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September 2015
House-Hunters in Issaquah Highlands
Issaquah Highlands Connections
by Chelsea Musick, Central Park Neighborhood
Issaquah Highlands House Hunters choice and two decoys, one in Klahanie (right) and one that was too far for a commute (left). The Forest Ridge ‘winner’ was actually the model home, not the one the Buder’s bought.
I’ve always been a fan of House Hunters, the hit show on HGTV. Running since 1999, each episode follows a family as choose their next home. By the end of the 22 minute episode the family has discussed the pros and cons of the three potential houses, and has decided which to purchase. A few months ago I caught up on some past episodes on Netflix and was surprised to see Issaquah Highlands featured in the episode “Upgrading in the Emerald City.” Originally aired in 2013, the episode featured James and Deanna Buder. Of the three homes they toured, the one in the Forest Ridge neighborhood of the Highlands was ultimately the home that “won” at the end of the show. A Facebook search brought me Deanna’s contact information and my chance to get a real behind-the-scenes look at the show! She was happy to answer my questions and update me on her family and the whole process behind House Hunters. Had you seen the show before you decided to be a part of it? Yes, many, many times! I was a viewer of House Hunters back when Suzanne Whang used to be the host and walked down the sidewalk describing the house hunters’ dilemma. Were you apprehensive to sign up to be on the show? No. I was always so curious about how the show worked. Filming the episode gave me a lot of background knowledge of how reality TV works, which intrigued me. How were you contacted to be part of the show? During our house hunt I was watching a lot of HGTV for decorating and remodeling ideas. I looked at their website as well and found a link to the House Hunters application. They were specifically looking for buyers in the Seattle and Chicago areas. I looked it over and decided to submit an application. It asked just a hand full of questions and asked you to attach a photo of both buyers. What did your husband think? I didn’t even tell my husband I’d done it because it seemed so farfetched. I was contacted a couple weeks later by a casting director who was interested in us and wanted me to submit a more lengthy application along with more photos. We submitted an audition tape where we described ourselves, discussed what we were looking for in a home, our “deal breakers”, and also a camera-tour of our current home. Our real estate agent had to do his own audition tape as well. All of these components were put together into a pitch the production company made to the network. The execs at that meeting then selected couples who they thought were compelling and whose episodes they would buy. Were you already in the midst of the house search process when you decided to be on the show? Yes, we were narrowing in on what we wanted. We’d already selected the Highlands as our location. We had almost decided to purchase the home we ultimately bought. How many days did it take to film the episode? Five days. One day for each of the three homes, one day of introducing/describing ourselves, and one day of decision making plus filming our new life in the house. How long was the time between the filming and it airing on HGTV? We filmed in November and it first aired in July. Since then it has been on reruns several times (I get messages from people whenever they randomly catch us on TV), and it is now on Netflix. How true-to-life are the elements of the show, the three candidates and your selection? Before day one of filming begins you must have closed on your house. You can’t have moved in yet though since they don’t want to film your things in the home already. Our case was a little different since we toured the model home for the show. We had already moved into our new house a few days before filming began. We did our decision interview at Sip. Were the other houses you toured actually for sale? The other two houses that were filmed were on the market. That’s one of the requirements of the show. Our real estate agent selected two houses that he thought we might have considered
House Hunters James and Deann Buder pose with their real estate agent.
in our hunt. In our case though, the “decoy” houses weren’t at all what we would have selected to tour. One of the houses was 30 minutes away and would have added that much time to our commutes, a serious consideration in our house hunt. The other decoy was in Klahanie, a much better location but still not the Highlands which was the only community we wanted to live in. Do you know if they had to get permission from the sellers to film the episode at the home? The sellers have to agree and sign waivers in order to film in their homes. After filming, one of the sellers’ agents revised their listing to say “as featured on House Hunters!” Your home is in Forest Ridge. What do you like about it? Yes, we bought one of the first homes built here. At the time, the construction of Safeway, the movie theater, and all of the new retail hadn’t been done. We knew it was in the works and that it would be a nice bonus, but we didn’t realize just how much of a life style change it would be. We walk everywhere around here. I even sometimes grocery shop with a stroller and walk it all home. And after a nice dinner at Sip we have the luxury of not driving and can take a short walk home. But even more important than location is our neighbors. We have a small community park where we have met so many people who are new the area just like us. Almost everyone has kids and a dog. We often congregate in the afternoon and evening in the park. Last summer one of the neighbors set up a big screen and speakers in the evening and well over 50 neighbors came together to watch Frozen on the lawn. Did you watch the episode when it originally aired? We were at a wedding the evening it originally aired. We watched as soon as we got back. It was kind of nice watching it just by ourselves and after the initial airing. I wasn’t as nervous that way about seeing myself on TV since no one was there with us and the initial running had already happened. Our daughter was 18 months at the time of filming and is now four years old. The other day I turned on Netflix and navigated to our episode. I told her I wanted her to watch a show with me. I really should have thought ahead and filmed her reaction upon seeing herself and us on a show on Netflix. She was transfixed and couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing! Editor’s Note: As is usual, interview questions and answers are edited for fit, clarity and errors.