Mt. Lebanon agent featured on HGTV’s ‘House Hunters’
Fans of HGTV’s “House Hunters” are familiar with the plot, so to speak.
Each episode features a couple seeking a new home. One is looking for particular features. So is the other.
And of course, they’re different.
“They do like them to disagree on ‘House Hunters,'” Mt. Lebanon resident Rebecca Church explained. “If everyone agrees, it’s not that exciting.”
The real estate agent with Coldwell Banker’s South Hills Office is ready to watch herself on television with the first airing of the episode “Pittsburgh Row House Blues” at 10 p.m. Oct. 26.
“You’ll see in the episode that my two buyers kind of wanted different things,” Church said about the house-hunting couple Geoff and Devin. “He wanted a more contemporary house, which took us to the Belle Vernon area. She wanted more of like a row house type.”
That took them to a circa-1900 Mexican War Streets home, and the third destination – there always are three – was a Foursquare-style house in Brookline.
More specifics and their eventual choice will be revealed on HGTV, and in the meantime, Church enjoys talking about her experiences on the way to her first appearance on television.
The process started when she applied last year for a spot as a “House Hunters” agent and a network representative contacted her about the possibility.
“Then I needed to find clients who were buying and who would also be OK with the whole filming schedule and everything like that,” she said. “That took me a while, because they do have to take time off work, that type of thing. So I went through a few clients who kind of made it to the first round, but once they found out the specifics, weren’t able to do it for various reasons.”
Devin and Geoff turned out to be ready, willing and able, and eventually an HGTV film crew arrived in Pittsburgh.
“It was filmed during the spring, so I was pretty busy and didn’t have much time to overthink everything,” Church recalled. “The director said, ‘That’s the best possible thing, that you didn’t overprepare.'”
The crew made two trips East for what became five full days of filming.
“I knew we were in for some pretty long days,” Church said. “My clients had to shoot a little bit more than I did, because they shot at their apartment and they did some restaurant scenes when they were deciding.”
The couple’s discourse, she asserted, generally was honest-to-goodness conversations about the pros and cons about each of the prospective buys.
“Now, they would do several takes from different angles, that type of thing,” she said. “So we would repeat ourselves, just because of the way television works.”
Members of the TV crew made a good impression on her.
“They made it as fun as possible, and it went by really quickly, the days did,” Church said. “My clients were pretty natural about it, so it made it easier for me. It was much more fun than hard work. So that was a good surprise.”
She is excited about the episode as it pertains to Pittsburgh, “showing how nice the city is, how many options there are in terms of cultural events and museums, as well as the sports teams,” she said. “We kind of have the full mix of offerings.”
And that’s optimal for a show that thrives on differences of opinion.
For more information about “House Hunters,” visit www.hgtv.com/shows/house-hunters.