Exclusive: ‘Real Estate Wars’ Cast Member Describes What It’s Like for a Non-Celeb to Film a Reality Show

Going from life as a civilian to having film crews taping you all day as part of a reality television show is a surreal experience, as Bravo’s Real Estate Wars cast member Kacey Taormina can attest.

The Bravo show, which follows two groups of real estate moguls, The McMonigle Team and The Relegance Group, in Orange County as they battle it out to become the number one agency is in its first season, but Taormina has been invested in it for much longer than that.

Taormina, a commercial and residential real estate developer in Orange County, and her friend Kylie McCollough, submitted an audition tape to Bravo almost three years ago, she told PopCulture.com in an exclusive interview. The crew started filming their business dealings last July. They finished this August, and the show premiered at the beginning of October.

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“In the beginning, it’s a little weird to have a mic taped to your body and pretend that everything is normal,” Taormina said. “The hardest thing is to not want to prepare how your day is going to go.”

Taormina said to prevent cast members from talking about what they were going to say to each other while the cameras were off, they separated them prior to filming.

“It really does read as a lot more authentic that way,” she said.

Taormina, who said she appears most on-screen mid-season, is one of the dependable and stable members of the cast tasked with keeping other people in check.

“I am always, in every relationship I have, known as the neutral person,” she said. “I pride myself on not having any enemies.”

But while that makes the developer a consummate professional, she admits it doesn’t make for the best TV. In one scene fans will see this season, Taormina is confronted during an open house by a stylist with whom the developer had said she wasn’t happy with off-screen.

“I was like, ‘Can we talk about this later?’ ” she said. “But of course, the producers are not gonna let that go.”

“Being professional and always saying the right things doesn’t get you much screen time, that’s why you don’t see as much of me … yes, I recognize that I’m an entertainer, but im not an actress,” she continued.

Real Estate Wars airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. EST on Bravo.