From ‘flipper’ Jeff Lewis: Don’t get so emotionally attached to your home

By John Katsilometes

Friday, April 15, 2011 | 3:39 p.m.

Jeff Lewis is the star of Bravo’s reality TV series “Flipping Out,” cast as an intense, no-nonsense, micromanaging, obsessive-compulsive real estate magnate.

Himself, in other words.

Lewis is of the country’s more adroit real estate “flippers” (one who buys property at a low figure, renovates, then quickly “flips” for profit). He has also founded his own interior design company, Jeff Lewis Design.

Saturday at 11 a.m., Lewis will appear at Las Vegas Design Center at World Market Center for an open-to-the-public Q&A centered on his career, his opinions on interior design and whatever else curious fans of the show might offer. The event is free and should run between an hour and two.

On Thursday morning, I spoke with Lewis from his office in Los Angeles. What I learned:

He has never read his Wikipedia entry: “I wish I had the time, honestly,” he says. “I always say, I’d rather be rich than famous.”

This is not a good time to get into flipping: “Don’t get into flipping now,” he says. “There are still a handful of speculators in L.A., where I live, but they’ve been around for a long time and are experienced people. They stick to budgets, they know the market and how to stage homes. … But right now is an incredible time to buy, if you’re going to hold the residence for three years or longer.”

Don’t get emotionally attached to your home: “I actually sold my primary residence and even took a hit as I did that,” says Lewis, who in October parted with his 3,000-square-foot home in the Hollywood Hills, which was constructed with 80-percent glass, was protected by a tall gate with a big pool out back and incredible views. “It was a sexy house, and I was very emotionally attached. It was built exactly the way I wanted, right down to the light switches, but what’s amazing is, it was very painful at the time, but when it closed escrow and I moved on, I never looked back.” He says he lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars, enough to sting,” on the home in which he paid $2.3 million.

Flippers can sell dozens of their own properties: “I’ve sold more than 50 of my own, and there have been a few where I’ve cried all the way to the bank,” he says.

Pick your spots when practicing scream therapy: Among the methods of wellness Lewis has practiced is primal scream therapy. It was easier when he owned his home in the Hollywood Hills. “I’m practicing the breathing more than screaming now, because I’m in a short-term rental, and my neighbors don’t like it,” he says. “I don’t want to have them calling the cops, so I’ll just be doing the breathing.”

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