Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Appearances
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Right. Do you have a number? Well, it's work at the end of the day. So there's always a number for everything.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I don't know, really.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It's usually like 50 to like 47. We're not buying a house here, sister.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
What neighborhood are we in? No, but everyone's like, when they ask me, I'm like, oh, no, no, I don't really like that number. They're like, why? I'm like, which means like 4975. They're like, what?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Yeah. I mean. Yeah. I don't. I mean, I don't really know what other people are getting. I don't really like a lot of a lot of housewives. They like try to commiserate. I'm like, no, no. I'm like, I'm good. You don't like talking about it?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I do too, but I think that you have to be careful, especially on a show like that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It's different like when you're working together, but when you're like on a show that's being filmed under like a microscope on HGTV, I think it's different when you're talking because there's that constant like the level of competition just gets really, really high because of like how much the person's getting paid versus like what's at stake emotionally. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
But again, like you don't want to be like – you don't want to have – I mean you wouldn't want to be on a show. You wouldn't want to produce a show where you have like four people already arguing about knowing how much the other person is making.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Right. That's a good point. But I think that when you're seeing people that are getting, like, a million versus, like, other people that are getting, like, 10,000, I think that that's such a, like, it's not a level playing field. And so then people get, like, at the onset, like, ferocious. And they don't want that. They want people to be genuine and they want people, they want to, like, it's HGTV.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
You want to see like authentic moments.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Well, I mean, if we talked, if you're talking about actual finance, if you're saying to like so-and-so, like if you went on and were like, hi, this is what you need to do. Or if someone was in a situation with bankruptcy, if, you were there to be like, well, I can help you navigate that. I think that's different than like trying to get people to on the onset to be like, you're making 10,000.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I'm making a million. Like I'm better than you are, you know, kind of thing.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Cause you don't know what's going to, you don't know like who's going to be the breakout star. Like you don't know just because you're making X amount of dollars doesn't mean that you're not going to be that, that you're going to be the breakout star versus the other one. You don't know that. It depends on like the narrative. It depends on like what they're doing.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
There's a Potomac. That's not a joke. There's Dubai. There's Potomac. They're all over. There's Miami. I'm coming on. I'm going to help these women. There's Beverly Hills.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Because I think they live above their means. I think they get excited. And I think that they forget why the fans want to hear from them. They want to hear their story. And then all of a sudden they're like, I'm wearing Louis Vuitton. I'm in a G-Wagon. You know, like, I'm killing it. Look at me. I'm famous. And then all of a sudden, you know, cameras stop rolling. It's like in any business.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It's like an entertainment business, like music, modeling, acting. You see all these people like doing so well and then all of a sudden they stop doing well and money stops going, you know, coming in and all of a sudden it's like, you know, then life gets real. So I think you'd be great.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I think they would be, you know, I think it'd be great to just have you just like general, just like telling women like, you know. How to take care of themselves.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It depends on the situation. I think that some situations you should have a prenup. I mean, I didn't have a prenup with my ex-husband. Was that a mistake? No. No. No, because I mean, I had money coming in, he had money coming in and, you know, I just genuinely wanted to, you know, move forward and, you know, money wasn't the impetus.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Like I didn't marry him for money and I wasn't divorcing him for money. I was divorcing him for freedom and to raise my kids and to give them the greatest life ever. And I just didn't feel like, you know, being with him was doing that. So I don't necessarily, I don't think of it like that. Like some women are like, oh my God, money, which is great.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Right. Well, there's two sides of it. I mean, I definitely raised my kids with good values and a sense of self, and they've always worked. And, you know, my daughters worked through college, and they've, you know, done everything from, like, babysat to, you know, like, bartending, waitressing. Like, they've done it all. Personally, I don't know.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, it's like I don't judge people, but I don't marry for the ring. Like, I, you know, marry because he's... You know, I married my ex-husband because I thought he was an amazing human. If I thought that I was marrying for the ring, like I would have gotten a bigger ring.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Yeah. I mean, if we're talking about like your inheritance, like your family's inheritance or something like that, like I don't think that that's fair for, you know, for an ex to get that. That's not fair. But when you bring something to a relationship and you are in the relationship and you're going under contract. You know, it's a transaction at the end of the day. It's a legal contract.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I'm going to marry you and this is what we're going to do. And here's the terms of the contract. I mean, that's what it is. So if you don't like the terms of the contract, you probably shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I have a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend. I have a really serious boyfriend.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
No, they're always trying to like, Take care of me. Men are always like, oh, let me take care of you. Like, it made me feel very insecure. Very insecure. Because you want to take care of yourself. Right. Because it's like, you know, here I have these two girls and what am I going to do? Just be like, oh, okay. Like, let me just, you know, hop into your arms with two. Ready, set, here we go.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
You know, I felt a big responsibility and people, you know, guys that I were dating were very, very assertive about, you know, taking care of me. Made me very insecure. Not to say that I don't appreciate it, but I felt like kind of like it was like, okay, this is the amount of money you're going to get every month. And I was like, what?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Right. I mean, the whole thing just really didn't agree with me.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
But some people really like that. Like some people are like, great. Like at least I know what I'm getting. Like, you know, I mean, again, like we're talking, you know, honestly, like some women just really like that. I just that was just never like I wasn't raised like that. If I told my father, by the way, I'm marrying this guy and he's going to give me X amount of dollars per month.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
My father would be like, I spent all this money on this great education. for you to think like that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
He would not be happy. No, he passed and he would not be happy. He would want me to like have a partner and to build Together. Yeah, he would want me to build. I think that there has to, like, you know, women have to be able to be doing something that really, like, ignites them and makes them feel whole. So that the relationship where it started off is, you know, it ignited for a reason.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And then all of a sudden, you know, you go into this transaction, you sign this piece of paper, this, you know, stone goes on your finger, and all of a sudden the dynamics change, right? You know, and I think that people get lost. And I think it's not about the money. I think it's about they just get personally just emotionally lost.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, I mean, I know we're talking about money for you, but I mean, I think of it more like an emotional way where, you know, I have a lot of empathy for both women and men who are, you know, get lost in relationships. And I don't want someone to be in a relationship with me that feels like that. You know, for someone like me, I just, you know, I've waited so long to be with the right person.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And, you know, I've met a lot of really great guys, but they're definitely not the right person for me. And, you know, I just want to have respect for my partner. And I want him to, you know, do everything that he wants to do. And I want to do the same.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Fair. Yeah, it's give and take. Listen, I mean, we're talking about finances, but I think that like, and there's nothing wrong with being in love. There's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to get married for money. You don't have to get married because you need to like move into an apartment.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It's like, it's so nice to have someone like you as a role model who can talk to women about finances because it's something that's daunting. And I've had to deal with it all my life. I don't talk about it. I don't, you know, I know a lot, you know, like a lot of the housewives are like, I made all this money and they're throwing it around and
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And all these women like are watching and they're just kind of like, what? What about me? Like, I can't even pay bills. And you know what I mean? So it's hard. It's hard to see all that. So I just want women to be excited about what they have and who they are.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And, you know, to like recognize that there are checks and balances and the money that goes in, the money that goes out and just to try to be mindful of what they're doing.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Right. Right. But I mean, at the same time that you shouldn't be like, you know, be, you know, I need to be rich in order to be, you know, to feel good because, you know, there's so many more things and, you know, to be happy. And, you know, I've had so many iterations of my life and I've been through so much, you know, so many like peaks and valleys.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And I don't feel I still to this day believe in love and believe in like taking care of myself and taking care of other people.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
It's just what I tell myself today. It's just like, you know, there's a little for me, a little for Uncle Sam, and then a little to put away. I'm always like thinking of my girls, like what we're going to do for them and just like just to be balanced about it. Because like, I mean, what you were saying before about like, you know, to live under your means, some people just can't do that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Some people just, you know, it's like, you know, my father came from absolutely nothing. And he gave us so much education, integrity, you know, a healthy mindset. And he lived way above his means. way above his means. But he created, like, we were his legacy. So whatever he spent was, well, we were his stocks. It's just kind of like a different kind of way of investing. Way of investing.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Thank you. I love that, Money Rehab. It's such a great title.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
So I actually stumbled upon real estate. Unfortunately, my mom fell ill and wanted me to help sell our family properties. And my father's older, so I oversaw that, quickly got my license, and wasn't really thinking that You know, this is like just one million dollar listing had gone on and I was, you know, just finished. I just retired from Housewives, getting my MBA.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And I was just like, and I just kind of stumbled into this because I had to do it. And so out of something that's so traumatic came something like so incredible. Who would have known that, you know. She's asking me to do something to preserve our family. And all of a sudden, I'm pulling in $110 million on my own.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Started with the number one deal of 2021. So we're in COVID. No one's in New York City. And I sold 150 Charles, front house of 150 Charles for $42 million, all cash. Nicely done. Yeah, that was really nicely done, actually. A friend of mine happened to be looking for a $30 million apartment for his son.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, they're just New York investors. I mean, I think a lot of New York guys knew what was going to happen. They forecasted that there was going to be something happening. They just bought everything up. Because it was on the down.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Buy low, sell high. That's your business.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Well, so, you know, stock market's your business. Real estate market's my business. But, you know, we had, you know, 14 contracts, over 4 million last week. And four of those were over 20 million. So, and it was Thanksgiving. So, you know, that's really interesting. I mean, there's a lot of big cash buyers out there.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
So when people ask me about my business, they're like, well, you know, people aren't selling anything. You know, I don't want to sell. I'm like, well, you can sell. It's like any market. If the person wants what you have, They're going to pay the price for it. So it doesn't matter what the state of the stock market is. You know, it's like people want what they can't have.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And the good news about my business is I have a lot of great properties that most people can't have.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Completely. Completely. But this isn't something that I just fell into. People are like, oh, she got a license and all of a sudden she's doing 42 million. This is not how that works. I mean, I went to Columbia. I have an MBA. You know, I had great mentors along the way. I started Elle Accessories. I started Gotham Magazine. Like I'm really, I'm used to working with, you know, investors.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I'm used to working with advertisers. I'm used to like, you know, I think one reason that real estate really resonates with my clients is because I know everything about lifestyle. I started a magazine based on lifestyle. So it's like I already put the work in. And so I can kind of sit back and say, okay, this is the strategic opportunity for this apartment. This apartment needs staging.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
This apartment needs press. This apartment needs, you know, a party. This apartment, you know, whatever it is, you know, everything needs a little love in some kind of way. And, you know, you just can't like, you know, they always say like put lipstick on a pig. Like we don't do that. I like make it movie magic.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
To have your financials in order, just be ready to go. Because, you know, for example, my daughter is looking at an apartment and they were like, okay, it hasn't even finished yet. It's like they literally, the apartment is in construction. And they're like, okay, you need to zell the money, you know, first month's rent, earnest deposit, all this money, like zell it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
No checks, zell, like right away. So you have to be really ready to go. You can't be like, oh, wait, hold on. Let me just get myself together because there is that person that has their money ready to go. And that's when you lose something.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, there are so many. I mean, the rental market in New York is just insane right now. And, you know, I think there's a lot of fear associated with buying properties because there's fear with the unknown. And it's not like, you know, because of the volatility of the stock market, people are like, okay, that's a forecasting of what's going to happen in the real estate market.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
But again, like, you know, I live in this beautiful building. I just sold, it's approximately, because it's a co-op, so it's approximately 1,800 square feet, one apartment for 2.9 million. And then I sold another one a couple of months later for 4.1. So I basically raised the price of the building. Obviously, the other apartment was a different apartment with a different narrative.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
But do you see what I'm saying? Like, you can really make really good money or you can, you know, if you're living in a great home, like, for example, like, I represent this insane home on the Upper West Side, 26 West 87th Street, where Billie Holiday, she lived. And it's this phenomenal townhouse. It's been completely renovated for 13.7%.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
And, you know, that's a place like if you bought that home, I mean, you could really later on do whatever you want and really make a lot of money. So it just depends.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
their house uh they're kind of house poor and then they can't use that money to put in the market and make more money potentially so that opportunity cost of the big lump sum sometimes doesn't make sense for people well we have like different buckets so we've got the midwestern bucket where they're putting money into under their under their mattresses and then we have the real estate bucket and then we have the stock market bucket so we have like different people trying to figure out their finances in different kinds of ways and it's just kind of it's just really like
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
What works for you? Some people are just like, I'm just going to put that cash under my mattress. Which we don't recommend for the record. But some people are just like, I'm just going to save it for a rainy day because cash is king. Queen. Queen. King and queen. So you may not recommend it, but at the end of the day, sometimes it's good because you
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
You know, if during COVID, when you had a lot of cash, you could really buy anything you wanted. So just, it's, there's just three different kinds of buckets and it's just really what you want to do and how you want to do it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
At the end of the day, whether it's real estate, stock markets, or your mattress, you know, the most important, the number one priority for me in anything that I do with anyone is I tell them like your family, they're your legacy. So you need to give them shelter. I like it. Like that's crucial. And, you know, food, water and shelter.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, I am so grateful for housewives and for Bravo because they gave me this massive opportunity. They basically took my name that was like a small name in New York City and like blew me out of the water.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, I think that like when everyone ever asked me about the regrets, like the only regret that I ever had was not showing like my real life because it wasn't fair to the to single women to. to not show them like how I was making money on my own.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Like they just thought that I was running around, you know, cartwheels, like, you know, like chewing gum, having fun, which is something that I do all the time. But I also know how to make money and provide for my family.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Well, it was, yeah, they didn't want to because they were like, she's a supermodel. And you have to remember too, like back when I was on television in the ice age, it was like 2009, you know, Being a single parent was definitely not sexy. That was like almost taboo. Being able to provide for your family was like an anomaly.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I'm like, I don't know. You ask my kids. They did it. I didn't do it. I just like pushed
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
I mean, you know, I'm definitely thinking about it. You know, it's like I love the brand and I love the women. So I'm just I'm definitely thinking about it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Winning in Real Estate with Kelly Killoren Bensimon
We'll see what happens. I never, you know, you never say never. But, you know, everything has to everything has to align. Hold on to your wallets.