‘Zillow Gone Wild’ Shows Off America’s Wildest and Wackiest Homes

A social media phenomenon

It all started in late 2020, when we were bored and spending time confined to our own homes. Then the Instagram account Zillow Gone Wild started feeding us imagery of delightfully bizarre homes, and we were hooked. Many were seemingly ordinary on the outside but shocking on the inside, like the 12,089-square-foot home built on top of an underground miniature town, the one with a replica of the Oval Office and another containing an extraordinary number of taxidermized animals. With each post, the follower count grew across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), gaining traction almost immediately, says Samir Mezrahi, who created the brand and newsletter.

“It just really blew up and hit the world at the right time,” says Mezrahi, who is an executive producer for the HGTV show. The houses filmed hadn’t been previously posted on the social media accounts and were chosen using different criteria — HGTV’s primary focus is on the unusual and side-eye inducing. The featured dwellings could easily be home to an old-world vampire or a modern TV buff. Expect a Las Vegas pirate lair, a decaying and decadent New Orleans historic home and a wholesome Hollywood Disney princess cottage. There’s also a Midwest bastion and a desert compound that evokes the Tatooine sets of Star Wars.

“The TV series, I think, just really elevates [the Zillow Gone Wild social media accounts]. A lot of what I’m doing is the listings,” Mezrahi says. “With Jack being an amazing host, he takes it to another level, actually touring the homes, talking to the homeowners or agents … telling a better story of why the home is the way it is,” Mezrahi says. “Photos don’t do the homes justice in really being able to get the sense of scale and layout.”

Realtor Aimee Ashe shows McBrayer the beauty of this 1860's New Orleans home.

Courtesy HGTV

Something for everyone

In one episode, Realtor Aimee Ashe, who works with her mom, Liz Ashe, in New Orleans, walks McBrayer through a ghostly New Orleans cottage that was built in 1860. The home appears as though in active disrepair, with exposed beams and wallpaper and paint at various stages, as though someone tired of the projects midway and left. But there’s a gothic beauty to it as well, and it serves as an event space for weddings and parties.

“This is a step back in time — a design choice,” says Ashe. “The seller is a historic renovator, and when they purchased this house, [they] saw the beauty that it could be, and that it once was.” Vines cascade from the ceilings and the yard boasts a beautiful private pool. And for $1,450,000 it can be yours.

The listings featured on Zillow Gone Wild are the combined product of myriad professional architects, contractors and decorators, as well as the homeowners themselves. Whether the show will influence new builds and renovations is yet to be seen, though at least one architect is ready.

Lindsay Woolf, lead architect at New Orleans, Woolf Architecture & Interiors, shares that many of her clients have unusual requests, such as hidden nooks and crannies, inverted umbrellas as light fixtures and outdoor labyrinths — but nothing yet that would ascend to the level of Zillow Gone Wild.

“If a client came to me after watching Zillow Gone Wild, I would absolutely be interested in creating something unique for them,” she says. “I certainly think bizarre ideas featured on the series could influence design trends.”

Each home on the show is judged by the Wild Dial, three gauges that measure creativity, commitment and wackadoo. (Yes, wackadoo!) Viewers are encouraged to actively participate by entering a contest to correctly guess the craziest house out of the eight finalists to be crowned the Wildest House on the penultimate episode, airing June 21.

“We want this to be celebratory and exploratory, a positive experience for both the viewer and the people we’re engaging with [the homeowners],” says McBrayer. “I think it’s just human nature to be curious to see how other people are living.”