Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Boomerang Housewives and Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

With the housing market so bananas right now, it's time to phone a friend. Enter real estate expert and former Real Housewives of New York star Kelly Killoren Bensimon; Kelly tells Nicole all the do's and don'ts of navigating this market, whether you're looking at an investing property, or trying to beat out competitors with a stellar rental application. Plus, you've heard of the boomerang employee (the employee who leaves a job and later comes back), but have you heard of the boomerang (Real) Housewife? Might Kelly be next? Nicole asks Kelly whether she'd join the cast of Real Housewives of New York: Legacy. RHONY fans will not want to miss her answer!

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

I'm financial expert Nicole Lapin. It's time for some money rehab. This week, we've talked to a rock star economist and the most photographed guy on Wall Street. And now it's time to go a little closer to home. Literally. We're going to the real housewives of New York City. Today, I'm chatting with Kelly Ben-Simon. To Roni fans, Kelly is an icon from the two seasons she spent on the show over a decade ago. Now, she's a successful real estate agent who closed nine figures of sales in 2021 alone. Of course, with real estate being such a hot topic, I wanted to get all of her inside expertise. But there's another money trail I also wanted to follow. The money trail of the real housewives. Full disclosure, I've never actually seen an episode of the housewives. I know I'm probably the only person on the planet, but somehow I am still hooked. Despite not watching the show, I see all of these headlines about cast members who

have gone bankrupt or are embroiled in some kind of financial scandal. And my question is, why? Why are there so many housewife stars with financial skeletons in their closet? Seems to be a story there. And I wanted to find out. Kelly Ben Simone, welcome to Money Rehab. Thank you. I love that money rehab. It's such a great title. Thank you. I think we're going to keep it. How did you start in real estate? So I actually stumbled upon real estate. Unfortunately, my mom fell ill and I wanted me to help sell our family properties and my father's older. So I oversaw that, quickly got my license and wasn't really thinking that, you know, this is like just one million dollar listing had gone on and I was, you know, just finished. I just retired from Housewives, getting my MBA.

And I was just like, and I just was kind of stumbled into this because I had to do it. And so out of something that's so traumatic came something like so incredible. Who would have known that, you know, she's asking me to do something to like preserve our family. And all of a sudden I'm pulling in $110 million on my own. I was just about to ask that. I was just, I was waiting to like throw down that number because you were like, I just stumbled into this little thing.

Casual $110 million in sales later. Last year. Yeah. Just last year. In one year. One year. Started with the number one deal of 2021. So we're in COVID. No one's in New York City. And I sold 150 Charles, front house of 150 Charles for $42 million, all cash. Nicely done. Yeah, that was really nicely done, actually. A friend of mine happened to be looking for a $30 million apartment for his son.

Does that guy want to adopt another child? The one who wants to buy a $30 million apartment? Who is that kind of person? I mean, they're just New York investors. I mean, I think a lot of these New York, a lot of New York guys knew what was going to happen. They forecasted that there was going to be something happening. They were just, they just bought everything up. Because it was on the down.

So buy low, sell high. And so when... Buy low, sell high. That's your business. That's right. But it works in real estate too. You just, it's really hard to time the market. It's hard to figure out the trends of real estate. It's so city specific. What do you think is going on with the real estate market now? If you could give us a pulse check. Well, so, you know, stock market's your business. Real estate market's my business. But we had 14 contracts, over 4 million last week. And four of those were over 20 million. And it was Thanksgiving. So

that's really interesting. I mean, there's a lot of big cash buyers out there. So when people ask me about my business, they're like, well, you know, people aren't selling anything. You know, I don't want to sell. I'm like, well, you can sell. It's like any market. If the person wants what you have, they're going to pay the price for it. So it doesn't matter what the state of the stock market is. You know, it's like people want what they can't have.

And the good news about my business is I have a lot of great properties that most people can't have. Well, it sounds like it's really a relationship business. Completely. Completely. But this isn't something that I just fell into. People are like, oh, she got her license and all of a sudden she's doing 42 million. This is not how that works. I mean, I went to Columbia. I have an MBA. You know, I had great mentors along the way. I started L Accessories. I had Gotham Magazine. I'm used to working with investors. I'm used to working with advertisers. I'm used to like, you know, I think one reason that real estate really resonates with my clients is because I know everything about lifestyle. I started a magazine based on lifestyle. So it's like I already put the work in. And so I can kind of sit back and say, OK, this is the strategic opportunity for this apartment.

This apartment needs staging. This apartment needs press. This apartment needs, you know, a party. This apartment, you know, whatever it is, you know, everything needs a little love in some kind of way. And, you know, you just can't like, you know, they always say like put lipstick on a pig. Like we don't do that. I like make it movie magic. I did bid on a place in L.A. and I lost it.

So I need help. We've seen these crazy bidding wars. Right. It was like, you know, when interest rates were nothing, lines around the block for open houses, like they were giving something away. I mean, that's… For rentals and for sales. Yes. And that's kind of changed as interest rates have gone up.

But what would your advice be for winning a bidding war? To have your financials in order. Just be ready to go. Because, you know, for example, my daughter is looking at an apartment and they were like, okay, it hasn't even finished yet. It's like they literally, the apartment is in construction. And they're like, okay, you need to zell the money, you know, first month's rent, earnest deposit, all this money,

like zell it. No checks, zell, like right away. So you have to be really ready to go. You can't be like, oh wait, hold on, let me just get myself together because there is that person that has their money ready to go. And that's when you lose something. I mean, I don't hate renting. I talk about this a lot too, because if you are taking out a jumbo mortgage and you're paying money every month, most of that's going to interest in the beginning, right? And that's money you're not getting back. So when people say you're throwing money away by renting, you don't get that interest back. You don't get a bunch of other stuff back. You don't get closing costs back. And so do you think we should bring sexy back to renting? I mean, there are so many. I mean, the rental market in New York is just insane right now.

And I think there's a lot of fear associated with buying properties because there's fear with the unknown. And it's not like because of the volatility of the stock market, people are like, okay, that's a forecasting of what's going to happen in the real estate market. But again, I live in this beautiful building. I just sold, it's approximately because it's a co-op, so it's approximately 1,800 square feet, one apartment for $2.9 million. And then I sold another one a couple of months later for $4.1. So I basically raised the price of the building. Obviously, the other apartment was a different apartment with a different narrative.

But do you see what I'm saying? Like, you can really make really good money or you can, you know, if you're living in a great home, like, for example, like,'re, if you're living in a great home, like for example, like I represent this insane home on the Upper West Side, 26 West 87th Street where Billie Holiday, she lived. And it's this phenomenal townhouse. It's been completely renovated for 13.7. And, you know, that's a place like if you bought that home, I mean, you could really later on do whatever you want and really make a lot of money. So it just depends. You're not paying a lot of mortgage because you can if you take that big lump sum, like if somebody saved up two hundred thousand dollars to buy a million dollar place, but they only have two hundred grand and they put all that money into their house.

They're kind of house poor and then they can't use that money to put in the market and make more money potentially. So that opportunity cost of the big lump sum sometimes doesn't make sense for people. Well, we have like different buckets. So we've got the Midwestern bucket where they're putting money under their mattresses. And then we have the real estate bucket. And then we have the stock market bucket. So we have like different people trying to figure out their finances in different kinds of ways. And it's just kind of it's just really like what works for you. Some people are just like, I'm just going to put that cash under my mattress. Which we don't recommend. No, we don't. But some people are just like, I'm just going to save it for a rainy day because cash is king.

Queen. and queen. So you may not recommend it, but at the end of the day, sometimes it's good because during COVID, when you had a lot of cash, you could really buy anything you wanted. So there's just three different kinds of buckets and it's just really what you want to do and how you want to do it. At the end of the day, whether it's real estate, stock market, or your mattress, you know, the most important, the number one priority for me in anything that I do with anyone is I tell them, like, your family, they're your legacy. So you need to give them shelter. I like it. Like, that's crucial. And, you know, food, water, and shelter.

Those are the things that people need. Everybody needs shelter from the storm. Can we talk about a type of storm? The storm that is the housewives. I think there are a lot of people listening who will know you from the housewives. Do you think there's anything that you learned doing that show that helps you with real estate? I mean, I am so grateful for housewives and for Bravo because they gave me this massive. They basically took my name that was like a small name in New York City and like blew me out of the water.

So looking back, this is not something you regret doing. You're happy about being on the show. No. It paid dividends. Yeah. Many, many. I mean, I think that like when everyone ever asked me about the regrets, like the only regret that I ever had was not showing like my real life because it wasn't fair to the to single women to not show them like how I was making money on my own. Like they just thought that I was running around, you know, cartwheels, like, you know, like chewing gum, having fun, which is something that I do all the time. But I also know how to make money and provide for my family. And they didn't show enough of that, you don't think? Well, it was, yeah, they didn't want to. Cause they were like, she's a supermodel. And you

have to remember too, like back when I was on television in the ice age, it was, yeah, they didn't want to, because they were like, she's a supermodel. And you have to remember too, like back when I was on television in the ice age, it was like 2009, you know, being a single parent was definitely not sexy. That was like almost taboo. Being able to provide for your family was like an anomaly. And, you know, just talking about being single was something that's like, oh, you're not with a man. It's like you don't have, you're not a unit. You're not complete. You're not like a traditional family. So there were all of these interesting layers of things that people didn't want to necessarily hear about. And now people are like, how did you do it?

How did you do it? I'm like, I don't know. You ask my kids. They did it. I didn't do it. I just like pushed them. So we heard rumors that Bravo wants you to come back for a Housewives of New York Legends show. Are you going to do that?

I mean, you know, I'm definitely thinking about it. You know, it's like I love the brand and I love the women. So I'm just I'm definitely thinking about it. But leaning more toward yes? We'll see. Sounds like it. We'll see what happens. I never, you know, you never say never. But you know, everything has to, everything has to align. Hold onto your wallets. Money rehab will be right back.

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it.

If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bank Corp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in Spot Me and are subject to monthly limits.

Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. And now for some more money rehab. It sounds like it. I mean, Bethany has said that there's always a number to go back to the housewives. Right. Do you have a number? Well, it's work at the end of the day.

So there's always a number for everything. I agree. It's not at the end of the day. So there's always a number for everything. I agree. It's not a charity. Right. Okay. So what would you – like a ballpark? I don't know, really. Okay.

So I'm going to give you $50 million. Would you go back to the Housewives? $50 million, I'd probably go back to the Housewives. $10 million. We're doing an auction. Why is it $50 to 50 to 10 that's terrible it's usually like 50 to like 47

or like we're not buying a house here sister I mean I'm just trying to find the ballpark I'm trying to find the range what neighborhood are we in everyone's like when they ask me I'm like I don't really like that number they're me, I'm like, oh, no, no, I don't really like that number. They're like, why? I'm like, which means like

four, nine, seven, five. They're like, what? But it sounds like the salary isn't really where you're making the money, but you get paid by episode? It depends on your deal. So there's not a standard thing. Everybody gets. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't really know what other people are getting. I don't really like a lot of, a lot of housewives, they like, try to commiserate. I'm like, no, no, I'm like, I'm good. You don't really know what other people are getting. I don't really like a lot of housewives. They like try to commiserate. I'm like, no, no, I'm good. You don't like talking about it? I like financial transparency.

I do too. But I think that you have to be careful, especially on a show like that. It's different like when you're working together. But when you're like on a show that's being filmed under like a microscope on HGTV, I think it's different when you're talking because there's that constant, like the, the, the level of competition just gets really, really high because of like how much the person's getting paid versus like what's at stake emotionally. Do you know what I mean? Got it. I'm sure Bravo doesn't want everybody talking about it. Cause they'll probably be like some collective bargaining agreement where everybody goes up and tries to get money. But again, like you don't want to be like, you don't want to have,

I mean, you wouldn't want to be on a show. You wouldn't want to produce a show where you have like four people already arguing about knowing how much the other person is making. I mean, there's a balance, right? Because I think, especially for women negotiating in order, this will be a real estate analogy for you, in order to price your house, you need to know the comp of the area. Obviously. Okay. So the same thing works for like salaries, right?

If you don't know the comp, like how are you pricing yourself? You're shooting in the dark. Right. That's a good point. But I think that when you're seeing people that are getting like a million versus like other people that are getting like 10,000, I think that that's such a, like it doesn't level playing field. 10,000. I think that that's such a, like, it doesn't level playing field. And so then people get like, at the onset, like ferocious. And they don't want that. They want people to

be genuine. And they want people, they want to like, it's HGTV. You want to see like authentic moments. Yeah. Although I would argue with housewives, there's been so much financial turmoil for so many of these women that maybe talking about it would be helpful. Because the number of bankruptcies, the number of financial scandals. Well, I mean, if you're talking about actual finance, if you're saying to like so-and-so, like if you went on and were like, hi, this is what you need to do. Or if someone was in a situation with bankruptcy, if you were there to be like, well, I can help you navigate that. I think that's different than like trying to get people to, on the onset, to be like, you're making 10,000, I'm making a million, like I'm better than you are, you know, kind of thing. Should I bust

into the house? Because you don't know what's going to, you don't know like who's going to be the breakout star. Like you don't know, just because you're making X amount of dollars doesn't mean that you're not going to be that, that you're going to be the breakout star. Like, you don't know. Just because you're making X amount of dollars doesn't mean that you're not going to be the breakout star versus the other one. You don't know that. It depends on, like, the narrative.

It depends on, like, what they're doing. You know? So, I'll be honest. I haven't watched any Housewives franchise at all. You should be on it. Which one should I be on?

There's a Potomac. That's not a joke. There's Dubai. There's Potomac. They're, like, they're all over. There's Miami. I'm coming on. I'm going to help a joke. There's Dubai. There's Potomac. They're all over. There's Miami. I'm coming on. I'm going to help these women. There's Beverly Hills.

They can tell me. We don't have to put it on. They can tell me how much they're making. I can look at the books. Because it seems like there's always a headline about a financial scandal on the housewives. There's Jen Shah. There's Erika Jayne. Teresa, I don't know how to say her last name. Chudais. Chudais.

Why do you think so many housewives get into financial trouble? Because I think they live above their means. I think they get excited. And I think that they forget why the fans want to hear from them. They want to hear their story. And then all of a sudden they're like, I'm wearing Louis Vuitton. I'm in a G-Wagon. You know, like I'm killing it. Look at me. I'm famous. And then all of a sudden, you know,

cameras stop rolling. It's like in any business. It's like an entertainment business, like music, modeling, acting. You see all these people like doing so well. And then all of a sudden they stop doing well and money stops going, you know, coming in. And all of a sudden it's like, you know, then life gets real. So I think you'd be great. I think they would be, you know, I think it'd be great to just have you just like general, just like telling women like, you know, how to take care of themselves. I'm in. Sign me up.

Because it's not even living within your means. It's living below your means, which is not fun and sexy, but it builds long-term wealth. Just saying. With Erika Jean, she's been having all this trouble with her husband, ex-husband. It came out that she didn't have a prenup or something like that. What do you think about prenups? It depends on the situation. You know, I think that some situations you should have a prenup. I mean, I didn't have a prenup with my ex-husband. Was that a mistake? No,

no. Because I mean, I had money coming in, he had money coming in and, you know, I just genuinely wanted to, you know, move forward. And, you know, money wasn't the impetus. Like I didn't marry him for money and I wasn't divorcing him for money. I was divorcing him for freedom and to raise my kids and to give them the greatest life ever. And I just didn't feel like, you know, being with him was doing that. So I don't necessarily, I don't think of it like that. Like some women are like, oh my God, money, which is great. Or you could flip the script, right? And say like, this is an empowering thing. I'm a woman. I make my own money. Like I need to protect my own stuff. Right. Well, there's, there's two sides of it. I mean, I definitely raised my kids with good values and a sense of

self and they've always worked. And, you know, my daughters worked through college and they've, you know, done everything from like babysat to, you know, like bartending, waitressing, like they've done it all. Personally, I don't know. I mean, it's like I don't judge people, but I don't marry for the ring. Like I, you know, married because he's, you know, I married my ex husband because I thought he was amazing, more human. If I thought that was marrying for the ring, like I would have gotten a bigger ring. I think some people think of it that, you know, if you get divorced or if something happens, it's like having insurance. You don't want the state to decide. You just want to be in control of what happens. You can throw it in the fire or whatever. So would you get married again?

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, if we're talking about like your inheritance, like your family's inheritance or something like that, I don't think that that's fair for, you know, for an ex to get that. That's not fair. But when you bring something to a relationship and you are in the relationship and you're going under contract, you know, it's a transaction at the end of the day. It's a legal contract. I'm going to marry you and this is what we're going to do. And here's the terms of the contract. I mean, that's what it is. So if you don't like the terms of the contract, you probably shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place.

So you're out dating. Yes. How's that going? It's going well. Are you on the apps? Yes. I have a boyfriend. I have a really serious boyfriend.

Congratulations. Thank you. When you were dating, did men feel intimidated by you, do you think? No. By your network? No. They're always trying to take care of me. Men are always like, oh, let me take care of you.

It made me feel very insecure. Very insecure. Because you want to take care of yourself. Right. Because it's like, here I have these two girls. And what am I going to do? Just be like, oh, okay. Like, let me just, you know, hop into your arms with two. Ready, set, here we go. You know, I felt a big responsibility and people, you know, guys that I were dating were very, very assertive about, you know, taking care of me. Made me very insecure. Not to say that I don't, I don't

appreciate it, but I felt like kind of like it was like, okay, this is the amount of money you're going to get every month. And I was like, what? Wow. Or you didn't want to show that kind of paradigm to your kids too? Right. I just didn't, I mean, the whole thing just really, I didn't like, didn't agree with me. So with your, with your man, but some people really like that. Like some people are like, great. Like at least I know what I'm getting. Like, you know, I mean, again, like we're talking, you know, honestly, like some women just really like that. I just, that was just never like, I wasn't raised like that. I'm my, if I told my father, by the way, I'm marrying this guy and he's going to give me X amount of dollars per month. My daughter, my father would be like, I, like, I spent all this money on this great education for you to think like that? You went to Columbia? He passed and he

would not be happy. He would want me to have a partner and to build. Together. Yeah. He would want me to build. I think that women have to be able to be doing something that really like ignites them and makes them feel whole so that the relationship where it started off is, you know, it ignited for a reason. And then all of a sudden, you know, you go into this transaction, you sign this piece of paper, this, you know, stone goes on your finger and all of a sudden the dynamics change, you know, and I think that people get lost. And I think it's not about the money. I think it's about they just get personally just emotionally lost. I mean, I know we were talking about money for you, but I mean, I think of it more in like an emotional way where I have a lot of empathy for both women and men who get lost

in relationships. And I don't want someone to be in a relationship with me that feels like that. You know, for someone like me, I just, you know, I've waited so long to be with the right person. And, you know, I've met a lot of really great guys, but they're definitely not the right person for me. And, you know, I just want to have respect for my partner. And I want him to, you know, do everything that he wants to do. And I want to do the same. And do you believe in like a co-creation talking about work or having him help you with. Oh, absolutely.

Connections or stuff like that. Of course. And I think that's really important, too. It's like you, you know, each other. You have to be a supportive spouse. I mean, you can't just be like, oh, just come over here and let me just, you know, like Shel Silverstein, where like all of a sudden the giving tree is like this little stump. Like that's not fair.

That's give and take. Listen, I mean, we're talking about finances, but I think that like there's nothing wrong with love. There's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to get married for money. You don't have to get married because you need to like live and move into an apartment. It's like, it's so nice to have someone like you as a role model who can talk to women about finances because it's something that's daunting. And I've had to deal with it all my life. I don't talk about it. I don't, you know, I know a lot, you know, like a lot of the housewives are like, I made all this money and they're throwing it around. And all these women like are watching and they're just kind of like,

what, what about me? Like I can't even pay bills. you know what I mean? So it's hard, it's hard to see all of that. So I just want women to be excited about what they have and who they are and, you know, to like recognize that there are checks and balances and the money that goes in, the money that goes out and just to try to be mindful of what they're doing. Yeah, I think how people are in different parts of their relationship, if they're avoidant or whatever, it just transfers over to how you approach money too. Right. But it sounds like you're saying to viewers

or watchers of The Housewives, maybe don't emulate what you see. Don't be as frivolous as what you're watching on the show. Right, right. But I mean, at the same time, you shouldn't be like, you know, I need to be rich in order to be, you know, to feel good because, you know, there's so many more things and, you know, to be happy. And, you know, I've had so many iterations

of my life and I've been through so much, you know, so many like peaks and valleys. And I don't feel I still to this day believe in love and believe in like taking care of myself and taking care of other and taking care of other people. Yeah. What's one financial piece of advice you would give your former self? It's just that what I tell myself today, it's just like, you know, there's a little for me, a little for Uncle Sam, and then a little to put away. Yeah. And I'm always like thinking of my girls, like what we're going to do for them. And just like, just to be balanced about it. Because like, I mean, what you were saying before about like, you know, to live under your means,

some people just can't do that. Some people just, you know, it's like, you know, my father came from absolutely nothing and he gave us so much education, integrity, you know, a healthy mindset. And he lived way above his means, way above his means. But he created, like, we were his legacy. So whatever he spent was, well, we were his stocks. It's just kind of like a different kind of way of investing. Way of investing. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions at moneyrehabatmoneynewsnetwork.com to have your question answered on the show,

or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. Seriously, thank you for listening and investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.