This generation’s obsession with social media and wealth has given rise to a peculiar phenomenon known as “flexers“. According to our friends at Urban Dictionary, to flex is essentially to show off — to flaunt one’s (alleged) wealth. Besides Dan Bilzerian, two of the most notorious flexers are Lil Tay and Woah Vicky, young ladies with millions of followers on the Instagram doohickey. They are regularly videotaped steppin’ out of exotic cars while loudly (and crudely) reminding everyone how very rich they are. Have y’all ever heard anything so ridiculous?
But are they actually rich? Hmmm. The advent of social media — and the relative anonymity it provides — has made the lines between real wealth and rented wealth increasingly blurry.
Anyway, one of the most prominent male flexers online is a graffiti artist named Alexander Andon, better known as Alec Monopoly. He’s got nearly 800,000 Instagram followers, and his account is littered with photos of him boarding private jets and driving Rolls-Royces, Ferraris and such.
Unlike the Lil Tays of social media, however, Mr. Monopoly actually has a business to capitalize on his Insta-fame. Behind all that brazen douchiness is a carefully plotted persona designed to attract attention to his graffiti art pieces. Our boy wants to be the USA’s more obnoxious answer to Banksy, and his ridiculous antics have attracted him the necessary attention to succeed. Mr. Monopoly has even earned the dubious title “The Kim Kardashian of the art world,” which we would guess he takes as a compliment.
And yes, Mr. Monopoly is frequently derided by the media — Gawker wrote a scathing article about him, with excerpts including “[he] sells dumb art” and “has a great scam going.” Gossip Extra haughtily sneered “he’s no Leonardo Da Vinci,” and “we know a gimmick when we see one.”
Well, the entire Andon family appears to be cashing in on said gimmick — Mr. Monopoly’s brother Avery Andon is his manager, and his mother Alexandra Andon frequently accompanies him to events and parties. And ridiculous as Mr. Monopoly’s schtick may seem, it is working. He has celebrity clients, his artwork has gone for thousands of dollars, and rich ladies frequently pony up the big bucks to have Mr. Monopoly spray-paint their pricey handbags. Huh? Yep.
Yolanda cannot fathom why anyone would want their $20,000 purse spray-painted. Then again, we don’t own a purse other than the knapsack we use when making a pitstop at our local KMart. But we digress.
Despite his lavish Instagram persona, Mr. Monopoly’s real life real-life living situation is far more modest than y’all might imagine. In fact, Mr. Monopoly’s house — while definitely not cheap — is downright dowdy by LA standards. Still, keep in mind that this guy is just 31 years old, so y’all can forgive his ho-hum digs and his boyishly flamboyant hijinks. Right?
Mr. Monopoly’s new pad — purchased through a blind trust — is located way high up in the Benedict Canyon area above Beverly Hills, at the very end of a long dead-end street. The property was on the market for nearly three full years before Mr. Monopoly came along and scooped it up. Old listings show the seller originally wanted a rather ballsy $5,600,000. A half-dozen hefty price chops followed and Mr. Monopoly ultimately paid less than half the original ask — a mere $2,425,000.
Although the house has a coveted 90210 zip code, it is technically in the city of Los Angeles and is more than 15 minutes by car to downtown Beverly Hills. And that’s without traffic!
The listing generously describes the house as a “chateau” and “Country French inspired”, but Yolanda has been all over France and we certainly cannot recall seeing a chateau that looks like this. The towering mansard-roofed concoction (it stands two stories tall from the front and drops down mullet-style to three floors out back) has tiny windows and looks like a bad real estate dream from just about any angle.
Property docs show the house was built in 1980, and it appears the seller — Joyce Kidd, widow of prominent attorney Hillel Chodos — may have purchased it that same year as a spec-house. Records indicate Mr. Hillel paid just $496,500 for the place way back when.
The living room has a fireplace and the dining nook has French door access to an outside patio. The kitchen is rather unfortunate with dated cabinetry, old-school appliances, and some rather cheap-looking linoleum (?) countertops, though everything appears to be well-maintained.
Other rooms include a formal dining room and a library — both with hardwood floors — and bonus rooms like a carpeted “gaming space” (with a pool table and more bookshelves!) and a laundry room.
There are 4 beds and 4 baths in the structure’s 5,172-square-feet of living space. The master suite sports hardwood floors, a sitting area w/ fireplace, and a tiny terrace that overlooks a mature pine tree and not much else. The bathroom is done up in black tile — ew, just imagine what critters could be lurking unseen on that floor — and includes a built-in soaking tub, dual vanities, and a sauna.
Out back is a covered outdoor deck and a petite pool/spa combo. Perhaps the best feature of the property is the amount of land it includes — 1.71 acres is massive for this neighborhood, although we don’t know how much of that is actually usable.
Yolanda would advise Mr. Monopoly to thin out the vegetation in his overgrown backyard. Looks like he might have a semi-decent view back there. We must admit that it seems like a peaceful place to sit among the trees and spray-paint some overpriced leather goods.
Looks like our Mr. Monopoly has some sort of mansard-roofed faux-chateau fetish. Before buying his new Benedict Canyon pad, Yolanda happens to know he was leasing a very similar-lookin’ place over in the nearby Coldwater Canyon area of the 90210. (That rental house, incidentally, happens to be right next door to Taylor Swift’s old LA crash pad — the one she recently sold for $4 million in an off-market deal.)
Who knows, maybe this architectural style serves as a muse or sort of inspiration for Mr. Monopoly’s artwork. These houses certainly aren’t Mona Lisa, but like they say, Mr. Monopoly isn’t exactly Da Vinci.
Listing agents: Valerie Nickerson & Tom Tostengard, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Alec Monopoly’s agent: The Altman Brothers, Douglas Elliman