MAURICIO UMANSKY Founder, CEO, and Real Estate Agent at The Agency M ANTRA: “No assholes and we like to have fun.” HIGH PROFILE SALE Mauricio sold the infamous 29-room Playboy Mansion in January for $100 million. BALANCING ACT With his daughters and his realty star wife, Kyle Richards, Mauricio has learned to balance work with time for the ladies in his life. 90210 “What this house has to offer is tremendous beauty and the interior design of the house flows very well,” Umansky says. -11,000 square feet -5 bedrooms -7.5 baths $35 Million
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Q: How did you come into real estate? Mauricio Umansky: I got into real estate about 20 years ago, it was something that I was very passionate about especially since I love the architecture, the interior design, and the art of the deal. It’s not where I started though—my first career was working for my father in the clothing business selling textiles. [He] taught me how to fight for every penny, which I brought over with me into the real estate business, and I think that it has helped me tremendously in terms of my negotiating skills over the years. Q: What does a typical day look like for you? MU: Well, I don’t have a typical day because everyday varies tremendously. I think that I’ve been the number one agent in California for four to five years in a row, and in order to do that I have to maintain my sales, so I think I did $600 million worth of sales last year, and the year before that $450 million worth of sales. So, to keep up these sales I go to multiple listings and showings every week; I love to show properties because I think that that is the only way to understand the buyers, sellers, trends, and the market as a whole. I am also the CEO of The Agency so that entails a lot of relator support which means I help them land listings and sell their properties. Another role that I have as the CEO is to continuously be thinking about innovation and I think because of that, The Agency is the leader of innovation and we are the ones who started changing the way real estate is thought of. I always say that two aspects of the culture of The Agency is that number one, we don’t accept any assholes and number two, we like to have fun. Another part of my week is growing The Agency so we are in the process of opening up more offices, one in Pacific Palisades, Calabasas, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Punta Mita, and Turks and Caicos in the next four to five months. Another part of my job is that I am a supporting reality star to my wife in the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”, so every once in awhile during the week I will have to run out and film a quick scene at home and support my wife. Of course, I am also a father and a husband so that’s a full time job as well. Q: What is the most challenging part of selling real estate? What is the highlight of it? MU: The biggest challenge that I have is balancing time. Time is the largest challenge because I have to make sure that I support the numbers that I have always had, in terms of sales. I love the deals, so I never want to go backwards in sales. It is just a matter of setting enough time aside for family and my business. The highlight of selling real estate is the art of the deal. It is the competitiveness; people are motivated by a lot of things. There are people who are motivated by fear, the fear of not having enough money to take care of their family and there are so many great motivators. There are also people who are motivated by money or greed, which I think is the worst motivator. I happen to be motivated by being