Jason Oppenheim is doing everything in his immediate power to rally his real estate troops, dig into his own pocket and hold bad actors accountable with the hopes of helping California’s wildfire victims and planning for rebuilding efforts.
“We’re really doing what we can to help everyone. And it’s just unbelievable how many people have been displaced. I’ve been here for decades in Los Angeles, I’ve seen other fires. I haven’t seen anything at this level,” Oppenheim told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
“We’re all hands on deck right now,” he continued. “It’s maybe the busiest week ever, honestly, that I can think of for us.”
Though most well-known for selling L.A. and Orange County’s uber-expensive, ultra-luxury properties on the hit Netflix shows, the Oppenheim Group has reset their focus on providing free representation for residents who have lost their homes, hosting donation drives – and for Oppenheim himself, giving $100,000 to LAFD and LAPD first responders and calling out bureaucratic red tape.
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“Tens of billions of dollars have been spent by the state and the city on things that really make no sense,” the lead broker said. “We’re cutting the budgets of the very departments and institutions that are most important on the front lines of keeping us safe, like the fire department and the police department.”
“It is the time to kind of reflect and learn. And there were things that we could have done so much better.”
Three new wildfires have started in southern California since Monday as dry conditions and destructive winds continued to create a high fire risk in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. At least 24 people have been killed in the disaster and dozens more are missing.
As of this week, about 12,000 structures have been completely destroyed. A recent Wells Fargo analysis found that total losses could range between $20 billion and $40 billion, potentially marking the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Oppenheim announced last week that all agents will provide free representation for victims until their houses are resurrected, or residents will receive credit back on any commission made during transactions. He says more than 50 people have reached out, and “dozens” of clients are offering to lease their safe, vacant properties.
Oppenheim also co-led a formal letter written by more than 45 of the city’s top-grossing agents and sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, requesting them to address restrictive laws and building codes that hinder wildfire recovery and rebuilding efforts.
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“I do hope that we don’t just simply add bureaucratic requirements upon developers and builders because it’s so impossible to build here. We’ve lost so much development,” Oppenheim said. “People are just leaving Los Angeles because of the bureaucracy. So my hope is that we remove some of this stupidity that is required in building and some of the baseless additional costs. And what we do is we focus on the things that will actually work and that we actually need.”
This includes raising the Fair Plan Insurance coverage to $6 million and adding liability insurance, streamlining building permits, exempting fire victims from the mansion tax, removing restrictive building codes, ordinances and environmental regulations as well as pausing property taxes for victims.
“We have not heard directly back from either of them. But in their defense, we honestly just sent out those letters,” Oppenheim noted. “There’s more to do… Proactive measures are more important than reactive measures. So I hope that we can focus in the future more on proactive measures.”
L.A.’s rebuilding process will be “complicated” and require the real estate industry to “step up” on behalf of their clients, according to Oppenheim. He’s not sure how expensive it could get, but predicted it could take at least four to five years as California leadership “can get its act together.”
“They could be taken advantage of by contractors, they’re being required to answer questions about foundation and retaining walls. Are you kidding me? I’m a licensed contractor and an attorney and I still don’t want to build a house. It’s too complicated,” he warned. “I’m not quite sure that many people will want to take on that project. I hope that there’s a way for these people to be reimbursed by their insurers.”
“It would be great if people could move back into their homes. As a practical matter, though,” Oppenheim countered, “we are going to need to figure out how to let developers purchase land at fair prices because there are people in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I don’t think they’re going to want to take on this project and I don’t think they’re well-positioned to, either.”
But right now, Angelenos and Californians alike are committed to coming together, prioritizing a sense of “camaraderie” and “compassion” to deliver necessary aid and relief supplies as rescue operations continue.
“It’s easy to focus on the looter or the bad apple or the price-gouging landlord… But I think the city has galvanized, and it’s beautiful to watch… Americans in general, I don’t think there’s a country whose citizenry are more resilient and more willing to get knocked down and come back up stronger,” Oppenheim said.
“We’re not just going to rebuild, but we are absolutely going to rebuild stronger and better. I think that if you look at just about anything that happens to an American, they get up, they wipe themselves off and they come back stronger. So that’s what Los Angeles is going to do.”
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Fox News staff contributed to this report.
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