Bravo’s "Flipping Out" star Jeff Lewis has come full circle in two seasons of the show that chronicles the life of the type A OCD perfectionist, and his entourage who comprise his professional and personal home life team.
04/26/2008 - Jeff Lewis - 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards - Red Carpet - Kodak Theatre - Hollywood, CA, USA © Glenn Harris / PR Photos
Jeff Lewis is not a cakewalk boss.
Tonight begins season two on Bravo, where the hyper-verbal entrepreneur who had made micromanaging an art form is eating a tiny bit of humble pie and realizing that working for other people is hard.
Jeff
Season two of “Flipping Out” has Lewis working with clients who dictate the order of the day, and that has been an adjustment.
Lewis' business is akin to a recon surveillance mission: He watches, stalks, tracks and goes in for the kill, in hopes to hammer the best transactional real estate deal and take a home that has potential, and make it great. Lewis then has his investment ready to sell for a decent profit.
This all sounds great, but timing is everything and currently the country is in a terrible recession, where real estate tops the list of the hardest hit vectors of the American economy.
Season two of "Flipping Out" captures this problem for Jeff, and shows his thinking around the issue and surviving the bad turn of events.
Jenni
Lewis spoke to Monsters and Critics today with his CEA (chief executive assistant) Jenni, the two effusive about their new season on Bravo, bowing tonight at 10 PM/9 C, and is analytical about where they made mistakes last season, especially for Jeff who shares his personal growth he experienced that came out of auditing his “reality” - warts and all.
He is learning from his mistakes.
I know that you make light of the obsessive compulsive disorder and it’s the hook in your show, But it’s a serious thing and it can really kind of deplete your energy. And I was wondering what coping skills you might have incorporated into your life for Season Two that we can look forward to?
Jeff Lewis: Well first of all, I never knew - I mean, what’s ironic is that it did become the hook. You’re absolutely correct in that. And I never thought it would be. But I think that, you know, after they had three months of footage and they started putting it together, it just ended up becoming a major plotline and that’s not something that we ever even discussed in the beginning.
But actually I think it’s helped a lot of people. Now for me personally, I have been in therapy for the last several months and we have talked about medication but I really didn’t want to start or try any sort of medication because I guess I’m really fearful of any sort of effects.
So for me, I’ve just been trying to eliminate the stress in my life because that - what I realized, and I just said it before in a recent interview, is that I have trouble with coping skills.
And I think if the stress is too much, then what happens is that that’s when I find that I act out or my OCD becomes even more exaggerated.
And Jenni will - she’ll tell you that she feels like the OCD is becoming worse. But...
Jenni Pulos: Yeah, April.
Jeff Lewis: I think it does - I think it has become worse as I got older. What’s interesting is I think it was very exaggerated as a child and then I think that it mellowed, but then now for some reason it’s getting a little more exaggerated as an adult.
Jenni Pulos: I think a lot of people relate to Jeff, though. We’ve had many people come up to us and say I’m just like that. I totally relate.
Jenni, how do you keep from taking things personally when he gets a little frantic and frenetic with you, and maybe borderline - I don’t want to say insulting, but you know, pushes your buttons to the point where you’re like Hey, I’m your friend here and I’m working with you?
Jeff Lewis: We just installed a punching bag and I give her permission.
Jeff and Jenni
Jenni Pulos: Did you want to let me answer or you want to keep going? know, bloom where you’re planted, April and I have a lot of respect for Jeff’s work. I’ve learned so much. But I definitely give it to, you know, I definitely give it to him. I mean, I think we have a good rapport because I will stand up to him when I think it’s inappropriate.
I do think that he has (plucked) himself in the first season. He’s definitely responding differently to - he doesn’t explode right away. He takes things now, he thinks about it and he’s responding, you know, much more effectively.
And it is a high pressure job and situation, like many jobs. But this is adult babysitting and he’s constantly having to micromanage these people.
So it’s a lot of stress and a lot of pressure on him.
Jeff, what do you like best about Jenni? What qualities of her do you love?
Jeff Lewis: I mean, honestly the first thing that comes to my mind is her work ethic. I think that Jenni and I have a similar work ethic. I mean, she’s pursuing her career. She puts 150% pursuing her career which is acting.
That’s ultimately what she’d like to be doing. But then it doesn’t really affect her work here. I mean, she’s basically working two jobs, which I have a lot of respect for someone like that.
I respect her drive and her ambition, her passion for her career but also her work ethic. And I think that’s why we get along so well.
Are you more comfortable with the cameras kind of being around you all the time?
Jenni Pulos: I don’t think there’s anything ever about reality TV that will be comfortable, to be honest. I mean, you can’t even really go to the bathroom, Jim.
Half the time I’m like oh no, the mike’s not off. I’m in the bathroom. But...
Jeff Lewis: But you’re not allowed to go before.
Jenni Pulos: Right, but Jeff doesn’t really let me go to the bathroom anyway. Work, work, work. But I think that it became easier for us this year. I think you’re going to see we’re even more ourselves. There’s even more of a comfortable sense between all of us.
I think it’s like your first child. The first year for us we were tentative. This year it’s like okay, we’re used to it more so - as much as you can be.
Jeff Lewis: Well also another thing I wanted to - that I’d like to add is that, you know, in Season One the producers, they had some control, meaning what they would do is they would stop me in the middle of the workday and ask me questions.
They call those OTF’s - on-the-fly, which I learned about last year. And so now that I’m more comfortable with the way the show came about, the way the show turned out is that now I don’t allow those things.
I mean, I’m literally now completely in control. Nobody stops me in the middle of my workday. If anything, they’re rushing to keep up with me. I don’t really have the distractions that I did last season.
As a result, I’m more comfortable in my element. I don’t have people in front of me, putting a boom or a microphone and asking me questions.
I know that the production company was trying to figure it out, but now I feel confident enough to now say look, no more interruptions during the day. You show up at 8:30, you mike me, you follow me. We’re done at 6:00, that’s it.
Jenni Pulos: This show is fast-paced this year, even more so because of that. They are - you are riding with us. You are really - you’re in it every moment.
Are there any moments from last season that you wish hadn’t been put in?
Jenni Pulos: Yeah.
the gang
Jeff Lewis: That was horrible to watch. it’s I probably should’ve taken him myself. But that’s not something I would have allowed if I was there.
And it’s just so painful to watch it over and over, and over again, especially like when Talk Soup was playing it and a lot of other - there was different - there was pictures all over the Internet. It was just - it was horrible to watch.
Jenni Pulos: It was on You Tube, yeah.
Jeff Lewis: It was horrible to watch your cat being tortured over and over again. That’s something that I absolutely wish if we could turn back the clock, I could’ve done differently.
I think there’s probably more regrets. There was some behavior that I wasn’t really proud of and that’s something that I’ve been working on changing in my life.
And, a lot of these relationships -- personal and professional -- I’ve cut out at least eight people out of my life in the last year because these people that are continually getting - the funny thing is that how off - sometimes I’ve been painted in a very negative way.
And the fact is that because I’m a nice guy, that’s why I give people seven, eight, nine chances. I don’t know many employers that do that. But I can’t do that anymore because it causes me way too much stress and anxiety to have the same mistakes happen over and over again.
I’m now letting these people go for good, but in a very professional, civil manner - not like what happens before where I wait until it’s too late and then I explode after the eleventh time they’ve made the mistake.
Jeff
I’ve kind of re-strategized and it changed the way that I’m running my business and also running my personal life. These toxic people are also being replaced with people that are more productive and effective and professional.
And as a result, we’re finding that my life - I have more personal time now because I’m not having to micromanage every single person in my life. And that has caused - that’s basically eliminated a lot of stress for me.
So you could actually - in Season Two, you can look forward to some staff changes.
Any surprises you can reveal?
Jeff Lewis: Well, I - hopefully, I’m allowed to reveal this but I was suspicious right around midway through the season. I was suspicious that there was work that was not getting done and I installed a nanny cam.
I did it to protect my home and my business. And it’s pretty shocking what I found.
Jeff, who intimidates you, or someone you may have respect for, or draw professional wisdom from?
Jeff Lewis: There’s a few people that I find a little scary. I think that I probably - yeah, there probably would be quite a showdown. But, that said, I do take a look at people like Martha Stewart and Donald Trump, and - that might be a little intimidating, but also I respect what they’ve built.
I’m the first one to be buying their books and listening every time they speak, and following their shows. So, it’s funny because I think that there’s a lot of difficult personalities out there, but it’s - I also find them interesting at the same time and you can’t help but not to listen to them because these are people that have proven success.
I look at people like Gordon Ramsay from 'Hell’s Kitchen' and sometimes his reactions are a little over the edge, as are mine.
But at the end of the day, he really knows what he’s talking about. So I can’t help but watch and listen.
What are your smallscreen guilty pleasures?
Jenni Pulos: I love Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I have to admit I have watched A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. That is a guilty pleasure.
Jeff Lewis: I watch Lost. I watch Weeds.
Jenni Pulos: Yeah, Weeds is great.
Jeff Lewis: I watch Gossip Girl.
What is the biggest mistake that you’ve come across that flippers make?
Jeff Lewis: I think the first mistake is not buying the property well and I think that we have mentioned it before where people rely on their real estate agent and they don’t do their own research. And I think that’s the biggest mistake.
I think that also it - we talk about really getting to know all the houses in the neighborhood. A lot of times I’ve walked into a house and if people don’t know who I am and a real estate agent will say to me, oh well the house across the street sold for 650 and we’re asking 450 - this is a bargain.
Well what they don’t tell you is that the house across the street is 1000 square feet bigger. It has a pool and it’s been recently redone, and that’s why it sold for 650, and that’s why it’s it’s worth that.
So I think that’s the biggest mistake. Also people - sometimes they don’t really know really what the important improvements to make are. And they put the money in the wrong places.
I’m going to give you a couple different mistakes. And then also when people don’t stick to the budget. I see people commonly put all the money in one room which is a huge mistake.
I’ll walk in and I’ll see a $40,000 kitchen, but nobody’s touched the master bath. Well guess what, your house is still a fixer.
Where do you focus your business on in LA?
Jeff Lewis: We’ve been focusing on the same cities: Hancock Park, West Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz. We just started looking in Studio City. I think that is a great area where I think there’s money to be made.
There’s about, what would you say, Jenni, seven to eight cities we focus on?
Jenni Pulos: Yeah, seven to eight. I think Los Feliz has been really big for Jeff. But branching out into the Valley and he’s done stuff in Beverly Hills - West (at even), too, right?
Jeff Lewis: No, West Hollywood is the farthest west I’ve been.
Jenni Pulos: Oh, okay. West Hollywood.
Jenni, last season you were Jeff’s favorite assistant. Have you kept that position?
Jenni Pulos: I did promote myself to CEA, which is Chief Executive Assistant. Now the promotion doesn’t go hand-in-hand with a raise. It’s just a title change.
Jeff Lewis: Or benefits.
Jenni Pulos: I think Jeff and I work well together. I think that when I’m here I’m very dedicated to him and so I think that he then is respectful of that. I want his business - I give 100% when I’m here, And try to manage another career. So it’s a lot, but I really have learned a lot about another profession. So I’m very fortunate to be able to apply this in my own career and he’s really the best at what he does.
I am still sassy this year, though, probably even sassier.
Jeff Lewis: But also in addition to CEA, I would say you’re also my therapist, my life coach, my teacher, my mommy, my wife.
Jenni Pulos: I’m still standing so there has to be something said for that.
Jeff Lewis: Though she has aged - she has aged a lot.
Jenni Pulos: I look about 35 years older. But besides that, it’s all good. No, but Jeff you’re - it’s going to be a really interesting year. I think that he has improved. He - there’s different reasons for the flip outs this year. But as far as his anger, I think it has gotten a lot better.
Jeff Lewis: I still have people, going out and getting me exactly what I want and the way that I want it. And I think actually, Jenni, is it the first episode?
Jenni Pulos: Yeah, tonight.
Jeff Lewis: The first episode, one of my orders is caught on camera which, if I was smart I probably would just keep those orders to myself because then they haunt me for the next, you know, 24 months like the lemonade order has.
Jenni Pulos: It’s close, definitely. It was funny, I went home and (road such) from last season saying you guys should just install your own soda machine. It would be so much easier and then you could do the exact balance at his home.
Are you feeling the crunch with the current market?
Jeff Lewis: I felt the crunch in 2007 and the first half of 2008. Now really what slowed the Los Angeles economy was the lender crisis because the restrictions were so ridiculous that people with money and great credit and income couldn’t get loans.
So the problem was, is that I had qualified buyers that couldn’t get a loan to buy my properties so that was a problem. And then not only that, I couldn’t get a refi to take the cash out to go buy something else.
My business halted. It just stopped for about ten months. But now I’m finding that the government has infused billions of dollars into the lending industry.
I’m starting to now see those benefits. We’re starting to see the benefits being passed to the consumers. So I’m seeing more loan programs show up. The restrictions are loosening up.
And I’m seeing the Los Angeles market - a little bit of a surge. People are out again. People are buying and properties - my properties are moving.
I was depressed for a little while, depressed for a couple months. But I kind of sat back and re-strategized, and figured out alternative ways to make money.
And then that kind of held me over until - to right now where we are and I’m just finding it easier to get funding.
A lot of people watching your show are going to be living in markets other than Los Angeles and there’s more duress and obviously the real estate market changes from city to city. What’s the best advice you can give people in these depressed markets?
Jeff Lewis: Well if they have a limited amount of money to deal with and they wanted to spruce up their house to hopefully sell it in this market, I would suggest always paint, carpeting or refinishing hardwood floors, curb appeal - so landscaping at least in the front.
Ways to save money I’ve done in the past is I put in that - just rolled out the sod, put in a sprinkler system and rolled out the sod. It’s much cheaper than plants.
So I might have almost my entire backyard as a path of sod because it’s a dollar a square foot versus spending the money on all the all the flower beds.
I think that’s a mistake when people landscape. They do all these flower beds. They don’t do enough lawn and then they end up spending all their money in plants.
It’s certainly a way to save money when sprucing up the exterior of your house. I’ve seen people just paint the front of the house. I mean, granted it’s a little - it’s not something I would do but I’ve seen people just paint the front of their house like the same color, give it a fresh new coat.
I’ve seen people just paint the trim. And I think in regards to the - the kitchen is the most important room in the house. We all know that. Master bath is next and then what I’ve noticed is that closet space...Master closet. and any time, unfortunately, people don’t necessarily - they don’t look at the systems in the roof as adding value, but it certainly does.
I think it’s important to price your house right even if it means - people keep focusing on what their house used to be worth a year and a half ago.
So they see themselves as losing money by pricing it any less. But I think if you don’t price your house really well - you’re going to have to price it probably lower than most of the houses in the neighborhood so yours goes first because you have all this inventory and not as many buyers anymore.
You want your house to move first. So even if it’s the nicest house on the street, it should also be the best price because people think that they can go in and do what you’ve done.
So for example, if your house is 350 and the house next door is 300 but you just spent 100 redoing it, people don’t realize that. They’re going to go buy the one next door thinking that they can do what you’ve done for $17,000. And it’s simply not true.
The one thing I do want to mention is - which I found out recently, which I was shocked about is that, people keep pushing these short sales where, the situation is if you owe 250 but your house is worth 200 right now in today’s market, you go back to the bank and you negotiate.
And you have the bank take a $50,000 loss. But what I realized is that is a huge mistake. You’re better off letting it go in foreclosure because it still will take as much time -- I think it’s about seven years -- to repair your credit with a short pay that it would do - that it would take with a foreclosure.
But here’s the catch - the bank will issue - they look at that $50,000 loss - so if you would negotiate a short pay with the bank, they look at it as income and what happens is you’re going to have to pay taxes on that $50,000 that you’ve negotiated with the bank versus letting it go in foreclosure then, and just letting the whole house go back to the bank. Then you will not have to pay income.
It’s really, really important. I think most people don’t know that. They think they’re doing the right thing by doing a short pay and negotiating with the bank. They think they’re saving their credit and they’re not.
Wow, interesting to know. Going back to a few previous questions, I’m in Calabasas and I know that you focus on all the ritzy parts of LA: Hancock Park and Beverly Hills. But there’s so many cool LA neighborhoods like Silver Lake and Atwater Village. What are some of the unsung neighborhood heroes of Los Angeles for the people in Southern California for you to mention?
Jeff Lewis: You know, I’ve been looking more and more in Encino and Sherman Oaks. I think you get more for your money there. I - like I mentioned before, I love Studio City. There’s some interesting little celebrity enclaves that I don’t think most people know about. And I also - I do like Silver Lake. I notice more people are going into Eagle Rock.
I actually really love Calabasas. I was there this weekend.
Jenni Pulos: Yeah, we were just talking about Calabasas. That’s so funny.
Jeff Lewis: But we - like Jenni had mentioned, we are now going over the hill to the Valley where I just see there’s - you get a lot for your money. I think there’s a lot of value and there are a lot of homes that need to be redone where you can add value.
But that said, if a real estate agent calls me from Pasadena and says I have a great deal, I’m in the car looking.
How are you adjusting to working for someone else who is difficult?
Jeff Lewis: I find the whole thing humorous because, you know, there’s no coincidences in life. I mean, I do believe I was to work for this woman for a reason and she makes me look like a kitten.
I mean, she is - she was real rough, real abusive. She - like I said I mean, it’s just very funny that I end up working for this woman and I absolutely take a look at the way that I’ve treated people in the past after I’ve been through this experience.
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