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Do "normal" people actually have lavish vow renewals? I ask because I don't know of any. The closest was an aunt who got married in a civil ceremony and then had a 50th wedding anniversary where she wore a white bridal gown. I didn't go but my mother thought it was the height of stupidity that a grown woman would spend money on something like that - my parents were married 60 years but my mother wasn't a romantic to say the least. 😂

She is also almost certainly paying nothing for the warehouse space since she gave the company such a significant promotional plug in one of the earlier episodes. Strike while the iron is hot because if she had waited, there would be no guarantee of getting a good deal. Dorinda lived rent free for several years in a gorgeous Manhattan apartment because of a deal she made with the building. Any time a housewife uses something or some entity that has their name out there, it is because they are getting a deal. Karen's bizarre wedding venue was no doubt free which was why it was chosen. Certainly no one would have specifically chosen that kind of space when there are so many options that don't look like an industrial park.

I think that is long range theoretical at this point as no one is reducing salaries for people they hire who are able to work remotely. It would be administratively difficult to administer because you would have to keep tabs on where someone is living as well as cost of living in various areas. And for what since companies actually save money if they don’t have to spend on costly office space. Also some jobs are not 100% remote as people might still need to come in occasionally.

In terms of that specific area as well as price range, there are probably first time buyers who are being helped with the down payment for a $2 million home. Millennials are now in their mid to late thirties and many would have well established careers and are two high income professionals of some kind and could afford the mortgage payments. Their parents (baby boomers) would have assets and would gift them with what is in effect an "advance" on what would be their inheritance anyway. Also many millennials would be buying their second home so would have realized equity from the sale of their appreciated first starter homes. Millennials are defined as born between 1981 and 1996. The specific neighborhood and homes in Encino/Studio City would be logical second homes for families who had outgrown their smaller homes or condos. I am not sure that they are "driving up the price" as fair market value for any homes is complex. I am more astounded by housing prices on HH for places in the boonies that are complete "builder grade" tract style homes with no particular features that are appealing.

I don't think California is an anomaly in terms of people having to use every bit of their savings in order to purchase their first home. I think historically that has always been true. I had to really stretch to buy my first place and then eventually my income caught up. Same with my parents when they bought their first home. Not much furniture for the first few years But my parents gave me something to help with the down payment. What is different about the Los Angeles market is that it is so expensive and even though salaries might be higher than other areas, housing in geographically desirable areas is still too expensive for many first home buyers. ETA But of course MDL isn't dealing with the segment of the market that can't afford to buy in SoCal. That is more of a HH storyline where there have been a number of shows in SoCal where homeowners have not been able to afford to buy a home where they want to live or the homes available are objectively terrible.

I think HH has more buyers whose professions and ages don't clearly explain their ability to purchase an expensive home. On MDL the purchasers are clearly people of means. There have been a very few young people who obviously have family money but it isn't hidden the way it often is on HH.

The couple buying the $2.5 million home were in the music business. The guy was Bieber’s music director and presumably had other projects that made money. The wife was also in the business. I assumed they had enough money to afford the homes they were looking at rather than coming from family wealth. Of course who really knows 🤷‍♀️ But they seemed to have managed to be lucky enough to carve out a career which enabled them to afford a nicer home at a young age. In general many kids do get help with their first home in terms of a down payment but I didn’t question their finances just as I would assume someone was financially lucky if they were a pro athlete or had worked in a startup and scored IPO stock like a lot of young people in Silicon Valley. The international model 😂😂😂 a few episodes ago was obviously purchasing only with the help of significant family money.

At that price point - e.g. $5 million or above, the answer is no. The people who can afford those houses are not scraping together enough for a down payment and closing costs. Many of them are paying cash. They have options depending on what neighborhood they want to live in. They could buy a new home or buy an older home with dated finishes and remodel to their taste. At one time Beverly Flats was having a lot of tear downs and awful stuff was being built but as I recall there is now more stringent zoning protection so the older homes are being remodeled. It seems to me that however Tracy slices it, she had to downsize after the divorce

In my experience people with security systems generally set them at night. What would be typical for a two story house (which Dorito has) is to have the lower windows and doors wired so that if there is movement around the bedrooms, the system isn't activated and you don't have to punch in the Code. I live in a high rise with a doorman with video cameras in the hallways and elevator so that is my security system but I did housesit for a friend who lived in a single family home in an affluent section of Los Angeles and I would most definitely set the alarm when I went to bed and headed up stairs to sleep.

Yes it is scary if true - but like others I am suspicious because why would a burglar deliberately go into a home at night rather than wait until the occupants were gone. Kyle was burglarized when she was on vacation. Also "allegedly" jewelry and bags were stolen. I very much doubt that Dorit has any valuable jewelry because anything flashy would be well beyond her economic means. Designer bags are expensive but it is hard to believe that two burglars attempted this kind of extremely high risk operation in order to steal some purses.

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw, You say that I'm a thief. Here's a Christmas dinner For the families on relief." Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. And as through your life you travel, Yes, as through your life you roam, You won't never see an outlaw Drive a family from their home. Woody Guthrie - The Balland of Pretty Boy Floyd (the bank robber)

The Montrose new builds show what the lack of appropriate zoning will do. Three tall thin homes squeezed into a lot where one older home had been. I get why people are going for the "modern" look and finishes but I don't think those homes are going to age well as they really don't seem to be comfortable for raising a family. I am in Los Angeles where there were those kinds of ultra-modern homes built in a family neighborhood where older more modest homes had been torn down because they didn't reflect the current land values. However, the trend now is to build large traditional style homes instead of those hulking monstrosities. Those sell very well because they reflect how people want to live versus the ones that were out of character for the neighborhood and don't make comfortable family homes. Not that these are modest homes as they are selling for $6 million and up but they are like Leave It To Beaver on steroids - modern farmhouse traditional with beautiful finishes. These are the new builds that are selling well when the older modest homes were torn down https://www.dirt.com/gallery/showbiz/producers/josh-heald-jon-hurwitz-house-los-angeles-1203432896/#recipient_hashed=5e494def505aadce6ac0a6f2c14db5f6737e311f83dab225cf3d52810ce6c5dc

That is what they did with UnReal - kept production staff and had new contestants.

That was just a stupid plot device. My mother was the science teacher for her elementary school and so her classroom had a variety of animals like rabbits, iguanas and hamsters. She would bring them home during the summer but they stayed in the classroom even over the weekend. I don’t know what happened Christmas and Easter break but she definitely didn’t send them home. Maybe she went every few days to feed and water them. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

How does this show get a second season? Would they completely recast the "swans"?

Isn't Joe a nurse? Why is he doing physical therapy? Physical therapists are highly trained in physical therapy and aren't interchangeable with nurses.

Without the knowledge of the coming Jen Shah arrest, this season would be unwatchable. The first season was kind of fun but this one is completely boring when it isn't cringeworthy like the sister wife fakery. I do believe that Mary surrounds herself with low intelligence cult worshippers with a scattering of sycophants who probably know more but don't challenge her because they want to continue being on her payroll. I have mostly come across this kind of behavior with people who lie because they have managed to get away with lying for their life because no one ever questions their lies because it isn't worth it or they have something to gain by keeping up the relationship rather than challenging it. I have never encountered it with a woman who appears to be as stupid as Mary - but she inherited her kingdom and must have some amount of charisma in terms of leading the services so that her "flock" is willing to pay. Although who knows how much is actually from tithing and how much is from all the businesses - especially since keeping up the businesses probably provides her with an excellent way to "shelter" a lot of the income as religious exempted income.

I just fast forwarded through that segment. I realize there is always contrived storylines but this one is so obviously fake as well as being repulsive. She needs to be one and done. There is a link in one of the threads here to a Tik Tok by her niece which really exposes how fake as well as awful they both are.

Wasn't that always what the show was essentially doing? The whole gestalt of the show was that these theoretically very smart highly educated people had the psychological maturity of a college freshman. I always assumed it was so they were appealing to a mass audience by having these "issues" - much like there is a stereotype that very smart people are socially awkward. The doctors in ER had their "soapy" story lines but all of them seemed to be *normal* adults in terms of how they functioned

There are Vander Pups on the website available for adoption. I don't know how frequently it is updated as dogs obviously get adopted and new dogs come in. Perhaps there was a period of time during the pandemic when the adoption portion wasn't operational. There was a huge shortage of dogs at some point because so many people were adopting animals during the quarantine.

I sometimes get asked to do an online survey on BRAVO shows and the question they ask about all of the cast is whether they are someone you love to hate. I think it is probably a fine line and people can differ as to whether someone is truly loathsome or whether they are amusing and their machinations aren't a high crime.

Flagg has a sister. I don't know if she has ever been mentioned or on the show. I certainly respect anyone who wants to remain completely anonymous. If you don't need the money, you really need to have a certain kind of personality to want to participate in a reality show - even peripherally - and make your life subject to scrutiny.

I guess it's relative since Flagg seems to live fairly extravagantly. He is in the process of that extensive remodel. I am not sure what Tutor of Tutor Saliba is actually worth and what kind of trusts he has set up for the kids. Edith Flagg was reputedly worth about $100 million when she died in 2012 and even invested conservatively the stock market and real estate really boomed during that period. She had only one heir (Flagg's father) but it is likely that in order to minimize estate taxes, there were so-called generation skipping trusts established so that estate taxes wouldn't be paid twice in a relatively short period of time. His mother also comes from an extremely wealthy background. My BFF father in law was worth about half a billion when he died. There were four brothers who inherited but all of them as well as the grandchildren have enough to live lavishly for the rest of their lives without really touching the capital. My friend lives relatively modestly but some of the brothers live much more extravagantly in terms of their houses. Of course "modest" in LA is a $6 million home in a desirable location Didn't Tracy downsize to some extent when she divorced? I think both Flagg and Tracy have more than enough money to do whatever the hell they want to do.

I like Flagg quite a lot but he does have FU money to spare. His grandmother was loaded as is his mother's family. Tracy's father is quite wealthy but I bet that Flagg has inherited and stands to inherit more than she would. Not that I am negating Flagg's accomplishments as a realtor as I appreciate his love and knowledge of Los Angeles architectural history.

Why not? Assuming it has heat and A/C and a good bathroom, it would be much better to me than a bedroom in the house or a pull out sofa in the office or living room. More privacy for the guest and the host. I don't see it as that much different than having a small guest house in the backyard although obviously a guest house denotes "class" versus an RV but functionally they are the equivalent. At any rate, I grew up in New York City where real estate was at a premium and no one I knew had a room that was dedicated to housing overnight guests. Even my friends who lived in the suburbs didn't generally have a extra room if they had children because even the suburbs in metropolitan areas were expensive so most people have just enough bedrooms for their children for the most part. When family visited there would be some shifting around of children so that adults might sleep in a kid's bedroom and the children would double up in one of the other bedrooms.