Luxury real estate agents can earn huge commissions, but the pressure to sell can sometimes drive younger people out of the industry.
“You can write a life-changing check, but when it's going to come? Who knows?”
That was the dilemma for Vanessa Tonova, a young estate agent working in the high-end world of multi-million pound properties.
The real estate industry may look glamorous from the outside, thanks to popular and glitzy TV shows like “Selling Sunset” and “Million Dollar Listing,” but brokers soon find that landing luxury properties and attracting millionaire and billionaire clients is harder than it looks.
The pair, who work for the London branch of an international estate agency, gave up a steady salary and instead received a paycheck only if they sold a property.
“It's totally high risk, high reward,” says Krish, 23, from Milton Keynes, “but for me it's fascinating to go into £8m or £10m houses and see how other people live. This world of luxury property makes me feel like I've been transported back in time a bit.”
For Vanessa and Krish, the big attraction was the possibility of earning more commission in a single sale than most people make in a year, even though it can take years for some brokers to make their first sale.
“Of course, money was a big motivator for me,” says Vanessa, a 25-year-old former model who lives in London. “For anyone in a job that's goal- and results-driven, money is a big thing.”
And for Krish, the chance to earn enough money to support his parents was a big motivator.
“My parents sacrificed so much and they deserve so much more than what they have now,” he says.
But despite selling homes to billionaires and multimillionaires, Krish, who now works full-time in the commission-only luxury real estate industry, still lives with his parents.
He says he can't currently buy a home on his own because “housing prices are just completely prohibitive.”
“One of the things I've learned from billionaires and multimillionaires is that you have to think about how you can add value to your home. And where I live now, there's just no value in a lot of the real estate out there.”
“It feels weird selling my house, but I can't afford to buy one myself. Do I want to own my own home anytime soon? Of course.”
“There's no guarantee it will sell.”
Vanessa and Krish agree that despite its glamorous appearance, the industry can be brutal.
“People don't see how much hard work goes into it,” Krish said.
Vanessa relied financially on her mother during her time on Crazy Rich Agents, supplemented her income by babysitting in her free time, and spent a year trying to make it in the commission-based industry.
Although she had success buying luxury properties, including a luxury villa in the Caribbean and a mountainside mansion in Monaco, she struggled to sell them.
“It's all about networking. You have to work really hard to find buyers as well as sellers. It's not easy to find a buyer for a £10m or £15m house. It's very, very difficult.”
“You have to constantly get out there, talk to people and find creative ways to reach buyers and sellers. It's hard.”
For example, when she was trying to sell her Monaco mansion, Vanessa walked the streets looking for high-value buyers, even approaching people on boats in the marina.
Entering the luxury market as an agent requires thorough preparation and adequate financial backing, she argues.
“Otherwise we can't really survive and there's no guarantee of sales,” she says.
“Unless you have a lot of cash saved up to get through, that's not feasible.”
Vanesa said she was struggling to sell and was stressed out, but never revealed her anxieties to potential buyers or sellers.
“If you're stressed, high-value people probably aren't going to want to work with you,” she says. “You need to be performing at your best all the time.”
Eventually, after being given a deadline by her mother, Vanessa decided to take a job with a corporate property agency based in South Kensington that offered her a fixed salary plus commission.
“Don't be afraid of someone else's money”
Nathan Emerson, chief executive of property industry professional body PropertyMark, said the commission-based working model had become more common in recent years.
“Working on commission gives agents more incentive,” he says, “but agencies that implement this compensation structure may experience higher turnover during seasonal downturns as sales team members leave for stability, which can impact agents and ultimately clients.”
Krish, who is currently working on a property development in London's Chelsea Harbor selling apartments for more than £6 million, says he has never felt uneasy working with extremely wealthy sellers and buyers.
“I'm not intimidated by anyone's money,” he said, adding that he doesn't mind selling to multimillionaires in ripped jeans and T-shirts.
“It doesn't really matter to me whether they have a gate outside their house or if they live in a huge mansion.”
BBC image courtesy of Plum Pictures/Paul Husband
