Set the DVR, y’all. This one’s going to be good. Besties Sarah Nowak and Chauncey Pham are taking their skills of raising homes from the dead to the small screen in the Dallas edition of the A&E favorite, “Zombie House Flipping.”
Originally built around an Orlando-based team of home flippers, the fifth season of the show is already underway on A&E’s popular Home.Made.Nation and will show a mix of the new Tampa flipping team and our Dallas experts. Nowak and Pham’s debut on the show is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 28.
Nowak, an expert stager and interior designer, and agent broker Pham, owner of Phamily Capital Real Estate and Phamily Capital Partners, are joined by Pham’s husband Derek, the “money guy” who selects and buys the flip properties.
Camera crews follow the trio while they do what they’ve been doing together for years, Nowak said.
“I don’t think it’s that weird,” Nowak said of having their work lives chronicled. “You kind of forget [the cameras are] there, when you’re in the moment, working. But there’s the lead-up to that with COVID testing and having to schedule work time versus it just popping up spontaneously, getting mic’d up and all that. Overall, we’re just doing what we do.”
You won’t see any diva behavior from these Dallas girls.
“When you watch the first few episodes, because we were filming in the summer, Chauncey definitely looks more glam, because I am a sweaty bitch,” Nowak said. “As far as taking it to the level of, ‘This is Hollywood,’ none of us do that.”
The team took a break from their intense filming schedule, shooting 23 hour-long episodes up to five days a week, to talk exclusively with daltxrealestate.com.
Home Flipping in Dallas
A different home is shown in each episode, so a whole lot of houses are getting rehabilitated and will soon be on the market.
“Zombie House Flipping” has already drawn crowds in neighborhoods across North Texas as residents want to see what the fuss is all about. Pham and Nowak have remained loyal to the products and vendors they’ve always used, and while they have a lot of contact with producers and Florida flippers, they’ll be watching the Saturday premiere at the same time as the rest of us.
Production will continue through November, so episodes are being released while the crew is still filming.
“Everyone’s been really excited about it,” Pham said. “We’re coming in on an established franchise, so the expectation is high. They already have a set audience that is accustomed to a particular cast, so we’re going to have to go in and win some hearts over.”
The unique design, the banter between the Pham husband-and-wife team, and the best-friend relationship make for good TV, the Realtor explained. Plus, if you follow Pham and Nowak on social media, you already know they’re hilarious.
“As far as watching what we say, I really stuck to my guns,” Pham said. “Also, A&E tends to be a network that embraces the real reality behind what’s going on. We haven’t had to put on a facade, speak differently, or hold back curse words. That’s not really their thing. It was really important to me that if we were going to do this, that we got to be ourselves.”
While Pham and Nowak exude confidence, they’re also comfortable making fun of themselves.
“What you see on social media translates to the screen,” Nowak said.
On The Flip Side
Flipping a house can take 45 days for a “quick, easy cosmetic” or up to six months for a real zombie, Pham explained.
The team is currently working in East Dallas, North Dallas, Pilot Point, DeSoto, and Richardson. Producers were drawn to North Texas because so many people are moving to Dallas, the stars explained.
“We have one of the hardest real estate markets out there, so they started looking for talent in this area,” Pham said.
Nowak added that film days are scheduled around what might be interesting for the cameras to see, but also around the existing schedule of a flip, including design days and demolition days.
The team emphasized that their show is different from previous seasons featuring the original cast in Orlando. There’s a lot of focus on the husband-and-wife team of Derek and Chauncey Pham, because it’s the only such duo in the franchise.
“I’m going to yell from the mountaintops to watch the show,” Pham said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having confidence and knowing that you’re good at something and wanting to share it. I’m really looking to show people what we do — the good, the bad, and the ugly — and to show flipping from a different side. I think on television right now most of what you see is the glamorized side of it. I think we’re going to bring a different perspective.”
