Maya Vander: Selling Sunset Star & Realtor. Chew the Fat Podcast

welcome to chew the fat in this series I sit down with high performance guests and we talk about life business and what it takes to be at the top this is part of my mission to raise a million dollars for charity by writing a cookbook called eat with purpose but I'm going to need your help if you can share the content and leave a review it's going to make a massive impact and the bigger the audience the greater the reach and the sooner we can get to that million dollar goal enjoy the episode May Vanda welcome to Fat hi thank thank you for having me welcome to Miami thank you it's absolute pleasure to be here and so so many people would know you from the show selling Sunset and what show I never heard of it a well the Australians definitely would have and what I'd love to kind of get to is what's the context in your childhood that made you the person you are wow uh I think so I grew up in a small country it's called Israel I don't know if you heard about it but it's all over the news right now at least in the last few months and our uh CH was ch was very simple um and we had just had like unfortunately different reality we just growing up um and that reality which you see in the news it's obviously involved in some Terrors and people just you know hate us unfortunately it's hard to say but it's a true and because of that I think I always took things in perspective um and what's important it in life and what's not so I think that's just what made me who I am and when you come to to a new country like the US I was like 21 years old I was uh very ambitious to to make it and I think that's part of it because I grew up in a small country and very simple and I think that's the reason like who I am today aming like I I I Hassle and what did it feel like when you enter the us at 21 years old like you know it's a it's quite late to move into a new country it was a culture shock uh I was well I moved cuz I was also dating an american guy at the time so I came from for love to Los Angeles but it was I I was actually remember like the first couple of days I cried I'm like oh my gosh where am I like this is intimidating uh but then you get used to it and La has something that suck you in like you just get very comfortable in a l and before you know it 10 years go by um but I love the US I know people complain about it the politics and all that but I think it's still such a great country to be in and uh it's the land of opportunities and I think if you work hard in this country you can really make it and what was the thing that got you from that 21-year-old lady to starting to become a realtor yes I was working in a clothing store um on Melos Avenue and I was always in retail and then at some point my mom told me why don't you go sell real estate and I I'm the person who likees security and like you know the pay check and like stability and I took a chance I'm like you know what I'm good with sales I love homes I love real estate why not so I took my license um and then I joined my first Brokerage in Los Angeles a small boutique firm in Beverly Hills and I remember I asked my broker at the time okay I got my license now what and he's like now go talk to people tell them you sell houses and I was just like a networking machine but it's a process and uh that that was my first reason like honestly my mom she told me to just go do it amazing and what was you know that process was there a lot of training and learning from that how to do that or you had to figure it out you have to figure it out like in the in in the real estate course they teach you like the very like the crazy things that you never actually going to practice in real estate um and once you go into the actual you know job you really like you just they throw you to the pool and you have to learn how to swim so that's how I did it I just like every transaction by the way till this day every transaction I learn um and it's a great business it's a great career to be in I've been doing it for 12 years years and I I'm still learning but yeah you just kind of like go with the flow and then you learn as you go which is kind of crazy cuz imagine you buy in a house now by way I can sell you something now I know what I'm doing but it's it was a process yeah that's it's it's it's blowing my mind because you know I'm in real estate in Australia and real real estate in Australia is quite different to here in the US from what I understand so here in the US I believe there's s like 2 million realter um and the average you know number of transactions not for yourself is roughly like one to three I think it is something like that in Australia we have a highly condensed number of Agents but these like Powerhouse you know groups or businesses and so it's all about the rigor and training so when I think about you going in there and there isn't that training I'm like wow I'm like how did you you know so they do um so a lot of the brokerages here now they they do offer training for new agents so I was also with Keller Williams at some point it's a big broker here in the US and they offer a lot of training but at the end of the day once you go live on a trans so many things can go either right or wrong and you have to like be a problem solver and be creative and now you are a therapist to your client because it's a very emotional business so they don't teach you that in real estate school but uh look it's not I'm not like operating on a brain right but still you have to know what what you're doing and and apart from the hustle that that you know that immigrant lifestyle of moving country you know was ingrained in you what other areas of like success you think you had why you were able to rise to the top so also like I was 21 years old I moved here I was very like ambitious but I was also in a relationship uh I think once like actually that relationship was ending ended um I felt more motivated to do things and not just go back to Israel and just do what I did before I was determined so then I got my real estate license and I'm like okay I don't have a degree um I didn't go to college I came in when I was 21 in love I was with a guy and like this is the time to do to do me and I had no other choice cuz I'm like if I don't have a degree what else am I going to do so I started doing real estate which you know it's interesting because you don't have to have degree to sell real estate and people think it's easy but so many things can go like I said before like right or wrong uh but I was very determined to just make it and once you become also technically independent and your own boss it's very difficult to go work for someone else and I think that's part of the reason I just had no choice but to do it and I I've heard you say the word times you needed to make it what did that look like in your mind at that age like what did make it look like so make it have h a little bit more like Financial stability uh let's just call the boy in his name I'm look I'm not like some billionaire or millionaire um well maybe including my husband maybe but it depends um but you know makebe like just Financial stability the freedom um if I want to buy something I can that's to me make it to not be stressed about every month how to to pay the bills mhm okay and and and what was the moment where you know selling Sunset the the TV show became an opportunity for you yeah so um I was already doing real estate for about two and a half years Json opened the brokerage the opentime group at the time in LA and I remember I used to go door knock up in the hills to get business cuz that was free and I didn't have money to spend on marketing but then then I saw Jason's marketing packages like so beautiful in the doors and like oh my gosh how am I going to go compete with this guy um long story short he actually approached me on Facebook and he's like hey I'm opening a new office and he knew me from the industry cuz everybody knows each other in LA and he's like me and Brett and it was another guy Graham we open in the bage can you you want to join and I like the fact it was right on Sunset Plaza right when I was door knocking and everybody see you and I can say I'm with the opheim group and we have the office down the street and beautiful marketing so I joined and um that was like me being in the old group long story short it was uh the other girls join after me Christine Mary and then we did a photo shoot and um he put the billboard on Sunset Plaza with us and also he did an advertisement on a magazine I think it was Hollywood Reporter one of those magazine that producers can see in the sellet producer saw it pitched the show to Jason Jason first declined um producer was consistent with him and then eventually we said yes and we start filming a demo and that's how ended up in selling Sunset like like I mean I was just doing real estate here I am and what was the what's the thing that people wouldn't realize about that you know I'm sure you get so many questions but is there anything that you you know that it's like unobvious about being on a show like that that is so large s out yeah I mean people think first of all the all think where act actors actresses they're like oh I love you I love the way you act on selling s I'm like I'm not an actress I do real estate this is my full-time job uh but also people don't understand that it is a t TV show sometimes you have to amp things for the drama I mean the drama is real but you know like if I ask a question or all my eyes or something sometimes the editing can be very misleading and and it's it's at the end of the day the producer are here to entertain so some people takes it very hard and serious and Oh Maya is an instigator in my case she said things and she move and she lives and I'm like if I'm not going to ask a question or say something that related to the scene or the drama I'm not even going to be on the show um so it's a TV show and people need to just understand that we all and and we get it season one we didn't know what we do in season two we all like okay we we can now get what we need to kind of like do and what was the impact it had on your business being on that show so I can tell you I still hustle and get I still work on getting leads like I don't see my phone ringing H the from client who necessarily want to sell or buy with me because unfortunately for me like I was like La Miami so a lot of people in Miami still think in La so I have to do a lot of marketing around Miami but I do get credibility once people know who I am and they trust me because at the end of the day like I guess you know my character or my acting skill in Seline Sunset they show that I do I'm there for the real estate um and I think it just gives me credibility and exposure and exposure to other things also whether if it's endorsements on social media or like interviewing you know with podcast or other things that uh potentially can and can rise from that but in terms of real estate it gives you some sort of credibility but I still have to find business because sometimes people think maybe I'm too busy or too cool or maybe I won't sell a $1 million condo because I don't do that stuff but it's not true we do it I do rentals I I do it all that's really interesting because there so um off the spin-off of selling Sunset Australia wanted to you know do something similar in uh in Australia that went on Amazon and I sat down with a guy called gav Rubenstein who was on that show and for for him from his business it like fundamentally shift a lot of it was around you know new um employees coming in as well as like the phone ringing off the hook for um for properties but the one challenge he had was of course you know the fame that comes with it and you not not being able to leave the streets how did you you know you know sitting here today with you you're a very normal person we're just having a nice chat and I you know I think about that Fame and it's like almost a a um a very different world so how did you manage that so yeah like usually when we go to dinners uh people recognize me and they say hi son they want to take a picture but for me like again my mindset is so like you know like look I'm not Kim Kardashian I mean sing s took off and it was very successful and I'm very thankful for that and yes people recognize me everywhere I go also when I do showings with real estate um but it's not crazy right it's not like I can't leave my house and have Paparazzi waiting for me um it's not that also cuz maybe my character on sing Sunset was very just like the mom you know like I don't have anything exciting going on you know thank God because if you see the other girls drama right now off camera it's like I wouldn't want want to be there um in being their shoes so I I'm very humble when it comes to that because for me like I'm just there I I want to sell your house I want you to use me and rep as as your buyer representative like that's how I look at my business like I'm fully in real estate everything around it is it's a plus and selling s was an amazing bonus and very lucky to be part of it amazing and now you you have moved full-time to Miami you mentioned about seven years ago how's that shift been for you and there was a shift in the you know the group you're working with too yeah so look once I officially done with the show because I have like three kids now it's it's very difficult to fly west coast East Coast uh every week to film that's actually really interesting do you know what else is interesting the eat with purpose cookbook it's part of my mission to raise a million dollars for charity this podcast is a part of that goal and what you can do is like comment share and leave us a review let's get back to the guest and um I decided to make the decision that it's logistically it's very difficult and you know let's face it they want the drama they want the crazy fashion and if I'm flying five hours like I don't have the energy to put the crazy fashion and the Glam and all that I'm just like there to film a scene so I made the decision I moved to Compass it's a big Brokerage in the US yes um I love them I love their branding they're very sleek and it's kind of like align with my style uh although you see me very casual now but you know I like the luxury style and and reputation and because of that it was a conflict of interest which quietly I hang my license with compass in La I still have an amazing relationship with the brothers and with the girls and they're like family to me but it was just like professional decision that I had to make and I have a team I have five ladies on my team cuz at the end of the day I do have three kids and sometimes like Yer my daughter was sick and I all of a sudden I cannot do the showing so I decided to form my team here and hopefully we can goow the business you know it's been uh real estate it's a crazy business it's like a roller coaster it can go ups and downs if I don't close a deal for like a months I go crazy like oh my gosh I haven't closed anything in a month um sometimes I need to tell myself you know what maybe it's okay because then you can take it easy and relax because clients are very demanding so and and what about now that you have a team of five like what do what were the lessons you learned from when you first started that you're trying to impart on them and I'm sure training is probably one of them yeah exactly so and it's hard right cuz I don't have the time to train I don't have the time to Mentor but I try to talk to them every day for with my team my team girls and like at least see you need anything do you need my help do you need I try to guide as much as I can um and I try to be involved as much as I can with transactions that I feel like maybe they need my support but it's very difficult because I don't have time right like I'm in my time to train I rather like go Prospect or do cold call and do stuff and that create business for myself uh but I tried to to help them because when I first started nobody helped me and I didn't have any Mentor or anything like that so I try to do as much as I can uh that's why like I rather like have agents who are experienced a little bit and did couple of like transaction that I don't have to like babysit completely awesome and and what about um you mentioned the the mentoring is there a process that you do to kind of bring people up is there any you know there any I guess takeaways for the audience that they think about you know as grow their team that they could Implement I mean you know you always have to be like a team leader in terms of like being positive and and showing an example if like if I'm doing cold call and I tell you let's focus on getting listings it means you should also maybe or can try to do cold call as well like if I'm doing it you can do it uh if you want to do door knock or whatever whatever Prospect in way uh that but you want to set an example for your team if I would be sitting on the couch watching TV all day long then what an example I'm setting so and you try to have to stay like positive and like stay with a good mindset it's not always easy it's not always perfect right now we have like a change in the real estate industry in the US with some lawsuit crazy lawsuit it's a whole uh is is that something to ridiculous to me because I I've been hearing over in Australia very far away about there's a there's a separation that now there'll be a buyers agent and a sellers agent fee is that from this lawsuit so you know we you always technically have a listing agent representing the seller and the buyer agent representing the buyer occasionally you do have the buyer come directly to the listing agent because they think they're going to save on the commission but the listing agent have fiduciary relationship to the client to the seller so I feel like that lawsuit is a little bit um ridiculous because as a listing agent I always tell you hey like I'm going to list your house I'm going to take whatever 3% or two two and a half% to represent you yeah the buyer agent I highly recommend giving them two and half or 3% because I want them to bring their client to the house if they see that there is no incentive to commission offered they're not going to bring the clients to the house and then we might end up with less buyers so it's always a suggestion was always a suggestion but you know sellers are typically paying the buyer's Commission Now the law would change and they say the buyer has to pay the commission to their agent so I see a little bit difficulty with that because buyers who like more financing the property um you know now they have to come up with a check 50,000 40,000 for the commission it's it's a lot of money and I don't think buyers are going to do it even if you show how much you provide value as a buyer agent because you're going to protect your client still it's a financial decision and a seller pay commission based on okay what am I going to net these are my closing costs buyer fee agent fee title and Esco company this is what I want to sell for so it's I I just solos is a bit like to me ridiculous but it's it's really interesting and it's been like the talk of a town in Australia because um the way that it's going to be shifting is how we've had it in Australia for essentially forever so the the you can't even within the same organization represent the buyer and the seller it has to be coming from a third party um that being said almost every transaction that happens here in the US has you know a buyer and a sellers agent so it's really interesting like how do you think you're going to be able like what your steps to navigate that in the business with such a fundamental change look I do buyer leads online and I might have to shift that so might have to shift to focus really on getting more listings which is you know it's not easy but it's like meaning like just prospecting for the listings because I might get just buy directly representing the seller you know also the crazy thing is like a lot of the states in the US prior to this lawsuit it wasn't legal to to do dual agency like you cannot represent buyer and seller because there is a conflict there it's like an attorney represented both side it's like to me it's a little bit crazy but then buyers I think will go directly more to the listing agent or or the buyer will have to sign an exclusive agreement with their agent for them to be represented by a buyer's agent but then what are the fees what are they going to pay that's a big um question because are they going to pay the 2 and a half 5% or are we going to start seeing flat Fe like I'll represent you but pay me th000 bucks to show your five properties like it's a little bit unclear I think I'm going to just shift my business thoughts getting more listings and just work with less buyers because I don't want to deal with like the fees and potentially cut the two and a half or 3% unless it's a bu that I know Andy fast and hopefully the seller will still pay the commission I think that's going to be the case anyways but just conversation with the buyers that never met you online leads they like oh now you sign in excl exclusive with me it's uh and these are my fees I think it's going to be be challenging there yeah I think it be a big it's a big education piece and potentially an opportunity because it's like a shifting completely so I kind of want to take a step back for a moment and and look at your career as a whole what would you say the biggest challenge you've faced uh to date in your career so far I think it's always just like getting clients you know some clients can be not loyal to you and you work really hard I feel like with selling s that actually I got some fake clients too that I thought they were real they show me proof of funds and I don't know maybe they work it on canva or something but it was fake um so I think that's the challengeing with this business and just people in general I mean it's you you always hustle even with the TV show you always hle um but it's part of it you know you're in sales and you hope to gain loyalty from clients and just work on that relationship and um that's it like that's those are the challenges it's and and you know they as as it could be not consistent amazing and and it's funny as we as we started and I hear you know you have three kids and I I reflect because I have one son Oscar two years old oh nice that's able too but I'm like it is amazing you have so much respect for people being able to juggle more than one and you being able to ask me how I do it it's it's it's it's incredible so I'm impressed and so thank you for being able to come here today I got a baby C today cuz I didn't want to miss it and you know like I have a good baby but like she could be like crying now like I wanted to have the podcast so I got the cedar but then after that like I actually have a showing later and I'm going to bring her with me what am I going to do either canceling the showing or bring a wi so I'll bring a wi oh that's nice I like that and I I can imagine that it creates like authenticity with the client right it's like this is me this is who I am and babies are adorable too so that helps you know we don't have a nanny uh when my daughter was born a baby I had someone that was there a couple of days a week cuz I didn't want to put her in daycare yet but then I put her in daycare then she gets sick all the time so look I mean I pick up the kids from school around 4:30 4:45 and then I'm just with them amazing and what about like what would you boil down your single most proud moment in your career to date wow I think I think couple of them um my first house that I sold to a celebrity um I was very proud of myself are we allowed to use their name Ludacris very cool um that was my first big sale for for a celebrity and and I I loved him I love I mean I love him still like I love the songs I was proud of that I'm very proud of establishing the team here in Miami and just honestly creating new business business here because it's a new market for me at the end of the day like I lived in La 15 years yes we moved here 7 years ago but at the end of the day I was flying for the last five and uh creating a family obviously I should have F put creating family first that's okay I know I'm always going to the professional creating family is like amazing being a mom and manage to like you know just work and and be independent and do your do your own thing and I I love it that's awesome and I can see your your your face just absolutely lit up when you talked about you know those different aspects and those different moments you know it's always nice to be able to sit back and and kind of reflect of of those you know often with high performers you we don't get those moments to sit there and reflect on those achievements that we've had through so it's very cool to say yeah I mean you know like uh I do I have a lot of respect to Json so I follow a lot of what type of marketing he was doing in LA and I'm doing something similar here in Miami just to create my brand and work on my brand and my name following you know post TV show and all that and lastly I want to come back to this you know the idea that you've moved from Israel at 21 and and I guess those lessons that that taught you what are the key lessons that you want to pass on to your kids that they you know they won't necessarily go through that Journey but what are the key things of Valu I wish you know I feel like if my kids would actually grow up in Israel with the craziness that's going around I think they would have like a more like simple uh they would be more tough and strong versus growing up here because I had a very open childhood I was like 14 years old and what's his name Testo used to come to my hometown in a lot in the South and was dejing and I was like 15 years old 14 years old going to the parties there on the beach and I never did drugs by the way in my life I don't do that I don't believe in that but I was just like you know free and I don't think my kids will have it in the US cuz you know he always afraid like you know some kid will get whatever abducted like so I would say the freedom I mean I I wish there would be like Lear to be tough and strong and take things in proportion cuz uh people he have it easy and when I see the drama that people are focusing here in the US it drives me crazy uh because I see what's going on in the world and especially where I'm from when we are in a war like I think I always take things in perspective this perspective is so important isn't it you know like where we live in Australia it's incredible it's incredibly safe and and as you become more used to that you like to your point is like you start to worry about problems that you're like that's you know like someone hands water it's like oh it's not perfectly cold you know like and and like it's and it's really hard as humans because we become like homeostasis we become used to our surroundings and I find that you know I my not quite the same story but immigrant background from South Africa and it's like you know going back there and and seeing you know the country seeing you know 11 million homes without power it always keeps that perspective you know grounded in you that you're like it's okay it's you know it's it's room temperature water take the top water it's totally fine I know that's why like I always like I think that those are the things that I struggle a little bit with selling Sunset because I'm like who cares if I have a nice bag or who cares but I know it's for the show and it's for the fashion and I and people love to watch it but for me like I don't care like I don't need to show off if I have like of course I like nice things and I have nice things but most of the time you'll see me like this very simple and barely even wearing jewelry but um so I think like yeah like just just those things like and I wish my kids would I think it's going to be tough you know to have the same mentality for my kids because the day of the day they are here their dad is also American they raise you know they grow grow up here in Miami everything is like my my daughter's like oh can we just go to Target and buy something granted Target is not fancy but she's like oh can we just go and buy something no you got to work out to buy something it's it's yeah it's I sometimes I ask that question also because it's like selfishly for me CU I like to get people's perspective as like how do you I think that resilience piece and the perspective is so important and I'm always trying to go like you know how do I you know what are the things I do today to be able to instill that in my son and you know like an example you know I was looking after my brother's kids last week and we're playing soccer and he's four years old and my wife says to me you're not letting him score a goal and I'm like this is life you know like I go the moment he does score a goal he's going to feel so much more proud that he did it and he knew that I just didn't give in and exactly what happened he scored three and he was he was rubbing it in for the rest of the day and like and you can see that in their face and I know that's just a micro moment but it's like you we kind of have to create those micro moments as parents to be like okay what are these values given the particular environment is not necessar necessar going to sh know it's remind me like we play card games with my my kids like every night almost and we play like Uno is one of them and or Candyland or whatever I shoot in but my son lose right he goes crazy when he lose and I'm like Aiden it's okay you win some you lose some you try again and like don't give up you know so that's uh that's why I try to implement him cuz he's like 5 years old but it's like he go crazy he's so frustrated when he lose it's cute but I'm like you know so it's so important and it's like it's one of those things I have in my mind you know with schools and things like that and you know there you know in Australia there might be at a particular age you don't get to lose everybody gets an achievement award and it's like you know life unfortunately just isn't like that you know you're going to get to an age and like you know you go for a job or start a business you know the the achievement is not just showing up you have to actually put in the effort as well yeah and also getting there like look I got I used to model I got so many times rejected rejection with real estate sometimes you know you a client choose to work with someone else you get rejected you just have to kind of like brush it off and and and move on to the next one without losing it right because yeah that's life life is not easy and my last question for you is what's something that people don't ask you or something I haven't asked you today is there anything on top of your mind like that wow um gosh not really uh people typically ask yeah I mean I'm very open too so like you can ask me anything um I no I don't get any questions that like people I mean I'm sure now when you ask me I'm like what people don't ask me I don't know actually that's okay that's all right Maya I really appreciate your time thank you it's awesome to meet you thank you so much so should I call you Chef Fran oh yes but you're doing also amazing things so good for you thank you so much