Joey Ben-Zvi is aware of find out how to entice consideration. The media-savvy agent with The Company in Beverly Hills, Calif., is quick making a reputation for himself with multimillion-dollar offers and the cinema-quality movies he produces for his high-end listings. At 26, he’s one of many youngest brokers on the prestigious billion-dollar brokerage, which has represented Michael Jackson, Prince and the Walt Disney property, and he’s already co-founded his personal crew—the BZP Group—inside the firm.
He’s additionally making a splash within the leisure world as a solid member on “Shopping for Beverly Hills,” which chronicles the day-to-day enterprise of The Company—and hit the Netflix top-ten record for TV within the U.S. and in lots of nations worldwide with its debut. Although he’s surrounded by TV and leisure veterans like The Company CEO Mauricio Umansky and his two daughters, all longtime stars of “The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,” and agent Sonika Vaid, a finalist on “American Idol,” Ben-Zvi has emerged as a fan favourite because of his daring enterprise model and rivalry with fellow agent Ben Belack.
Ben-Zvi spoke to Tradition Scan not too long ago about his skyrocketing profession, his revolutionary advertising and marketing, and his perception that the important thing to success—even within the ultracompetitive luxurious market—is specializing in crucial particular person in any actual property transaction: the consumer.
Q: What sparked your curiosity in actual property? And what was the trail that led you to The Company?
A: In highschool and in school, I used to be interning for a profitable industrial actual property firm that specialised in high-end retail. Throughout that point, I famous my affinity for residential. I’ve identified Mauricio and Alexia [Umansky’s daughter, also an agent at The Agency] for a very long time. However after I first approached The Company, I didn’t say something to both of them. I wished to go in recent with somebody who didn’t know me. I truly went to Mauricio’s associate and begged him to present me quarter-hour of his time. That quarter-hour became two hours. After that, I used to be on my approach. Now, we provide a recent perspective with the BZP Group. However we nonetheless work collectively. BZP is presently working with Mauricio on a $20 million deal.
You’ve been very profitable at a younger age. Do you’ve got any recommendation for different brokers simply beginning out or for extra established brokers who wish to take their profession to the following stage?
This recommendation has at all times labored for me: Simply go. You’re by no means going to search out out except you are taking the shot. I’ve at all times had a component of fearlessness—not worrying about strolling right into a room the place I’m the youngest particular person there. Mauricio has at all times been the identical approach—he’s been in lots of conditions the place he was the underdog within the room. And considered one of my heroes is Kobe Bryant, who was as soon as only a 17-year-old within the NBA earlier than he grew to become a star. It’s important to ask your self: Are you prepared to take the steps to go to the following stage? It’s all about taking the shot.
You’ve produced some lovely movies to showcase your listings, like this one that highlights a property dubbed “The Roxbury.” May you are taking us into your inventive course of?
It’s all about painstaking particulars. It’s me exhibiting as much as the property with a leaf blower. It’s leaving simply the correct amount of leaves in the event that they create the fitting temper—or in the event that they’re the fitting coloration orange. It’s right down to a $3 million classic Ferrari sourced from considered one of our purchasers. It’s utilizing videographer Tony Pillow, who has labored with Jaden Smith and Justin Bieber, and who was additionally a consumer on BZP’s first-ever deal. It’s staging lights on the property and on the panorama. It’s days of filming—a full day to plan. And it’s important to make the video specific to the market. A extremely high-caliber video is all about long-term ROI. If we do proper by our purchasers, it would come again to us. You possibly can’t simply work on the short-term. It’s taken us three years to construct our video experience, and now it’s a part of our model.
What has the expertise of filming a success sequence been like for you as a younger agent? And the way do you steadiness your work on the present with all of the work that goes into your actual property profession?
I don’t know if steadiness is for me. However I do have a whole lot of help. I’m fortunate to have the fitting infrastructure, the fitting individuals round me. Each day I get to work with actual property and TV veterans who’ve produced lots of of tens of millions in gross sales.
But it surely’s busy. I keep in mind one month particularly after I was filming 40 hours every week and doing $25 million in gross sales. Thankfully, I’ve an amazing crew round me, and Mauricio is integral, offering a whole lot of perception. And a whole lot of the time on the present, you’ll see me engaged on actual property, working my craft. So I get to do each [TV and real estate] on the identical time.
TV reveals naturally must create dramatic rigidity. How a lot of your competitors with fellow agent Ben Belack on “Shopping for Beverly Hills” is real, and the way a lot is for the cameras?
I’ve a secret love affair with Ben Belack. However severely, although among the competitors is performed up a bit, it’s actually there. On the identical time, we additionally work collectively and make one another higher. I simply had a three-hour dialog with Ben about constructing out my crew. However you may see in our gross sales this yr that I’m beginning to stand up within the ranks—and that’s one thing Ben notices, too. [A competitive environment] makes for accelerated development. All of us have love for one another. We assist one another develop. However this can be a actual competitors, and it will get fierce.
One beneficial takeaway from the present is the significance of relationships and the way making real connections with individuals can result in success. Are you able to supply some perception into the way you forge lasting relationships with purchasers?
Creating long-term relationships has undoubtedly been the most important profitable precept in my profession. It’s how BZP lives daily, and what we imagine. For BZP, longevity of relationships is extra essential than the fast sale. It doesn’t matter what fee is on the road. We at all times assume when it comes to taking good care of the consumer. We’ve misplaced out on some offers as a result of we have been performing within the purchasers’ finest pursuits. And when individuals see that we’re prepared to lose out as a result of we put purchasers first, they need to work with us. So we’ve misplaced some but additionally gained. We now have purchasers who will solely work with us—as a result of they know we’ll look out for them. If you happen to put the consumer first—genuinely and deep in your coronary heart—you’ll get long-term wins.
