Vibe Listing Featured on HGTV

One of Vibe’s 2023 listings, 495 Wheelock, was recently featured on HGTV’s My Lottery Dream Home! The show takes recent lottery winners and helps them purchase their next home - will they splurge on an extravagant mansion, keep it simple with a modest home close to family, or choose that vacation property they've always dreamed of?

We sat down with listing agent and co-founder of Vibe, Steve Anderson, to learn more about the process!

Q. When were you first approached about your listing be a part of an HGTV show? Which show and what is the premise?

1. I got a phone call while I was at the park with my daughter. I get a lot of spam calls because my phone number is posted all over the internet, so that's what I initially thought it was. The rep then told me he was on the production crew for HGTV's My Lottery Dream Home and went into detail about how the show is produced. He even acknowledged that a lot of agents don't believe him at first so he had a whole presentation slide deck to email over that would explain things further.

Q. Were your sellers/buyers all on board?

1. Honestly, I didn't think this particular seller would be at first because the home was still on the market and we hadn't accepted an offer yet. I even thought about how I was going to bring it up to her because she had a lot of pride in her home and how she had taken care of it over the years (which showed) and I didn't think she was going to want to mess around with a TV show while we were on the market. Then, in a stroke of luck, we ended up negotiating a full price offer the following day so I told her about the opportunity and she thought it would be great!

Q. What was it like when they came to film at the house?

1. They were very particular about how they wanted things, and they needed almost the entire day to film and had a full film crew there from start to finish. They were all very kind and courteous, and they really loved the home. The host of the show came by a bit after the film crew had set things up, and my seller got to meet him and even got a pic of them together at the home before they started filming. It was an all around positive process.

Q. Was it hard to keep the whole thing a secret?

1. Yes! The only thing that made it better was that the homeowner and I got to know the secret together, and she was just a hoot to work with from start to finish so we had fun discussing all of the different steps and nuances of the show.

Q. Did anything surprise you about the experience?

1. Two things. First was just how fast everything went. They call you and decisions get made within days and then, before you know it, they're out there filming within a few weeks. The timing of everything has to be carefully planned out. Second was that it was an episode specifically about Saint Paul, and we ended up being the only home on the show that was actually located in Saint Paul! The others were in nearby suburbs, but I thought that was interesting because I was assuming the other homes on the show would be at least located within the city.

Q. Are you happy with how the episode turned out?

1. Overwhelmingly yes! You go through the whole process and it ends up only being a few minutes of actual TV time, but the whole thing was just fun overall and it definitely helped to have such a fun client to experience it all with. I've been meaning to catch up with her since it aired but word on the street is that she booked a long, warm vacation for the winter after closing on her home so I'll have to chat with her once (or if ever) she's back in Minnesota.

Thanks HGTV and host of My Lottery Dream Home, David Bromstad, for the opportunity to showcase this beautiful house! What a fun experience. Check back at this link for when the episode will air again.