Moses Lake stars in HGTV show
Courtesy photo Real estate broker April Adams (foreground, in blue dress) her clients Dean and Maura Moore (left and second from left) and the town of Moses Lake were featured in a recent episode of an HGTV series.
MOSES LAKE — April Adams said she wasn’t sure, when she got the call, if it was legitimate or some kind of hoax.
The caller said he was with a company that produced a television show for HGTV. “Lakefront Bargain Hunt” follows homeowners searching for property, the only stipulation being they want to live on a lake.
The producers have traveled throughout the country, filming lakes and homebuyers from Maine to Florida, throughout the entire Southeast, parts of the Midwest, California. They were looking for new opportunities in eastern Washington, and wanted to film in Moses Lake. They asked Adams, a broker with Executive Realtors, if she wanted to participate.
Adams said she did some research of her own before answering. “Lakefront Bargain Hunt” was and is for real, and Adams said it looked like a good opportunity, for her and for the community. “I felt it would bring great things to Moses Lake,” A native of Las Vegas, Adams lived in Tacoma before moving to Moses Lake, and she said sometimes people get so familiar with a place they ignore its strengths.
“I felt it was a great opportunity for our town.”
The show is based on the idea that it’s expensive to live by the lake (whatever lake it is), but that there is still affordable lakeside housing out there. Adams asked her clients, Moses Lake High School teacher Dean Moore and his wife Maura, if they’d be interested in having their search for a new home immortalized on film. They agreed; “they wanted to be part of that process.”
The film crew came to town and followed the couple as they toured three homes and looked at a vacant lot, all on Moses Lake. They talked a little bit about their family and about Moses Lake, and Adams was interviewed about the town as well. “It was a collaboration.”
It was all just like any other house search, except for the film crew “assisting us in where to stand,” and occasionally requiring the participants – “we were the talent” – to do a retake. “It’s all of a sudden not so natural, when there are cameras,” Adams said.
The camera crews also followed the Moore family as they went to the Surf ‘n Slide Water Park and rode their bikes on trails around town. The crews filmed the lake and the town from a drone, and shot film of various interesting features. “I was pleased at the way they highlighted all the wonderful things in the town.”
As for when it would be broadcast, the producers said it may be four to six months. The participants “did not see anything. Did not know how any of it was going to turn out,” Adams said.
She emailed the producers occasionally, she said, asking if the episode would be broadcast but never received a firm answer. Adams thought perhaps it might not be broadcast at all, but it was on TV May 7. It will be rebroadcast at 7 p.m. May 28.
Adams said it’s already had an impact – she’s been contacted by people from out of the area, and even out of state, who now are thinking of buying property in Moses Lake.