This lifestyle real estate show is visiting two Pierce County cities. Here’s how to watch
Lights, camera, action. “Selling Seattle” is back in Pierce County, but this time it has two familiar faces.
The show “Selling Your City” on American Dream TV started in 2014 in San Diego. Now it showcases local real estate and communities across the nation.
Each state in the U.S. has its own local show, if not more than one. “Selling Your City” is in its eighth season. Washington has “Selling Spokane” episodes as well “Selling Seattle” episodes.
Pierce County residents will see familiar sights in “Selling Seattle.”
The hosts don’t just explore the city of Seattle. Pierce County cities have been featured in the past for segments in Tacoma and Gig Harbor.
There are 29 hosts of “Selling Seattle” who are all real estate brokers across the Puget Sound and its nearby communities.
In previous years, brokers who explored Gig Harbor on the show were not local. This season, a Gig Harbor local will take over Gig Harbor’s segments in the “Selling Seattle” episodes.
Although the show is hosted by real estate brokers, it focuses on “lifestyle, community, culture, and a splash of real estate,” according to the new host, Julia Runyan.
Runyan is a Gig Harbor real estate broker and owner who will shoot around the harbor to show viewers what it’s like to live in this maritime town. This is her 35th year in real estate.
She grew up on Wollochet Bay in Gig Harbor, but recently moved to Vaughn on the Key Peninsula with her husband, Mike. When asked if she’ll also showcase the Key Peninsula on the show, she said absolutely.
She attended Peninsula High School for two years, and once Gig Harbor High School opened in 1979 she spent her last two years of high school there. She was part of the GHHS graduating class of 1981.
She can speak to what it’s like to live, work, and play west of the Narrows Bridge.
Runyan is part of one of Gig Harbor’s longtime families, the Bujacichs, who arrived over 100 years ago, she told the Gateway Wednesday, Jan. 17.
She said her grandfather, Jake Bujacich Sr., built the Bujacich Netshed. The netshed is now co-owned by his son Jake Bujacich Jr., who is Runyan’s uncle.
Netsheds are iconic wooden structures and docks that sit over the water, built by Croatian immigrants who were fishermen. They started to appear and take over the Gig Harbor waterfront as early as 1910, the Gateway previously reported.
They provided fishermen and boat crews a place to “mend nets, repair their boats, provide a gathering place between fishing seasons, and perform other jobs necessary to get their boats ready for the next venture at sea,” according to a Harbor History Museum blog post.
Runyan said she’d love for her second segment to focus on the fishing history of the harbor and explore the netsheds.
In her episode that aired Jan. 13, Runyan stopped by and filmed at the Harbor History Museum as she spoke with its director, Stephanie Lile, about the iconic Narrows Bridge and Galloping Gertie’s Collapse. They also spoke about the Gig Harbor Midway School, which was one of the city’s earliest schools. It’s since been restored by the Gig Harbor Rotary Club.
“Now, we use it for our Midway School Program,” Lile said. “It’s a wonderful program for kids in third, fourth, and fifth grade. They come and dress up in pioneer clothing and step back in time as if it’s 1915.”
Runyan also walked through a waterfront home on Henderson Bay that was the 2018 HGTV Dream Home.
Orting debuts on ‘Selling Seattle’ on American Dream TV
In the same episode, the city of Orting had its debut on American Dream TV, also with a local host.
Dawn Heilbrun is an Orting real estate broker and owner.
She was “born and raised in the PNW area,” and is in her seventeenth year of real estate, according to her website. She opened her Orting office in 2007. In the last two years, she also became licensed to sell homes in Mexico.
In her first episode, Heilbrun showed off The Oliver, an event space; Tim’s Kitchen, a restaurant; and Scoop There It Is, an ice cream shop — all in Orting.
She also introduced Orting Mayor Joshua Penner to talk about the city’s history and new developments.
Heilbrun ended her segment with lunch from Los Pinos in Orting, a Mexican restaurant that has served the community for over two decades. Heilbrun sat down with the owner, Clemintina Perez, who told her story of coming from Mexico and making her dream come true by opening Los Pinos.
Heilbrun told the Gateway Friday that spotlighting women entrepreneurs is very important to her.
“Selling Seattle” episodes drop three times a month, according to American Dream TV. Both Runyan and Heilbrun have a contract to host one episode every other month.
You can watch their first episode at https://theamericandream.lightcast.com/player/27991/599028. The other hosts in that episode went around Seattle, Kirkland and Olympia.
The next time each of them will appear on American Dream TV will be for a March episode.
Heilbrun just wrapped filming for her second segment in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. That segment will also air on “Selling Seattle.”
“We centered it around a humanitarian event that they do here every year,” she said in a phone interview with the Gateway from Mexico. “We also featured a really exclusive restaurant here as well.”
For her third segment in May, Heilbrun will be back to shoot another Pierce County location, she said. Which town she’ll visit hasn’t been determined.
Other ways to watch American Dream TV
You can download The American Dream Network TV app through AppleTV, Amazon Fire and Roku to stream episodes.
American Dream TV says it will soon offer episodes on Tubi, Amazon Prime, and Youtube TV.
Episodes can also be found on their website at AmericanDreamNetwork.tv, on Vimeo, and on their Youtube Channel.
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
