Four real estate stars from St. Albert have been selected to appear on a new reality TV show produced by a Kelowna company.
Laryssa Banks, Shandrie Lewis, Ashley Moore and Sharon Gregresh will appear in an upcoming episode of the show See it. Love it. Buy it.
Each realtor will have an episode to show a buyer three different listings to choose from. While other programs often focus on the buyer and the drama that comes with choosing a home, the show will primarily focus on the realtors.
“I’m thinking in my head, okay what parts of my life do I want to show, and it’s really quite an exhilarating experience,” said Banks, one of the selected realtors from St. Albert.
See it. Love it. Buy it. will air on Yes TV, a Canadian television channel, in the spring of 2019. The taping of the show is set to start this fall, where crews will follow each of the 13 selected realtors over a two-day period.
T.J. Lynch, executive producer with Visland Media Inc., is the mastermind behind the show. He was once a realtor himself and has starred twice in Head Hunters, a behind-the-scenes television show peering into the life of buyers as they contemplate what property to buy.
Lynch decided to make the switch from realty to television and started two other shows, Seller’s Market and Realty Reality. He’s currently working on a new show, Ultimate Agents, along with See it. Love it. Buy it.
“We’re so excited to be in Edmonton and St. Albert,” he said in a phone interview. “We’ve got a number of shows in production and (See it. Love it. Buy it.) is a natural real estate show in our portfolio.”
Realtors for the show were selected through an interview process. The executive producer held seminars about the show in both Calgary and Edmonton, two of the cities across Canada that will be featured on the program. It will also air episodes from Victoria, Vancouver, Hamilton and Toronto.
More than 50 realtors showed up for the seminar in Edmonton and those who wanted to participate stayed afterwards for an audition.
For those who have seen Lynch’s other show Realty Reality, See it. Love it. Buy it. will be similar. Each episode will feature a new realtor and a new buyer looking for a home. At the end of the episode the buyer will choose a house from three listings.
As a former realtor, Lynch wanted the show to focus more on the realtor than the buyer.
Banks, 31, started her career as a realtor three years ago at Kennedy Real Estate. She decided to go to school and get licensed to sell after a bad experience while purchasing her first home.
Not wanting to speak negatively about an industry colleague, Banks declined to give further details about her buying experience. She did say, however, she wanted to make the experience better for others.
“I really pride my business on customer service,” she said. “It’s just a matter of being with your clients every step of the way, and answering questions, maybe the same question until they understand. It is one of the biggest purchases someone is going to make and it’s nerve-wracking.”
While Banks was getting her real estate license she worked as an assistant to Jennifer Kennedy, the broker of the real estate business, who mentored Banks. When she graduated she said it was only natural that she should join the real estate team at Kennedy Real Estate.
Being a realtor isn’t for the faint of heart. Banks said people often don’t make it after five years due to burnout from the amount of time and effort that’s required to make it work.
When she first started, Banks knew she had to stand out. Instead of advertising her business as other realtors do, she decided to take it online. Her focus over the past year has been growing her social media presence.
“Every bus bench, it’s a realtor. Even on shopping carts there’s a realtor. So buyers and sellers are bombarded with a lot of real estate marketing,” she said.
Her tenacity and creativity won her a company award — called the Apple award — in 2017. Along with a glass apple, the award won her a trip to New York where she attended a realtor conference.
When Banks heard about the show, she said she felt it was an opportunity to showcase both herself and her business.
“It’s going to take a lot of due diligence on my part to understand what my client wants, I’m up for the challenge,” she said. “I will scour pictures and listings for them.”
Shandrie Lewis, realtor with Remax Professionals in St. Albert, will also be on the show.
She started as a realtor 13 years ago at Remax working under Dave Williams in 2007, who she calls the “top realtor at that time” in St. Albert.
“He was a really good mentor for me. Working for him was the way that I got some really good, quick education in real estate,” she said. “I owe a lot to him and I learned a lot in those few years I worked with him.”
Lewis, 32, received her realtor's license while getting an arts degree at the same time. When she graduated she jumped into real estate and never looked back. As a single mother with two children, she said being a realtor brings daily challenges.
“It is challenging, being a realtor takes a lot of organizational skills and a lot of multitasking,” she said. “I’ve got two little girls so that’s a major challenge. Being a realtor you have unpredictable hours – combined with being a single mom it really tests my skills.”
“But I thrive when I have a lot on my plate and a lot on the go.”
Throughout her 13-year career Lewis has won a handful of company awards, such as the Remax Hall of Fame Award and the Remax Platinum Award. She said being a realtor requires a strong work ethic and the ability to push forward through tough times, such as recessions when people aren’t necessarily buying property.
Lewis found out about the program when friends and clients tagged her on Facebook about it. She said she immediately knew she wanted to star in the show.
“I always have clients and friends asking me about my job and how I manage to do that and be a single mom at the same time, so I thought ‘why don’t I just show people?’ ” she said.
Not all of the details have been released on how her episode will be filmed, but she said she’s not nervous.
“I’m excited to be able to show people what it is that I do, and also show from a buyer’s point of view on how fun buying a house actually is, and that it doesn’t have to be anything that’s daunting or scary,” she said.
Ashley Moore, with Century 21 1st Choice Realty, is the third realtor from St. Albert who will be participating on the show. Moore started her career fresh out of high school 13 years ago. She said being a young real estate agent brought its own unique challenges to the table.
“Obviously being young, starting off in real estate, not everyone wants to work with a person that’s just fresh on the market,” she said. “I found that now that my business is more settled, I’m a bit older, I’m married now, I seem to get a lot more business.”
Moore, 30, was born and raised in Morinville and her family frequently moved between properties when she was a child. She said this is what spurred on her passion for selling and buying homes.
Moore won the Top Producer Award in a sales training seminar she took in 2017.
Moore also worked as a property manager. She said last year she decided to put managing properties on the back burner and put her focus solely on selling real estate, making it one of her most successful years to-date.
She first learned about the television show when she was tagged in a Facebook post about it. After discussing the possibility with her husband, Moore says she decided to jump in.
“It’s a big opportunity for Edmonton realtors. We haven’t had anything like this come our way. The opportunity to be on TV hopefully can give me that little bit of extra edge for my business that will put me above the rest.”
While the show doesn’t start filming until the fall, Moore says she’s excited to start. Not one to get nervous, she said she’s had plenty of public speaking opportunities that will help her on the show.
Sharon Gregresh, realtor for Century 21 Masters, is the fourth local realtor who was selected for the show. She was unavailable for an interview about by press time.
Buyers who are looking to purchase a home and who would like to be on television are encouraged to reach out to the company. They're still looking for more buyers to be matched with realtors for the show.
