Hallelujah, children! We can all breathe a deep sigh of real estate relief. It only took 2.5 years, two seasons of Flipping Out, and more price chopping than goes on at Benihana's on a bizzy Saturday night, but reality tee-vee's favorite obsessive-compulsive house flipper Jeff Lewis has finally–finally!–unloaded his personal residence in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles for $2,325,000.The two-story 3,024 square foot hillside house located at the tail end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the star studded Oaks neighborhood served as the home of Mister Lewis and his sassy housekeeper Zoila as well as his office where he teased, berated, and sometimes humiliated his staff while the Flipping Out cameras rolled.
Property records reveal that the gated 1960s post and beam contemporary was purchased in March of 2007 for $1,710,000. The plan then was for him and his then b.f.f. and bizness partner–that would be nice gay interior decorator Ryan Brown–to give the place the ol' Jeff Lewis stamp and flip it back on the market with a huge mark up. It sounds sort of silly now, this huge mark up thing, but back in the mid-2000s flipping houses at huge profits was easy money, particularly in LaLa Land where home buyers were foaming at the mouth with fear that if they didn't act fast–and pay a premium–they would soon be priced out of the market and unable to buy a house.
Anyhoo, Misters Lewis and Brown first listed the 3 bedroom and 3.5 pooper property–which has what listing information once called a "diva walk-in closet–back in April of 2008 with an obviously optimistic asking price of $3,195,000. Your Mama dissed and discussed the rehabbed residence when it was listed at $2,995,000.
Sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, the two men publicly parted ways under less than amicable terms–while the Flipping Out cameras rolled–and shortly after their professional dee-vorce sole ownership of the property was shifted over to Mister Lewis. Many more price reductions–and even a price increase–followed and at least two deals swirled down the real estate terlit until September of 2009 when the asking price bottomed out at $2,295,000. By June of 2010 the asking price had, somewhat inexplicably crept back up to $2,495,000.
One wonder if in this still sagging real estate climate if Mister Lewis will settle into one of the apartments in one of his investment properties in order to save to dough, buy a permanent home for him and his housekeeper, or if he'll buy and live temporarily in a house he intends to flip. Whatever he chooses to do, chances are we'll see it played out on the next season of Flipping Out.
