WARWICK, RI — Kevin Daniels and Aman Rai, tired of renting, had started looking for their first house with Slocum Realty’s Jon Tetrault (JT) this summer when HGTV asked the Warwick real estate company if they could film the experience for their show, which is how their first home buying experience wound up leading the new season of “Beachfront Bargain Hunt” Sunday at 8 p.m.
Kevin, Aman, JT and other Slocum realtors gathered at Providence Coal Fired Pizza on 6105 Post Road in North Kingstown to watch the episode together. The crowd of about 40 people laughed as Kevin asked if one of the homes they looked at would throw in a tin knight sculpture, then cheered as Jon and the couple toured Matunuck Oyster Bar’s farming operation, walked Conimicut Beach and went horseback riding at Goddard Park.
The filming took about 45 hours over the course of four days, “But it was a lot of fun,” Kevin said.
Aman said they have been renting in Narragansett, but wanted to invest in their own home in Warwick, so they reached out to JT, a friend of hers since elementary school. Kevin works for a wireless company in business sales and Aman works in banking, and they set their sights on a home they could easily afford with a lot of disposable income.
They were looking for a house in the city with JT when HGTV reached out to him, Aman said. She said the filming process wasn’t difficult to get used to, though there were a lot of lights pointing in what seemed like odd directions. The film crew obviously knew what they were doing, she said, since the episode looked great.
The on-camera and off-camera house-hunting experiences aren’t that far removed, JT said. When he and his partner Nick Slocum (the latest of three generations in the family business) work with clients, he said, they sit down with the buyers and review what they’re looking for. “Kind of like a help me help you,” JT said.
JT said he was worried he might be nervous on-camera, “But it turned out to be a lot of fun,” he said.
You’ve got another chance at watching the episode, and seeing which house Kevin and Aman chose, April 9, 5:30 p.m., on HGTV.
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