Although Evansville natives John and Whitney Spinks didn’t win HGTV’s “Flipping the Block,” which aired last summer, their victories since have been abundant.
The childhood sweethearts who have been in a relationship for the last 13 years (married for the last five) were featured in the August/September 2014 issue of Evansville Business after they were chosen for the eight-week series. Along with four other duos, the Spinkses moved into identical units in a dilapidated condo and executed room-by-room renovations. Filming completed for the show last spring and the finale aired Sept. 7.
Immediately after filming, the couple, both graduates of F.J. Reitz High School, returned home to Jacksonville, Florida, and “we knew it was our calling,” says Whitney, who graduated from the University of Southern Indiana. The duo launched their own business, 27 South Design, in April 2014 and then shortly after, HGTV came calling again. Since then, Whitney became a real estate agent and they have rebranded their company to 27 South Home Group.
HGTV asked to do another home flipping show featuring John and Whitney in their hometown as they go through the process of purchasing, remodeling, and selling a house. The pilot for “Florida Flippers” aired June 21 and received strong ratings, according to the Spinkses. HGTV tested the pilot again on July 25, and could show it as many as seven more times before deciding to make it a series.
“Someone asked me what would I be doing if ‘Florida Flippers’ didn’t exist,” says John, who attended USI for two years. “I said: we would be doing this.”
The pilot is set in San Marco, a neighborhood in Jacksonville and an area that Whitney describes as similar to historic Downtown Evansville. “There are a lot of younger folks moving there and trendy spots going up,” says John. “The house turned out great. It was built in 1944 and stuck in 1944 — we fixed that. We had an open house and over 100 people showed up. We had a full price offer within minutes.”
For more information about “Florida Flippers,” visit HGTV.com.
