Hacker Cinema
The Queen of Versailles
2012 · Film · documentary · 100 min
Directed by Lauren Greenfield
With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, The Queen of Versailles follows billionaires Jackie and David’s rags-to-riches story to uncover the innate virtues and flaws of their American dream. We open on the triumphant construction of the biggest house in America, a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles. Since a booming time-share business built on the real-estate bubble is financing it, the economic crisis brings progress to a halt and seals the fate of its owners. We witness the impact of this turn of fortune over the next two years in a riveting film fraught with delusion, denial, and self-effacing humor.
6 positive6 neutralfrom 12 commenters
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12 comments on Hacker News
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There is also a documentary about a timeshare property mogul building the one of the biggest/most expensive personal home ever, I believe costs were over $100 million.
Filming was in 2007, the 2008 financial crisis hit, and the documentary devolves into watching this mogul go bankrupt.
I remember a quote from the mogul, something like "I have nothing but the business. I've re-invested nearly every dollar I've ever earned."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_of_Versailles
Wonder if the company owned by David Siegal , profiled in the movie The Queen of Versailles, uses these leads?
A fascinating movie... https://www.magpictures.com/thequeenofversailles/
The documentary "The Queen of Versailles" documents the wife of a time-share mogul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQW9Ks0GZUQ
There's a great documentary called The Queen of Versailles about a rich family who bought a McMansion shortly before the recession of 2008.
https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Queen-of-Versailles/70229267
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen_of_Versailles
There's an amazing documentary titled "queen of Versailles" about a nouveau-riche family in Florida. The family goes to Walmart all the time and they have like 20 games of Monopoly, each kid has 10 bicycles they never ride, it's surprising but rich people also just buy a bunch of crap.
The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units.
The movie "Queen of Versailles" was fascinating. Timeshare mogul builds USA largest house https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125666/videoplayer/vi191341081?ref_=tt_ov_vi
Wow, this is a kinda ballsy ask.
I see where Gimlet is going here and as a long listener of Startup I want to support something like this. But it seems like you're making money on a horrifying part of someone's life. All of their hard work and possibly other people's is slipping away and you're going to report that to the world? It was one thing to listen to the episodes about TDR because they had already achieved something great (getting into YC) and if they failed then at least they took a shot - you had something to cheer for.
I'm just saying, it's one thing to get the story of someone who failed and what it took out of them. That could be uplifting and educational. But to be in an office where people are getting fired and dreams are being crushed? I'm not sure I'd listen to that.
If you were reporting on a startup and they "happened" to fall apart (kind of like the docu The Queen of Versailles) that would be something else entirely.
>Also the fact that debt is being purchased for 1/12 of a penny is completely just...unbelievable.
It seems that the particular deal you're referring to was a fraudulent transaction. It had been sold (at least) twice, and having paid $41K for $50M worth of debt, the agency lost money on it. It doesn't sound like legitimate deals are offered this cheaply.
However, you are right that insanity runs rampant in the industry, even among the banks themselves. There is an interesting documentary called "Queen of Versailles". In it, time share king David Siegel is shown telling friends at a party that he offered to keep making interest only payments on an $18M debt he owed until the economy improved. The bank said no, and that they were going to auction the debt. He sent a third party under his control to the auction, where he was able to purchase his own entire $18M debt for $3.2M. He concludes the conversation saying "I'm glad they did it, but who the hell makes decisions like that?"
There is a scene in the movie "Queen of Versailles" (at about the 75 minute mark) were David Siegel claims to have indirectly done just that.
He said that he sent a 3rd party into a bank and they sold an 18 million dollar loan he was defaulting on to them for 3.2 million. The bank didn't know about the relationship Siegel had with the 3rd party.
So I get the sense that if you know what you're doing and know the right people you can pull it off.
If it were just another republican a-hole "going Galt", that wouldn't be surprising. But the fact that this is the guy who is building the house in the Queen of Versailles documentary IS SOOOO DELICIOUS!
You should watch the film (Queen of Versailles). It's clear that 1) he's completely devoid of a soul; 2) he exploited the cheap money thing knowingly to build his business on subprime loans and didn't care who got hurt in the process (see #1). He's the perfect modern Republican. His wife comes off much more compassionately, and quite honestly, smarter, if likely insecure and troubled.