Picture this: You pull up to a listing appointment in your new-to-you Honda Accord and notice a gleaming jet-black Bentley sitting in the driveway. Behind it, you catch a glimpse into the garage: Ferrari. Lamborghini. Rolls Royce. Suddenly, the listing presentation deck you worked so hard on last night doesn’t seem as sleek or professional. Your mall-bought blouse feels cheap and tacky. You start to panic.
You don’t summer in the Hamptons or winter in Ibiza. You don’t even know where Ibiza is, let alone use the word winter as a verb. How can you relate to someone who probably spends more on car maintenance than you spend on your entire mortgage?
To find out, we sat down with Emil Hartoonian, a Managing Partner at award-winning luxury brokerage The Agency. He’s ranked number 61 in California on The RealTrends Verified list, selling homes with an average price north of $4 million. But he didn’t start at the top. His first listing sold for just $275,000.
Here are his tips for working with your first luxury clients, even if you don’t know where Ibiza is.
Don’t try to look wealthy — you’re not fooling anyone
Hartoonian’s first tip might sound obvious if you’ve been to a real estate conference in the last few years, but it bears repeating: authenticity sells. If you’re not being authentic in your branding, on social media, or on your listing appointments with high-net-worth clients, you won’t do very well.
So skip the flashy clothes, fake Rolex and the leased BMW you can barely afford to make the payments on. Like everyone else, wealthy people can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. Don’t start your relationship with a lie, even a small one. Here’s Hartoonian:
“The market has changed a lot over the years. I don’t think it’s as much about ‘looking the part’ anymore — of course, being presentable and dressing well still matters. But you don’t need to show up in a Brioni suit. What today’s luxury clients really care about is whether you’re the right partner. A lot of agents who are new to luxury try to jump in with the look because they want to seem more credible. But nothing is more credible than the numbers. The scoreboard doesn’t lie.”
Of course, if you ARE wealthy, you can (and should!) dress as fabulously as you’d like. Just be yourself. You’re not fooling anyone.
Have experience buying and selling luxury listings
Yep. That’s right. You’re in the same boat as a new college grad again: You need experience to get the job, but you need the job to get experience. Brutal, right? Well, there’s no way around it. On the listing side, no one is going to trust you to sell their multi-million dollar home unless you’ve already sold multi-million dollar homes. If you landed a high-net-worth client through luck or personal connections, you can skip this step. If not, take Hartoonian’s advice:
“No seller reaches the point of owning a $5 million asset without a clear understanding of what they’re doing and who they’re dealing with. So, an agent with a track record of selling $500,000 homes will never get the listing for a $5 million home. It’s impossible. The advice I always give to new agents trying to break into the luxury market is to partner with another agent or team that’s already achieving those kinds of numbers. This will lead to transactions that will build your value as an agent.”
Learn who your client is — Due diligence is crucial
Learning as much as you can about your clients — at any price point — can give you insights into what they need or want out of a transaction. Hartoonian suggests researching your clients online before you pick up the phone. High-net-worth people generally lead more public lives, so there might be a wealth of helpful information on their social media profiles or even in the press.
You might approach a movie producer who just went through a rocky divorce differently than a startup founder who just sold their business to Google.
This is why researching your high-net-worth clients is a crucial first step in representing them. They might not tell you about the divorce or multi-million exit on your first, second or third call. You might not even get a chance to speak to them at all until your first showing — according to Hartoonian, almost all high-net-worth individuals have gatekeepers, such as business managers, agents, or assistants, who handle their day-to-day affairs.
…but don’t typecast them
Many new luxury agents make the mistake of typecasting their leads or clients: Entrepreneurs are analytical and only care about the numbers. Artists are laid back and only care about “the vibes.” Actors will always want to talk on the phone. Hartoonian was quick to point out that this is a common (and costly) mistake when dealing with the 1%:
“You have to learn about who your seller is, and you have to modify your style to the way that they expect to do business. I’ve worked with doctors who are incredibly analytical and numbers-driven, and I’ve worked with doctors who are super high-level and don’t have time for the details. It’s all about your client’s personality. Learning their profession might give you a hint of what they might need or want and their preferred communication style, but everyone is different.”
Ask how they prefer to communicate and work with you
Learning how your client prefers to communicate is helpful for $500,000 clients, but it’s absolutely critical for $5,000,000 clients. High-net-worth individuals often lead busier and more complex lives. They might be running a business or several businesses, and as Hartoonian pointed out, they will almost always have gatekeepers managing their day-to-day operations. Your multi-million-dollar transaction might be the least important item on their to-do list. This is why Hartoonian was adamant that asking clients, directly but respectfully, how they prefer to communicate is so crucial:
“Early in your relationship, you must respectfully ask your client what they’re looking for in terms of communication. Do you prefer me to contact you directly for the day-to-day? Or would you like me to reach out to your assistant and CC you, or reach out to your business manager and keep you posted with every bit of the progress?
You don’t want to negate their knowledge of everything because many people are hands-on. However, some people prefer not to get involved in the day-to-day activities. So, understanding your client’s type, expectations, and preferred style of working and communicating is critical. Don’t guess. You need to ask them.”
The grass is not always greener
When we asked Hartoonian about higher expectations for service wealthy people expect from Realtors, he demurred:
“Yes, the expectations are high working with high-net-worth individuals because there’s a lot to deal with, and there’s enormous sums of money at stake. So, if they’re going to trust you with this transaction, they want to know that you make them your number one priority.
But the grass isn’t always greener. At lower price points, you’ll have to deal with first-time buyers who often have incredibly high expectations and require significantly more hand-holding to reach the closing table. There is no such thing as a perfect client.”
