Remember Gordon Gekko's famous greed speech speech from the movie "Wall Street"?
What seemed somewhere between disturbing and obscene in 1987 now seems positively quaint. And compared to the viperous house-leeches on last night's episode, Gordon Gekko is basically St. Augustine. These people don't just want obscene gobs of money for their houses; they want huge, dripping bags of money, with gold coins falling out the top and huge dollar signs on the side. Every extra $50K gives them visible full-body orgasms. It's quite a scene.
Justin finds himself in SOMA, as we call it, where some people bought a boring-ass loft a few years ago for $1.2 million and now want $2.1 because symmetry. He decides the way to market this thing is with an Airnstream trailer at Off the Grid Fort Mason because, in his words, "If you want to find dumb rich hipster techies you have to go to a food truck festival." Finally, we agree on something, Justin! He shows the box to a stream of dejected buyers, disappointed in the lack of a gym or rooftop deck or why is this kitchen not bigger and why didn't Mommy look at me every second I'm so special.
Roh is trying to move some huge pile in the Marina - a "very sexy area," he says. If the Marina were a person, you would probably fuck it. Anyway, the owner of this huge 2-unit pile that looks like a hotel in Sarasota bought it for $3.2 mil 10 years ago and now Roh thinks he can get her 4.6. She and her accent seem cool with that.
Andrew, meanwhile, is in what they're calling Nopa now, which, he says, "used to be a shithole," like everywhere else he goes in Our Garbage City. Some dude with some yappy dogs is trying to move his condo for too much and Andrew gets him to set it at $1.098 mil. After everything else on this fucking show, that seems like a huge bargain.
Back in the Marina, Roh is having trouble moving Casa Grande, maybe because everyone knows that it will melt like hot wax and sink into the warm, bubbling mud as soon as there's any earthquake over a 6.5 and you're basically paying almost 5 mil to rent a house until that happens. He actually uses the word "liquefaction" at one point which is a better buyer repellent than saying there was a torture-murder in the solarium or the prior owner was a cat hoarder.
HERE COMES THE GREED. Everyone's getting offers and none of the money-breathers want to take them.
GREED #1: Roh gets a full-price offer for a building that is literally going to vanish into the liquid Earth sometime in the next 30 years and SHE WON'T TAKE IT. She wants more money! MORE MORE MORE MORE MONEY MORE FOR ME MONEY MONEY MONEY
GREED #2: Justin meets up with Stephanie who I guess is the SOMA box's seller agent at Big 4, which must have a kickback arrangement with this show, for a couple of blood orange bellinis and TURNS DOWN his all-cash no contingency offer of $1.7 million. ARRRRGGGHHH FUCK ALL THESE PEOPLE. But they'll take 1.8. This is the kind of dick-swinging that even people named Stephanie do for fun.
GREED #3: Roh gets it up to 4.7 million. Greedhead wants MORE MORE MORE MORE but finally takes 4.8.
GREED #4: Even the nice little man with the 2 dogs and the tastefully furnished place in "Nopa" is getting in on the action now. 1.098 million? NO I WANT MORE MONEY PLUS I WANT TO KEEP LIVING THERE FOR FREE. Surprisingly, tentacles do not burst forth from the ground and drag this man screaming into a dark netherworld but the buyers instead are like "OK sure! Here, take more money and keep living there for a few more months."
In closing, this show is depressing as fuck.
In Andrew's defense, and I can't believe I'm defending Andrew, the Western Addition (not "Nopa," because I will never call it "Nopa") did indeed used to be a shithole. Anyway, thank you for continuing the recaps even though it forces me to continue to keep watching the show, which is a tragedy. I am just hanging in for the season finale, which if there is a god will consist entirely of one single shot, like in "Birdman," following Andrew as he drives out to Alamo (calling back to the first episode) to finally get revenge on those nutjobs who took their garbage pile off the market and deprived him of his giant commission. We follow him as he throws a designer deck chair through the window to break in and runs from room, laughing maniacally, pouring gasoline on everything and everything. In the final shot, he starts up his car, throws a match over his shoulder, and we watch as the whole place explodes in flames. The camera zooms in on the weeping matriarch who thought $3M was too cheap for her exurban dream mansion and, devastated, she throws herself into the flames. FIN
ReplyDeleteIs it me or do both the agents and the sellers seem to hate their clients? If I were house shopping, I would take a huge pause if anyone I was working with called me dumb and stupid out loud (even though it may be true as my wife can attest to).
ReplyDeleteI was on Next Door recently and had to gently talk a nice(TM) person out of the idea that Gecko was the hero of the movie. That post was flagged. San Franfishco!
ReplyDeleteReminder: Jerry McGuire was a shit movie, and "Show me the money!" was not the takeaway. The takeaway was: shit movie.