Heather Altman Explains Why “Working with Your Spouse” Is “Not for Everyone”

On the February 16 episode of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, Josh Flagg revealed that his new boyfriend, Andrew Beyer, had joined his real estate team at Douglas Elliman. Naturally, Josh Altman and Heather Altman, who have worked together for many years, had some thoughts to share on the matter.

While discussing Andrew and Flagg’s new business arrangement on the show’s February 23 episode, Andrew admitted, “I went against every single rule in the book,” before saying to the Altmans, “I mean, you guys do it too, but you’re married. It’s different.”

Altman explained that they weren’t married when they started working together and shared, “It was a whole long thing, but we went back and forth a million different times if we should do that or not.”

As we know, they ultimately decided to work together, and Heather is now the CEO of the Altman Brothers. However, that doesn’t mean she encourages every couple to mix business and family. “I don’t know that I would recommend working with your spouse,” she said in an episode interview. “Luckily, Josh and I have stumbled through, but it’s not for everyone.” Referencing Flagg's recent split from Bobby Boyd, she concluded, “Clearly, it didn’t work the first time for Flagg.” 

Naturally, Andrew was curious as to how Altman and Heather “separate” their work and personal lives, to which Altman quipped, “All we do is talk about real estate,” and Heather joked, “If we didn’t have real estate, I don’t know if we’d be together.” 

Heather opened up more about her personal struggles with working with her husband after a major miscommunication led to her staying at the group’s vacation house with Andrew while Altman, Flagg, and Tracy Tutor did a site visit on their co-listing that Heather had put a great deal of work into. 

“There’s definitely still ups and downs,” she said in an interview. “Let’s just say we go through these cycles of me having to tell him that I need more recognition.” 

In his own interview, Altman explained that after working with Heather for more than a decade, “It’s still difficult to balance that home life, married life, and work life.” 

As the two hashed out their conflict during an explosive dinner, Altman admitted where he went wrong in this instance. “Heather’s feelings, they’re warranted,” he said in an interview. “I deserve this every once in a while. It kind of re-checks me back to reality. Sometimes I’m moving so fast, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t always stop to think about her feelings. But I get it, and she’s right, and I’m gonna work on it.” 

Watch Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles on Bravo Thursdays at 9/8c and the next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.