Scarlette Douglas teams up with brother and Worst House on the Street co-star Stuart in Can’t Sell, Must Sell. But she was rattled by a jaw-dropping discovery while filming.
Scarlette and Stuart Douglas are best for their show Worst House on the Street(Image: Channel 4)
Property development duo Scarlette and Stuart Douglas advise homeowners in unsellable houses in their newest show, Can’t Sell, Must Sell . But one discovery left Scarlette reeling.
Known for their teamwork on Channel 4’s Worst House On The Street, Scarlette Douglas, 38, and her brother Stuart, 47, are now taking on a new challenge – splitting up to help desperate sellers fix up homes that just won’t budge on the market.
In each of the six episodes, the siblings are both handed a property that requires major renovation. With the help of a skilled team of carpenters and designers, they work to make each house as sellable as possible.
Scarlette still remembers a chilling discovery made while filming. She says, “One lady was very attached to her house and its Victorian style – she has lots of dolls.
When you walked in, everything felt oppressive. It was dark, dingy and scary. Even her daughters were trying to get her to sell it. She didn’t want to listen.”
Scarlette Douglas reveals that bad odours can ruin a property listing(Image: Channel 4)
Another tough case for Scarlette involved a charming cottage – with dog odour. “I love dogs, but you can become nose-blind to them. “One of the properties was a really beautiful cottage but the minute you walked in, it smelled of dog,” she says.
“They were so used to the smell that they couldn’t get their head around it. Those are things you’re not going to see but they affect a sale.”
Although the smell was pungent, Stuart found himself particularly moved by the property’s backstory. He remembers, “What made it important for me was how important it was for the owner. She was a really lovely lady. The transformation of the house itself was amazing but the transformation in her was memorable. She was so grateful.”
Emotions ran high elsewhere, too. One case that hit Scarlette hard took place in Swansea, where they met a widow who had filled her home with china plates and memories. “Her husband did the DIY. She couldn’t do anything around the house,” Scarlette says. “She was so grateful at the end, I was an emotional wreck.”
While houses and empathy are at the heart of the show, the hard graft is just as real. “We’re not just walking in, saying our piece and walking out,” Scarlette says, “We really do get involved, even off-camera.”
Stuart agrees, “We had great teams,” he says, “But we needed lots of hands on deck to complete the transformations. Even the cameraman took things to the skip. Everyone chipped in.”
That level of involvement was essential, given the scale of the jobs – and the tight turnaround. “It was hard and stressful,” Scarlette says, “We started around 8am and wouldn’t finish until about 11pm. We cover two houses in a week, but the end result made it all worth it.”
But it wouldn’t be a Douglas project without a bit of healthy rivalry. “We are competitive in nature,” says Stuart, “Scarlette was a professional dancer in the West End, our brother and I played professional football. We are very close, but we’re very competitive.”
He adds, “The real goal was to help the homeowners, though we both still wanted to have the best house. In our family, we go into things and we do it to be the best.”
