The ginormous Bel-Air mansion that once might have housed a studio chief is these days just as likely to be the home of a teenage TikTok superstar.
Just ask realtor Jonny Sorrentino, himself only 22, who’s made a budding career of finding the right digs for young internet sensations with cash to burn. What do influencers, some of whom earn $100,000 a month shilling merch like gold-dust mascara, demand in a property? “A lot of them want a huge house so they can have all their friends under one roof,” explains Sorrentino. “Usually, it’s in Sherman Oaks or Tarzana,” where there are more new properties with multiple bedrooms in which to kick it.
Sorrentino has repped influencers like Cody Orlove (with 1.8 million Instagram followers) and says that, although eager to flex their success, many young influencers don’t have established credit or even credit cards, making a real estate purchase dicey. So they lease. “They only pay cash for things and don’t understand how to build credit,” Sorrentino says. “They’ll pay $8,000, $12,000, even $25,000 per month on a lease.”
For all their extravagance, you’d think influencers would be happy campers. Not so. “A lot of them are super stressed—they only make money when something goes viral,” Sorrentino says. “They’re always looking for the next thing because, without it, they’ll have to move.”
Alternate Realty
Priced out of your preferred hood? Good news! There’s always a poor man’s version nearby.
Silver Lake (poor man’s Los Feliz)
Highlights Straight out of a Disney fairy tale, this three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,815-square-foot Craftsman with twinkling views of downtown looks as if Snow White and her dwarfs could entertain here.
Price $1,495,000
Contact Carrabba Group At Compass, 323-899-2900
Laurelwood (poor man’s Trousdale Estates)
Highlights This four-bedroom, three-bath, 2,566-square-foot hillside home is pure Rat Pack chic—and would command ten times the price were it located just six miles over the hill.
Price $2,995,000
Contact Marlene Geibelson, Berkshire Hathaway, 818-606-8820
Eagle Rock (poor man’s Pasadena)
Highlights Just like homes in its fancy-pants neighbor to the east, this updated two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,374-square-foot bungalow is close to trendy restaurants and boasts dramatic Verdugo Mountain views.
Price $1,295,000
Contact Katie Crane at Compass, 310-502-2312
Just Don’t Call It Wallpaper
L.A.’s toniest interior designers are flocking to handcrafted wall-surface treatments by artists Nadine Weatherstone and Bozena that can cost as much as a Range Rover but will definitely up your living-room game.
The posh panels are sold exclusively through Gregorius Pineo, the Van Cleef & Arpels of to-the-trade home furnishings. Weatherstone’s treatments feature customized color glazes rendered in plaster or gesso that she works with specialized tools to evoke textures that mimic the play of light on concrete or the depth of layers of lacquer. gregoriuspineo.com.
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