Some real estate investors have grown to be quite famous outside of their niche, most notably Donald Trump, who went on to become the 45th President of the United States – can’t get bigger than that, right?
But there’s the other side of that too: our industry is historically such a nice place to obtain a return on your investment, that a lot of celebrities wind up turning to it to multiply their fortunes. It’s just… very easy for them. When a celebrity buys a house, chances are that – because of how prestigious they are – the house automatically has its value raised a little. So, by turning a regular home into a “celebrity house”, they are already making money. And if they decide to make some renovations on their celebrity house themselves… oh my God; then home buyers get even more excited about getting a piece of that celebrity taste/celebrity living. It’s like they’re magical house flippers!
On this article, we will talk about some of those stars that understood that their relationship with real estate could be more than just being owners of “celebrity homes”. Some of them have remarkable success stories, some not as much.
Brad Pitt and George Clooney
Well, life is just, so on top of being that talented and handsome, those two couldn’t be successful with real estate too! Maybe fueled by all the success they had together in the film business with their respective film companies – Plan B pictures, and Smokehouse pictures - Brad Pitt and George Clooney ventured together in real estate aiming high. They did not go the usual way of selling their novelty quirky-ly renovated celebrity homes. The just went all out and tried to develop a Las Vegas casino called Las Ramblas. Ultimately, the high cost of construction killed their hopes and dreams, and the 25 acres of land they bought in 2005 for $90 million was eventually sold to Starwood for $202 million in 2006. Which, one might say, is not bad at all, right? Yes, but, with all we said about their success, we like to think that Brad Pitt and George Clooney came out defeated on this one because their initial goal of creating a Las Vegas casino and profiting off of it forever is dead in the water. So there you have it, Brad Pitt and George Clooney! Leave Las Vegas real estate to Las Vegas Real Estate Agents and developers! Yes, they might not be as handsome as you, but, as this proves; they are much much more real estate savvy than you!
(please PLEASE God: we’ve heard Brad Pitt and George Clooney are into pranks and practical jokes; don’t let this be an elaborate heist just like the ones their characters pull in the jointly stared movie – and Las Vegas based! - “Ocean’s Eleven” and they end up building the casino in the end, making us fall flat on our faces!)
Alex Rodriguez - "A-Rod"
Former New York Yankees third baseman “A-Rod” is having a busy life ever since he retired from playing baseball. Currently enjoying high praise for his work as a FOX Sports commentator, A-Rod does make the news from time to time for buying and selling celebrity homes – the other day he bought a $15 million apartment at the world’s tallest residential tower in the world, because like most celebrities he likes to look down on us.
But, kidding aside, A-Rod is also hitting home runs in Real Estate. In 2008 he co-founded Newport Property Construction, a company specializing in multifamily unit renovation, high-end residential expansion, custom built projects and commercial construction.
Although the company is based in South Florida,New York Real Estate Agents all want to work with it, because together with his business (and current love) partner Jennifer Lopez, A-Rod has a soft spot for the place he grew up in and became a legend. For instance: aside from several multi-million dollar developments in New York, A-Rod and J-Lo are partners of Project Destined, an initiative to teach real estate to inner New York city kids. They held classes and summits in the Bronx for 50 teenagers from the 5 New York City boroughs. Their idea is to form new real estate agents, new real estate developers and what have you, taking kids off the streets, away from crime, giving them the opportunity to “rebuild” their life’s narrative. That one went out of the ballpark, A-Rod! Good one!
Jimmy Buffett
Do you know who Jimmy Buffett is? If you’re one of our younger real estate agents, chances are that you know of Jimmy Buffett because of his impressive commercial real estate portfolio of Margaritaville restaurants and lately even retirement homes. But you will be surprised to know that before all of this, he was a pretty famous singer-songwriter! Jimmy Buffett fans will get mad reading this, but he is one of the few celebrities that became even more famous for their real estate work than because of his art. What we believe is the key to his success – besides, of course, professionalism and businessmanship – is the fact that he thought of this investment as part of his art. His restaurants and the retirement homes all follow his musical universe. The imagery of his songs is noticeable from the way the servers present themselves, to the names in the menu and the overall vibe. It was all made to complement the Parrotheads’ experience. Yes, that’s the name Jimmy Buffett gave to his fans. Laugh all you want; he’s making crazy money because of them. His net worth is said to be over $550 million dollars. And growing! His retirement home has received 10,000 application in the month it was announced.
Ellen DeGeneres
Daytime queen Ellen DeGeneres has a strong celebrity house flipping game. And you know how companies are classified as business to consumer and business to business? Well, if we substitute business with “celebrity”, we could say that her specialty is business to business. Ellen has bought and sold a lot of celebrity homes: from celebrity, to celebrity.
Take a look at her celebrity clientele: Brad Pitt, Ryan Seacrest, Nick Jonas, Napster creator Sean Parker and many more. Together with her wife, actress Portia DeRossi, Ellen is constantly looking for celebrity homes to flip and turn into profit, making our business a big part of her life. So much so, she even released a book, aptly called “Home”, where she gives some advice and insight on her approach to be as successful as she is. It’s reported that she has flipped and sold more than 12 homes with a net profit of over $34 million! Nice!
Kanye West
The ever-controversial Kanye West announced he is planning to invest in real estate. But he could not do it like every celebrity, right? No, he’s not interested in celebrity homes – although he has a few of his own spread across America. Kanye West wants to be an affordable-luxury real estate developer. He has some bold plans and expectations, even saying he’s going to be one of the biggest developers of all time “like what Howard Hughes is to aircraft and what Henry Ford was to cars”. It wouldn’t be Kanye if the goals weren’t bold, huh?
We don’t know exactly what are Kanye’s plans here, but we could guess it involves new technologies like 3D Printed Homes. His aesthetics tastes – seen in his famous “Yeezy” clothing line - seem to match what is currently being done with 3D technology. So, while this one is not yet a successful (or unsuccessful) story, and people throw around the word “luxury” or “luxury real estate” with no discretion – any marble floor is enough for people to market the property as being luxury real estate - but we feel the idea is a good one and can impact the industry in a big way, bridging luxury with affordability via technology. For that, we think it’s worth to be included as a “keep an eye on this one”. Good luck, Kanye!
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