“House Hunters” is the top show on HGTV. My husband and I discovered it last year when we were looking to buy our first home and thought it was fun to watch other people going through the same process.
We decided on a whim to apply for the show, and we were excited and surprised when the producer said they wanted to tell our story. Filming our episode and sharing the ups and downs of buying our first home in Utah Valley was a positive, exciting experience that we’ll always be glad we were a part of. Our episode airs Wednesday, April 1 at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., depending on your provider. Here are a few fun facts we learned about the process of being on an episode of “House Hunters” as we filmed:
1. It’s not easy to get on the show.
“House Hunters” gets about 100-200 applications a week depending on the time of year. “House Hunters” director Susan Hull said they are always looking for people who are quirky or who want unique things in their house. They look for drama and conflict and ultimately want people the viewers will fall in love with. We applied for “House Hunters” by first filling out an online application. We got an email from the casting director expressing interest in our story, which was followed up with some more things to fill out and then a phone interview with the producer. After the phone interview and more paperwork, we submitted a 10-minute audition video. After a few weeks of waiting, “House Hunters” told us we were chosen to be on the show.
2. “House Hunters” works with local professionals.
When we arrived at our first shooting location, we met our director, Susan Hull, who flew in from Los Angeles; the cameraman, from Colorado; and our “sound guy,” Gerald Hartley, from Pleasant Grove, who has met his share of stars and has worked on some of Utah’s biggest projects. We thought it was cool that “House Hunters” combined with local professionals to create the show.
3. There are eight different “House Hunters” directors.
Our director has been at “House Hunters” longer than any of the others — 10 years. “House Hunters” has been airing for 15. She says every director adds a little bit of his or her own spin to the show. We felt lucky to have someone so seasoned directing us through our first reality TV experience.
4. It takes a lot of filming hours for just minutes of production.
We spent about six hours at each of the three houses where we filmed. We were also filmed doing activities our family enjoys (like eating dinner at Malawi’s, playing with our kids at Provo Beach, running on the Provo Canyon trail) and they filmed me working (at Bennett Communications, of course, and teaching Yoga at BYU). We filmed for more than 30 hours total, and the episode is only 23 minutes long.
5. “House Hunters” releases three new episodes every week.
They just hit their 10,000th episode mark. That means they’re busy filming all around the country all year round.
6. Each episode costs about $45–$50,000.
And because you’re probably wondering, they paid our family $500 to participate. The realtors work on a volunteer basis.
7. “House Hunters” doesn’t let you go hungry.
Thank goodness, because I can certainly get hangry, and that doesn’t go over too well on TV. The director treated us to lunch each of the five days we were on set, took my family to dinner one night and provided us with on-set snacks every day. We missed that pampered treatment after it was all over.
8. “House Hunters” has filmed in every state.
There hasn’t been a U.S. state where the crew hasn’t filmed an episode (or 2 or 200). “House Hunters International” is a separate production company.
9. Very few episodes never make it to the air.
Our director said she only knows of about 10 episodes that never aired, and that was due to things like death, divorce and Hurricane Katrina.
10. It’s scary to think of millions of people watching you on national television.
After all those hours of filming, there were certainly awkward moments and bloopers. We’re dying to see what ended up in the episode and I can’t help wondering if there was something in my teeth, a booger on my face or if I said something idiotic that the world will hear me say. After waiting for six months (it generally takes 4-6 months after filming for an episode to air), we are excited and a little nervous to see how it all turned out.
What happens on House Hunters if you decide that you don’t want any of the three homes that are shown to you?
Kim – It’s highly unlikely. Usually by the time the production team arrives, the home buyers are pretty far along in the process of a home search, and have probably already decided to buy one of the three. In fact, they may have even already chosen it and started moving in by the time filming begins. Most of the search is for “show” – and has little to do with reality. Surprise, surprise.
Did they actually come back for the follow up interview at the end, or did they just pretend that time had gone by and they actually filmed everything all at once?
Hi! How far in advance do they give you before filming? Do they prefer you already have a house in mind or are already closing?
You gave the home owners only $500 I would think you would give them more money then that. If I apply today for a home in China and you accepted me how long would it take for me to get a home or an apartment?
Wow $250 per person and $0 for the realtor is a real slap in the face from HG TV’s highest grossing show. Seriously that’s realllllly cheap of them….. so the realtor gets paid in sandwiches for 30 hours of taping? That sounds like slave labor and kind of dampens my thoughts of the show. Glad it was fun though
Yup! We got picked and are deciding if it’s really worth it to do it for $500 divided by 3 (we can’t not give our realtor anything). We have to decide soon. Wondering if they’ll negotiate? What do you guys think we should do?
Do they also provide someone to help you remodel your home like other shows (property brothers)? That would be worth it.
With 200 applicants per week, I doubt that they would negotiate
@ Marie, you’re agent is making the 6% they already get from selling you a home in the first place! Not to mention the exposure they get from being on the show that will ultimately result in generating future business for them.
If you feel you need to be compensated for being on a reality show, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. You’re not a paid actress. You should be happy they are paying you anything. It costs them so much money to make the show, and if they invited you to be on it, take it as an adventure for you and your family. Trust me, if you don’t feel it’s worth it, there are hundreds of other families that will do it for free!
The way the show works is you already purchased your home, and the rest is pretend. You get shown 3 other houses and play along like you’re considering them all, including the home you already purchased and are already living in.
We were approached by HGTV to be on the show. We didn’t apply. And we were flattered they asked us and are looking at it as a compliment and an exciting experience for our whole family. Taking 3 days out of our life to play pretend for a reality show is not a job or career. Unless it’s your own show!
My thoughts, exactly. I mean, the buyer’s agent is making between 2-3% of the final cost of the property [in most states], which is usually a pretty good paycheck. It’s not like they’re not getting anything, and they will definitely drum up new clients just for being on the show! Your realtor shouldn’t allow you to split the money with them. If they do, you should find a new realtor.
If it was not for clients looking to buy a home, House Hunters would not exist. Besides, thise are the main characters – come in – pay them better!
Are the home buyers coached? Some of them are so obnoxious.
I have to laugh – ‘ultimately the producers want you to fall in love with the couple’ . . . . . I would say 95% of the time, I can’t STAND the people that are on this show. It’s the same old garbage – they HAVE to have two sinks in the bathroom (I’ve been with my husband for 50 years – haven’t needed a second sink yet), stainless steel – apparently everywhere – and GRANITE kitchen counters. ALL boring to me – who wants what everybody else wants? I have to quit watching this show – I end up yelling at the TV too much.
The buyers ALREADY have a house picked out, and have already bought it. The other 2 are just for show.
As someone who’s old house was featured on House Hunters Renovations just this weekend (episode titled “We Made It”), I can confirm that we’d already sold the house and no longer had any ownership in it prior to any filming taking place. In fact, one of the rooms shown on the show during the initial walkthrough had already been repainted by the buyers (the room with the grass/sky kids theme) before filming. We knew the buyers already from Taekwondo, and had actually referred them to our realtor a couple of years prior, so we had the same agent, though I haven’t actually seen them since we closed the sale. I got the heads up from our mutual agent that the house was going to be on the show about two days before the show aired or I’d never have watched it. As a rule, I don’t really care for these shows and find them dull, but it was interesting and super weird to see my old house on one of them.
Incidentally, I love the work they did to the house. While I’m more old school with my design aesthetic, and not generally a fan of this trend of whiting everything out, what they did to the living room looked fine. Not my preference, but fine. I was very happy that they didn’t touch the kitchen. That and the back deck were the two major renovations we did while we owned the house, and I picked those kitchen colors myself. The work to make the new master suite was amazing. The room sizes and layouts in that house were always weird. It was the model home for phase two of that subdivision, so it had a lot of custom fittings and overall strangeness from that. There were a number of things we’d always wanted to do to that house that we never had the money for.
Thanks for sharing, I really adore your work, keep it up.