "ugly" home around with a $150,000 renovation.
"We ask people to send us their ugly homes. So they do videos and they show what makes their homes ugly. And there is somewhat of a committee that decides, 'You know what? That is ugly. And we are going to put it on the show,'' the hilarious host of the show explained. "And then I get to visit all the homes, I get the tours, and then one house is selected as the ugliest. And then, they get a renovation by Allison Victoria."
While it might seem harsh to call someone's home ugly, Retta said she does not feel bad about giving these dwellings that label, after all, it's the homeowners that are submitting photos of their self-proclaimed ugly homes for renovation.
"I do not feel bad, because they send their pictures in! They send it in. They contact us and say, We, indeed, do have ugly homes," she maintained. "Because when they originally asked me to do the show, I was like, 'Well, I don't want to be mean...,' and they were like, 'No, they think their homes are ugly and they're vying for an opportunity to change it!'"
As far as what she's learned about real estate and home buying, Retta said that buyers better be prepared to shell out some serious cash, and some serious work, if they want to turn their "ugly" home into their "dream" home.
"I've learned that if you're going into buying a property knowing that you need to do the work, you should probably have someone tell you how much work is going to go into it," the comedian explained. "Some of these places you have to just tear the whole thing down. There's just too much work to be done to get it aesthetically pleasing, to get it functional. Because a lot of times, you've got to move the piping. Who's got money for that?"
ET also spoke to the show's designer, Allison Victoria, who shared more about just how much that $150,000 renovation budget can get you.
"So total budget's $150,000. But there's a lot of things you have to factor in with that design budget. So, when it comes down to it, I might only be left with about $80,000 to do what I want with the finishes," Victoria explained, noting that she has to pay those working on the house with those funds too.
She continued, "And this is interior and exterior. So you're not just doing the inside of the house."
Re-imagining the inside and outside of the house means tackling paint, landscaping and more, resulting in a total transformation, or as HGTV loves to call it, the ultimate before and after.
"That's the potential I have to look for in the ugliest house when it's submitted is, how big of a before and after am I getting out of this?" Victoria shared. "How much of a difference am I going to make? And it has to be a big one."
See it all go down when the second season of Ugliest House in America premieres July 24 on HGTV.
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