Real estate and reality TV mogul Jason Oppenheim lives and works in the fast lane, so when it comes to his Los Angeles area home, having a designated rest stop is key.
As president of The Oppenheim Group, the luxury firm featured on “Selling Sunset” and “Selling the OC,” the 48-year-old Netflix star sits firmly in the driver’s seat as he steers the business he cofounded with twin brother Brett Oppenheim.
After Brett departed The Oppenheim Group in 2020, Jason was left to oversee an enormous team of real estate agents who regularly close multimillion-dollar deals out of four offices across Southern California and Mexico.
Oppenheim himself has engineered more than $1 billion in property sales for clients and is an investor in his own right. As such, he’s navigated all kinds of negotiation detours while getting deals across the finish line.
Speaking to Realtor.com® for the latest installment of Celebrity Sanctuary, Jason reveals that his own housing situation is causing chaos, saying that his brother just sold the 2,900-square-foot two-bedroom West Hollywood condo he’s been renting for the last year, a turn that’s forcing him to hit the road unprepared.
“I have to move,” says Oppenheim. “My brother just sold my apartment I’m living in and so I’m moving next week. I don’t even know where. I literally don’t know where yet. I am desperately trying to find another apartment.”
As Jason quickly shifts gears in search of his next residence, there’s one destination he’s already looking forward to returning to: A luxury race car simulator he’s had installed in his last two homes, and is eagerly planning to bring to the next one.
The Aston Martin racing unit—which retails for $75,000—has become his preferred place to unplug from work, escape the drama of his reality TV role, and play online with fellow racing enthusiasts.
Parked inside what he calls his “sim room,” the Aston Martin x Curv Racing Simulators AMR-C01 immersive racing unit is the main attraction inside Jason’s spare bedroom.
Ever since the luxury British carmaker hooked up Jason with the virtual reality esports machine—one of only 150 that were made available—it has served as his first pit stop every morning where he fuels up on coffee and drives down the stress.
Before leaving his latest souped up game room behind, Jason gives the green light to take a spin inside his sim to see how the mobile sanctuary takes him miles away from the outside world without ever leaving the comfort of his own home, wherever on the map that might be.
This is a 2,900-square-foot condo in West Hollywood. I’m renting it, [since] about a year ago. Solo occupant. I have Zelda, my little girl, my little dog.
It’s a warm contemporary corner unit condo, large living room, and then two bedrooms, three [bathrooms]. It’s in a wonderful full service building. It’s safe. It’s private. It’s got exceptional views of the Hollywood Hills.
It’s a brand new building, so I just did the art and decor and things like that. That’s it. It’s nothing overly complicated.
The second bedroom, I put this really cool racing simulator setup. There’s no bed in the second bedroom. It’s just the sim with all of my sports jerseys on the wall, so it’s kind of a fun room, like, my room.
It looks like a mini Aston Martin. It’s called the Curv. It’s probably 6 feet by 4 feet. It’s got, like, an F-1 steering wheel with all the buttons and a wraparound screen. I love Aston Martin and I love the original color—that’s the color, original Aston Martin green.
It’s an Aston Martin that you sit in. You don’t wear a headset, so it’s not VR like that. There’s a screen. It’s got a driver’s seat like a Formula 1 car, and you’ve got adjustable pedals, and then a big, wraparound screen with a Formula 1 steering wheel that gives you feedback. It’ll rip your arms off if you crash, basically.
You race other people online, so it’s like live racing online. You pick a car, you pick a track, and then you race other people. [My go-to car and track], it’s a Spec Miata, Mazda Miata and I race Laguna Seca.
I’ve always enjoyed cars and racing, so this is basically what race car drivers do when they’re not—even Formula 1 drivers—this is what they’re doing when they’re not in a car.
I’m on the simulator every day at least for, like, about a half an hour racing, 30-60 minutes racing. Sometimes I’ll make my coffee in the morning and then I’ll go in there and I’ll just race online with some other people. I’ll join a race and then just race people and drink my coffee.
It’s a total and complete escape. I mean, when I’m racing, that’s all I’m—you know, I’m fully focused. You can’t answer the phone. You can’t think about anything else. You have to be completely engaged, so it’s great. It’s like an escape.
[To me, sanctuary means] safe, private, and then also, like, happy. You know, it makes you happy. I guess I would also say it often is devoid of aesthetic, or, aesthetic is not at a premium. It’s just happiness is at a premium. Because usually, sanctuaries to me aren’t the best looking room in the house.
You know, it’s a pool table, it’s sports s—t, it’s a sim. It’s not necessarily the best looking room in the house, but it’s the happiest, funnest room in the house.
I have my football helmets in there, and my sports paraphernalia in there, and then my sim, so it’s just kind of like a fun place.
There’s a lot of Washington [Commanders] football jerseys on the wall and a couple of [Commanders] helmets. It’s just a pretty basic room. That’s literally it, the sports stuff and my sim. Other than that, it’s a super basic room.
The guys love it. They come over and play and they’ll race with me; we’ll take turns racing. Like, Romain [Bonnet], Mary [Bonnet]’s husband, will come over and we’ll just take turns racing.
Mary’s been on it—Mary, Nicole [Young], and my girlfriend Jessica [Vargas] have all done it. I do feel like a couple of the girls [from “Selling Sunset”] were on it, but it was mostly, it was just Nicole and Jess. The girls, they don’t really get it, and that’s fine.
It’s a $75,000 simulator. I didn’t pay that, but that’s what it retails for. I had it in my last place and I feel like I got it, like, a year and half ago.
I’ve just really enjoyed racing—on track racing, you know, in a real car. But when I can’t do that, I really enjoy my sim.
I’d like [my next place to be] a three bedroom so I can have one bedroom for me, one bedroom for a guest, and then one bedroom for my sim.
That’s the one thing. I don’t know what I’m going to do [with this move]. I might have to store a bunch of stuff. I might not have room for any art or a bunch of other things, but I 100% need my sim.