What’s really going on with Joe Gorga‘s Instagram photos promoting his house-flipping business?
After the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star blamed his 21-year-old social media manager this week for incorrectly posting fake “before” and “after” photos of a flipped house, fans have been left wondering what’s real and what’s just real estate porn on Gorga’s account.
Since early 2019, the real estate developer has shared several pictures of beautiful property transformations around New Jersey — most of which Gorga claims he has played a role in constructing.
However, Page Six has learned that not all of the posts accurately depict what Gorga is claiming.
For instance, on Jan. 11, Gorga posted a photo of a chic kitchen with a gray island and stools and captioned it, “Another flip. This house sold for 759,000.00 #growwithgorga.” House-flipping refers to buying a home, completely renovating it and selling it for a profit.
The same exact image — which Page Six confirms was taken by photographer Nadav Havakook — was shared on Design Depot’s Instagram account more than two years ago, on July 5, 2017. Havakook exclusively told Page Six that Gorga “definitely did not have permission to use my images. The photoshoot was for my client Design Depot.”
For more on Joe Gorga’s house-flipping confusion, listen to this episode of the Page Six podcast, “We Hear“:
Ethan Levy, the president of Design Depot — which designs kitchens and bathrooms — confirmed to us that Gorga was not involved in the construction of the kitchen or any portion of the Demarest, NJ, house, and therefore had no right to share the image on his social media — let alone claim it as “another flip.”
“I personally designed that kitchen myself and everything else in the house for one of our clients — who is a developer — and he sold that house for, I believe, $1.5 million, so there’s no way that house sold for $759,000,” Levy told us.
Page Six confirmed the house last sold in September 2017 for $1.38 million.
Reps for Gorga declined to comment on this project, and also would not disclose the identity of Gorga’s social media manager whom he blamed for a different Instagram gaffe.
Levy said it was not possible that Gorga was ever involved in any process of the construction. He said the builder of the actual house is a “close friend of 15 years” who “builds the houses himself.”
The builder of the home was not available for comment.
“I know him very well,” Levy said. “He doesn’t hire any contractors and he has one investor, but it’s not [Gorga].”
Gorga previously told us that he has been a “private lender” who provided funding for new construction.
Another questionable social media practice that Gorga has engaged in is sharing other people’s work without giving them credit.
Page Six was contacted by a different New Jersey homeowner — Dan D’Agostino, who owns the design firm Plan Architecture — who said a photo of his personal kitchen was shared on Gorga’s social media account without his permission.
On Dec. 5, 2019, the “RHONJ” star shared the picture with the caption, “Waterfall edge quartz. Do you like?” Gorga didn’t say that he worked on the kitchen himself.
“In the design world, we call this sharing inspiration, and he should have provided credit,” D’Agostino said.
D’Agostino’s close friend — who asked to remain anonymous — was the actual designer of the kitchen and builder of the Washington Township, NJ, property.
“I don’t like when people do this because I do think it’s sleazy, for a lack of a better word,” the designer said. “I didn’t know if he was trying to disguise it as his own work or just put it up as inspiration. But because he’s a builder, typically, the standard in the industry is that if it’s not your work, you’re going to make sure that that’s explicitly said somewhere — which he didn’t do.”
The builder said he has “never met” Gorga, adding, “I handled this.”
Reps for Gorga also declined to comment on this project.
On Monday, Page Six exclusively spoke with the first homeowners to come forward against Gorga: Caley Svensson and her husband, Erik Svensson.
The couple from Park Ridge, NJ, told us Gorga incorrectly posted an image of their house on his social media, claiming it was a “flip” he did within six months.
When reached by Page Six, Gorga admitted to never actually flipping that home, but said he was a “private lender” who provided funding.
Page Six has not been able to independently confirm that Gorga actually funded the house. A request for comment is out to the builder’s attorney.
Meanwhile, Gorga has repeatedly said on Instagram that he has “25 years” of experience flipping houses. He also gives video tours of the properties and shares images.
Veteran real estate professional Jerry Sahlman of Village Square Realtors said he has worked with Gorga for 16 years, and confirmed that a property the “RHONJ” star shared on Jan. 19 was an accurate “flip.”
“He headed up the whole thing — it was a big undertaking,” Sahlman told us of the Montclair, NJ, property. “He did what I asked. He turned an ugly old house into a gorgeous new house. The only thing he didn’t do was hammer nails.”
Sahlman said he has worked with Gorga on more than 25 properties over the span of two decades, and added, “Joe Gorga is one of the hardest-working contractors I’ve ever known and I deal with a lot of contractors. He’s a very talented guy who works his butt off.”
There’s no denying that Gorga has made a name for himself in real estate — and has made a successful living off it — but perhaps his social media posts should be taken with a grain of salt.