4 Influencers on What It’s Really Like to Entertain Without HGTV
Reality television fans who used to tune in to see Ty Pennington scream, “Move that bus!” before revealing a dramatic home makeover no longer have to wait a week for new material.
Thanks to content creators with a home design niche, there’s a new flip to be found around every corner of the Internet.
Of course, home renovation shows are still alive and well, but viewer behavior has shifted, and the definition of “watching television” has stretched to include all kinds of viewing.
According to an October 2025 Deloitte study, 41% of surveyed users across age groups consider the act of watching social media videos and streaming services to be “watching TV.” What’s more, 44% of millennial respondents and 58% of Gen z respondents admit to spending more time consuming social media content than cable and streaming.
While the lift has gotten lighter on the consumer side of the equation—fresh entertainment is just a swipe away any time of day—influencers say the creation of content is much more strenuous than expected.
Viewers may assume that because the content is comparatively lo-fi to the highly-produced series on HGTV, the work is simple, too. But transforming a home while living in it—and capturing and editing all the footage to tell a minute-long story—is a completely different beast.
While the rules of engagement differ from one HGTV series to the next, it’s not uncommon for the homeowners of a project to vacate the premises and stay in a hotel while a crew gets to work. Another crew comes in to capture the footage, and then a production team weaves together a story.
For influencers, it happens under one roof, and it’s usually a one-person show. Below, four influencers speak exclusively to Realtor.com® to reveal what it’s really like to open their homes to the world.
Influencer homes aren’t really as neat and tidy as they appear in-feed
“This has been the most incredible and rewarding job I’ve ever had, but I’ve also never worked harder in my life,” says Amber, a self-proclaimed “DIY design gal” who posts under the handle West on Willow, encouraging followers to transform their homes into spaces they love as she turns a condo she was unsure she even wanted into her dream home.
Amber says the hardest part of her job is “living among the chaos.”
“Since I don’t have an abundance of storage, or a garage, most of the time, everything I’m working on ends up right in the middle of my living room,” says the Chicago-based creator.
Anthony Immediato, a home and lifestyle influencer based in New York City, has built a platform sharing his moody, vintage-inspired apartment. The art-deco space is polished and perfectly-curated… at least online.
“I imagine that most people think that our homes are always perfectly clean and perfectly styled, when that certainly is not the case,” says Anthony, who sometimes finds himself tidying up before filming.
“A lot of the time, my apartment is cluttered and lived-in like most people’s are.”
Brand partnerships and gifted products make it even harder to maintain a pristine place.
“I find myself occasionally having more furniture than I know what to do with in my one bedroom apartment,” Anthony confesses. “It’s either pieces that I need to film for a brand, or vintage pieces that I plan on upcycling and replacing an existing piece of furniture that’s already in my home.”
Still, Anthony knows it’s not a bad problem to have.
“The point is that my home isn’t always as ‘perfect’ as it seems online,” he shares.
While HGTV Stars Are Established Pros, Content Creators Learn As They Go
The hosts of HGTV’s most popular shows are generally already established professionals, ready to use their expertise to solve a problem. Content creators bring the same main character energy, but are often developing their skills as they go, taking followers along for the ride.
“When I first started working on my home, I didn’t have any experience working with power tools or designing interiors,” admits Renee Bruner, a self-taught renovator boasting 627,000 Instagram followers.
Renee initially set out to share her home renovation online, inspired by creators she watched before buying her own home.
“Watching them fix up their homes all by themselves gave me the confidence to buy a fixer upper and give it a go, too,” she explains.
Renee set out to share her content as a “personal renovation diary,” but now, she says she “inspires others to try hard things, too.” She’s learned so much along the way that she now offers a course where she teaches beginners how to tackle their own DIY projects.
Amber shares a similar sentiment, noting that she felt encouraged to take the plunge after watching creators take a similar journey. She started with small furniture flips before moving on to projects she admits she “had no business attempting at first.”
Like Renee, Amber’s project documentation has become something more inspirational over time. She’s come to learn the process is “actually the most important part to share.”
“Being someone who had no idea what they were doing in the beginning… I want people to know that’s where I started,” Amber says. “To this day, I still mess up, and that’s okay!”
It’s a two-way street, with many creators saying they learn from their audience, too. Through comments and direct messages, they often pick up tips and tricks.
“Hearing people’s stories, thoughts, and experiences has helped me learn along the way,” says Amber, adding that the people who engage with her work have “quite literally” changed her life.
“I guess we’re all just one big learning crew, trying to make our spaces a little more fun,” she adds.
For a solo homeowner like Renee, an audience can serve as a solid second opinion.
“It’s so nice to have a sounding board,” says Renee, noting that she often takes her followers’ advice and applies it to future projects. But she takes engagement with a grain of salt.
“I have to balance that by staying true to my design aesthetic and vision for my home. I always love it when my audience questions a project and my vision… and then they see the reveal and completely change their minds.”
Tripods, ring lights, and editing apps do the work of a full production crew
When the contractors and interior designers of reality television roll up their sleeves on site, their main priority is getting the project done. For influencers, it’s a soup to nuts job.
Joel Moore-Hagan is a lifestyle creator who has chronicled his home renovations for more than 232k followers across platforms. Long obsessed with “before and after” content, his work has evolved over time from renter-friendly personalizations in a Brooklyn apartment to “floor-to-ceiling” renovations in his first home in Georgia.
“I’m not complaining because I love what I do, but being a content creator in general is just exhausting and very time-consuming. I feel like people don’t understand how much work goes into planning content before even executing it,” says Joel. “A 30-second video could take two days of planning, especially if it’s home content.”
Having moved onto larger-scale projects, Joel has found that more detailed pieces of content yield more questions, from inquiries about where decor was sourced to comments asking about the type of paint used.
Renee creates short-form clips as well as longer serialized content for YouTube.
“The home renovation space is tricky in that you’re often condensing 20-plus hours of footage into a one-minute clip to showcase a project,” she says. “The editing process itself always takes at least two hours for a short video. Yikes. And for a 15-minute YouTube video? Editing takes me at least an entire day.”
Amber is also running a one-woman show—adding “project manager, videographer, copywriter, editor, photographer” to her umbrella title of “content creator.”
Juggling those tasks can actually make the design work she’s capturing take even longer.
“I think most people don’t realize that filming your work doubles the time a project takes,” Amber says.
The work continues even after tapping “publish.”
“When a video performs well, I always analyze it and pinpoint why I think it did better than my other shots,” says Anthony. “Was it the opening shots? Was it the timing? The sound? The topic?”
Reality TV is more of a side quest than the end goal
Every influencer has their own reason for wanting to share their lives with the world, but surprisingly, landing a spot on TV doesn’t really seem to be a driver. They don’t see content creation as a pipeline to an HGTV credit.
“Home renovation reality TV shows are my ministry,” says Joel, citing “Sin City Rehab” as his favorite. “But I’m not sure if that’s in my cards.”
“If I had any other career change, I would love to start my own interior design company,” he adds. “People always ask me to decorate their home, but I need the coin to match.”
Anthony also speaks spiritually of Home and Garden Television.
“I used to watch HGTV religiously when I was younger,” he says, explaining he’s less familiar with the current slate of titles as he watches less TV than he used to.
Anthony wouldn’t turn down the right opportunity to be on television if given the chance, but it’s not what he’s aiming for, either.
“For now, I love that I get to share my home and parts of my life online everyday. But eventually, I think I want to create some sort of brand that reflects myself and my design style,” he says.
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