House Hunters is a Reality Show on HGTV that launched in 1999. It's pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Prospective buyers are hunting for a house to buy.
The show has had numerous spinoffs over the years, but the longest-running one is House Hunters International, which features people looking for a new home in a foreign country.
Tropes associated with House Hunters:
- Crossover: One episode of House Hunters International was effectively location scouting for Ciao House, a series on corporate sibling Food Network set in a villa in Tuscany.
- In mid-2023, HGTV started airing two similarly themed episodes in a one-hour block with added introduction and bumpers by other HGTV hosts, including David Bromstad of My Lottery Dream Home and Scott McGillivray of Vacation House Rules.
- Home and Garden: Prospective homebuyers are shown three properties and choose one to buy at the end of the episode.
- High Concept: Would-be homebuyers look at three houses, choose one to buy.
- Manipulative Editing: The homebuyer has already purchased one of the houses by the time an episode's filming begins. The other two are usually homes rejected during the buyers' search but may also be homes staged by the buyers' friends.
- Narrator: Andromeda Dunker narrates the series.
- Rule of Three: Three houses are shown.
- Spin-Off: There have been numerous spinoffs, and The Other Wiki
lists them all. The main one these days is House Hunters International, in which people who are moving to another country look for a home to buy or rent. - Strictly Formula: Every episode is structured pretty much the same:
- Segment 1: We are introduced to the homebuyer(s) and learn what they want in a house and how those wants clash with those of a spouse or a relative involved in the purchase. We meet the real estate agent (who may or may not be a friend or relative), who explains how the buyers' desires and budget mesh with the local housing market, and then tour the first house.
- Segment 2: More personal information about the homebuyer is revealed, and the second house is toured.
- Segment 3: Still more information about the homebuyer is revealed, and the third house is toured.
- Final segment: The buyers discuss which house to buy among themselves or with their agent. Cut (with doorbell sound effect) to an epilogue filmed a few weeks or months later, in which the purchased house is revealed and the buyers state how happy they are with their new home.
- There Can Be Only One: House, that is.
- Trope Codifier: Every half-hour home-shopping show on HGTV and related channels, from My Lottery Dream Home to Beachfront/Lakefront Bargain Hunt to Mexico/Bahamas/Island Life, follows the same basic format established by House Hunters.
