When Realtor Heather Caine arrived on the Naples scene two years ago, she immediately started thinking about how she could differentiate herself in a very crowded market.
Heather, it looks like you’ve done it.
On Saturday night (Aug. 19), she and her firm, Caine Premier Properties, will be featured on HGTV’s House Hunters. The episode airs at 11 p.m.
“I’m so excited,” says Caine, who built a 27-agent firm in Texas and expanded to Naples two years ago. “It’s been a long process.”
She hasn’t seen the episode herself, but the producers promise her it’s “epic” and a departure from the typical show format, which features a house-hunting individual or couple, their three best housing options and the property they ultimately choose. Caine’s role as agent, normally subdued, gets elevated. Her family—husband Andrew and two daughters—make an appearance. So does project manager Katie Werchek of the Naples-based Werchek Development, who partners with Caine on home renovation projects. And Caine’s firm represented both sides of the transaction for the featured couple, Melanie and Zach Nimboorkar, who moved from Texas to Naples (they happen to be friends with the Caines).
“It’s just a different kind of episode,” says Caine. She’s sworn to secrecy on the details otherwise, as well as to other big news that she says is brewing.
Caine and Werchek pitched HGTV cold, angling for their own show based on the work they’ve been doing in Naples.
“My spin is I can turn every home into a model home,” Caine says. With Werchek’s construction expertise, the Realtor helps sellers gut and remodel properties in order to sell them at top dollar and buyers transform lackluster purchases into dream homes. “We’re taking paradise by storm,” she adds.
Almost immediately after sending the video audition pitch, Caine got a call from Diona Vaughan, the casting director and now a producer for Pie Town Productions, the company that behind House Hunters and other HGTV shows.
“She said, ‘Girl, I love your tape, but we don’t just give people a show,’” Caine recalls. Vaughan invited Caine to audition for House Hunters instead.
The rest, as they say, is history—at least until Saturday night’s big reveal.
To see more of Caine’s work, you can catch her on Fox 4’s The Morning Blend where her Homes with Heather segment airs on Friday between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and on the first Monday of the month during the same morning slot.
