Which RHOBH Star Did Mauricio Umansky Recommend to Casting?

Heavy/Getty Mauricio Umansky, Kathy Hilton, Lisa Rinna, Garcelle Beauvais, Lisa Vanderpump, Adrienne Maloof, Sutton Stracke

“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Mauricio Umansky celebrated the release of season 2 of his Netflix show “Buying Beverly Hills” on March 22, and the new crop of episodes includes a familiar face from RHOBH past.

In episode 2 of the new season, Umansky reunited with Dr. Paul Nassif, plastic surgeon and “Botched” star who appeared alongside his then-wife Adrienne Maloof in seasons 1 through 3 of RHOBH. Nassif has hired Umansky and The Agency to help put his house up for auction, and in a confessional, Umansky explained how far back the two go and admitted that he had something to do with Nassif’s reality television career.

“Dr. Paul Nassif and I have been friends for a long, long time, and I actually suggested that he and his wife be cast for ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’. It led to ‘Botched’ which has been tremendously successful for him,” Umansky said.

Mauricio Umansky & Paul Nassif Look Back on Early RHOBH Days

Umansky went on in his “Buying Beverly Hills” confessional to toot his friend’s horn, saying, “He’s an amazing plastic surgeon. If I ever got anything done I would go to Paul, but nobody’s done work on me.”

Umansky was hoping to help Nassif sell his property which The Agency had been referring to as the “Stradella” house. The two men appeared for a sit-down chat in the home which was recorded as a part of the marketing for the property and shared on The Agency YouTube channel in October 2022. During the video, the pair reminisced over their time together on RHOBH.

“Do you remember when we used to film that, you, and I, and even Ken [Todd]? Of course, we would tease them a little bit, we would actually have our little guy events out,” Nassif said. “And I remember we would go to all the parties and then of course all the fireworks and everything.”

“I had so much fun with you and I had such a good time. We did so many fun things, like we did the Hawaii trip,” Umansky added. “I do miss you.”

Umansky also noted, at Nassif’s prompting that, “The hubbies have kind of fallen off a little bit. We’re still on a little bit but when you and I were on with Ken and all of that stuff we were a lot more part of the show than we are now I think, in my opinion.”

Did Mauricio Umansky Sell Paul Nassif’s House?

One big plot point on the new season of “Buying Beverly Hills” is the tough real estate market. It required all the agents at The Agency, including Umansky, to come up with creative solutions to get houses sold. So was Mauricio able to sell Nassif’s Stradella home?

During the season, Umansky’s step-daughter Farrah Aljudfrie revealed that Nassif’s home had been designed by none other than the “morally corrupt” Faye Resnick, Umansky’s wife Kyle Richards’ close friend. This made it more awkward when one prospective buyer said, “I think the interior design and the staging are not as good as the architecture. It’s just missing a vibe that would make it really what it should be. It feels like it was designed five years ago to me. This is almost like glorified West Hollywood.

Umansky’s strategy was to put Nassif’s home up for auction, with the setup being that the home was guaranteed to sell to the highest bidder, however Nassif then ran the risk of making less than the market value of the home on the sale.

Although the home received multiple offers of $20 million or more ahead of the auction (with the stipulation that the auction be canceled), Nassif turned them down in hopes of a bigger payday. The auction was shown on episode 3 of the new season, and it was revealed that the property sold for $18.4 million, which was confirmed on The Agency’s website.

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