Assistant Athletics Director Peeks Behind the Reality TV Curtain

If Joe and Kim Perkl ever thought reality television offered a faithful representation of real life, they learned last fall that wasn’t the case.

Home & Garden Television selected the assistant athletics and activities director and his wife to be on an episode of House Hunters shown March 7. It’s not that the couple came out looking bad—if anything, friends thought they took the “Minnesota nice” approach to home buying and avoided being overtly critical. The discrepancy was in the small fact that the couple had decided to close on a home before HGTV ever started filming.

“There’s nothing ‘real’ about reality television,” Joe Perkl said.

The Perkls, newlyweds married June 18, were searching for a home after living in a $900,000 home owned by Kim’s parents, who were living in Arizona at the time. That home had sat on the market unsold for a while, so they let the young couple live there rent-free while waiting for it to sell.

The Perkls happened to watch House Hunters and thought it seemed like something they could do. They e-mailed the show, and the producers responded by asking for a photo and back-story.

The couple’s story is well-suited to television. They dated in ninth grade but took what they jokingly call an eight-year break before getting together again. After the Perkls submitted a 10-minute audition video, the show’s producers decided they made a good fit and told them to let them know when they were ready to close on a home.

In the meantime, a buyer came through for the home where they were living. The Perkls expected to have a few weeks notice but wound up having just 16 days to move out and move in temporarily with friends.

They were fortunate enough to find a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Eden Prairie. The home was initially over their $250,000 budget, but they were able to bring the price down into their range.

After the parties reached a deal, HGTV sent a producer from Los Angeles and hired a local sound and camera operator to film the show.

The “House Hunters secret”—as Perkl calls it—is that the producers contact the buyers’ real estate agent only after they’ve decided to close on a home. David Bigham—their real estate agent and a close family friend—and the producer then chose two other homes that matched their taste.

The Perkls closed on their home Oct. 27, and shooting the house search took place from Oct. 27 to Oct. 30.

The alternative homes weren’t bad picks, but the Perkls still preferred their initial choice. Still, producers told the couple that buyers wind up liking alternative house about half the time.

The Perkls didn’t have to fake their reaction to those homes. It was, after all, their first time seeing them. But they did do multiple takes if the producer decided a shot or reaction wasn’t right.

The scenes were more staged when it was time to check out the home they were buying. Although they’d already seen it, they had to act as if it were their first time checking out the home.

Filming didn’t end there. House Hunters concludes with a look at families ensconced in their new homes. The Perkls moved in Nov. 5 and had just a month to unpack all their boxes and turn the empty house into a warm home.

“We had to get things going,” Perkl said.

The show was a good experience, but it ended on a tragic note when Bigham died at the age of 41, just two weeks before the show aired. Although House Hunters’ search for a new home may not be completely real, the reminder of a recently departed friend was a real welcome to the Perkls.

“It was kind of bittersweet to watch it,” Perkl said.

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