The House Hunters International Sham

I missed my shot at reality-TV fame.

I could have appeared on the nationally-televised program House Hunters International. I could have been the envy of my friends. I could have earned $1,500 for my efforts, but I had to say no.

HHI features the stories of people looking to rent or buy residences after relocating abroad. The formula is simple  — the new arrivals view three properties with a real estate agent and choose one. It's addictive, but as I learned firsthand, it's also fake.

Before moving to Singapore, I sent a letter to the show at the HGTV network in America, hoping to take the three-property challenge. I never heard back, found an apartment, and forgot about it, until this week when I received an email from a casting producer, wondering if I'd still be interested in applying for the program.

I wrote back, explaining that I couldn't because I'd located an apartment four months earlier. The next day, the producer, Joe Pinzone, asked me to call him so he could "better explain" the show to me.

In our conversation, Pinzone outlined how HHI would film my story. First, he said the show would shoot "pretend" video of me saying goodbye to my family, as well as "pretend" video of my arrival in Singapore. Finally, he said I would "pretend" to search for an apartment but obviously "pick yours” out of the three I'd see.

In other words, I would go through the ruse of looking for a place to live, although I already have one, and then decide I was going to rent the apartment I already occupy.

Of course, there's still the issue of furniture in a supposedly empty apartment. Not a problem. Pinzone said HHI routinely hires professional movers to take everything out of homes before filming and move it back afterward. In my case, since I leased a furnished apartment, I'd just have to hide personal effects, such as family pictures.

"Isn't that dishonest?" I asked. The producer replied, "It's a re-enactment."

I'm not naive. I realize everything isn’t real in reality television, but the only thing factual about what Pinzone was suggesting was that I moved to Singapore.

"Isn’t that fake?" I continued. He said, "It's a past re-enactment. That's how the show works."

Maybe, I'm a bit old-fashioned because all those explanations sounded like euphemisms for lying. I told Pinzone I might consider appearing on House Hunters International only if the show indicated to viewers my story was staged.

The producer laughed, "We can’t tell people it’s a re-enactment."

And so ended my reality-TV career before it ever began.

I've discovered my experience is hardly unique.

Back in 2012, a Texas woman featured years earlier on House Hunters, the domestic version of the show, admitted she pretended to look for a new house, although her family had already bought one.  Bobi Jensen said the other two properties she and her husband viewed actually belonged to friends and weren't really for sale. 

Also, in 2012, an expat living in Taiwan said he participated in a phony search for House Hunters International. Again, a friend helped out by posing as a real estate agent, since the crew couldn't locate an authentic agent who spoke enough English, according to Matt Gibson, who appeared in the episode.

Gibson wrote on his blog that the hoax wasn't a big deal. "House Hunters International is fake. So what? It's not journalism. It's entertainment," he said.

I couldn't disagree more. It might be argued that it's justifiable to recreate a couple of peripheral scenes, but the premise of the show is that new arrivals are looking for places to live. That's clearly not the case.

A lie is still a lie, even if it does appear on reality television. I guess my 15 minutes of fame will have to wait until another day.