Belize Real Estate Agent Aiming for 'Paradise Hunter' TV Gig

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After two weeks of voting, Belize agent Macarena Rose is leading a competition to host a new TV series under development by an online vacation property site.

ParadiseHunter.com is encouraging people to send in audition videos, which are posted on the firm's Web site. The dozens of submissions range from the hilarious to surreal, making for fun viewing, if nothing else.

In her video, Rose, the past president of the Belize National Association of Realtors, offers a tour of a local market and a river in the Cayo District, the inland region where she lives. The video closes with her leading a room of locals in the Macarena dance.

"My motto is just do it," says Rose, who moved to Belize from the U.S. six years ago "with 10 animals and a teenager."

At the moment, Rose's has 4,675 votes, a slim 150 votes ahead of "Carlyn" of Alberta, Canada. But they are a full thousand votes ahead of third place, "Bengamble" of New Brunswick, Canada.

The winning host will be paid $60,000 a year and offered property "worth up to $150,000" in the country of their choice, the site says. (If $150,000 doesn't buy the house of their dreams, they can use the equivalent for vacation rentals through the site.)

Ultimately, voters will only hold limited power in the selection process, Paradise Hunter makes clear in the fine print. Of the 40 applicants chosen for "phase two," only 10 will be chosen by voters. Voters will then choose five of the 10 finalists, at which point it sounds like Paradise Hunter will decide for themselves who gets the job.

Rose, who is also an N.A.R. instructor and certified international property specialist, is on something of p.r. binge these days -- she was recently featured in an episode of House Hunters International.

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