How to Rent Your Home for Movies

Have you ever wondered how to rent your home for movies, TV shows, and commercials? I am sharing everything I have learned so you can, too!

We have been able to rent our home for movies, TV shows, and commercials for years, and it has been an incredible experience. I have learned a lot over the years. Last week, we filmed a commercial at our home, and many of you reached out for more information. I decided to share the pros and the cons (and how to get started) so you can determine if you want to rent your home for filming, too.

How to Rent Your Home for Movies

This is one of my favorite photos, as I distinctly remember that it was over 90 degrees that day, and we were filming a holiday commercial. The snow scene looks great, especially on one of Southern California’s hottest days.

We have been filming for twenty years, and it has been fun, entertaining, lucrative, and unusual. You might want to consider renting your home for the movies.

We have filmed about 15 movies, over 50 commercials, and at least 10 TV shows at our home for over twenty years. We filmed a commercial last week and a movie with Ben Affleck a few years ago.

Since moving into our home in 1998, filming has been a big part of our lives. 

First, let me share how we started renting our home for movies. Shortly after we bought our house in 1998, someone left a flyer in our mailbox asking if we would be interested in filming a movie called “Thirteen Days” with Kevin Costner. Unfortunately, we were out of town, and by the time I saw the flyer, it was too late.

But it got me thinking. Could we make additional income filming in our neighborhood? I had always seen movie trucks in South Pasadena, so I thought we might be able to do it.

I talked to some of my friends who had done filming, and they suggested that I reach out to location scouts and rep companies representing your home to anyone interested in filming. So, I printed up a flier and mailed out two hundred fliers to a list of location scouts that the Los Angeles Film Commission provided to me.

And I guess you could say, from there, it was history.

The History of Filming in Our Home

Things got crazy in the first few years. Everybody wants to film at a location when a new home becomes available in the filming market, so we filmed a lot in the early years and have filmed every year since.

We have filmed mostly commercials at our home for companies such as Esurance, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, Skittles, Ballpark Franks, the Home Depot, Williams-Sonoma, Schwab, Donato Pizza, Gogurt, Osteo BiFlex, Pillsbury, Nestle, Bank of America, Bounty Paper towels, Leap Frog, Clorox, Lands End, Wells Fargo, Sunny Delight, Linens & Things, Visa, Kelloggs, Safeway and many more.

Some TV shows we filmed include Mad Men, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, CSI Cyber, Back When We Were Grownups, American Dreams, Judging Amy, and the pilot for Disney’s Andi Mack.

Movies filmed here include The Way Back (with Ben Affleck), Raising Helen (with Kate Hudson, Joan Cusak, and Felicity Huffman), A Mighty Wind (with Eugene Levy and Katherine O’Hara), and Fired Up.

The Way Back

In December 2018, we filmed a Ben Affleck movie at our home called The Way Back. It was released on March 6, 2020. The photo above was filmed upstairs in our house! The movie can be seen here. The scene filmed in our home appears in the first five minutes.

This scene in the movie is Ben arriving at our home.

This is what our kitchen looked like while they were filming. See those lights they put in? Yikes.

And look closely at how they raised the height of the center stool. 

Look who needed to appear taller!

In the movie, a Thanksgiving scene takes place on our back porch.

I took this photo when the art department was setting up this scene.

This is a scene upstairs in our Master Bedroom.

And this is what our bedroom looks typically like.

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This is what the back of our living room looked like on the first day of filming. I am pretty sure this was where the Director of Photography hung out. Yikes!

Look whose chair I found! It was sitting right outside of my downstairs office.

Raising Helen

The movie Raising Helen was filmed at our home. The photo above was filmed in our dining room, and this video scene takes place in our living room.

They were at our home for over a week and filmed all over the house.

I have probably forgotten half of what we filmed at our home. But you have to remember that the film industry does crazy things. They often use more than one home to film a movie.

I have been told they used three different homes in the movie Father of the Bride (which was not filmed at our house, even though everyone thinks it was) – one for the front, one inside, and one for the backyard. I have included links in this post to many commercials we have filmed.

In some cases, you might not even recognize our home! They build strange things, add fake walls, paint unusual colors, and add their furniture. Often, I wonder why they even chose our home for filming since it does not look like it.

Mad Men

Look how funny our living room looks in this scene from Mad Men (season 5, episode 8). Those curtains …

This is what this room usually looks like! Can you believe the difference?

A Mighty Wind

Our family room (a dining room in this scene) is usually painted a beautiful gray-green color. But look what color they painted it for the movie A Mighty Wind – Electric blue! (Eugene Levy and Katherine O’Hara are at our table.)

I like the room painted this color a lot more.

The Home Depot Commercial

Look at the deck Home Depot added to the back of our home. They had to replace the back doors with shorter ones to accommodate the deck’s height. And the tree is fake!

The Home Depot photo looks a lot different from what our house typically looks like.

Blue Bunny Ice Cream

These animated blue bunnies (added in post-editing) running around in our kitchen are pretty cute! Not to mention the fake doggy door!

I like the door better without the doggy door, and our dog, Sport, likes our home better without the blue bunnies.

Esurance Commercial

We filmed this commercial for Esurance with Dennis Quaid a few years ago. Do you recognize our home?

They used almost all our furniture, including our dining table, chairs, vase, and flowers, for this commercial. My vintage windows hang on the right wall. 

We have only moved out of our home a few times while they were filming. We try hard to stay upstairs or on the third floor if they aren’t using the entire house. As glamorous as staying at the Hyatt or Ritz-Carlton sounds, imagine getting your car out of the valet to take your kids to school, four athletic practices, and play practice. It was not fun. Not at all.

Click here to see some behind-the-scenes footage from filming at our home.

Links to Movies, TV Shows, and Commercials Filmed in our Home

Raising Helen

Here is a link from the movie Raising Helen, which was filmed throughout our home. This scene is in our living room, and the room behind the French doors (with the curtains) is my craft room!

My favorite commercial they ever filmed at our home was the Paper Airplane Commercial. I smiled when I watched it because I had forgotten they had used our sectional—the one with the ugly flowered slipcover! Plus, it’s confusing for me to watch because they used our backyard for both backyards in the commercial.

In 2017, Skittles aired a commercial during the Super Bowl filmed at our home. You will recognize the outside of our house right away!

Here are some links to more commercials filmed at our home.

Esurance

Blue Bunny Ice-cream 

Home Depot 

Osteo bi flex 

Hallmark (different exterior) 

JC Penny 

Bank of America 

How to Rent Your Home for Movies

The first question you must ask yourself is, “Do you want to rent your home for filming?”. Sure, it’s glamorous. Allowing your house to be used for filming is a chance to meet production crews and famous actors and get a unique behind-the-scenes view of movie-making magic.

Plus, it’s very lucrative.

But it’s also very invasive. If you look closely at these photos, you know how invasive filming can be. A crew comes into your house, covers the floors, removes a lot of your furniture, adds their furniture, paints your walls, brings in a ton of filming equipment, and about one hundred people. All of this happens with your permission, but it’s still nerve-wracking.

If you are the least bit nervous about one hundred strangers coming into your home, then you probably shouldn’t do it. It’s hard until you have filmed a few times and seen with your own eyes that they can and will return your home to how it was before they showed up. But once you know the drill and realize it will be fine, it is fun and exciting.

The excellent news is that film companies do a great job putting your house back together. They take photos of every angle of your home and use those photos to put everything back in place. But things do happen. Items can get broken, and dents and scratches can appear. Over the last twenty years, we have rarely experienced any damage. On the few occasions where something has happened, the filming company has paid for all repairs.

Reach Out to Your Local Film Commission

Once you are sure you want to rent your home for movies, you need to track down your local Film Commission. I researched and found these resources and lists of all of the Filming Commissions in the United States.

Sag Indie is where you should start.

Free Film Commission List for Film and Video Productions

Contact your local film commission and ask if they have any lists of location scouts or companies in your area. Location companies and scouts keep a database of homes available for filming. Film companies contact these location companies whenever a commercial, movie, or TV show needs a location. Our house is listed with multiple location companies and scouts. 

When I first wanted to get into filming, I contacted the California Film Commission. They sent me a list of location scouts and location companies in Southern California. I put together a flier (with color photos of our home) and mailed it to about 300 location contacts. This was the start of our filming multiple times yearly for over twenty years.

I could go on and on, but I promise I won’t. We enjoyed the filming we were able to do at home. And it’s not that hard to get your home in the movies. It might just work for you and your home if you want to rent your house for movies.

Keep your eyes open. Someday, you might see my hundred-year-old home on your TV!

How Much Do You Get Paid to Rent Your Home for Movies?

This is the most common question I receive. It isn’t easy to answer because the payment varies greatly.

I have heard some people getting paid as low as $500 per day and as high as $10,000 daily.

I think the average is about $5000 per day. We get paid more than that.

These rates are for filming days. Prep days (where they set up your home) and Strike Days (where they put it back together and clean it) typically pay half of the filming rate.

The rate varies on how much filming a company can do in your home. You can likely get a higher rate if they can film multiple scenes (and do not need to use another home).

If this interests you, I suggest you find the Filming Commission in your area and at least submit your home for consideration. An opportunity may present itself and be very exciting.

You always get to decide if you want to do it or not.

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