A&E
Over the past few weeks, a new home renovation show has debuted, spotlighting Grandview Heights resident and professional house-flipper Tommy Harr and his family as they transform houses in central Ohio from decrepit and neglected spaces into refurbished, lively homes.
Following its premiere on May 30, Zombie House Flipping: Family Business showcases the Harrs as they tackle different home transformations, including one right here in Grandview.
Tommy Harr, A&E
From life to TV
Growing up in Pickerington, Tommy recalls watching his father, Chris, work in home inspection and property preservation, a time in which he learned to love and appreciate the work.
Over time, he and his younger brothers, Jake and Will, worked with Chris at various points, leading them to pursue careers in the home industry as well. For Tommy, house flipping became his passion after discovering the career opportunities and the impact of the work.
“I was following some of the guys that we're doing inspections for on Instagram, so I was like, ‘That sounds kind of cool,’ and there's that good feeling, taking a nasty house and turning it beautiful as well. So, it's a mix of you can make a great living and also help areas and neighborhoods,” Tommy says.
Following his graduation from the University of Dayton in 2017, Tommy connected with an investor and founded Legacy Homes, a home-buying and flipping business, in 2018.
As his brothers graduated from college, they focused on other aspects of the business – Jake in inspection and Will in inspection and later project management and realty – while flipping on the side. Their mother, Katie, became a realtor and home designer following her retirement from education, and home renovations became a family business as they all began working closely together.
Over the next few years, Legacy Homes became a prominent house-flipping business and Tommy continued to grow his presence and partnerships, building a social media presence and connections beyond central Ohio. In 2023, he attended business networking group events in Tampa, Florida, where he connected with a previous A&E executive who suggested the Harr family’s work could be a TV show.
In the summer of 2024, A&E flew a production crew to Columbus for two days to create a five-minute reel of the Harrs in action to pitch the series.
“At that point, you either get told no, which most people get told no; or you get a pilot, which is what most people, if you do get greenlit, get; and then they said one out of a million get 10 episodes,” Tommy says.
After almost a year of no word, the 10-episode series was greenlit in May 2025, and production started a few weeks later.
Tommy Harr, A&E
A&E in Grandview
With only weeks to prepare before production, some of the 10 homes across their locations – Pickerington, Grandview, Blacklick Estates, Plain City, Merion Village, North Linden, Clintonville and Galloway – needed to be pitched to the showrunners and purchased quickly.
A&E
The home on Wyandotte Road, however, was one of a few already ready to be approved.
A three-bedroom, one-bath home built around 1910 and purchased off the market for $330,000, Tommy shares that the home had older features and deeper issues to fix, but without many of the other immediate problems present in the other houses.
A&E
“Most of them are insanely disgusting. The only insanely not disgusting one was this one here in Grandview. It was just like grandma’s house, old and had some issues, but the rest of them were flea-ridden and filled top to bottom, roof falling in, no roof, you name it,” Tommy says.
A mostly original home, the structure had updated windows and an etching found in the bathroom, featuring signatures of previous homeowners and a note about a partial renovation in 1956.
A&E
The house still proved to be a difficult project as it required more than cosmetic work, needing what Tommy refers to as a “full gut rehab”: replacing 100-year-old electric and plumbing; addressing mold and water intrusion in the basement; even ripping off an enclosed, 6-foot-by-4 foot space built as a fourth bedroom on the back porch that was falling off of the house to replace it with a new two-story addition.
A&E
With renovations costing $220,000, additional work included foundation work, building a two-car garage, adding backyard fencing, moving the one bathroom to add a primary ensuite and a half bath, and removing a wall between the kitchen and dining room to open up the space. Many elements of character remained post-renovation, such as the hardware and trim as well as an old hutch left by the previous owner that was integrated into the dining area.
“Our goal was to keep a lot of the character of that age of home, but then just modernize it tastefully enough to work for today’s discerning buyer,” says Katie.
After more than 80 showings over nine months on the market, the home sold for approximately $625,000 – the highest price-per-square-foot sale ever in Grandview at roughly $500 per square foot.
Watch episode 4, “There’s Always a Catch,” which aired on June 20, to see the behind-the-scenes of the project and final reveal.
Jane Dimel is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Photos courtesy of A&E, Tommy Harr, Legacy Homes and Robert Etters
