• Lindsey Bennett is a star on the HGTV show “Desert Flippers”
• She grew up in a family with a background in real estate and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study business
• She met her husband Eric Bennett in a Verona Draft House while applying for a job
• They have three sons and have flipped more than 100 houses
• They have a net worth of close to $2 million and receive $20,000 per episode of “Desert Flippers” plus $25,000 per flipped house
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If you’re even marginally interested in the real estate market, then you have probably seen at least a couple of episodes of “Desert Flippers” on HGTV. And if you’ve seen “Desert Flippers” then you’ve probably been charmed by the show’s leading lady, the fascinating Lindsey Bennett. Lindsey does not only star on a hit TV show, but she also runs a real estate company with her husband, all while raising their children.
On “Desert Flippers” Lindsey and her husband do what they do best – buy, fix and flip houses, but unsurprisingly, Lindsey’s fame didn’t come overnight. Today, we are going to see how Lindsey Bennett managed to build her career from the ground up, and become a star in the process.
Lindsey’s Early Life and Education
Lindsey was born Lindsey Rene Schneider, on 25 May 1979, to mother Constance, father Leroy, and her brother Mike. Although nowadays, Lindsey is mostly known for hanging around deserts, but her past was actually far from dry. She spent her childhood between her grandparents’ Lodi home and her parents’ lakeside home in Wisconsin. Lindsey’s family is also in the real estate business.
Her grandfather was a house builder as well as her father, and even her brother. The family was famous before reality TV was a thing, as her brother and father are well-known builders in the area she grew-up in, and have numerous houses to their name in that locality. She attended Madison Area Technical College (MATC) for a couple of years, before going to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study business.
If you have seen her interior design work on the show, you would be surprised to know that she actually doesn’t have any formal training or schooling in interior design.
As she told in a recent “Desert Sun” interview, she is ‘very self-taught’ in what she does. Even though real estate is basically a family business, after college she worked in many other fields, as a cheerleader, waitress, and even as a flight attendent. While all of those are respectable jobs, they don’t really have anything to do with the real estate industry; nonetheless, Lindsey credits those work experiences for helping her in her home flipping career. She says they all gave her the ability to stand in front of people, look and sound positive while presenting a house for sale.
Who is Eric Bennett?
Everything changed for Lindsay when she met Eric Bennett. The two immediately liked each other, although they come from different backgrounds. Eric’s first job was delivering newspapers while in high school, where his father was the math teacher. His mother, on the other hand, was a realtor even while he was growing up. After finishing college, Eric had ambitions of becoming a radio DJ, but after that dream failed to realize, he wanted to become an athletic director. That dream fizzled out too, and he started a career in financing mortgages, meantime dreaming of flipping houses, but that only began after he met Lindsey.
The two met in a Verona Draft House when Lindsey was applying for a job and doing an interview.
Eric just happened to be at the restaurant at the same time, and stopped to say hello to the person who was interviewing Lindsey at that moment. The interviewer introduced them to each other and they hit it off right away. Lindsey didn’t land the job, but the pair started talking, the main topic of conversation being remodeling and flipping homes. A few weeks later, they were officially a couple, and six months later, the pair packed cars and moved down to Palm Springs, where Lindsey’s cousins owned and operated their own real estate company.
Lindsey’s and Eric’s Marriage
Initially, the couple only planned on spending around two years in California. However, the market in Palm Springs presented a challenge for the two of them.
Design matters a whole lot more in California than in Wisconsin, and self-taught designer Lindsey found herself feeling at home; slowly the two built their own business in California. In the meantime, Eric proposed to Lindsey and they married in Lake Monona, with the reception on a boat named “Betty Lou.” The couple now has three sons, Graham, Dean, and Roman, who are regularly featured on their show.
The knowledge to fix and flip more than 100 houses the pair have done comes at least in part from Lindsay’s mother-in-law – Eric’s mother Charlene Kinzler was realtor in Wisconsin for more than 35 years, and played a big role in their career. With Lindsey’s and Eric’s individual talents combined with Charlene’s wisdom, the couple has been able to carve out a successful career in the highly competitive real estate niche.
The Couple’s Start in Reality-TV
“Desert Flippers” was initially the brainchild of members of the “Glass Entertainment Group”, who only contacted the couple once they had the concept figured out. They actually had steady jobs – Lindsey worked different jobs while Eric did mortgages – and both worked on flipping homes on the side.
At the producers’ suggestion, the show was named “Dessert Flippers”, and HGTV aired the full pilot episode, which many viewers found interesting, especially as the two people flipping houses on their screen are an actual couple. With good ratings for the pilot, HGTV ordered a full season, and as they say, the rest is history.
Desert Flippers’ Popularity
Lindsey loves being in the public eye and interacting with the fans. Not only does she stop to take a picture with every single fan she meets, but she also loves to discuss their own company renovation projects with her fans. As she puts: ‘It’s all we do… That and our family…”
The fans are not the only ones who love to watch the show – Lindsey does too. As she said in a Palm Springs Life interview: “It’s like going through an album.” After all, not many people have a chance to watch their family grow up on their TV.
Eric’s and Lindsey’s Personal Life
Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot happening in the Bennett household on a daily basis. When Eric and Lindsey aren’t recording the show, they are working on their private business. And that’s not all – the family has been on the move for almost a decade at this point, moving to another home every six months on average. Far from feeling like they don’t have a real home, Lindsey says she sees this as an opportunity to have an adventure every few months. The frequent moves have allowed the family to experience different parts of the state, and to become familiar with various home designs.
In this chaos, staying focused and grounded can be a hard job; Lindsey told “People Magazine” that her faith helps keep her centered and focused at all times, and to get through the nervousness when the show first started filming.
Commercial Work
Even if you never watched a minute of the show, you may find Eric and Lindsey Bennett a little bit familiar. Well, this is because even before they became TV regulars they appeared in a popular Hydroxycut commercial as a success story. The commercial showed how the product helped the couple shed a good number of pounds and stay good-looking. Their “before video” showed Lindsey’s already sleek body, but the “after video” showed how she looked 32 pounds trimmer.
Lindsey Bennett working on a custom terrazzo table – looking cool in the desert heat! ? #desertflippers #hgtv pic.twitter.com/VN8sreQH3n
— Desert Flippers (@DesertFlippers) May 1, 2019
According to the videos, Eric managed to lose even more weight, a staggering 44 pounds in only four months – the commercial was so popular, the company contacted the Bennetts to appear in additional commercials and ads prior to “Desert Flippers.” This may have been Lindsey’s only TV experience before the show got the greenlit, but that isn’t the case Eric, as he had made appearances in “Wheel of Fortune” and “Wipeout” prior to landing the Hydroxycut commercial.
Lindsey Bennett’s Net Worth
According to NetWorthPost, as of late 2019, Lindsay and her husband are worth close to $2 million, attributed not only to their reality TV stardom but also to their real estate expertise.
The show helped the Bennett couple by exposing their business to a larger demographic, and they now have a huge number of clients in their region. With the show’s ratings rising steadily, their client base is only going to grow in the next couple of years.
The Bennetts receive $20,000 each per episode of ‘Desert Flippers.’ Furthermore, they earn a minimum of $25,000 per house they flip. Since they are professionally active even during the taping of the show, they have two income revenues. In addition, they own a property in Whitefish Bay as well as four others in Dane County. With lucrative ads and additional exposure from the show, their worth will probably increase significantly in the future.
