HGTV's "What You Get for the Money" real estate show featuring homes in Flagstaff will air Sunday, April 1, 2007 at 11:30 p.m. and Monday, April 2 at 3:30 a.m. Pacific time.
Compare what kind of house you can get for $500,000 in six markets across the country. First, a family of seven decorate their Flagstaff, Ariz., home with a funky flair. Next, a sports fanatic in Mississippi has the ultimate home for entertaining, and then a Des Moines, Iowa, couple downsize with class after their adult children move out. Last up is a quick a look at homes in Anchorage, San Diego and Greenville, S.C.
Common Goal Realty makes national connection
Internet users know a Google search can turn up a lot of things quickly—the lyrics to “Margaritaville,” for example, or the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies. But in the case of Home & Garden Television (HGTV), Google turned up a Flagstaff connection that took a producer from the New York Times to Common Goal Realty.
The result of that search brought film crews from the weekly cable TV show “What You Get for the Money” to Flagstaff this week to interview homeowners about what they love about where they live.
“It really is a small world,” said Joe Haughey, a Realtor and member of the City Council, who was quoted in a New York Times newspaper story about Flagstaff’s vacation home market earlier this month.
As it happens, Chandra Wicke, a casting producer, was looking for contacts at Arizona realty companies who could lead her to properties to profile for the show. After reading the story in the Times, Wicke looked up Haughey’s company and spoke with his counterpart at the father/daughter business—Valerie Caro.
Caro, a real estate broker with 20 years of experience in Flagstaff, thought of several candidates right away when Wicke outlined her needs for the show.
“I’ve gotten to know a lot of clients,” Caro said. “Our marketing materials have a real personal touch, and tend to draw people we have a lot in common with. When that happens, clients become friends.”
“What You Get for the Money” needed homes that were architecturally interesting—houses with flair, property with panache. The interiors could be in any design—from modern to traditional, Southwest to artsy eclectic--but needed to be stylish, even magazine-ready. The show also needed homeowners who were outgoing, comfortable both with being on camera and with talking about the value of their home to a national audience.
One of those homeowners is Amanda Roxas-Powers, a married mother of five who gives her job title as “domestic systems engineer,” but will take “diva” without batting an eyelash. She was raised in Flagstaff and says she wouldn’t trade her home—not just her house, but her neighborhood, her city, her community—for anything.
“We go off to Disneyland,” she muses. “We spend thousands of dollars on vacations, just to come home and realize the best gift of all is waiting right inside our own front door.”
Roxas-Powers’ will be one of several local homes to be featured for the show. Crews will be filming at her home in the Cherry Hill neighborhood on Mon, Nov. 6.
Caro and Haughey are old hands at national publicity. They also worked with the producers of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” last year during its Flagstaff episode, in which the cast built a home for the family of Tuba City soldier Lori Piestewa, who was killed in Iraq.
HGTV is distributed to more than 87 million households and is one of the fastest-growing networks in cable history. A typical show includes examples of homes in several price ranges from a variety of different cities.
The Arizona episode of “What You Get for the Money” featuring Flagstaff homes will be aired at least three times in the next 10 months across the country, said Stephani Kitts, Common Goal’s marketing director.
“It’s fabulous that HGTV is coming to Flagstaff to further put us on the map,” she added. “This is a great opportunity to show the nation what they can get for the money!”
