Every little thing is larger in East Hampton.
The brand new Discovery+ collection “Promoting the Hamptons” introduces viewers to the hulking manses — and egos — that outline the East Finish actual property market. The splashy present, which is on the market for streaming on Jan. 20, spotlights the realm’s high brokers, together with Mia Calabrese, a former mannequin; Bianca D’Alessio, the daughter of a convicted fraudster; and J.B. Andreassi, a Hamptons native with critical swagger.
On this ultra-competitive world, jobs, reputations, and, after all, six-figure commissions are all the time on the road. As Calabrese intones within the present’s title sequence: “The Hamptons is a magical place — stunning individuals, stunning vehicles, stunning properties and actually good celeb sightings. It’s so stylish. Individuals will do no matter they need to do to get a deal performed.”
Certainly, within the first episode, the forged of six genetically blessed Nest Seekers brokers plans a VIP black tie celebration, replete with luxurious classic vehicles and fountains of champagne, to assist promote a $7 million East Hampton “Glass Home” on practically two acres. At a $21 million Southampton home, developer Joe Ruperto warns the brokers, “In case you can’t promote this home, you’ll all get replaced.” Gulp.
Bravado is on show simply as a lot because the fabled seashores. “I do know the Hamptons most likely 100 occasions higher than my colleagues — I grew up within the Hamptons,” says Andreassi, a Dartmouth grad who boasts doing $75 million price of actual property transactions previously 18 months and gripes that the Hamptons is flooded with carpetbagging brokers trying to make fast, and critical, financial institution.
“The market’s sizzling … There’s no cushion of a wage — it’s all fee. Fee is all the pieces,” Andreassi says. Fee on the “Glass Home,” which has but to promote, might probably web him $354,000. There’s no denying the market is booming: The median residence worth within the Hamptons was $1.4 million within the fourth quarter of 2020 — the best on report and a 55% improve over 2019. However that determine practically doubled to $2.4 million by the summer season months of 2021, in response to Douglas Elliman knowledge.
“I’ve seen a $55 million property go $7 million over ask,” Andreassi informed The Submit of the present market. “It occurs on a regular basis, particularly [in the] final 18 months.”
‘The wild, wild east’
The stakes are excessive for Louboutin-loving agent Peggy Zabakolas, a self-styled “sniper” who just lately landed her largest itemizing ever — the $35 million 16,000-square foot “Duck Pond” Southampton home with a $1 million, 18-foot-wide-by-8-foot-tall outdoor hydraulic, retractable TV to get pleasure from poolside. “Each dealer within the nation wished this itemizing – however I received it,” she says on the present, including, “The Hamptons is the wild, wild east.”
However, that itemizing can be nonetheless available on the market, and Zabakolas has numerous competitors.
“Anybody I do know will inform you, after they consider me, they suppose, ‘She has large d–okay power’ — that’s simply who I’m,” Calabrese, a self-styled “hustler who needs to make cash,” says on the primary episode. “I’m going to make as a lot cash as I humanly can — I like shiny issues too.”
The Chicago native began out modeling at 16, and later grew to become a concierge for high-end nightclubs catering to Saudi princes and tech billionaires. Nowadays, it’s the whims of Hamptonites protecting her busy. She was the dealer for a “report breaking” $85,000, one-week rental this previous summer season, netting her a ten% fee. But it surely had a catch, she informed The Submit: “They requested me to workers the home.” The group of 5 demanded a workers of 40 — butlers, cooks, chauffeurs, nannies, housekeepers. “I didn’t say no, however that’s fairly loopy for per week.”
Tough dynasty
D’Alessio can be accustomed to the calls for of the uber-wealthy, as she grew up amongst actual property royalty. “My entire life, I used to be taught that your title and repute is all the pieces,” she says on the present.
However the agent — who stated she manages an actual property portfolio price $10 billion — hasn’t all the time had it simple. Her actual property developer father, Michael D’Alessio, had a spectacular fall from grace in 2019 and pled responsible to a $58 million monetary fraud that got here with a six-year jail sentence. She was at nighttime about his Ponzi scheme till his FBI arrest, which left her household “shattered.”
“For the primary time in my life, I used to be very embarrassed, and I nonetheless am, of my title. And that’s actually arduous while you’re attempting to construct your repute and model,” D’Alessio informed The Submit.
“My story is a really large a part of who I’m,” she added. “I do have a relationship with my father nonetheless. It had a big effect on my life.”
