almost famous

Apparently the traditional methods of selling a home--listing with an agent, hosting open houses, etc.--are not working for us, so the other night I decided to employ a guerilla tactic of my own. I applied to be on the show My First Sale on HGTV. I'm not sure how serious I was when I began the process but by 3:00pm yesterday afternoon, we were almost famous.

On Tuesday night I was playing around on the internet and clicked on hgtv.com to see about trying out for one of their shows (I was thinking Designed to Sell would be appropriate). As I was scrolling through the tab "be on HGTV" I saw that My First Sale was looking for homeowners in Charlotte. It was a sign. 

Wednesday morning the fun began. I returned to hgtv.com and clicked on "apply to be on this show" and dutifully filled out the 25 questions--why are you selling your home, is this your first home sale, who does the sale involve, etc.--and attached pictures of both my family and the house. An hour later the phone rang. It was a producer for My First Sale who wanted to talk to me more in-depth about the show and our situation (side note: she thought the family and house were totally adorable). We chatted for about 30 minutes, and she was on her way into a meeting to pitch our story to her boss. However, there was one little caveat. Our main reason for moving is that we're outgrowing our tiny little 847 square-foot house, which is to say we're not under financial duress or under contract for our next place or some other  serious situation that makes for "good TV," so there was a chance we wouldn't be moving forward. She asked me to email her a couple additional photos in the meantime, and we'd be talking soon.

Thirty minutes later I got an email from her saying we were denied by her boss. They had too many stories about expanding families and needed something a little more compelling. I guess it's a good thing that we're not in a desperate situation, but it was fun imaging our family on TV. I had already begun planning my outfits and imagining what it would be like to have a camera crew invade our home for a few days (where would all the equipment go?). Alas, I guess we'll return to the traditional methods of home selling...at least until we hear back from HGTV saying they made a mistake and want to put us on the little screen.