Transcript of Behind the Scenes of Celebrity Real Estate

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I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. The best business tool out there isn't productivity software. Software, your corporate card, or even your phone. It is confidence. And Dylan Eckart has that in spades. Dylan is a real estate agent, one of the cast members of HBO Max's selling the Hamptons, and the self-proclaimed Prince of Montag. He He grew up in Montauk, and so the Hamptons has become his real estate area of expertise. But he also works in LA, and honestly, you get the impression that he has properties everywhere. Today, we talk about where he gets his confidence, and I get his take on some controversial stories in the real estate world, from Jeff Bezos to Diddy, Mariah Carey, and everyone in between. When he tells the stories, I can't honestly tell if he's bluffing, so I dig everything he says with a grain of salt. But I hope the Mariah Carey story is true, because honestly, I fell in love with her a little bit more after this. For all the celebrity real estate tea, here's Dylan. Dylan Eckert, welcome to Money Rehab.

Better than going to rehab, right?

Have you ever been to real rehab? No. Have you ever needed money rehab?

Definitely not good with money. Why do you say that? What someone said to me a long time ago, Dylan, you've got an addiction, a bad addiction of spending money, but you have a better addiction of making money. So at the same time, it keeps me moving. I've always wanted the best. I grew up in Montauk. Montauk was a small fishing town with a drinking problem. Before, as they said, I sold it out. But it was a small town with a drinking problem, the Hamptons. Now it's a small drinking town with a yuppie problem. The yuppies, I don't know if you guys use that word on the West Coast, but yuppies is like young, urban, rich. But we had learned to adapt. When you grew up in a town like I grew up in the Hamptons, 12 months a year, it's a cool Memorial Day to Labor Day. Don't get me wrong. But come day after Labor Day, we call it Tom Tumblewee Tuesday, because the last day is Monday. Tumblewee Tuesday means back to normal. My graduating class was eight kids. My graduating high school class was 36 kids. Now it's turned into a year-round residence.

When did you start making money?

Straight off I've always had a hustler's mentality, but I've always been that person where people would come to the Hamptons and need to know where to go, what to do. My mother had a restaurant, so people always were like, Can I get a reservation? Can I get this? Can I get that? Finally, I was like, All right, enough is enough. How much am I going to do for that? I hate to say it right now. I know it's a horrible touchy subject, but Diddy was the first person to tell me about taking equity over money. What I was doing was selling hotel groups. I would sell a hotel in Malletalk for 50 million. Instead of taking money, I would take equity. I would own 0.0001%, restaurant, surfletch, 0.0001%, and I would take equity in a lot of the deals I did.

Was Diddy your client?

I did two Diddy's house.

Obviously, he's in the news for horrific stuff. He was also in the news about his real estate recently.

He tried to leverage it for bail.

Well, he paid off his mortgage because right in Florida, there's the Homestead Act that they can't take it away if he pays all of it off.

Well, he also used that to try to bail himself out. He tried to put that as collateral.

Who's your favorite celebrity to work with?

Myself.

You think you're a celebrity?

I think I'm infamous. I think that I'm that guy. I think that I do turn dreams into reality. I think everyone's famous in their own mind.

So besides you, you've worked with so many. From Justin Bieber.

Justin, Kanye, Post Malone this year, Dre, London. I did Selena. I did Rihanna. I like Justin. He's pretty business, pretty heads off. I like people that trust other people.

Like not a micromanager.

Not a helicopter.

Who's the craziest celebrity? We can bleep it out.

I don't give a fuck. Kind of.

Why?

We're both a lot alike. We're both a little manic. He got a ball. He don't even sign for his own shit. He's a lot to deal with.

You also helped Mariah Carey find a rental in the Hamptons, right?

Yeah, it turned into a say. I got a job for that one. I was listing a house for 50 million in the Oyeak.

Hamptons of Jason?

Yeah, Jason. I love that word. Mariah, this is a great story, actually. I got a phone call, and it's like, Hey, Dylan, it's MCAP. I'm like, Where are you? I'm like, All right, cool. They're like, Oh, Jay Mercadeza gave me your phone number. Who owns Surf Lodge? I was like, All right, cool. They're like, MCAP. I'm like, Are we a DJ? What's going on? I got time for this shit. I'm quick on the phone. I don't deal with bullshit. I was like, All right, it's Mariah. I said, Mariah who? She's like, Mariah Carey. I'm like, All right, cool. I'm like, FaceTime me. She's like, I'm not going to FaceTime me. I could hear it, and I'm, I'm stuck. I said, I'm like, Then I don't have time for this. I'm hanging up the phone. I thought it was someone fucking with me. And phone calls back. Hey, Dylan, this is Fran. I represent Mariah Carey. I said, All right, cool. Listen, I got time for this shit. I'm busy. I'm running around. They're like, She needs a house in the Hamptons. She's going to perform yada, yada, yada at this place. All right, cool. I'm like, Mariah is not performing in the Hamptons because the only live music venues I own.

So I doubt that. But I'm going to hang up again. Now, the owner of the live music thing, Jayma calls me. She's like, Dylan, Mariah has been reaching out to me. Now I call them back. Now they're not answering. Finally, a picture sent of Mariah giving me a finger. I'm like, All right, cool. We ended up linking up. It was the worst fucking deal in my life. First of all, when she left that house, she left 150 Diet Coke cans in that house. The whole house had to be fumigated because there was so much perfume smell in the house. She took every mattress from the whole house and put it in the master bedroom. I understand if you have kids, you want to sleep next to you on the floor, but not 12 mattresses. The Diet Coke cans were everywhere. The whole house had to be fumigated when she left because of perfume smell.

She basically trashed the house? Yeah. How much does she rent this house for?

Not enough.

Why is it the worst deal you've done?

Because I had to pick up 150 Diet Coke cans.

You personally did Yes. Do you still work with her? Yes, I do. It's not always the case that being a celebrity will sell your house, right?

It brings attention to the property and your increase is about 18% to 35% extra because there are a lot of star fuckers out there.

You saw the Michael Jordan house in Chicago. That's Chicago.

It took a decade. It took a decade. It still lost. But then again, Michael was staying on a number. The reason celebrities don't want you to use use their name to sell their house is because they don't want people to think they're going broke. They don't want people to think they're in financial problems and having to sell their house.

But that's not the only reason you sell a house.

That's a lot of times you think of that. Oh, Selena Gomez selling her house in Enzino. She must be going broke.

Or she might be trading up.

First thing you think about, though, in your head is why she's selling your house? Is she in financial problems?

What's the biggest super fan you've seen buy their idol's house?

I think it's Bo Bellwood, who had just sold Kanye West's house. I think it's a really tough one to buy. Matsuyo, the designer that designed it. But Kanye took this house and ripped all the windows, all the doors. I'll show you videos of what it looks like right now. No windows, no doors, and tried to make that a full Bunker. No windows, no plumbing, no electric, no anything. He ripped it all.

Sounds great for resale.

No, the town said, Are you fucking nuts? So he sat it there for four years as a maustrosity. And now you have neighbors. Everyone's like, What the fuck are we doing here?

Wasn't there the story out of Florida where there's a seller suing Douglas Elliman for the house that Jeff Bezos bought?

That's a crazy thing.

So basically, what happened is that they were approached to take a few million off. I think that it was listed for 85, and then it sold for 79. He asked the CEO of Douglas Elliman if the buyer was Bezos, and they said no. Now he's pissed that he gave it at a discount.

First of all, you don't have to That's close. That's confidence.

I'm on team Bezos for this one.

Obviously, why wouldn't you be? Whoever's buying a house should not matter if you're worth 100 million or you're worth 100,000. Because it is him, they're upset because they lost a few million. First of all, the house, I believe, was worth 73 million. If that. So what? That's like saying that if you see me pull up in a Ferrari, that you're going to charge me extra than if I pulled up in a Prius. It's the same scenario. It shouldn't matter what you are, who how much money you have, it's what the property is worth and how quick they're willing to sell. That was all much to be lucky they got that fucking deal. Because I don't believe the deal was worth it.

The first time we talked, you really went through your bona fides around real estate. You gave me a really great elevator pitch. I was very impressed.

What it is, is people look at me and they don't Google me. I'm tatted up. I drive a bulletproof car, and I'm very... I guess it comes across as arrogant, but I would say it's just a little bit of... I'm insecure, so I covered it up with that. It's like, Oh, here's my guard up. All right. You could pick on the prince, but Dylan is Dylan Eckart, who I really am. He's very scared.

What are you scared of?

Everything.

That's why I'm curious, because you really gave me this pitch, which I thought was so persuasive and also so confident. I think a lot of people don't know how to pitch themselves. It's an alter ego.

That's what it is. That's the Jekyll and Hyde. I demand excellence. I give excellence in business. I'm that guy. There's no one better than me in real estate. There isn't because it is, I don't stop. What I say is we could sit in a room together, you and me. Let's say there's three people here. You're going to try to sell your house. You say it's worth $20 million. Altman's going to say, Okay, I'll list it for $20. I'm not that dude. I'm not going to list it for $20 because I'm an analyst. So I know it's worth $16.5. So am I going to say this? I'm going to say, Listen, I'll get you $17 million for the house. I don't want to list. I'm not going to sit in an open house, hand out fucking waters and fucking cookies, and walk it through a three-bedger house. I'm not doing that. I'm going to show you what it is and how it's done. And you know what it was? Over the years of being a party boy and always being out, people used to always approach me. I used to wear shirts that said no pictures or humble with a hint to Kanye.

Because I always wanted that give or take attention, but I've always got it because I'm, Fuck you, good-looking. I serve really well and I'm super connected. So I've always had that thing. But I used to do this is when people would say, How much is my house worth? And I'm at at SurfLogic, 2:00 in the morning. Oh, 6 million. The next day, I get the call. Hey, Dylan, it's Jonathan. You said my house was $6 million. I'd love to list it with you. I'm like, Yeah, what house was that? Then I'm running numbers. So when people say, All right, I'm looking for this, and they're going to use a regular agent, I don't give a Fuck if it's Tracy Tudor, Josh Holman, fucking Frederick, anyone, Eric Kirkman, any of the big boys. They're going to take time to find this. I'm not. I'm going to already have it in my Rolodex. When I use the word Rolodex, because I am old school, I cheat real estate like stock market in in the eighth. When it's high, we sell. When it's low, we buy. I deal with a lot of developers and a lot of funds where people allow me to deal with 50, 60 million dollars of their money as long as I'm giving me back a 20% return.

I never fail.

All right, Dylan. We end our episodes by asking all of our guests for a money tip that listeners can take straight to the bank.

Never use your own money. Other money is cheap right now, and you can always refinance and pull out and then pay off. Use other people's money. Use your 10, 20 100% debt of yours. Take a hard money loan or take a mortgage on the property. You can always refinance that and pull money out more than it's worth.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your moneyquestions, moneyrehab@moneynewsnetwork. Com, to potentially Have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram @moneynews and TikTok @moneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make..