Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Behind the Scenes of Celebrity Real Estate
Episode Date: November 13, 2024What do Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Post Malone have in common? Dylan Eckardt, real estate agent, star of Selling the Hamptons and "Prince of Montauk." Dylan has become a staple of luxury real estate, ...and today, he tells Nicole everything we want to know— plus, where he gets his confidence.
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I'm Nicole Lapin, 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, your corporate card, or even your
phone.
It is confidence.
And Dylan Eckhart 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 Montauk.
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 take 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 Eckhart, 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?
Well, someone said to me a long time ago,
Dylan, you've got an addiction, a bad addiction to 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. And I grew
up in Montauk, Montauk was a small fishing town with a drinking problem. Before, yes, they said
I sold it out, but it was a small town with a drinking problem in the Hamptons. Now it's a small drinking town with a yuppie problem.
And 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 Labor Day,
day after Labor Day, we call it Tumbleweed Tuesday,
because the last day is Monday and Tumbleweed Tuesday means act normal. My graduating class
was eight kids. My graduate high school class was 36 kids. Now it's turned into a year-round residence.
When did you start making money?
Straight out the womb. 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?
And finally I was like, all right, enough is enough.
Like 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.
So what I was doing was selling hotel groups. So I would sell a hotel in Montauk for 50 million.
Instead of taking money, I would take equity.
I would own point zero zero zero one percent restaurants or flat point zero zero one percent.
And I would take equity in a lot of the deals I did.
Was Diddy your client?
I did to 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.
I mean, this year alone, I did Justin, Kanye, Post Malone, this year, Dre
London, I did Selena, I did Rihanna. I like Justin. He's pretty business, pretty heads
off. And 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. Kanye. Why? We're
both a lot alike. We're both a little manic.
He got a bar. He don't even cipher his own shit.
He's a lot to deal with.
You also helped Mariah Carey find a rental in the Hamptons, right?
Yeah, turned into a set. Hey, I got trouble with that one.
So yeah, I was listing a house for 50 million in...
Hamptons Adjacent?
Yeah, Adjacent. I love that word.
And Mariah, this is a great story actually.
I got a phone call and it's like,
hey Dylan, it's MC.
I'm like, where?
I'm like, all right, cool.
Why, cool?
And they're like, oh, J. McCardoz
gave me your phone number.
Who owns Surf Lodge?
I was like, all right, cool.
And they're like, MC.
I'm like, are we like a DJ?
Like, what's going on?
You're like, I got time for this shit.
And I'm quick on the phone.
Like, I don't deal with bullshit.
I was like, all right.
Like, it's Mariah. I said, Mariah who? She's, I don't do bullshit. I was like, all right. Like, it's Mariah.
I said, Mariah, Mariah Carey.
I'm like, all right, cool.
I'm like, FaceTime me.
She's like, I'm not going to FaceTime me.
And I could hear it.
And I'm like, then I don't have time for this.
But I'm going to hang 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.
Just 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's not performing in the Hamptons because the
only live music venues I own. So I doubt that. Boom, I hang up again. Now the owner of the
live music thing.
Jayman calls me up. She's like, Dylan, Mariah's been reaching out to me. Fuck. Now the owner of the live music day, Jay McClosby, which is like Dylan,
Mariah has been reaching out to him. Now I call them back. Now they're not answering.
Finally, a picture sent of Mariah giving me the thing.
I'm like, all right, cool. We end up linking up.
And it was the worst fucking deal of 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. And she took every mattress from the whole house and put it in the master
bedroom. And I understand if you have kids, you want to sleep next to you on the floor,
but not 12 mattresses. And the Coke, Diet Coke cans were everywhere.
The whole house had to be fumigated when she left
because of the perfume smell.
So she basically trashed the house?
Yeah.
How much does she rent this house for?
Not enough.
So why is it the worst deal you've done?
Because I had to pick up 150 Diet Coke cans.
You personally did that?
Yes.
And do you still work with her?
Yeah, 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.
It took a decade.
Yeah.
And it's still lost.
But then again, Michael was staying on a number. The reason
celebrities don't want you to 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.
That's not the only reason you sell a house.
That's a lot of times you think of that. Oh, she's going to go and sell her house in Encino.
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 her house.
Is she in financial problems?
What's the biggest super fan you've seen by their idols 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.
Matsuyu, the designer that designed it,
but Kanye took this house and ripped all the windows,
all the doors, and 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 out.
Sounds great for resale.
No, no, the town said, are you fucking nuts?
So he sat it there for four years as a monstrosity.
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.
And he asked the CEO of Douglas Eleman if the buyer was Bezos and they said no.
And now he's pissed that he gave it at a discount.
First of all, you don't have to disclose.
Let's come to the challenge.
All right.
I'm kind of on team Bezos for this one.
Obviously, why wouldn't you be? Whoever's buying house should not matter if you're worth 100 million or you're worth 100,000.
And 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 that if I pulled up in a Prius, it's the same scenario.
It shouldn't matter what you are, who you are, how much money
you have is what the property is worth and how quick they're
willing to sell. That was almost 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 like a really great
elevator pitch. I was very impressed. What it is, is people look gave me like 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 chatted up.
I drive bulletproof cars 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 cover it up with that.
It's like, oh, here's my guard up.
All right, you can pick on the Prince,
but Dylan is still in that car who I really am. It'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. And I think a lot of people don't know how to pitch themselves.
That's what it is. That's the Jekyll and Hyde. It's like, 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 I don't stop.
What I say is we could sit in a room together, you and me.
And 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 listen for 20
I'm not that dude. I'm not gonna listen for 20 because I'm an analyst. So I know it's worth 16.5
So am I gonna say this? I'm gonna say listen, I'll get you 17 million for the house
I don't want a list. I'm not gonna sit open house hand out fucking waters and fucking cookies and walk it through a three-bedroom house
I'm not doing that
I'm gonna show you what it is and how it's. And you know what it was is over years of being a
party boy and always being out, people used to always approach me. I used to wear shirts and said,
no pictures or humble with a hint of Kanye, you know, because I always wanted that give or take
attention, but I've always got it because I'm 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 surf logic two in the morning.
Oh, six million.
The next day I get the call.
Hey Dylan, it's Jonathan.
You said my house was six million dollars.
I'd love to listen with you.
I'm like, oh yeah, what house was that?
Then I'm running numbers.
So when people say, all right, I'm looking for this
and they're gonna use a regular agent,
I don't give a fuck if it's Tracy Tudor, Josh Holtman,
fucking Frederick, anyone, Eric Kirkman,
any of the big boys.
They're gonna take time to find this.
I'm not, I'm gonna 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 the eight.
When it's high, we sell, when it's low, we buy.
And 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 back a 20% return. And I never fail.
All right, Dylan, we end our episodes by asking all of our guests for a tip, 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% down 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 Lapin. Money
Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need
some Money Rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions,
moneyrehab at 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 at MoneyNews and TikTok at 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.