If you’re like me, you were very excited to tune in to last night’s super sized premiere of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. For me, the anticipation was even greater than normal, given I’d spent my afternoon chatting over tea and crumpets with the lovely David Parnes and James Harris. Both gentlemen were incredibly easy to talk to, complimentary, and gracious. I may create some kind of mix of their responses on my sound machine so that their lilting accents can lull me to sleep at night? Weird? I’m totally kidding then…
Yesterday I shared my interview with James, and he filled us in on working the Malibu scene with Madison Hildebrand while refraining from dishing any dirt on his dear pal David. Did David return the favor? You’ll have to read and see. He does share some crazy open house shenanigans (I’m going to replay in my mind him excitedly stating “pandemonium!” while figuring out how to work that word into my everyday vocabulary, using his accent when I say it, of course) and hints about difficult times in his personal life we’ll be privy to this season.
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Sharing what fans can expect this season, David begins, “Big properties, we kick off with a big listing, which come to think of it, is the biggest of our career. Yes, it is, and it’s really, really exciting. We have some ups and downs, with a little bit of drama, which comes organically. It’s just a great way to kick off the season, landing such a big listing, but it still demonstrates that even when you get a listing, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be smooth sailing, it shows…the unexpected things that can happen.”
David also joins in the Flagg fan club when asked who of his L.A. counterparts he’d enjoy working with the most, responding, “That’s easy. We really like Josh Flagg. I think I can speak for both of us, and I’m sure James said the same. He’s a good guy, he’s a friend. He’s very cool, laid back, and funny. He’s honest and easy to work with. I’d definitely say Josh Flagg, nothing against the other two, it’s just he’d probably be the top choice for sure.”
I inquire whether we’d be seeing more of his personal life this season, and David hedges around the question, “Yes, um, there is, ah, some personal stuff. It’s not the best, but it is what it is. It’s life. Things happen, and that’s basically a part of life. So the answer in a nutshell, is yes. I love my dogs, you know I’m engaged. We’re getting married next year, which is amazing.”
Well, if that wasn’t the perfect segue to change the subject! I had to know if we would be seeing yet another MDL wedding courtesy of Bravo.
David reveals, “We’ll have to see if there’s a season ten, won’t we? We begin shooting in January, and we’re shooting eleven months of the year. I’ll pretty much have a better idea in January. We’re getting married July 23rd, and we’re getting married in Europe. We’re actually getting married in the South of France, so it all depends. James will be there, Josh Flagg will be there, and you know, hopefully the cameras will be there too. We’ll see how it goes. It’s very exciting and obviously a very important time in my life. We are moving into our house together because last season we actually sold it. We built it and sold it instead of moving in. This season we built another house and it’ll be finished in four weeks, so we are definitely, definitely moving in. I am not NOT moving in this time. This house is not for sale…yet,” adding, “I want to live there for at least two years and then I’ll probably keep it as a rental investment and build something else. You kind of get the bug from building, it’s addictive. It’s fun and you make good money from it.”
Discussing his craziest listing to date, David recalls, “I think crazy in a good way would actually be one featured last season, on Beachwood Canyon in Hollywood. It was just a really cool vibe. The owner actually ended up disappearing on us and we ended up dealing with his dad. It was just the most bizarre experience, but it was good. He was a proper burner, so he went to Burning Man and took it very, very seriously. So we held a Burning Man themed open house, and it was very effective. We ended up selling that for asking price, actually over asking price. It was crazy because of the way it went down and how much fun we had. It was just a great experience.”
What kind of elaborate open houses will be featured this season? David gushes, “We hold some crazy parties – we’ve got some really cool open houses this season. We held one in particular at one of our listings – it was on the market with another agent, and they couldn’t sell it so we got it – and there was drama surrounding this one as well, but the open house was incredible. It was a White Party, but it was…when I say were expecting only about two hundred people to show up – we had seven hundred people show up! It was insane. There was a traffic jam going all the way down to Sunset. People were fighting because the valet was all the way at the end of the road, and it’s quite a long road. We had shuttles to shuttle the guests up to the house, and at the bottom was this fight and all this traffic. It was absolute pandemonium, but so worth it. It was an amazing party. We had cigar bars, we had a chocolate bar, and a tequila bar. We had daiquiri bars, just all sorts of bars. There were bongo players and salsa dancers, a deejay. The house is amazing and the views are incredible. It’s one of those modern cool Hollywood pads with twenty-six foot ceilings and automated doors.”
Avoiding the drama isn’t easy with this crowd, but David and James seem to do it well. David explains, “We’re just trying to do what we do. It’s a very competitive environment, it’s very cutthroat, and it affects every aspect of our lives. It’s important to stay grounded and remembering what’s important, what comes and what goes, and what’s there forever.”
He continues, “Myself and Adrienne, we are planning a wedding, and we just put the deposit down on the venue in the South of France. We went wedding shopping, venue shopping. We kind of coincided that with our vacation we planned in the summer. I actually took my brother and sister, Adrienne brought her sister. We all went, all the siblings together, to Capri where I proposed to Adrienne last summer. With the wedding and personal issues that I’ve been going through with my family, it’s pretty overwhelming, but you just do it. You get up in the morning and you don’t let it get the better of you. It’s just being able to realize, like I said, what’s important, and what needs to be done now. You know, I need to put time into my relationships, and I think it’s really, really important. Taking it one day at a time and just kind of dissecting that day it comes.”
When I requested a crazy story about James, David seemed game, asserting, “There’s so many, so I have to go through and think of what I can actually say….he was quite mischievous back in the day.” However, loyalty got the best of him, so I’m stuck having to imagine just how naughty James was…David too. 😉 Again, I am so appreciative that these two took the time to speak with me. They could not have been kinder or more delightful – such an endearing duo!
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE MILLION DOLLAR LISTING LA PREMIERE? WHICH BRIT MAKES YOU WEAKER IN THE KNEES?
[Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia/Bravo]
