Forté – Career Profiles
House Hunting with Realtor Amber Huemmer
February 24, 2009
When Amber Huemmer appears in an episode of HGTV's "House Hunters" this summer, she'll be carrying a costar in one of the scenes that wasn't in the original cast.
The RE/MAX Preferred realtor guides first-time homebuyers Jen Masbruch and Jesse Kohler through their housing search in the Mazomanie/Black Earth area on camera for the popular reality show. Selected by HGTV from a pool of the agency's top agents based on video and written applications, Huemmer says her clients met the profile the HGTV producers were seeking.
"They really wanted someone that was very close to writing an offer, buyers that have written an offer that has been accepted, or they have just closed and haven't moved in," Huemmer says. "My buyers had an accepted offer, and they closed the first week of November."
Filming of the couple's final choice and two "decoy" houses took place before Thanksgiving. Huemmer says she was "really nervous" at the beginning of the shoot. "The buyers had worked with the crew the day before, so I was walking into something where I felt like Jen and Jesse knew how everything was working, and I was the guinea pig coming in," she says. "But the producer was super laid-back, cracked jokes all day and was really easy going."
The action for the show was not scripted, so acting for the camera was more "fly by the seat of your pants." Huemmer says both days of filming went smoothly except for when she kept mispronouncing the word "couple."
"They had to reshoot nine or ten times, and I was so embarrassed I could feel my face getting red," she says. "Otherwise, it was really good and a lot of fun."
The HGTV crew had planned on returning in the spring to wrap up the segment by showing renovations as well as reshooting a few interior scenes from the first days of filming. Their timetable sped up when Huemmer and her husband, Ryan, learned of the pending arrival of their second child in August.
"I'm not going to be able to fit in the pants I wore during filming outside of the house, so we'll have to see how this all works out," Huemmer says with a laugh.
Huemmer is entering her fifth year in real estate and works in partnership with Ron and Jane Stauter, who have been in the business for 45 years. Averaging $4 to 6 million a year in closed sales, Huemmer loves her lifestyle and couldn't imagine a different career.
"I don't think I could ever punch a clock," Huemmer says. "This job is too flexible, and I love it."
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