{"id":663089,"date":"2026-05-24T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663089\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:13:10","slug":"shahs-of-sunset-star-reza-farahan-on-why-he-moved-into-an-old-house-in-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/663089\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shahs of Sunset\u2019 star Reza Farahan on why he moved into an old house in the Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShahs of Sunset<\/a>\u201d star\u00a0Reza Farahan<\/a>\u00a0is forgoing his flashy ways to forge his own real estate empire in\u00a0California<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0San Fernando Valley<\/a>, where he has taken up residence in a rustic dwelling he describes as an \u201cold lady house\u201d so he can earn a lucrative income by renting out his much more luxurious abode.<\/p>\n

While the temporary relocation to the much more modest of his two homes in the area has required the reality TV star<\/a> to sacrifice some of the more extravagant aspects of his day-to-day life, he reveals in the latest installment of\u00a0Celebrity Sanctuary<\/a>\u00a0that the move is already paying off \u2014 literally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually own two houses on the same street across the street from one another, and I\u2019ve just been stacking chips,\u201d he tells\u00a0Realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>, noting that this business-first way of thinking was inspired by his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised by a Persian Jew who taught me you pay cash. You don\u2019t pay interest on credit cards. If you can\u2019t afford it, don\u2019t buy it. You don\u2019t lease cars, you buy them. You stack your chips. You buy real estate so when you\u2019re old, you have rental income because we don\u2019t have 401(k)s or pensions,\u201d he says. \u201cMy family, they were immigrants, and so he instilled this in me nonstop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old reality TV personality and real estate agent purchased and renovated his first\u00a0North Hollywood, CA<\/a>, home during his nine-year run on the hit Bravo series that followed his tight-knit group of Persian-American friends, including\u00a0Mercedes \u201cMJ\u201d Javid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reza Farahan and his husband of 10 years Adam Neely have moved into their dated rental property. Instagram\/@rezafarahan<\/p>\n

The property appeared in a number of \u201cShahs\u201d scenes with Farahan and his husband of 10 years,\u00a0Adam Neely, though it\u2019s perhaps recognized more for being the site of an alleged trespassing and vandalism incident involving MJ\u2019s estranged husband,\u00a0Tommy Feight<\/a>, than it is for the top-to-bottom modern makeover Farahan proudly completed there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tommy-scene house is [totally customized],\u201d says Farahan. \u201cWe picked where the outlets were. We have waterfall edges on the countertops. Everything we wanted in a house is in that house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farahan bought the house in North Hollywood in 2017 before fully renovating and renting it out. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

Farahan has since moved on from the fallout at that home in more ways than one: In addition to returning to reality TV on the new Bravo spinoff series, \u201cThe Valley: Persian Style,\u201d he and Javid have repaired their friendship, and Farahan acquired and relocated to his second North Hollywood property, which he describes as a \u201cquintessential Valley California\u201d ranch-style home that\u2019s located steps away from his first one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house that you\u2019re seeing on \u2018The Valley: Persian Style<\/a>,\u2019 you\u2019ve never seen before,\u201d Farahan confirms about the 1948-built, three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,600-square-foot abode that has not yet been upgraded like his previous address or the dwellings his posh castmates call home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a house that was not touched in 50 years, so it\u2019s kind of embarrassing because my castmates live in these gorgeous homes and we live in a house that needs a remodel like no one\u2019s business,\u201d admits the author of \u201cMemoirs of a Gay Shah: My Story of Family, Fame, and Becoming a King.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the backyard of Farhan\u2019s property received a deluxe upgrade before he moved to his cheaper abode. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

In this edition of Celebrity Sanctuary, Farahan explains how embracing a more low-key lifestyle is helping him maximize the value both of his homes in the Valley generate: As one earns him passive income, the other brings him peace, particularly when spending time in the unique den room located at the center of the house that he says truly centers him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I grew up, only the poor Persians lived in the Valley \u2014 like my poor relatives who couldn\u2019t afford to live in Beverly Hills lived in the Valley. Growing up and getting to a certain age, I realized that side of the hill, the energy was not the vibe that Adam and I wanted anymore. We wanted a much more suburban vibe.<\/p>\n

The kitchen of the rental property was brought down to the studs and upgraded with waterfall edges on the countertops. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

The kitchen of Farahan\u2019s home where he now lives across the street from his former renovated home in the Valley. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up selling a house in Toluca Lake proper, two blocks away from us, for $7 million, and I was, like, \u2018This neighborhood is amazing.\u2019 It\u2019s so quiet. The streets aren\u2019t lined with cars back to back. People aren\u2019t whizzing through all the streets to get to where they were going. It just had such a calming vibe and exactly what I needed at the time. That\u2019s why we ended up moving to the valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s North Hollywood, we like to call it Toluca Lake<\/a>. The area is called Toluca Woods, so it\u2019s like the bootleg version of Toluca Lake connected to Toluca Woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought our [first] house in [the] beginning of 2017 and spent a year renovating. We took it down to the studs. [In] 2022, we bought the house across the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to live in [the] beautiful house that we still own that we rented out to one of the victims of the Eaton Fire, so they\u2019re living in our gorgeous, beautiful house, fully furnished across the street, enjoying a very beautifully remodeled home, and we live in a house that a beautiful, elderly woman lived in for 50 years.<\/p>\n

A before and after of one of the bedrooms of Farahan\u2019s renovated home in the Valley. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen we found out she was selling it, I told Adam I ran some numbers and I\u2019m, like, \u2018Honey, if we buy the house across the street and we rent our house out, because of the down payment we put on the house and the fact that we paid cash for all the remodeling and pool and additions and everything, they will pay for us to live across the street. We need to buy that house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI left her a little Post-it note. I was, like, \u2018I don\u2019t know what it looks like on the inside. It doesn\u2019t matter what you want to sell it for, I\u2019m buying your house.\u2019 She called me. We wrote an offer sight unseen. We bought the house, and we just painted it, put new flooring in, and we moved in.<\/p>\n

Farahan gives a tour of the \u201cold lady house\u201d where he presently lives. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing Airbnb on the fancy house, and it started to become too much work. Then, when the show was about to start, we were like, \u201cAirbnb is too much work, so let\u2019s find a long-term tenant.\u201d We put the house that we used to Airbnb \u2014 the nice one that we bought in 2017 \u2014 on the market as a fully-furnished rental. Because it had been [an] Airbnb, it had everything in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met this amazing couple who had lost their home in the Eaton Fire, who have 1779664390 become friends of ours, and they live directly across the street. We have dinner with them. They\u2019re the loveliest couple. So they live in our beautiful house, and we live in the old-lady house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we bought [the old-lady house], after we put the down payment, we had, like, $400,000 left over. The house had a huge garage and a recreation room of about 1,000 square feet, and so we were, like, \u2018Let\u2019s convert that into an ADU <\/a>and my mom will move into it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent $400,000 building the most beautiful ADU, and when we were done, my mom goes, \u2018I don\u2019t want to move to the Valley.\u2019<\/p>\n

Farahan shows Neely working from one of the bedrooms in the unrenovated home that\u2019s been converted to an office. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a tenant in [the] ADU paying us $3,500 a month, so we\u2019re renting across the street and we\u2019re renting in our backyard, but you wouldn\u2019t know because we live on a corner and we put a wall in between our yard and the ADU, so you don\u2019t even know that there\u2019s another house back there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the old-lady house, it\u2019s old-lady style. It\u2019s, like, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, TV room \u2014 everything\u2019s separate. There\u2019s no big, open space. If you\u2019re in the kitchen, you can\u2019t talk to the people in other parts of the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s this one room in the heart of the house that\u2019s a family room, TV room, den, and my husband and I, we watch TV in that room. It is the quintessential old-lady den. It\u2019s paneled with wood paneling. It\u2019s white all the way around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a fan that, literally, you could maybe fly to Las Vegas on this fan! It is so disproportionate to the size of the room. Every single room in our house \u2014 instead of a light fixture \u2014 has a ceiling fan with lights in it. It\u2019s laughable. It desperately needs an upgrade, but I love every single thing about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s glass sliders out to our backyard, and there\u2019s 47 other doorways. There\u2019s a door to the primary bedroom. There\u2019s a door to another bedroom and a door to the hallway. It\u2019s literally in the heart of the house, and it leads to all the other parts of the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not very big. We painted it white. It was very, like, honey-colored wood with a heavy, heavy shellac on it before we painted it white, but it just makes me feel so good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why I love it, it has a shelf. It\u2019s got paneling that we painted white, but it has a shelf maybe 6 to 10 inches below the ceiling. It\u2019s got this little ridge all the way around the room, and every knickknack, frame, little tchotchke that we purchased on trips, all the little trinkets and gadgets that are important to us, line the shelf that wraps around the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe piece of art in the room is a photo I painted in 1979 after we had just gotten to America. It was framed and hanging in my parents\u2019 house, and now it\u2019s hanging in our room with all of our belongings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The living room of the house Farahan and Neely presently call home is yet to be renovated. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sit in this room. My husband and I watch TV in that room, and\u00a0Marty, our dog, sits on the couch. It\u2019s the place I feel the most comfort, at ease. I feel recharged. All these little things that I love looking at, it\u2019s the reason why I love that room. It just, it feels like home in that room to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time I need to recharge, like when I get home, I kick off my shoes, I take all of my clothes off, and I just sit in my underwear on my couch with my dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A before and after of Farahan\u2019s upgraded dining area in the home he now rents out. BRAVO TV<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being in that room, surrounded by all of these objects that are really meaningful to me, from little stuffed animals that Adam has given me from Valentine\u2019s Day to seashells that we collected with one another in Kauai and\u00a0Hawaii<\/a>\u00a0on a trip, to awards I\u2019ve gotten, family photos of both of our families \u2014 they\u2019re just all there, and they energize me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fill me back up because I\u2019m out in the world, I\u2019m showing houses, I\u2019m shooting TV shows. I expend a lot of energy, and sitting in that room and just being in a space with all of these things that are special and meaningful to me, just recharges me and gives me the energy I need to go back in the world and do it all over again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis house, the way it is right now, it\u2019s so not who I am. But the way the house functions for what my husband and I are doing for our future makes so much sense for us. Adam and I have been saving up for a really massive remodel that we plan to do in the very near future.<\/p>\n

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