Who Actually Owns the Bachelor Mansion? And How Much Does ABC Pay to Rent It Twice A Year??

As you may have heard, yesterday ABC made the unprecedented decision to cancel a fully produced season of "The Bachelorette" just days before its scheduled premiere after video surfaced of an alleged domestic violence incident involving its star, Taylor Frankie Paul.

Paul, who first rose to fame through TikTok's "MomTok" community and later became a central figure on Hulu's "Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," had been announced as the lead in September 2025. Her season was slated to debut this week. Instead, it was scrapped at the last minute, leaving ABC with an entire season that it will likely never air.

With the cancellation, ABC is now on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in lost advertising revenue, partner integrations, and sunk production costs.

One of those sunk costs is a fee ABC pays twice a year to rent a sprawling Southern California estate known as "Villa de la Vina," better known simply as the "Bachelor mansion."

Located in Agoura Hills, about 60–90 minutes from downtown Los Angeles depending on traffic, Villa de la Vina is not owned by ABC, for reasons we'll explain in a moment. Amazingly, the Bachelor mansion is owned by a regular family. A family that, twice a year, packs up everything they own and moves out for roughly six weeks at a time.

Needless to say, they are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

So who actually owns the Bachelor mansion? And how much does ABC really pay, twice a year, to take it over?

Who Owns the Bachelor Mansion?

Despite what millions of viewers might assume, the Bachelor mansion is not a purpose-built studio owned by ABC or Disney. It's a private residence owned by a contractor named Marshall Haraden and his wife, Joana. From my snooping, Marshall and Joana have four children.

Marshall Sr. is the founder and president of a commercial construction firm called The Marshall Group. According to the company's website, The Marshall Group primarily builds out restaurants and breweries. They also build residential homes and retail spaces, but restaurants and breweries appear to be their bread and butter.

For example, The Marshall Group built out the following locations:

• Tarantula Hill Brewing in Thousand Oaks (their "Liquid Candy Hazy IPA" is dangerously good)
• Imperial Western Beer Co. (downtown Los Angeles location)
• Modern Times Brewery (downtown Los Angeles location)
• 800 Degrees Pizza in Santa Monica
• Yard House in Las Vegas
• Olive Garden in Thousand Oaks
• 14 Cannons Brewery in Westlake Village

After a bit more snooping around the web, I discovered that the Haradens didn't just build 14 Cannons, they also own and operate it. The brewery is named in honor of Marshall's great-great-great-great uncle, Lieutenant Jonathan Haraden (1744-1803), who commanded a Massachusetts State Navy warship called Tyrannicide (which literally means "killer of tyrants"). The ship, as you may have guessed, was equipped with… 14 cannons. Today, 14 Cannons' flagship award-winning West Coast IPA is named Tyrannicide in his honor.

When Haraden opened 14 Cannons in Westlake Village in 2017, he didn't just want to sell beer. He designed the space to function as a working operational teaching facility and a 3D portfolio for The Marshall Group. The brewery explicitly showcases the beer industry's leading vendors, high-end copper top bars, and complex lagering tanks out in the open. When prospective clients want to hire The Marshall Group to build their own brewery or restaurant, Haraden can literally walk them into 14 Cannons, hand them a beer, and say, "This is what we can build for you."

Building The Bachelor Mansion

In 2004, the Haradens built the roughly 10,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style estate that today is known worldwide as "The Bachelor Mansion."

Officially named Villa de la Vina, the property sits on a sprawling 10-acre lot nestled high in the Santa Monica Mountains, just off Kanan Dume Road. When Marshall Haraden designed the house, he went all out. He envisioned a centuries-old Mediterranean Revival aesthetic and reportedly imported building materials from Mexico, India, China, and Morocco to bring the vision to life.

Inside, the home boasts seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, soaring cathedral ceilings, and enormous hand-carved stone fireplaces. Outside, the property features 20,000 square feet of usable space, including the franchise's world-famous infinity pool framed by Roman arches, two massive hot tubs, a screened-in porch known as "the temple," and sweeping canyon views.

So how exactly did a custom-built family home end up becoming the most recognizable backdrop in reality television history? It turns out, ABC had its eye on the property before the foundation was even poured.

ABC Comes Calling

According to Haraden, the origin story of the Bachelor mansion goes all the way back to 2001. At the time, the property was just dirt and blueprints, but a location scout for an entirely different project happened to be in the area. A scout who had ties to "The Bachelor" got wind of the massive footprint Haraden was planning to build. The scout approached Haraden with a strangely specific piece of advice:

"Give me a couple of high ceilings, some extra power, and some extra bathrooms, and we'll make it work."

Haraden, being a savvy contractor, listened. When the house was finally completed a few years later, that same scout sent an agent to knock on the Haradens' custom-made front door.

ABC officially struck a deal to rent the house, and Villa de la Vina made its grand reality television debut in the fall of 2007 for Season 11 of The Bachelor (Brad Womack's infamous first season). With the exception of a few seasons—like Emily Maynard's season, which filmed in North Carolina, or the pandemic-era "bubble" seasons—it has served as the franchise's permanent home base ever since.

The Price to Rent

When production begins on "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette," the Haraden family completely vacates the property for around six weeks at a time. According to interviews with ABC News, this isn't a simple "grab a suitcase and leave" situation. Every piece of furniture, clothing, and personal belonging is packed up, removed, and placed into storage.

The family relocates to temporary housing while production crews take over.

During that time, the home is transformed into a fully functioning television set. Rooms are reconfigured, walls are repainted, décor is swapped out, and lighting and production equipment are installed throughout the property.

Once filming wraps, everything is reversed. The set is stripped out, the home is restored, and the Haraden family moves back in.

And then, a few months later, they do it all over again.

Neither ABC nor Marshall Haraden has ever officially confirmed how much the family is paid to vacate the home twice a year. But we can put together a pretty solid estimate based on a few known data points.

Villa de la Vina has occasionally been listed as a short-term rental for around $6,000 per night. If ABC were to simply pay that rate for six weeks (42 nights), that would come out to roughly $252,000 per season, or just over $500,000 per year.

However.

ABC isn't booking a luxury vacation rental. They are leasing a fully operational television set.

A more realistic way to think about the deal is in terms of weekly production rates. For a project of this scale, with full exclusivity and significant disruption, a rate closer to $100,000 per week is far more plausible.

At that level, a typical six-week shoot would cost around $600,000 per season, or approximately $1.2 million per year across both shows.

And that likely doesn't include additional costs such as reimbursing the family for moving expenses, storage, and temporary housing.

Not a bad side hustle for the family home!

Why Doesn't ABC Just Buy the House???

Which brings us back to the multi-million dollar question: If ABC has been using this house almost exclusively since 2007, why on earth haven't they just bought the place? Why continue paying around $1 million a year to rent this house?

It seems like a no-brainer for a massive media conglomerate like Disney (ABC's parent company) to just drop $7 or $8 million on a house to avoid nearly two decades of rental fees and logistical headaches. But in the television industry, owning a residential property for a reality show is actually a massive financial liability.

Here is why ABC and Warner Bros. choose to rent:

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette only film at the mansion for the first few weeks of each season before the cast starts traveling globally. The actual shoot time at the house is roughly 42 days per season. With two seasons a year, the house is only used for about 84 days total. If ABC owned the property, they would be sitting on a massive, vacant asset for the remaining 281 days of the year, generating zero revenue.

Furthermore, owning a 10,000-square-foot estate on 10 acres in Southern California isn't just about the purchase price; it's about the year-round upkeep. ABC would be on the hook for massive California property taxes, insurance, constant landscaping, pool maintenance, and 24/7 on-site security year-round to protect an empty, famous building from trespassers and superfans.

Finally, there is a big legal difference between a "residential property that allows temporary film permits" and a "permanent commercial studio lot." If a major network bought the house specifically to use as a year-round production facility, it could trigger complex zoning battles with the city of Agoura Hills regarding commercial use in a residential zone.

By renting, ABC shifts all of these long-term carrying costs onto Marshall Haraden. Furthermore, ABC gets to exploit a massive, built-in perk: Haraden's construction company.

When production takes over the house, they don't just move some couches around. They completely repaint and redecorate the interior to fit each season's aesthetic (the walls have reportedly received over 44 coats of paint since 2007). Because Haraden is a professional commercial contractor, ABC reportedly just hires his crew to do the physical labor.

It is a highly efficient, symbiotic business relationship. Haraden gets to run a massive construction empire, operate a successful brewery, and have the Walt Disney Company subsidize his family's vacations while paying his own construction crew twice a year.

Usually, this arrangement works perfectly for ABC, keeping its balance sheet flexible and its overhead relatively low.

But this week, thanks to the unprecedented last-minute cancellation of Taylor Frankie Paul's season, the network is getting a harsh reminder of the downside.

Even when the show never airs… the bills still do.