After energy couple Kelly Dodd and Rick Leventhal had been axed from their community TV jobs final June, the true work started.
Dodd, a former “Actual Housewives of Orange County” star, was let go from her gig on the truth present the identical week Leventhal left his 24-year profession at Fox Information.
However the free time gave them area to pursue an surprising enterprise: In November, a yr after they obtained married, the couple purchased a modest home and plan on flipping it right into a boutique resort.
Dodd and Leventhal dropped $715,000 on a three-bedroom, three-bathroom Palm Desert fixer-upper, information present.
“I like one thing that's actually ugly to start with after which you can also make it stunning,” Dodd, 46, informed The Submit.
Coincidentally, the challenge may lead them again to actuality TV. A number of producers have already approached the couple about being the celebrities of a home-improvement present, The Submit can report.
“We have already got producers reaching out to us eager to do home-renovation varieties of reveals,” Dodd revealed. “However we're exploring our choices and seeing what the very best deal is for us.”
Leventhal, 61, informed The Submit the transaction was performed in an all-cash deal this previous November.
“We actually wish to maintain on to the property and lease it out like a resort,” Dodd informed The Submit. “We wish to construct a separate casita, so we are able to get our resort license, and construct a pickleball courtroom. It has a pool, and we're going to construct a spa. We're going to put in some huge cash into the home.”
They made the acquisition after plans of one other challenge fell by way of.
“We purchased a virtually 2.5-acre lot final spring on the Polo Estates in La Quinta and employed an architect to attract up plans for a virtually 7,000-square-foot house we deliberate to make use of and lease out,” Leventhal defined.
“However after COVID hit and costs soared and staff grew to become harder to rent and provide chain points developed, we realized the delays and supreme price of the challenge made it far much less engaging to us. We flipped that lot and started in search of a house both already performed or in want of an overhaul.”
“Our aim is to construct a portfolio of houses,” Leventhal added. “I’ve at all times wished to get into the house-flipping enterprise, and I used to work in building once I was 19 years previous.”
The Palm Desert house is located near the upscale El Paseo Purchasing District, and boasts panoramic views of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains. Additionally it is a 45-minute drive from the celeb-favorite Joshua Tree Nationwide Park space.
Initially in-built 1950, the mid-century house will want plenty of updates to get it up and operating. However Dodd and Leventhal inform The Submit they’re up for the problem after a tumultuous yr.
“I actually love holding on to properties,” Dodd mentioned. “Plenty of my buddies have homes within the desert they usually’re making like $400,000 to $500,000 a yr simply on leases.”
“There may be plenty of upside in being within the desert. So this going to be our subsequent full-time challenge, gut-renovating homes. It’s actually a ardour of Rick and I.”
In the meantime, they're additionally renting out his Westhampton house that presently runs at $4,200 per thirty days.
“We make actually good cash on the Hamptons home,” Dodd informed The Submit. “We're renting that out year-round, summers and winters.”
Dodd defined how their subsequent transfer after the Palm Desert challenge was to rebuild the Hamptons house.
And after they’re not fixing homes, they're recording their podcasts and filming their rising YouTube present, “Wealthy & Kelly UNMASKED.”
“My dream was to work with my spouse,” Leventhal defined. “My dream was to do a present together with her and now we're doing that. And I don’t have the identical restrictions on our content material that we now have with networks. It's free-flowing.”
“The perfect half about it for me is that I get to work with Kelly, and she or he is a lot enjoyable and entertaining and simply unpredictable,” he added. “It makes it simply an absolute pleasure. A quick change from what I'm used to.”
Dodd divulged that overcoming hardship up to now yr taught her a really precious lesson.
“When one door closes, one other opens,” she mentioned. “So I simply need folks to know that you just don’t should cease, you possibly can proceed to pursue your desires.”
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