Cruces Realtors enjoy a television ‘cherry on top’

Bulletin report

Ashley Babbey Magill and her mother, Divelia “D.I.” Babbey, both associate brokers with Exit Realty, recently had their proverbial 15 minutes of fame and helped hook up a first time home owner with a house.

The Learning Channel (TLC) contacted Babbey-Magill to say they were coming to Las Cruces to film an episode of the series “My First Home” and were looking online for an agent to feature. They came across her and her mother’s profiles and gave the mother-daughter team a call.

The TLC reality show travels around the country following first-time homebuyers as they go through the exciting yet complicated, stressful and often exhausting process of finding a perfect home. According to the “My First Home” website, the show writers attempt to identify interesting people to feature, both as home buyers and Realtors.

“They thought we would be good for the show. We then had to submit an audition tape and they ended up choosing us out of three different Realtors in town,” Babbey-Magill said. A production team from TLC arrived in Las Cruces in February with a variety of vehicles, two dozen crew members and literally tons of camera equipment.

“We chose one of our clients who was a first time buyer,” Babbey Magill said. “We found the perfect home for her and her kids.”

The show filmed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for a week.

“There were some very long days,” Babbey-Magill said. “It was really fun getting to work with each other along with our client and the camera crew. We all seemed to get pretty close in just a weeks’ time.”

The younger Babbey said her favorite part of the experience was working with her mom. “It was a great experience that my mom and I got to have together. We love working together in Real Estate and this experience was just the cherry on top.”

The Babbey’s episode of “My First Home” airs at noon, Saturday, May 21 on TLC.