Realty Check

Hilary in the Hamptons
Page Six has reported that the Clintons will be renting for the second summer running an Amagansett house owned by “Republican art collector Andre Nasser” and his wife, “real estate guru” Lois for the last two weeks in August. Price tag: $100,000. The paper implied that this was a huge amount to pay. Well, it is…anywhere but the Hamptons where such a price is simply par for the course. The notorious gossip column also noted that the presidential hopeful’s stay wouldn’t be all fun and games, but more like a workcation with a roster of parties, oops, fundraisers at the homes of such fancy pants as fashionista Tory Burch and philanthropist Artie Rabin, where she would “rub shoulders with wealthy donors.”

Love Thy Neighbors?
Further Lane neighbors of activist investor Barry Rosenstein have been besieged all summer with continuous bombardment of noise starting at 7am and lasting through the afternoon. Rosenstein, who last year paid a record $147 million for an oceanfront property, has had his construction team drive 500 steel pilings into the ground as foundation for the 20,000-square-foot house he’s erecting. “Neighbors report their windows shake, their furniture rattles, and the ground literally vibrates,” according to the New York Post. We wonder how such neighbors as Jerry Seinfeld and Steven A Cohen feel about the fact that Rosenstein is safely ensconsed a few miles to the west in his other oceanfront estate off Lily Pond Lane.

Here Comes Da Judge
Al Giaquinto, president of East Hamptons Plum Builders, has been invited to judge the PRISM Awards for a second year. The PRISM Awards recognize the finest projects and outstanding achievements of builders, developers, project owners, architects, land planners, marketing/advertising firms, interior designers, remodelers, and other professionals in the home building industry.

Movin’ Out
Katie Lee has put her Water Mill property on the market. Apparently the cookbook author and Billy Joel’s ex, is looking for a smaller home on the South Fork. The 6-bedroom, 7.5 bathroom Nate-Berkus decorated house, which is listed for $6.5 million with Cindy Shea of Sotheby’s International Realty, features a stainless steel chef’s kitchen and full outdoor living space, with pizza oven, naturally. “I have always enjoyed the process of renovating and decorating and I’m ready for my next project,” Lee told the Wall Street Journal. Lee bought the house in 2011 for $3.9 million.

Rental Anxiety
Art-gallery owner Elliott Levenglick told Page Six that his summer was ruined when the $45,000 per month rental he had signed a lease on was pulled out from under him. The 28 year old is suing the landlords of the “Glass Cube,” a $3 million home on Clamshell Avenue in East Hampton. When the house owners canceled his stay by email as he drove out east to take possession, he was forced to stay – Egads! – in a Comfort Inn. The landlords explained that they had seen an online ad touting an art show he planned to hold at the home and believed it would anger neighbors and violate town codes. To make a very long story short, the landlords eventually let him stay for three weeks, but the gallerist complained that his reputation had been compromised and that his stay at the home was “highlighted by severe anxiety.” He is asking $71,500 in damages.

Something To Talk About
High-end developer John Kean, who has already sold two homes at his 10-home, 55-acre community at the corner of Wickapogue and Old Town Road in Southampton, is about to list another. The new property, which comes with a guest cottage and pool house, will feature an 11-bedroom main house with movie theater, gym, 1,500-bottle wine cellar and not one, but two bowling alleys. Does he know something we don’t about the recreational proclivities of the uber rich? Kean has built homes for the likes of Howard Stern, amongst other high profile names. Did we mention that the mansion also has a roof with a putting green that overlooks the ocean?

Miami Vice
Yikes. A Miami Beach realtor, Kevin Francis Tomlinson, who worked with ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, was arrested in August for allegedly trying to extort a payoff from one of Miami’s top-performing real estate teams, known as the Jills. It turns out that Tomlinson filed a complaint with the Miami Association of Realtors accusing Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber of altering MLS data to hide homes they were having trouble selling. He then approached the duo asking for $250,000 to make the complaint vanish. If they refused, he threatened to go public, according to the Miami Herald. Eventually he upped the ante to $800,000. After the Jills went to the police Tomlinson was taken into custody at his penthouse in the Meridien Lofts. He was subsequently fired by ONE Sotheby’s.