Reza Farahan | Bravo Star on Reality TV, Real Estate & Building Wealth the Persian Way | Coffeez 306

34:10Small rugs that through customs on both sides could be interpreted or perceived as prayer rugs, right? Because if you come to America and they open your bag and they see a rug and you say, what, you have a problem with my religion? That's my prayer rug. I pray on that rug five times a day. They don't say shit. They let you through. So here's this Persian Jew telling people how to convert their, they would sell their homes, their jewelry, anything they could sell and buy rugs and come to America with those rugs. They would come to my dad's office and he would cash them out and they would start their lives in America with that seed money that my dad would give them.

34:55And for 10 years, there were countless Iranians that would come to my dad's office with rugs that they had taken out of Iran because they had liquidated their entire life. And that's how my dad got wealthy in America. I had no idea that you could embezzle rugs, number one. That's news to me. I mean, is it embezzling, though? No, I know. But, you know, I say that jokingly because there's a new thing that people are doing. They're doing something very, very similar. They're moving money from China, but they're not moving – or various countries. But they're doing it through sports cards because you go through customs with sports cards, which I'm going to tell you.

35:33You're carrying$200 million in sports cards in a little briefcase. Yeah. So I've never heard rugs were being done that well. I mean the thing is the price – those rugs aren't even around anymore. That was a class of rug that's still worth a lot. But rugs have been mass produced in Iran for a very long time. So we're talking about rugs that are hundreds of years old. I don't think you're going to be able to find those rugs anymore. Even if you wanted to smuggle those rugs out of Iran, I don't think. They even exist now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. I had no idea even rugs carry that kind of value.

36:11I have a personal question about that. Why are Persian rugs worth so much? Because they're legitimately works of art. So do you remember dot matrix printers? Yeah. So imagine you're taking thread and you're able to design something where it doesn't look like dot matrix and it looks like a painting. My dad would take me, show me a rug, flip it over, talk to me about the number of knots, the dyes, the color, the intricacy of the pattern, and the years it would take. This rug that I'm telling you about that was worth$250 ,000 was a huge rug in this woman's house. and her relative had been in the war, World War something had been in Iran and brought this rug back and like it was a fluke that she ended up with it.

37:09She shouldn't have had that rug but she ended up with a piece of art that belonged legit in a museum and there's just a lot of it. In our house, I would point to a rug and I would say to my dad, how much is that rug? and he would say it's 50 grand. And I would say, who's stupid enough to buy that? You could buy an S-Class Mercedes for that. Back then you could buy an S-Class for 50 grand. Not anymore, obviously. But I didn't realize the value. As I got older and started understanding the complexity and what it takes and what kind of an artisan you have to be and the number of years you have to dedicate to knock out a rug that would fit in a palace-sized living room, Then I started to appreciate the fact that these were pieces of art.

38:00Wow. And those really can't be clean, though. They're like you can only— They are. They can totally—they're made of natural wool and dyes. You can totally clean them. They don't—they're—if properly taken care of, they're, like, indestructible. I mean, literally, this woman wasn't taking care of this rug. It was just on the ground in her room. Luckily, there were no cigarette holes in it or there was no damage to it. It was in pristine condition. My dad sold it 8 o 'clock the next morning when he went back to work and was calling his contacts. The rug was sold and we packed it from Lexington, Kentucky to go to the buyer that it went to from where we were at.

38:45It never came back to his showroom. He never like one phone call and the one phone call and the photo and the rug was done. You seem passionate about the rug business. Not at all. Why don't you stay? Not at all. Why don't you stay in that business? I was never in it to stay in it. But that that business afforded me and my family the most amazing childhood and life. So I have a lot of relatives that were way richer than we were, a lot that weren't as well off as we were. But we lived better than any of our relatives at the time. And it was because my dad and my parents were very, very, very generous.

39:26And we traveled. I wanted for nothing in my entire life. Like if you ask me the way I was fulfilled as a child, we were the richest people in town. That's how I came up. So I have an appreciation for what my dad did, the business and the rugs because of the life that it afforded us. Now, I got a question because you grew up wealthy, but you still have insane work ethic. Yes. You grind like crazy. Yes. And a lot of people who grew up wealthy aren't like that. what do you think it is that inspired you to still have that sense of grit even though you don't have to grind yeah so i always talk about it like a race car if you think of yourself like a race car wouldn't you want to throw yourself on a track put the pedal to the metal and see what that race car could do why wouldn't i want like i'm most people don't realize how much their personal information is being bought and sold every day data brokers are making billions pulling details about you from public records and the internet, and then packaging and selling it, usually without your consent.

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41:10Aura gives you all of it, together, at the same price competitors charge for just one service. Start your free trial today at Aura.com slash remove. Protect yourself now at Aura.com slash remove. Super competitive. I'm passionate. I want to accomplish certain things on my own. Could I have not done anything? Sure. But at some point, I wouldn't have the lifestyle that I have if I didn't work. And it gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that I'm accomplishing things. I'm moving up. I love negotiating. I love wheeling and dealing. it's just in me that same bizarre blood that was in my dad's face it's in mine too i i i have friends who have lazy husbands that don't work and i just think to myself like how like it grosses me out like it was just not an option i'm just not cut from that cloth i was gonna work and i was gonna kill it you're not just working you're grinding grinding i do interior design i do real estate i write books i do tv we have a nut business me and my husband we sell persian nuts because if you've ever i don't know if egyptians are the same way but if you go to a persian person's house there's always like nuts and seeds and stuff on the table yeah we are and so adam was like these persian nuts and seeds we have a company called the pantry list official i brought these for you oh thank you um and this is yours too by the way nice look at this man you came with gifts so i came i'll give you a book too but i came with gifts and i'm a big fan of nuts you know yeah these are all organic everything is organic and it's amazing and it's my husband's way of literally sharing persianity with the masses because when you go to a persian person's house they feed you and there are a lot of things that adam eats and he's like i've never eaten this what is this i'm like that's a askari grape he's like i've never had raisins from askari grapes they're amazing so this looks amazing it's like a good mix chocolate and and pretzels yeah and that one's one of the big winners with americans who like sweet stuff it's not like the most persian you don't eat chocolate at all no i'm trying to stay skinny we're about to start season two and uh i want to look good in a bathing suit where where can people find this is this at whole foods no we we're not we're just direct to consumer right now on our website the pantry list official.com looks amazing thank you great i mean i love the hustle man this is like yes you're a hustle times 10 like you wake up crack at dawn and start hustling literally every morning like you said i drink my coffee i start managing my portfolio i like to make oh and you didn't mention you also day trade yeah yeah that's like the first thing i do six i 6 29 i'm on my computer 6 30 as i'm like okay certain stocks that i track when they go down i buy them when they go back up i sell them I have a chunk of money that I just, it's in a retirement account.

44:31So I have this. You trade yourself for your retirement account? Yes. I trade, I have a self-directed SEP IRA. I have a few retirement accounts, but there's one that I trade in. So on the real estate front, my husband and I, we buy this house. Really cute house. We take it down to the studs. We add square footage. We put it in a pool and spa. It's our dream house. By the time we're done with it, I start getting the itch. There's nothing else to do in this house. We've done the landscaping, the hardscaping, pool, spa, added square footage. Everything is brand new. I say to my neighbor on the left, hey, when are you going to sell me your house?

45:11He says to me, I'm never selling. But the old lady across the street from you is moving into assisted living. She's going to be putting her house on the market soon. She's been there for over 50 years. I'm like, what? I didn't know. I write her a little post-it note. I stick it to her door. I said, I don't know what you're going to put it on the market for, but I kind of have a sense. I'm a realtor, what range it's in, and I know I can afford it. So I said, whatever you're selling it for, I'm the buyer. She calls me back. I sent her a contract before we set foot in the house. I told my husband, if we move into that house the people we rent our current house out to based off of the minuscule ass loan that we have on this house and the fact that we bankrolled all the renovations and everything we did with cash the people that move in and rent this house will pay us to live in the house across the street for free based off the down payment we're putting across the street and the rent we're collecting and the loan and taxes and everything.

46:14So we bought that house. We moved into it. We have a tenant in our house. We built an ADU across the street. We've got a tenant in the ADU. We just another thing. You're a property manager. A hundred percent. You're making me feel under accomplished. My side hustles have side hustles. I'm about stacking them chips. Yeah. You got seven jobs I count so far. I'm sure there's one or two more somewhere and i do the gardening at the house that we live in and i no no joke no joke it's a passion i love it my husband introduced me to gardening i heard it was actually really therapeutic it is and the persian jew in me is like wait a minute there's something called propagation where you can take a plant cut off a branch stick that mofo in the ground and it becomes another plant.

47:10I'm like, wait, you mean you can take this one plant, chop up all these branches and make 20 new plants from that one plant? So at our current house that we live in, every plant almost is propagated. I could walk you around the property and point out the three or four trees that we actually bought at a nursery, but everything else is something where I cut it from another plant and stuck it in the ground and it was a free plant so you milked the system with plants man you have free plants nature i went to nature's nursery and got all my free plants that's amazing yeah now um let's uh let's let me talk to you about you know image versus assets because we deal with this a lot in la so what do people spend money on to look rich instead of becoming rich because that's something you dealt with all the time for people want to be in your circle.

48:06There's this book. It's called, you know, your Persian if or when you know your person if or you know your person when it's so funny. And one of the lines is, you know, your Persian when you don't own a house and you don't have a job, but you still drive a fat ass brand new S class. And I'm not about that life. I would rather and I'm never going to show you. I would rather have my 401k my sep ira all my retirement counts be fat and not need to flex for you and drive a g wagon spend 150 bucks to fill up my tank and like flex for you like i don't want to flex for you i i drive a modest car i actually the last season of shaw's was driving a 2020 911 s cabriolet i was paying$2 ,500 a month for a lease payment.

49:03As soon as the show was canceled, it was at a time when cars were really hard to come by. It was at the end of the pandemic. I called the finance company. I said, what's the buyout? It was like 80 something grand. And I looked at Carvana. I could get 125 for it. So I sent them a check for 89 grand. They sent me the title. I took it to Carvana, they gave me an offer. I called a couple car dealers. I ended up getting eight more grand than Carvana offered me. So I sold it for$125 ,000. So I made the difference. And from that day, in 2021, I put$2 ,500 in a separate account as if I still had that car payment.

49:47So imagine from 2021, we're in 2026, 12 months, every month I've been putting that money away. So for me, knowing I have financial security and stability is way more important than what other people care about. But I have friends that are broke, that have much nicer cars than I do. So it just depends like what you're trying to accomplish. Like who are you doing it for? And I don't care what people think. You know, I live a very frugal mindset. I would say Persian Jews are very similar to Coptic Orthodox Egyptians because I don't drive a nice car. Matter of fact, I was flying with a bunch of my competitors who work way under me, and they're flying first class.

50:33I'm flying coach. They're driving Benzes. I'm driving a Hyundai. You know, like I don't care, you know. But guess what? Who has way more money? Who has way more assets? Who actually calculates their net worth? Probably me. My net worth is probably, you know, 100x theirs. you know so for me my net worth isn't dictated by like what i floss with you know everything i get is like discounted or free or significantly like you know like or gifted or something my value is in my character my persona my charisma yeah you know like i i got game still right i don't need a flex with money yeah thank god i hope to never have to flex with money i probably will have to at some point but right now i'm still able to like leverage my good looks and charm Yeah.

51:15I mean, I don't get me wrong. People are going to watch this and be like, bitch, you're wearing like a hundred thousand at least in gold. That's true. Like between the watch and the car tie in the David Yurman, this shit's pricey. But a bitch is still Iranian and Iranians love some gold. My mom used to my mom was a jewelry whore. I inherited that from her. I'm a jewelry hoe. So I but gold has gone up. gold is yeah it's appreciated like crazy it's like crazy yeah so even the stuff that i buy that makes me feel great like i love it it's all assets now it's all assets and totally they appreciate but do i need to flex for people i don't care what people think like i'm not trying to impress the joneses i am the jones let's go baby now how do you monetize being yourself without selling your soul?

52:11I mean, my mouth is too big for me to sell my soul. Like my therapist said to me, I was talking to her about the book, you know, and there's things that I've said, whether it's in and around religion or politics or social causes that I think if I had kept my mouth shut, I would make more money. But unfortunately, I have to be me. So whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, you're never going to wonder where you stand with me. You will know a thousand percent. I can be in a room with a hundred people or I can be in a room with two people. If I don't like you, you don't exist to me and you're going to know how I feel about you.

53:00I'm not fake. I wish I could be more fake. I would probably be able to capitalize off of being fake in a better way than being very transparent. But it's just not in me. So you're going to know what you're getting. I'm not going to stab you from the back. I love that. It'll come from my mouth right to you. I'll look you dead in the eyes and let you know how I feel. There's so much more value in being authentic. I mean, especially in Hollywood, a place where it just rains fake people. You know, people are yearning for that authenticity. And that's kind of cool that, you know, you have that loud mouth because you tell it how it is.

53:39So that leads me to this question. Give me some brutally honest Bravo style feedback about me as a guest host, about me as a podcaster. I mean, I don't know that there's anything brutal to give. Oh, man, I love constructive criticism. I got to keep growing. Constructive criticism? Yeah, give it to me. We're not live, so they might cut it out. I mean, this has been very fun and engaging. You do have 400 people working here, so you're spending money like a motherfucker. Hopefully, this podcast makes money because there's a shit ton of people here. so other than like you know my me being my dad like what is going on why so many people here like you need lady bringing the coffee like go to a starbucks like what is going on like pretty lady wearing diamond necklace you overpaying everybody what's happening here there's the big guy there's the persian lady there's this one i saw one guy outside with the dog like 400 people here.

54:48What's going on? You know, we're not making money, but we are branding like crazy. So, you know, we are going to be making money hopefully soon. I love that. That's a great impression of your dad, by the way. Excellent. Yeah. Can I get my refill?

55:18What's the most expensive, broke-looking behavior that you see in LA and in your industry? So the most broke-looking behavior happened on this past season of my show where I had a new castmate who comes from very humble beginnings but was very disrespectful. The show is called the valley Persian style and everyone on the cast lives in the valley and she proceeded to just trash the valley all season long talking like she lives in Bel Air and like you said about the 100x of the net worth like I know that I have way more than they have but I don't act like they act and And just the in L.A., you find a lot of people who will just put on a little bit of bling, throw on an Hermes bag that may or may not be real and just act like they own the world.

56:19And I find that to be a big turnoff. It doesn't make me think, oh, you're wealthy or you're going to buy a house from me. It just makes me think you're very disrespectful and you need to be checked. and, you know, I'm probably the one to do it. You are. Yeah, that brutal honesty is so important. Now, talk about Keller Williams. I know you got, I think, nine jobs. By the way, before I ask about Keller Williams, what job makes the most money? It just depends on the time of year that you're asking me, right? Depending on what escrow I'm closing or, you know, we film for a certain amount of time. so it's tough because sometimes the real estate brings in a lot more money sometimes you know on a down market when interest rates are really high and it's hard to sell anything you know i went through the financial crisis interest rates are really high totally and it's very difficult and a lot of persians have been pulling out that cash i have friends i'm like i didn't talk about living a modest life and then all of a sudden, you know, I talk to them and I always ask a client like, hey, are you pre-qualified?

57:32Because I want to know, I don't want to show you a$2 million house if you can only afford to buy 1.3 based off of your debt, your income, your financial situation. Because in the early days, I made the mistake of allowing them to tell me what we could look at, Right. Like, hey, what are we going to look at? And they'd say between one and one point five and then cut to once we did, you know, the they qualify for 400000. Exactly. So now I want to make sure. And so I'm talking to one of my buddies who is the cheapest human being on Earth, never wants to go to a nice place to eat, is always trying to change the reservation when we're in a group setting to some like hooptie place that I don't want to eat at because the food sucks.

58:18It's not good quality food. And I'm like, hey, he's like, let's go. Let's start looking. I'm ready to, you know, settle down and buy a place. I'm like, awesome. Have you, do you have a lender? Have you spoken to someone? He's like, no. I'm like, why not? He's like, well, I'm not getting a loan. I'm paying cash. And I'm like, oh, okay. What's our budget? And he's like, you know, I could spend up to two, five, but I'd like to keep it around two. And I'm like, what? All those hoopty restaurants I went to, you've been sitting on 2.5? And that's just to buy the house. You obviously have to have other funds, right?

59:00Because you can't bring your bank account down to zero once you buy a house. You have property taxes, car pay. Like, what? 2.5? So there have been many times when people have floored me with their financial situation in both ways. There's been times where I've taken someone out who is seemingly living the glamorous. Like, I'm like, okay, Sheila E, let's go look at them houses and cut to like they're needing to get a cosigner. Like their parents had to co-sign on that loan because they owe so much money on like 12 credit cards are maxed out. And I'm like, I want to say something because obviously I'm communicating with the lender.

59:49Now I know that they're co-signing and I want to be like, bitch, why are you maxing these credit cards out? But I keep my mouth shut, do the deal and keep it pushing. Yeah, they got an image to front on. that's a that's a thing you know yeah i mean my dad was like credit card interest is for morons you don't ever buy anything that you can't afford to pay off when the bill comes only use an american express card because you can't you have to pay that thing off every time my dad was someone he would come to your business and he'd be like oh this is nice ice cream shop you own the building And they'd be like, well, no, I own the business.

1:00:31I'm the ice cream shop owner. He's like, oh, okay, you're an idiot because you're just making somebody else rich. You're just paying, you're working your ass off on these$2 ice cream scoop to pay rent to the guy who's really making the money, right? So, like, I grew up with this mentality of I had a TED Talk, you know, like a master class in finance. we would go my dad was rich we would go buy cars for my mom it was going to be a mercedes and my dad would put on ratty house clothes i'm like why what the hell you don't go out of the house like that he's like you want them to think that they are fighting fighting hard to get you into that car like you are scraping all your pennies and nickels together don't make them think you're rich and you can afford this car make them think like they have to fight to get you in this car and so i'm wearing like a ralph lorne polo i'm like all cute and the dad looks like a bum and we're driving off in a brand new mercedes but my dad was right he got it for a deal that like you're like how do you do that yeah me and your dad would have been best friends i'm telling you i'm just the same way yeah i think i'm persian jew all right reza you've done really well for yourself yeah obviously you know how to invest you know how to hustle yeah how old were you when you bought your first property and how important is owning real estate in this society this day and age?

1:01:59Owning real estate in this day and age is really important because the stock market and the real estate market are real wealth creators. I have so many relatives that I watched growing up that were dentists or merchants or business owners. It didn't matter what they did for a living, but they were immigrants who didn't have a retirement plan, who didn't have a pension. But I watched them do their business and buy up real estate. And by the time they were old enough to be the retirement age, they stopped working and they had mad passive income from all of the real estate that they'd been accumulating.

1:02:44And I watched them just buy real estate their whole lives. Persians are obsessed with real estate. I was in my early 20s when I bought my first condo and the only thing I regret is not holding on to that condo and just adding to the portfolio. I wish I had never sold anything. I wish I had never sold any of my real estate, but the homeowners dues were getting too high and I was worried that it would cannibalize my income from the rental income. But I built my business, Joe, asking friends how much they were paying in rent. And at that time in 2000, 2001, I would find them a property that they could afford to buy and I would pencil it out.

1:03:36Like if you put this much down and you call your CPA, I bet you the tax savings on the interest on this loan at the end of the year, because you have good income, if you take everything else into consideration, you could afford to buy. And here are three places that I found for you. And that's how I legit built my career, just selling stuff to people that were paying too much in rent. Not a lot of people in your space really know how to identify like the cost benefit analysis, the tax savings, applying it, the cost segregation. That's those are tough concepts for your average realtor. Not really.

1:04:17When you have a Persian Jew as a dad who taught you how the world works and how to save money and how to build wealth and how to not be destitute when I'm older, because those were all things that his dad taught him that, you know, obviously he applied U.S. tax codes and he was teaching me based off of us living in America, but it was just adapted from the things that his father taught him. So not only was I able to tell you that the only, at that time, the only two drawer dishwasher was a Fisher Paykel, or I could look at the stone on the counter and tell you that it was vein cut travertine or look at, you know, a piece of art that was hanging on the wall and tell you who the artist was.

1:05:08Like, I want to know everything that has to do with my industry, not just like, hey, this is a house. It's a good deal. I would literally get if I had a client in the car and we were driving around together and they pointed to a building while we were driving. Hey, are there any condos in that building for sale? I could tell you, oh, that's not a condo building. That's an apartment building. So no, there are no units for sale. I would study before I had any clients that were willing to buy real estate for me. I just wanted to have as much knowledge. Like if you called me and said, hey, I want to buy a two bedroom, two bath with in unit laundry and central air conditioning, what buildings were available to me?

1:05:53There are a lot of buildings in LA that are converted apartment buildings that don't have central air and heat that don't necessarily have in-unit laundry so i wanted to just be a wealth of information i wanted to be able to stand out from other realtors like give advice obviously tell people to speak to their financial advisor because that's not what i do for a living but i can share that based off of my first condo this is what I experienced. I had a lot of savings because I had this write-off. So you should talk to your money person and see if that could apply to you considering your financial situation.

1:06:36And nine times out of 10, they would come back to me and say, hey, Reza, great advice. My money guy is telling me 1000 % I should buy that I would benefit from having this write-off. Love it. Love it. I I mean, everything is sound. You seem like you're pretty versed in financial literacy, and that obviously is a result of your dad's efforts. But listen, most realtors didn't grow up with a Persian Jew dad. No. He taught you financial literacy probably when you were born. A hundred percent. He wanted me to save money. He had a bank account open for me when I was a little kid. He was telling me about compounded interest and things that you don't talk to little kids about.

1:07:16Yeah. So my kids are savage entrepreneurs already. They got bizarre coming out of their blood as well because it's tough to raise wealthy kids with like grit. Yeah. You know, and that's why I asked you that question because it's a real thing for me. You know, having four kids and just trying to figure out how they're going to navigate. Mashallah, exactly. Brothers, you're going to love this question. Yeah. What's the weirdest thing a wealthy buyer has ever demanded from you?

1:07:48not like a sex dungeon or something not at all it's actually alarming so i was i ended up selling him an eight million dollar house and i had booked a ton of appointments for us to look at a lot of houses and i had lunch at the ivy on robertson i was going to take him to a beautiful beautiful lunch. And then we were going to continue on. And he was from out of town. So I knew I had like two days with him. And both days, I had tons of houses with a lunch in between. And we look at a couple houses. And he said, I'm starving. I said, Okay, well, you know, we're gonna have lunch in an hour. He's like, No, no, no, I'm starving.

1:08:36I need to eat now. And I was like, well, we're literally, we have a realtor waiting for us. We have to go to this appointment. He's like, no, call, reschedule. I don't feel good. We need to eat. And I'm looking at$8 million, up to 10, 12 actually. He ended up buying eight, but it was a fixer. So he had me pull into a 7-Eleven. I parked the car he went in dressed three hot dogs with mustard relish I could see it and it was coming down his face he got it on his shirt he ate those standing up in the parking lot while I was calling all of our appointments to push them for like 30 minutes so he could eat the fully dressed hot dogs in the parking lot of 7-Eleven.

1:09:28And we went, we looked at the houses, we ate lunch. You would think he had never seen food. He had the biggest lunch as if he hadn't scarfed down three hot dogs in the parking lot of 7-Eleven. But he was the nicest guy. I had the best time with him, but he was hangry. Like he was angry with me. He was pissed. I'm like, dude, we have lunch in an hour i was gonna offer him like a protein bar he's like no pull over now i'm like there's nowhere to eat he goes there 7-eleven and i went pulled into 7-eleven and he killed it and we kept it pushing what's funny is he's probably like a really skinny guy too no he was a big guy no he was a big guy oh yeah dude that's funny just pounded three hot dogs pounded pounded yeah they were like two bite hot dogs that's hilarious yeah those would fill up anybody three giant hot dogs and then i it was like a 250 lunch at the ivy no joke like i was obviously glad to do it because he bought an eight million dollar house from me but yeah it was it was the weirdest thing i literally i just had to because i didn't want to miss out on any of the appointments because each one of them was really special and unique and i wanted to make sure we saw each of the houses so i literally called each one of them and just like bumped them for another 20 or 30 minutes a few of them i had to juggle around so i sat in my car behind the seat rolling calls and he was standing on the curb in the parking lot of 7-eleven just scurping the hot Yeah.

1:11:08Yeah. All right. We're going to roll into it next. Now. Do we do the game show? I mean, this isn't that far off for me.

1:11:25Let's go, baby. All right. Reza. Now we're going to be. Yes. Pharaoh. Yes. Yes. Prince Reza. We are going to be doing a quick game show. Now we're both in our swag and you're mean you're going to decide if it's Persian or if it's Egyptian. Let's go. First question. Who would negotiate over a four dollar parking fee even if they know they can afford it?

1:11:53Persian. I mean, I think both of us. My friend, I give you two dollars. I pay cash. No tax. No, no, no. I'll pay$250. Okay. Has an aunt who knows everyone's business before the person involved even knows? Obviously, that's going to be both of us. Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. I've got a few. They'll tell you shit about you you didn't even know. My Persian aunt. My Egyptian aunt. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Calls five times because you did not answer once. that's my mom so that's persian yeah egyptians all day too on that yeah man these are this is this i think the whole list sounds like it's like both of us yeah this one's definitely i mean this this is all all all our cultures i mean says eat you're too skinny then immediately comments on your weight that's definitely everyone in my family every meal like why habibi every meal every meal Um, judges the wedding, the food, the flowers, and the seating chart.

1:13:07Well, that was my sister's wedding. And the reason why I didn't spend$300 ,000 to get married at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, because my sister had the most beautiful wedding that was photographed. It's actually published in a wedding book. And people talk shit about her wedding. and I was lucky to get married for free on Shaws of Sunset. Persian Jew style. Let's go. All right, round two. Yes. Shaws and loans. Yes. Is it financially responsible or Bravo delusional? Okay, that's the premise. Okay. My cousin wants a$4 million house but works three hours a week and says his business is about to pop.

1:13:50Yeah, that's Delulu. Delulu. I mean, how many people do we know like that? A lot of people. All day, you know? Okay. I had a stupid friend that put$2 million down on a$5 million house because he thought his career was going to continue popping. I told him to buy a modest house. He bought the$5 million house, put the$2 million down, the market turned, and he did a short sale and walked away with nothing because he wanted to flex and live in a big mansion. It's just sad. I would literally jump off. Like I would hurt myself. People are so financially illiterate and want to flex so much. It's like, how do you get through these?

1:14:34If I lost$2 million, I would never forgive myself. I get mad about a parking ticket. You know, it's like, okay. Next question. A couple wants to buy in Beverly Hills, but they're fighting with you during the showing. Do you still write the offer? Absolutely. They could just be having, you know, they could be hangry. Maybe they need a 7-Eleven hot dog. Okay. Financial responsible or Bravo Delusional? Someone wants a mansion because their ex just bought one. Good motivation or financial disaster? That's a financial disaster. I agree. I agree. Next question. Client says, I don't want to show bank statements, but trust me, I got the money.

1:15:19What do you say? Well, as soon as you got me, I'll make some appointments and take you to go look at some houses. But until you either talk to a lender or show me some bank statements, I can't give you my time. Sorry, can't help you. Round three. Okay, virgin mom approval rating from one to ten. Yeah. I mean, obviously, renting versus buying. Zero. One. If you're renting, you are Baruch. Baruch. You have no money. Unless you are investing that money in businesses that are making more for you than the appreciation of this real estate over the same amount of time. Because some of my friends are like, buddy, I'm making so much money.

1:16:06I don't want to waste that money on the down payment for a house. I'm making so much money off that money. And then I'm thinking, bitch, if you're making so much money, why aren't you buying a house? First indicator of your net worth is your house. Yeah. First indicator. And it's funny when I get these people flexing, we've had some people, you know, come through that like very fancy. I'm like, where do you live? Bel Air? Like, do you own rent? Like, rent? Like, come on, bro. You got to be buying. You know, people should not be paying 30 grand a month in rent. That's just crazy. And you got a lot of that in LA.

1:16:38So much. Now, next question. Dating someone your family has not fully investigated. One through 10. Wait, that question implies that your family investigates all the people that you date i want to date someone and when i get serious with them then i want to bring them around my family my family will destroy a relationship faster than you know you can count to 10 so i don't know about egyptian families but if you bring my when my husband met my dad's side of the family he goes man these people are nice they're not like your other side of the family I was like honey they were just putting you through the ringer you got to meet my dad's family after me and you were like together together um next question ordering takeout when there's food in the fridge I mean sometimes you might have a craving but I will tell you I went on worst cooks in America and I won the competition and I had a master chef teach me how to cook and my DoorDash account, Postmates and DoorDash, I was spending three to four grand a month ordering lunch and dinner every single night because I wasn't cooking and I was working so much and I wasn't preparing.

1:17:58Like I wasn't taking my meals as seriously as I should. Once I learned how to cook, I'm spending zero dollars a month on DoorDash and Postmates and I'm thinner than I've ever been. So health-wise and money-wise, DoorDash isn't a good idea. But sometimes you do get a Big Mac attack and it's okay to indulge. I'm just saying. Like, you don't have to be militant with the shit. You can, like, you know, sometimes you can be like, oh, I can have those leftovers tomorrow. You know, I want sushi tonight. You can, you know, splurge once in a while. Eating at home is the way to go if you can do it. It is.

1:18:36because also you're controlling your macros, which is really important. You don't know what's going in. The food out. Yeah. You don't know who's touching it. No. Touching it, smacking it, flipping it, rubbing it down. By the time you get it, it could have spit and two boogers in there. You don't know. That's a good way to put it. I'm not going to eat out again. Now, next question. Buying a property versus buying a luxury car. You know, it's so funny that you're I was just in the car on the way here talking to a friend of mine who just got the new electric G wagon. And I went on the MLS in Palm Springs and there's a short sale condo for one hundred and forty nine nine nine nine in a development where I used to own an income property in that building.

1:19:28And I was like, you know what? I really do love that electric G wagon. But if I were going to part with$150 ,000, I would buy that short sale and keep driving the car I'm driving. Because I'd make a few Gs off of renting that property out. Give me that property. I'll buy that one. Yeah. Yeah, but it's going to go over sale. It's going to go over short sale price. And you got to come in all cash, right, on that. what's that worth probably no problem 250 so i sold one in original condition i bought one at the at the tail end of the financial crisis i bought one in that development for 50k i sold it a few years ago in original condition after i rented it out and the owner the my tenant paid me a hundred and something while they were living there while they paid me back double my money and then when he left I sold it for 172 ,500 and now a much nicer unit redone in the building for 150.

1:20:43Wow yeah yeah I'm interested but you can't rent it during Coachella probably. You can rent it whenever and that building allows short-term rental as well. Oh that's cool. Now, last question. Yeah. Going on reality TV and letting the whole family's business out. I mean, so you're asking someone who went on reality TV and let his whole family's business out. So what's the question? Approval rating from your family, 1 through 10. I think based off of everything I've been able to do with letting that out, I think they would all give me a 10 because I went on TV as a Middle Easterner at a time when people in the industry were saying to me, we need to do more focus group testing.

1:21:39We don't know if America is ready to watch a bunch of Middle Easterners on TV. People thought we had horns. Like we were all portrayed as either like merchants, terrorists, like, you know, or kings, sultans. There weren't that many of us on TV. And after going on TV, I had people say to me, I wish I was Persian, which was the craziest phenomenon in my life. So if you ask my family now, in hindsight, they're down with it and they support me. So I'm very lucky. It took only 10 years of focus proof, but it's all good. Yeah. It's been such a pleasure to have you on the show. We got a small gift for you.

1:22:24Well, a few small gifts. I don't know if we, this is a book that we picked out. I know you love cats. I love cats. Oh my God. What a thoughtful gift, Joe. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is a really cool book. What a gorgeous book. And another small... Oh, my God. Oh, shit. Man. Oh, my God. This is amazing. Oh, my God. And another small gift here. So sweet.

1:22:54Oh, my God. There's so much stuff in here. I know. Hopefully, it just doesn't go in a closet. Oh, my God. That's so sweet. Thank you, guys. We signed the book for you, too. Thank you. So sweet of you guys. I really appreciate it. I had a great time. This was way better than I thought it was. Yeah, this was great. We really appreciate you coming on the show today. It's been so fun. If people want to connect with you or, you know, get in touch, ask questions. At Reza Farhan across all my socials. Drop me a DM. Hit me up. Let's get into it. People want to watch the Valley Persian style. Where can they watch it now?

1:23:28They can watch the Valley Persian style on Peacock and I think it's streaming on Hulu as well. Let's get it Reza awesome show thank you so much for coming on the show thank you so much for having me I had a great time

1:24:03Thank you.

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