'House Hunters': 6 Things You Didn't Know About the HGTV Series

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While that wasn't necessarily true, Bobi rolled with the punches for the sake of TV. As many subtle rules as there are for "House Hunters" applicants, there's a fairytale-esque whimsy to the series that can't be replicated, which is why it's so successful after over 230 seasons. She told Reddit that her max budget was $130,000, but production had other plans. "They used my max qualification (165), and tacked on 15K I had in savings as 'renovation budget.'" While she wound up staying within her actual budget and paying what she was comfortable with, production made her budget higher for the sake of the show. But with bathtubs being a hard addition to find in the area, producers used this as a point of contention for the couple. In reality, Elizabeth knew they had already found a home with a bathtub, but laughed at the way she was edited for the show.

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"The producers said they found our (true) story — that we were getting a bigger house and turning our other one into a rental — boring and overdone," Bobi wrote. Since their actual reason for moving out of their home for a bigger space and renting out their old home was too common for HGTV, the new storyline was that their current home was far too small, requiring a hasty move. "Our apartment needed to be empty or close to empty so that we could re-create how it looked before we moved in," she said. Many aspects of creating the show were eye-opening, but one of the funnier parts of the production was the producers' need for conflict.

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One show participant—who went on House Hunters and House Hunters International and then shared their story on Slate—admitted to touring Airbnb rentals and friends' houses instead of actual properties for sale. In any case, there's some authenticity in the participants' reactions, whether it's the novelty of seeing a random home or the feelings drummed up by revisiting one you'd considered a prospect. While Andromeda's voice has become synonymous with the real estate show, she wasn't the first narrator to work on House Hunters. Comedian Suzanne Whang originally hosted the series from 1999 (when it began) until 2007.

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According to Hooked on Houses, a former contestant of the show named Bobi noted that sometimes she and her husband had to redo the scenes that producers didn't like. In this episode, a native Brooklynite embarks on a quest to find a beachside escape in Cape May, New Jersey. Seeking a respite from city life, she enlists the financial support of one of her sisters, setting the stage for a dynamic house hunt. With the audience being none the wiser, Elizabeth said she and her husband toured rental homes on Airbnb as potential winners. She did explain that the rental homes had a similar style to what they were looking for, but in reality, they had already bought their house.

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(Some accounts from homeowners who did go on the show say they received $500 in recent years.) "I just felt very busy and taking off for, you know, kind of a fictitious story didn't seem worth it to me," she says. At the end of every episode of "House Hunters," production goes back to the couple's new house to catch up on how they're liking the place they chose and the changes they made while the crew has been gone. Some of these changes are cosmetic — like paint or landscaping — but they're blatant enough for viewers to see the difference between the former buyer and the new. However, what some viewers don't realize is that the film crew doesn't always return a couple of weeks later. Kristen later said in the comments section that some towns the show films in don't need high budgets, but it makes for a more interesting episode.

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Without nondisclosure agreements, those on the show are welcome to share their experiences on "House Hunters," but beware, some revelations may surprise longtime viewers. You get paid $500/week if you're chosen to appear on the show, which we know isn't much. But according to someone in Utah who was actually featured, other perks are included like being treated to meals.

Furthermore, filming took place in October, and the episode aired in April of the next year. In all, hours of filming are done, all to be edited down to a 30-minute episode and aired six months later. Because of the extra footage of the surroundings and additional filming at each house, couples need to be available for a few days. Sometimes those other homes happened to be places the homeowners never actually toured in the first place.

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As realistic as reality TV can be, producers also need the show to be entertaining for audiences. Viewing three different houses can be exciting, and choosing the perfect one makes for a happy ending, but the network does need to spice things up here and there to make "House Hunters" intriguing from the next episode. Part of the appeal of the series is that it follows real people looking for their new homes which has been incredibly relatable for viewers for over 20 years. The 49-year-old Connecticut native is best known for her work as the narrator on the HGTV show, but she's also appeared in films like Life or Something Like It and Nowheresville.

Conflict is a bonus

One sister advocates for a practical and budget-conscious approach, while the other dreams of a grand beachfront property. This clash of priorities adds a layer of complexity to their house-hunting journey. Though the network briefly toyed with the idea of not having a narrator at all in 2019 (much to the chagrin of fans) Andromeda has continued to record episodes. According to Buzzfeed News, Andromeda records narration for anywhere between 10 and 20 episodes of House Hunters each week. The narrator does other voiceover work in addition to House Hunters and House Hunters International. To date, the California resident has participated in more than 2,000 episode of the original series, and her voice has been on nearly 850 episodes of its spin-off, House Hunters International.

Considering how quickly couples view different homes and buy their dream home, fans of the series often wonder how long filming takes from start to finish. Tara Lenney shared a blog post about her experience on "House Hunters." While she wasn't on the series, her house was. She stated that her house was the one the couple wound up buying on TV, and she shared what she knows with fans. Since she sold her house to the couple, she had an idea of the show's filming schedule. Tara shared that the entire process took about five days to film, with a total of eight hours spent at each house.

Hosted by Suzanne Whang, the show takes viewers behind the scenes as individuals, couples and families learn what to look for and decide whether or not a home is meant for them. Focusing on the emotional experience of finding and purchasing a new home, each episode follows a prospective buyer and real estate agent through the home-buying process, from start to finish. For more than 22 years, viewers have been checking out the real estate scenes in various cities and small towns all around the country by tuning in to House Hunters. On every episode of the hit HGTV reality series, solo buyers, couples, or families tour three homes that each hit various items on their must-have checklists in the hopes of finding their dream properties. However, with so many episodes and seasons, more and more tidbits are coming out about former house hunters on the show and what the process is actually like.