Reeling In The Deal

With its fast pace and sky-high priced dream homes, the 2022 Netflix series “Buying Beverly Hills” presented us with a new side of Mauricio Umansky. Already a familiar face on television as the husband of original “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Kyle Richards, Umansky emerged as one of the Bravo franchise’s most popular spouses, his easy-going vibe often known for providing a comedic foil to the drama-fueled plotlines swirling around him.

On “Buying Beverly Hills,” however, he presents a different persona. As the CEO and founder of The Agency — a preeminent global brokerage firm with over 70 offices in eight countries — he’s a businessman in action, overseeing both a seasoned and fledgling score of agents handling multimillion-dollar properties, each one jockeying to secure their rank within the company along with their hefty commissions. Among them are two of his own family members: stepdaughter Farrah Brittany, 34, from Richards’ first marriage and daughter Alexia Umansky, 26. Their appearances on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” over the years, he says, equipped them with the savvy and thick skins they’d need to star in their own show.

“We’ve been on television for twelve years as a family,” Umansky explains. “We’re accustomed to the cameras and everything that comes with it. I think it’s actually strengthened all our relationships and I love that. We don’t bring work home.”

Richards’ decision to first put herself — and their family — on TV has paid off, he says, noting that, at the time, signing up for reality television was still a pretty big gamble. “She’s always been somebody that likes to work,” he states. “Scripted television at that time had slowed down. There were very little opportunities. So she made the decision to do [the show] and I supported her. You knew you were putting your life out there and all of your skeletons were going to be seen and told and I think we were both comfortable with that. We put ourselves out there and here we are twelve years later. At the end of the day, it was probably a good decision.”

What sets “Buying Beverly Hills” apart from other glossy real estate fare on TV right now, he believes, is that it captures more of the gritty challenges new agents face trying to prove themselves.  “Everything out there seemed to be glamourized,” says Umansky. “I didn’t think there was a show that truly showed the struggles of young professionals. We have amazing results, but it’s not that easy — you don’t just snap your fingers. I think it’s realistic in that way. We wanted to show the ins and outs of a real estate firm.”

Umansky’s own remarkable trajectory is a study in starting from the bottom. He’ll be sharing the full story his upcoming book, “The Dealmaker,” out this April from Simon & Schuster. The short version entails Umansky, 52, born in Mexico to a family of Russian and Greek Jewish descent and moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s. He and Richards met at a nightclub, marrying in 1996. After losing his job at a fashion brand, the couple both decided to get their real estate licenses. “She was so supportive,” he recalls. “We were really struggling at the time and she said, ‘You’ve always loved real estate. Let’s go into real estate together.’ We made a date night to go get our licenses. She got her license, but never really practiced. I switched careers and went into real estate. It ended up being a pretty good switch for me.”

After joining brother-in-law Rick Hilton’s firm Hilton & Hyland, his career skyrocketed. He was named the number three realtor in the country by The Wall Street Journal in 2013 and credits his wife with giving him the courage to strike out on his own and found The Agency. His goal: to create a thriving environment where he could, not only flourish individually, but serve as a mentor to others. “A lot of what I was doing was teachable and repeatable,” he explains. “It wasn’t just me on my own, it was actual systems other people can do. And I wanted to teach them and to grow.”

As for what makes Los Angeles a one-of-a-kind market, he points to its tremendous wealth and star power. Umansky was among the listing agents in the record sale of the Playboy mansion, which sold for $100 million. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for a Los Angeles residence, according to The Los Angeles Times. “It’s such a unique property,” Umansky reflects. “It’s so iconic. I mean, it’s almost as famous as the White House. So that was a lot of fun to handle.”

“Lady Gaga was really fun to work with, just an amazing person,” he continues. “You know, I’ve worked with heads of state, celebrities and had the opportunity to sell some amazing homes. We have a tremendous amount of trophy properties in Los Angeles. I think that’s what makes it unique. The prices that we’re selling are only really comparable in Manhattan, but in Manhattan you don’t get the space.”

That said, other markets are giving LA a run for their money these days, including South Florida, where The Agency opened a Palm Beach Gardens outpost in January.

No matter the city, price or square footage, his methodology remains the same. “You have to take an approach of customization,” he says. “Be a little bit different in the way you market each home, whether it’s a view property with no land that’s super sexy or it’s an old house with five acres of land and a bunch of amenities. You’re marketing it towards different people. When you’re selling, you need to create a personality to the property, storytelling. And that’s how you create the uniqueness to the property versus just throwing it on the MLS and hoping someone calls.”

He describes his own family’s main California residence as “an older property. It’s one of the oldest properties in Los Angeles actually. I think it was originally built in 1896 and then rebuilt in 1911 which, for Los Angeles, is super old. I just love the land and the colonial-style architecture. We have everything there, from the pickleball courts, pool, gym and my office there is fantastic.” They spend the holidays at their Aspen home which, he says, “has great volume and amazing views. We’ve got the antlers, the chandeliers. It’s a very different vibe.”

Looking ahead, “it’s going to be an interesting real estate market for 2023,” he predicts. “We got into a little bit of a slowdown in 2022 and entering 2023 across the board — in the nation and across the world. Interest rates have definitely slowed that down. There’s still such a lack of supply out there which is going to hold prices higher and there’s not a lot of pressure from sellers who have lower interest rates to run out to the market and sell their property and then go get a higher interest rate on the rebuy. So, I’m hoping that we’re going to see a stabilization of interest rates that will create the demand to start coming back into the markets and hopefully by Q3 or Q4 of 2023 we’ll start seeing demand increase. But right now we’re going to see a bit more of slowdown, in my opinion, in the first two quarters. Maybe going into the spring season, we’ll start seeing a bit of an uptick in it but that’s, you know, being a little bit optimistic.”

As for season two of “Buying Beverly Hills,” Umansky is equally hopeful. “I don’t have an answer yet,” he says. “Let’s get it. Let’s get it!”