Back in January, we learned that Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli had put their big Bel Air mansion on the market. I thought it was one small victory for the good guys – neither Lori or Mossimo has any money coming in right now, and Lori was fired from all of her jobs (the Hallmark Channel, etc) last year. While I have no doubt that they have money saved, they also spent a year playing legal shenanigans with the federal government, and I would guess that Lori and Mossimo have HUGE legal bills. All in all, they were looking to downsize and sell what was probably the biggest piece of their portfolio, their mansion. Well, they finally sold it. For $11 million UNDER ASKING PRICE.
Full House star Lori Loughlin has reportedly sold her Bel-Air mansion to the co-founder of Tinder in the wake of entering a guilty plea in the college admissions scandal that shocked the nation. The “contemporary Mediterranean” mansion, which Loughlin owned with husband Mossimo Giannulli, boasts six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and a pool across a regal 12,000 square feet. The couple originally bought the property overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club for $13.9 million in June 2015 and unsuccessfully tried to flip it for $30 million in 2017 following extensive renovations.
The sale price to Justin Mateen came in at well under the $29 million asking price. James McClain, the Variety reporter who first broke the story, pegged the figure at $18 million. That would mean a significant loss for Loughlin and her husband. Per the outlet: “Should that closing price prove correct, it would likely represent a brutal loss for Loughlin and Giannulli, who paid $14 million for the house in June 2015. They subsequently spent another fortune renovating and upgrading every inch of the .69-acre, golf course-fronting property in a casually contemporary style. When taxes, maintenance costs and hefty realtor fees are considered, any remaining chance of profit would almost certainly be wiped out.”
Wow! It sounds like they would have preferred to wait until they were in a seller’s market and not in the middle of a pandemic, but they must have needed the money, any money, right now. Or else why sell for $11 million under asking? Why else would they lose money on the biggest piece of their portfolio? Something tells me that Lori and Mossimo have probably been living beyond their means for years. So where did they get the hundreds of thousands of dollars to bribe officials into getting their daughters into college?
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red, Backgrid.
We all know a book deal is in the works already.
I suspect a divorce is in the works. These are the kind of people who viciously turn on each other when the going gets rough. Just my opinion.
Hi Daria, I posted under you but that makes total sense to me.
This was my first thought too.
I’ve been touring the USA through a Zillow filter. The price of houses are quite high. California has many beautiful cities Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and parts of LA where Hollywood professional live, there are some of the nicest properties imaginable there. But the prices are 30 million and up is not uncommon if you don’t have to sell then you can wait for the price. If you need the money you drop price until you can ‘dump’ it. Obviously they are serious about cashing out and either moving on. The real estate market has peaked, I think it’s time to sell if your planning too.
I’ve been looking at properties in Massachusetts just for the heck of it, especially the older ones. I moved out west and still kind of miss the east coast.
Plus it’s fun to imagine living a quiet, purposeful life in those older places.
@CatWomen
Not sure if this is what you meant, so apologies if I’m being redundant – when you mentioned “cashing out,” I wondered if they literally asked for a large amount of cash up front. Also made me wonder how much of their other assets they might be liquidating.
At first I felt disgust for the choices this couple made but now I just feel kind of sad for them. It must be disorienting to find yourself at the consequence-end of unethical conduct when you have lived in unexamined privilege until that point.
How did the mediocre get up high enough to actually fall?
Oh dear, the traction on those cheek balls is scary looking.
I feel sorry for their kids. This stupidity ended their careers, too.
Still, if they’re getting $18 million for the house, they’re better off than most people in the U.S. They really should be GRATEFUL for that much alone. I wonder how are they going to earn a living now? For him, I don’t think he was ever really working. Seems like Lori is the breadwinner. It will be interesting to see how she will recoup her career from this. She could go a few rounds of the “I’m sorry” media tour while engaging in community service hoping that Hallmark will re-employ her.
Rapist Bill Cosby racked up a nine million dollar legal bill for the year in 2015-16. I’m assuming a lawyer’s bill will go up if they are representing a couple as opposed to one client? If the rapist can rack up 9 million in a year I bet they are close to $10 million easy, over the past two years. I hope it hurts them hard financially. It doesn’t look like they are going to spend any time in jail/prison.
So, as of Feb 2020, supposedly they are worth $88 mil. Now who knows whether that figure is accurate. He did own a clothing brand and sold it for $135 mil, but I think most of that was to recover his losses.
I can see her getting a book deal and milking it for all it’s worth.
If they were worth $88M, that valuation would have also included their house, presumably at $30M. If it only sold for $18M, their value would come down to $76M. Assume that they have money they can’t touch set up in trusts for their children, retirement accounts they can’t touch or would have to pay steep penalties to withdraw early; who knows what their portfolio looks like.
Markets were high in Feb, have only really recovered from the covid crash literally this month. Can definitely see them taking this opportunity to sell while the market is up, since it’s bound not to last with the situation in southern Cal, FL, TX, AZ, GA, etc. Lower interest rates also means it’s a good time for them to downsize and buy a cheaper house.
And lawyers gonna lawyer. They need to pay that bill.
I think he actually was the bigger breadwinner; he had a long time partnership with Target and sold his business for big bucks. She did alright with Hallmark and Fuller House but not as well. However also read he’s the one who likes to flip houses and has really, really high end design taste.
I think they had money compared to most people, but not as much as they want everyone to think. Selling this house, and for so much less than they asked, is a big sign of trouble. No work and huge legal bills, it’s got to be draining them.
I still can’t get past them spending half a MILLION on kids who didn’t even want to go to college. It’s just so stupid.
Quick google search – they’re represented by Sean Berkowitz, partner at Latham Watkins in Chicago. Partner rate at Latham would be at minimum $1,000/hour, which does not include all the work that the team assigned to the matter does. Even if it’s just him, first year associate, and paralegal, associate comes at $550+/hour and paralegal at $300+/hour. There’s probably some kind of discount associated, but yeah, it’s easy to blow through $1 million in a relatively short period of time. I’m not even sure they’d get a good discount because they don’t really have the leverage to ask for a lower price, since they’re not a corporate client which brings repeat business.
this is why I come to the comments… lol. thank you!
Mossimo is super smarmy looking.
I sorta liked the Mossimo line for Target. I have several Mossimo pieces hanging in my closet.
I had a couple of Mossimo cardigans. I quite liked them.
I know it shouldn’t but this makes me feel sorry for them. I agree that they were living beyond their means. I just feel sorry for people who are so stupid, who only care about prestige or surface appearances. They could have had a great life. Lots of people would have gladly taken their opportunities and their privilege and done something good with it.
Also, how do you fit 12,000 sq ft onto a half acre lot? And there’s room for a pool?? Half acres are the usual size around me and the biggest houses I know that can be squeezed onto one are like 6000? Are there four stories to this house?
That’s my guess. I have some acquaintances that have a 6K square foot home on a .15 acre lot. It’s basically a three story house plus basement and garage, with a minimal strip of front lawn and a tiny patio off the basement. Needless to say, they aren’t “outdoorsy” people.
And to think all of this could have been avoided if they just took the deal, did their minimum time and moved on.
The rehabilitation would have been a lot easier and the charges less severe if they were not so damn entitled.
He used to have a really cute beach house down the street from my family as a weekend house that he listed for $8 mill and sold for $4 10 years ago. Seeing the lengths they went to for college admissions, you’d think they could likely have money offshore in accounts in their children’s names etc. They might have realized they’ll be persona non grata in LA for a while so are pulling up stakes…
To think that going to a specific college was that important to them…
The daughter should have just taken up acting. Surely Mom could have gotten daughter a foot in the door for the Hallmark Christmas movies.
I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them.
You reap what you sow. They continue to live a very privileged life with seeming little concern for other folks sorrows and woes.
Yeah, no, I don’t feel sorry for them.
I feel bad for the kids who’s admission got bumped and were possibly denied a higher education.
I said the plea deal was about money and this proves it.
Once the lawyers fees start cutting into the principal, it’s time to settle in order to try preserve what is left. While I’m sure their lawyers would have loved racking up billable hours but their financial advisors probably told them they had to pull the plug.
None of this is about remorse, it is about money.
@carobell – 100% this. Why is anyone shocked they had to sell it for less than their asking price? Of course they are going to inflate the property value. These people only know how to rip folks off and cry victim. #nosympathyhere
I have a feeling that the crime they committed getting the girls into school wasn’t their first fraudulent activity.
Unpopular opinion; I have always blamed their daughters more than them. The daughters should be doing time and I really hate how they immediately came out as the victims.
They participated equally in the fraud and it was all for their benefit. I don’t believe for a second the one with the stripper name didn’t want to go to the school. She was you tube star whose brand was a collage girl at an elite school.
Oh well.
I bet if she regrets being so smug now, she could habe saved herself a lot of grief. Felicity is ancient history now, I dont know if she will recover in hollywood but at least no one is talking about her anymore.
Maybe a realtor can chime in, but if you sell for 11 million below asking, wouldn’t that mean the asking price was too high to begin with? Idk? That just seems like a very drastic reduction and they overvalued the home to begin with?
There’s a bunch for sale in that area even higher than they were asking. Might be because the lot was small, but I think the guy who bought it got a deal and they were in a hurry to sell.
My take:
The international travel bans are hurting the market for THIS kind of house. When you have homes going for tens of millions, it is a lot of times international buyers.
One of my friends sold a “normal” home in LA recently, and it sold in 5 days, there were multiple offers, and it sold for almost 20% above asking.
He is very creepy.
I read somewhere this morning that the sale may fall through because they used their home to put up their $10 (?) million bond. They’re asking the court to reduce their bond to $100,000. Supposedly both sides have no issue, it’s up to the judge to decide.
Oh what a tangled web we weave 🕸
$1M each, so total $2M bond, using their house as collateral. I definitely wouldn’t buy a house the government has the right to seize because it has a lien on it.