Financial Feminist - 41. Real Estate and Reality TV with Selling Sunset's Maya Vander

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

What do reality TV and the past few years of real estate have in common? There’s lots of drama, and no one really knows what’s going on. We’re kidding (mostly), but with the way the housing market has changed over the last few years (and even decades), talking to an expert is a great first step to better understanding the current market and the home buying process. This week, Tori is joined by Selling Sunset’s Maya Vander, who helps break down the home buying process and shares her thoughts on the current and upcoming markets and what to keep in mind as a buyer besides just the financials. And, of course, we get into her time on Netflix’s Selling Sunset and learn some surprising facts about what the show does and doesn’t pay for.  Learn more about our guests, read episode transcripts, get resources from the show, and more on our show notes page: https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-show-notes/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer. Hello. Hello, financial feminists. Welcome back. Welcome back. We are so thrilled to be with you again for another week of Financial Feminist. This month, we're focusing heavily on what we're calling money at home. So that means both how you handle your finances in your day-to-day life and the literal place you call home. So we have some great episodes coming up on things like how to manage money with your family. But for a few episodes, we're diving into real estate specifically. So who better to bring on the show than the queen of real estate, Selling Sunset's Maya Vander. Maya Vander is a luxury real estate agent highly recognized for her role

in Netflix's original docuseries, Selling Sunset. The show follows Maya and her colleagues at the Oppenheim Group selling some of LA's most glamorous properties. The series quickly reached phenomenal success with its first four seasons quickly picked up due to its large fan base in season five, which recently premiered April 22nd. Outside of the show's phenomenal success, Maya keeps busy running circles in the real estate market on both coasts. Eager to share her success, Maya recently opened her own online course, Keys to Becoming a Top Agent, offering young real estate agents top tips to build a solid foundation in their careers and elevate their business. We'll link this in the

show notes if you're interested. In her spare time, this Israeli native is very active in her charity work, most recently partnering with Push Pregnancy and Aaliyah in Action after suffering a loss of If you're interested in her spare time, this Israeli native is very active in her charity work. Most recently partnering with push pregnancy and Aaliyah in action after suffering a loss of her own due to stillbirth. Maya's goals are to speak out for these organizations and work alongside them to stop preventable losses and provide women birthing people and families comfort as they take steps towards healing after the loss of their baby. As a content warning,

we do talk about Maya's story of pregnancy loss in this episode. Beyond that though, in today's episode, we talk about Maya's entry into real estate, how she balances running a successful real estate business alongside her work in Reality TV, and she also guides us through some common real estate questions we get from our community. So if you are interested in buying property, if you are a new homeowner, if you're navigating what it's like to try to fight a bunch of other people for the house you really want, this episode is definitely going to be helpful for you. Maya also vulnerably shares about her pregnancy loss and how it spurred her into action, helping

support other women who have experienced pregnancy and infant loss as well. Maya is truly an incredible woman. This is such an informative, amazing episode, and we were so excited to have her on the show. So let's go ahead and get into it. I'm so excited to have you. I have so many questions for you. Can you tell us your backstory of getting into real estate? And then specifically, how did you end up in luxury real estate? So yeah, it's interesting. I was working retail. I moved from Israel to Los Angeles, and I worked for many years in a clothing store in Los Angeles. And then my mom told me,

why don't you go get your real estate license? And I'm like, you know what? Why not? But it's very risky because getting your real estate license means you're going to work only on commission if you're going to be a real estate agent. And I always like a steady salary. But I took the chance, and I got into real estate, and I got the license, and I joined like a steady salary but I took the chance and I got into real estate and I got

the license and I joined my first company brokerage in Beverly Hills and I just hustled I worked really hard and I didn't sell only luxury and even now by the way in Miami I sell lower price points as well so it's not only like a certain price point and up um i believe that every transaction is money and every client can refer you a different clients and maybe that client will sell and buy something bigger so i don't reject really business i mean depends some maybe but it's it's a lot of hard work um i was licensed in la for about three years until I joined Jason. And then obviously like doing open houses for high-end clients, inexpensive listings. Then you meet more clients. I network a lot.

So it's really like nonstop work, to be honest. Do you find that the definition of luxury has changed? Because I think a lot of people hear the word luxury and immediately like tie it to like oh a million dollars but I live in Seattle where a two-bedroom two-bath is now a million dollars so what are we defining as like luxury versus maybe like I don't know general or regular real estate it's a good question I think it's five million and up probably that's my my opinion because yeah look miami i mean you could get a beautiful house like eight years ago for one million and now you cannot

even get it's a teardown so i wouldn't call it luxury um same with la la frankly it's almost 1.7 1.8 teardown so um to me it's five million and up and i sell less than that so what does that mean do i not sell luxury i mean i sell more than that and i sell less than that so i sell both yeah i and i think it's interesting too where you're like yeah i still sell homes that aren't luxury real estate do you find that there's like a general difference? I mean, obviously, it's like how much money somebody is willing to spend, but like a general difference in someone's process when they're looking for a home versus looking for like a luxury property. I feel like the more expensive price points are almost like easier to sell because those people have money. They are savvy. It might not be their first time they buy.

They already did real estate somewhere. Sometimes, honestly, like the $400,000 condos are a pain in the ass to deal with because the buyers are not qualified necessarily. So I think that the higher price point is almost easier. Do you find too there's like less competition in theory? Because I know like Seattle, the joke is like the houses go for so much more than asking and in addition there's always like 12 people 15 people

that are that are applying or that are you know submitting it's the same here i feel like now it's it's it's starting to slow down a little bit but it's the same i mean million dollar here i mean everybody that comes in with the one to buy between one and one million and two million i'm like oh my gosh because i know they're gonna have to compete with like 10 other buyers only now it's slowing down just a little bit but it's been a crazy market in the last uh frankly covid covid is did well to to Miami and every other city, actually. Yeah. My next question was about what trends are you seeing? What have you seen in the last two years? And what do you expect to see, let's say, in the next year or two? What has changed

about the market? Yeah, people need further space. Now, everybody needs a home office. for their space now everybody will need it needs a home office that wasn't even a thing like couple of years ago home office more space bigger yard potentially had a pool to the yard so COVID people were locked down for two years and they were looking to how do I get my property better people moved from the city to the suburbs because they wanted more space and the city sometimes doesn't allow it you have the condos and they want more privacy and being away from people i think moving forward yes people are going back to work at their offices versus remotely but a lot of people are still staying at least part-time you know the remote work from home so i think the office space will always be um necessary i think that was the main

change just an extra office space big time yeah and i'm more room i think you're exactly right i think people were yeah when you're when you're stuck at home and you have no other option as opposed to you know plenty of people would just go to work and that's where they were for at you know eight plus hours and then they maybe go out with friends you're getting home at like eight or nine and then going right to bed versus your entire life spent at home hard to do that in a one bedroom condo i did that for two years like very hard we moved from our house um we lived in a condo and when i get it got pregnant with my son we moved to a house so that was like two years before COVID. But I can only imagine if I would be in that condo with elevators and other people.

And, you know, first, they were like, oh, my gosh, COVID. And we really like keep the social distancing. So I can honestly not imagine doing that, especially with kids. So can you walk us through how commissions on homes work how long are paychecks staggered between like when you make first contact with someone and then receive money from the sale like what is what does that whole process look like for someone who isn't in real estate or somebody who's just listening to this being like i don't know how any of this works it depends on the clients but in a good case if you are in a with a savvy clients who is doing all cash, you can

get your paycheck within two weeks, you can get your paycheck within a month. In the worst case, if you're working with clients who are looking for several months, you can get your paycheck after seven, eight months until they decide to put an offer. Because if I found my clients a house, that means I don't know how long I've been running around with them. Some of them I ran around with them for a month. Some of them I can show them like seven, that means I don't know how long I've been running around with them. Some of them I ran around with them for a month. Some of them I can show them like seven, eight months and they still haven't found.

So let's assume we executed a contract today. Typically contract is between 30 days to 45 days. And then the commission, I see a lot of commission cuts right now, unfortunately, but I would say it's between 2% to 3% to me because I represent either the buyer or the seller. Then once I got the 3%, let's just assume 3% from the purchase price,

then I have a broker who takes a cut. So every broker has a split. The broker basically is the big guy. I mean, if you compare selling sunset, it's like Jason. Liability issue, responsibility. We have to, as real estate agents, we have to hang our license under a brokerage. So I'm with Compass now. So Compass is my brokerage.

They're going to take a cut because they're giving me, you know, tools to use, tech, support, administration. So they take some sort of like commission from the 3%. Every agent, every company has different splits. I would tell you for a new agent, usually the agent will take 60% of the 3% and the broker will keep 40 for a new agent. Or it could be 70, 30, or 80, 20 80 20 it depends out of that commission that you take home you have to pay taxes so when you see the commission on selling sunset in theory yes

that's the big chunk but then you have like all these cuts and splits until you actually get paid so i mean for you i think you're potentially in a more unique position where you are getting these like massive or i shouldn't i mean they're bigger than average right they're bigger than what you might expect because you're selling luxury real estate right you're getting these not if i sell a four hundred thousand dollar condo but if i sell a i would say a million and up two million and up then yeah it could be 20 30 40 000 commission,000 commission. If you sell $10 million house, all of a sudden you're in the 100,000 commission. But it's not always happening. It's not as often. It depends. It depends. My last two years were great in real estate. I did really well,

but it was actually a lot of like small transaction and combination of a couple of big ones. So how are you thinking about your personal finances then if you know, oh, I could go a month two months three months maybe even six months without seeing a paycheck like what is your mindset stressful it was very stressful and i've been there i mean not in the last three four years because my my career finally took off and i'm telling you finally because i've been in real estate for 10 years and i had good months and i'm like oh i'm closing one deal after another or big deals and i'm like oh great but you'm closing one deal after another or big deals.

And I'm like, oh, great. But, you know, in the meantime, you have to leave. That was before I was married. I have to leave. I've spent money. You know, LA is expensive. You pay rent, you pay taxes. It can be very stressful when you don't have that consistency.

Thankfully, in the last few years, I've been doing real estate on a constant basis, even if it's a small deal. Every time I get paid, I put aside money on my saving account. So little by little, I build up. I dedicate X amount for marketing budget. And based on that, I'm like, okay, what am I comfortable spending? What do I know coming in? And I'm very careful with with that I mean I'm not

gonna go and sell a house and go run and buy a Chanel bag you know like that's not my priority um unless it's a huge deal maybe but generally I am very much I'm very cautious because you just really never know especially if the market is shifting you have to be very careful well and i think the unique part about what you specifically do is that a lot of this information is very public and i will talk about this a little bit later but like how does that feel for you knowing like okay i'm discussing on a national platform you know how expensive this house is and people can do the math right like how does that feel for you so if you notice like on my ig i never post usually the uh sell amount i just put under contract on the corner i never put the address i never put the

the sell amount because i don't need people to know how much money i make and calculate the commission because you know when you see the show yeah it looks always glamour but we do have the broker fee we have taxes and sometimes we have to give commission to our buyer or seller because they really want that you know our commission to make them happy and sometimes the commission is not 3% all of a sudden it's 2% or so it's a bit different and yeah I don't want people to you know the whole google thing, trust me, I see now where Google like income and all that. I mean, I can tell you it's all nonsense.

It's really not true. Whether if it's more or less, none of it is true. People just assume based on whatever endorsements or real estate transaction, but it really depends. So I personally don't say the price point for the properties that I'm doing unless it's like a marketing for a client like a listing presentation and all that but social media I just do I'm very vague with that I'm like look at me I sold something but I'm not telling you how much what it is I'm just showing that I'm doing real estate that's my my thing so if someone

listening is trying to choose an agent, what should they be looking for? What sort of questions should they ask? They should just look for me if they want to buy in California and Miami. That's it. No, I think, you know, you have to vibe with your agent. You have to trust your agent and know that they have the best interest. to trust your agent and know that they have the best interest. I mean, I've been showing my clients properties that offer less commission,

but I didn't care because I just want my clients to be happy. So you want to make sure you're working with an agent that not necessarily put his commission as first priority, but put your client priority first if you represent them on a buy. On the sell side, I just think look for an agent that offers you good marketing, that is willing to do those open houses, willing to be there, available showings. Just be available for your clients and communicate. I think it's super important. Yeah, I was very close to buying a condo when I was like 22, 23, because I had that narrative of like, oh, renting is throwing away money. And the real estate agent I worked with, I had a horrible experience. Like this person.

Why is that? Oh, great question. He didn't really advocate for me. A lot of the things I was asking for, he kind of scoffed at. I was very young too, so I didn't really know what I wanted. And my parents, well intentionally, but they were doing a lot of pushing of like, oh, you want this or like, oh, you should buy something with this feature or something like that. And so it was just a very interesting process. I learned a lot. I didn't end up purchasing. I still don't actually own property. But I think one of the things that was so crucial for me realizing was like how much you need somebody

who's in your corner and who's going to advocate for you and who's going to listen to you. I felt like, yeah, he didn't really honor what I needed. Didn't really, yeah, advocate. I remember at one point I was trying to, you know, I found the condo and we were negotiating the price down and he's like, I don't think you should negotiate at all. And I was like, every other condo is sold for less than this like it doesn't make sense because I think he wanted a higher commission which like just felt really icky I'm like no if I can negotiate this down a couple thousand dollars like I'm gonna do that and especially this was like 2016 outside of Seattle when you could when you could yeah now I will tell you that's gonna be tough I mean even

now I'm like I mean I'm in a situation now with my clients that I tried to negotiate down for them, but I knew that I knew they really wanted the house and I knew the house had three other offers. So I told him just put 10,000 more. It's not that significant. Just put more. Let's just try to do, to be as aggressive as possible. And then paying 10 10 000 more doesn't really change my commission significantly yeah so and i show them houses between 1.6 which i actually really like and now we're at like 2 million so you know it's like i i actually never operate by price point or commission myself like i just want my clients to be happy a lot of agents do unfortunately they look about how much commission the agent the listing agent is offering and based on that they decide to show or not show want my clients to be happy a lot of agents do unfortunately they look about how much commission

the agent the listing agent is offering and based on that they decide to show or not show and it's a shame yeah in this market unfortunately it's hard for us agent to negotiate anything for our client because we are still in the seller's market i think it's going to change i think we're going to start seeing more inventory it might shift a little bit to more buyers market but not yet can you tell me more about that because i I'm seeing similar things, but it's really hard to know for sure. So what are the signs for you that it's moving that way? More inventory, for sure. Single family where I am, there is still a shortage, but I start seeing a little bit

more and more inventory. For condos, I've seen way more condos. So I already know, OK, with the condos,'ve seen way more condos so i already know okay with the condos i might have a better chance to negotiate people are not jumping as they used to but it depends also on the price point if the price point is decent then they're not going to necessarily negotiate too much down it depends on the seller but i think more inventory is definitely an indication of some sort of like change. That means more supply. So more supply, it's better for the buyers generally.

Yeah. Well, and our listeners, I mean, they range from renters to first time home buyers to empty nesters. So like, what is your best piece of real estate advice to a non-luxury buyer? Like someone who's trying to buy whatever house they can afford? I would say you don't have to always look at like 50 properties. Like if you go to a property and you love it

and you feel a good energy, go for it. Even if you think you're paying over, overly paying by 20, 30,000, whatever, it's worth it. You're probably going to be there seven years. The price point with the mortgage is not going to make or break a deal. It's maybe going to be 200 bucks different in your mortgage payment. But also don't go behind your needs.

Rates are higher now. So that means your mortgage payment will be higher. So maybe you have to adjust your budget. Rents are expensive and they've been going up and crazy in the last few, last literally a couple of months. So see what mortgage plan you can get, even though with high rates, maybe it's worth pulling the trigger on it,

but just adjust your price point to make sure you're comfortable because you have mortgage payment, you have property taxes, you have other costs that comes with property that you have to consider, you have closing costs, you have to factor all of it into your budget yeah and i think that's one thing that has actually

kept me from purchasing so far is like the cost of all of those things and knowing there is like a certain i was about to say luxury like pun intended but there is a certain benefit to like being a renter where i can call somebody else and have them handle certain things. However, of course, I really crave having my own space that I get to do with what I want. So yeah, there's trade-offs. And I think it is really important to consider the full cost of a property before you purchase because a lot of people just see what's the sticker price versus property taxes. Yeah. Closing costs could be a couple of thousands of dollars.

And they didn't expect that all of a sudden. And then you pay an interest for a long time and barely put an equity on your property. So there are a couple of things to consider when you purchase. So work around your budget. Yeah. You mentioned like the energy of a house when you walk in. I am very much that person too, like who gets certain energy from places. And like my gut will tell me. Is that what you mean?

Like tell me more about like what that feeling is when you walk into a home that you like. I mean, when my husband and I purchased our property, we, first of all, we weren't really sure if we want to buy. We were also renting, comfortable in a condo. We saw maybe two properties, but then we walked into our house as we bought. And I told my husband right away, I'm like, I love it. There is something in the day that can work for us. I just felt it. Like, it's just, whether if it's, you know know a bright house or the kitchen or the open floor plan whatever it is the layout there are a couple of things that you just feel it or if you buy in a condo maybe it's the view maybe it's just again the floor plan like something that just you feel

good with it and i think you have to feel good when you walk into a place to buy and even if it's even if it's your first place that you see. Maybe it's the first place. Maybe you don't have to see a hundred places. Because maybe you're going to change your mind. Let's say you walk into a place. You're like, okay, but it's only the first place. Let me see others.

And then that place is gone. You're like, oh, damn. I should have bought that place. So you should go with your energy. And feel. If you can afford it. No, I think that's, yeah. that's how i live my entire life is just like how do i feel about this thing like what is my gut telling me i think on the on the opposite something that you said of like walking into a home and

loving it one thing that i've heard a lot is that you shouldn't completely fall head over heels for something until like you you've purchased it until you're like closing on it do you subscribe to that as well yeah because you don't want to keep your hopes up i mean you can go you can do inspections something comes out in the inspection you don't like it or maybe you lose the house for a different buyer but so i know it's hard to not get attached and wait until it's like signed and you officially record and you're officially on title. I would say, I mean, if you feel it, you feel it. It's hard to control.

But I guess, yeah, be cautiously optimistic that you're going to close the deal. Yeah. so you've moved you were you were talking before about like the transition from like being an agent to being a broker because you now own your own brokerage in florida so no how is the oh you don't oh you don't my doc says you do. Tell me more about that. I tell you why. Because I announced my team, which is a team of three girls, me and my associate. And team and group doesn't mean a brokerage. It means we are a team under a brokerage. So I'm a team under Compass.

Compass is my broker. But the media, oh, Maya announced, you know, she has her own brokerage, blah, blah, blah. And they totally don't get the difference between an agent and a broker. So I am studying for my broker license. I've been studying forever because I have no time to study, but the goal is to get my license,

but I'm not going to plan. I'm not planning to open my own brokerage for liability issues. So I'm happy with Compass. It's a huge company. They're all over the place and I can refer business to other agents and they have great branding.

So it's my team and my group, basically my group and Compass. Got it. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. I appreciate it. Okay, cool. Okay. So before we transition to selling something, what for you do you see as the entire process

for someone who's never bought a home from like, okay, I'm trying to find an agent to like, I've moved in like very, very basic. What's that process look like? I would say first get qualified. Like when clients contact me and they don't even know if they have enough down payment and they don't understand the qualification, it's a complete waste of time. So you need to go to a lender, whether if it's your bank or a private mortgage broker and get your pre-qualification letter. Once we know what you're comfortable with and what is your budget that you can actually get the loan or unless you have cash, then I can go and shop and send you option based on your budget criteria. Then we go look at places and then we

start narrowing down what's important to you, what's not important to you. Then we go look at places and then we start narrowing down what's important to you, what's not important to you. Then we write a contract. Let's say we find a place, you're qualified, we write a contract. And hopefully within 30 to 45 days, we are good. You close on your house and you get your keys. You make it sound so simple. I know, it's easy, right? It's so easy. So what do you find like are the common pitfalls? You already

mentioned one of like, somebody not getting their pre qualification letter. Like, what are some of the other ones that somebody could avoid? Who's listening? I would say, yeah, I mean, also, be be focused. I mean, I buyers like they tell me they want one area and then they ended up buying a completely different area. And they don't want me to send me they want one area and then they ended up buying a completely different area and they don't want me to send them stuff in one area but then i realized they keep looking on a different area so buyers can sometimes be all over the place so maybe it's also good to just tell your aid let your agent just show you places even if it's an area that you never considered or thought about yeah be open-minded because I know for many transactions that they say one thing

and then they're buying something else it's like dating right you say you want something and you meet somebody else and you're like oh this isn't who I expected at all that's a good that's a good comparison it's like dating so be open-minded because you never know yeah and I've experienced that even as a renter of like okay okay, I want to be I think I want this. And then you know, I get into the place and I'm like, Oh, I actually really like this other thing or this different location. And yeah, and I feel like, especially you, you guys have a different knowledge, of course, of, you know, everything and can show certain things that maybe somebody hasn't considered before. So I love that tip of being open minded.

things that maybe somebody hasn't considered before. So I love that tip of being open-minded. My myself, my best friend, my mom, my mom does this all the time. She like plays real estate agent with me and she'll like send me like the Zillow or Redfin posts. Do you find that that's helpful or is that annoying for you as a real estate agent? Like to have to have people playing agent. And people do it all the time to me too i'm sure they send you of like oh i saw this place on zillow or i saw this place i don't know where does what is the luxury zillow like are there luxury homes posted on zillow or is there like a separate site for those no not necessarily they just send whatever they like and you know look usually when buyers would sign up for zillow or whatever redfinfin or one of those. They set up a criteria and based on the criteria, they get sometimes notifications.

So they might get actually a notification in the morning before I even check for them the inventory. And then they're in your text messages inbox. Like, have you seen this? Yes, yes, yes. And sometimes they beat me to the punch. But it's fine because then I see what they want. I go online. I make sure it's available.

I schedule the showings. I'm usually very on top of it. I check the inventory multiple times a day. I'm always on the MLS. But I'm also a human being. Sometimes I can pick up my son from school or whatever or my daughter. And all of a sudden there is a new listing come up in that second and I haven't checked yet. So it's fine.

Some of the listings, especially on Zillow, they're not always accurate. Sometimes it could be a spam. So it depends. Yeah, totally. But I'm fine with my clients sharing. It's all good. As long as they go with me as an agent and not tell me, oh, we end up buying with someone else. We went to the open house and we just went with the realtor there because it happens too.

How often do you think that happens? Because you said like sign a contract. Do they have a contract with you? I should. I mean, as a buyer exclusive, I don't have them sign a buyer's exclusive. And unfortunately, sometimes it can be not to my advantage because they can go behind my back. I usually just expect from clients to be loyal because they think we make all this commission,

but we put a lot of effort in doing the research, coordinating, running around, taking our Sundays off. It happened to me recently. A client decided to work with a different agent because she thought she's going to find some off-market listings, which she hasn't still. But what am I going to do? I mean, I spend so much time with them and you know what if they don't want to work with me exclusively then i don't want to spend my time then i have other clients who

would appreciate my time with them it also feels like dating again where you're like i'm building this relationship and then you go cheat on me but fine yeah basically and you know if i would slack in as an agent to them, I would get it. But if I'm like there and I'm sending them stuff and I'm on a group text and I'm responsive and I'm going Sunday, so maybe I'm too nice. I don't know. Maybe I'm too much.

Maybe I should be what I mean. So unfortunately, it happens in this business. There's not always loyalty. Yeah. I mean, speaking of the drama, I have so many questions for you transitioning. So when a reality show, the idea of a reality show comes your way, like what is your first thought?

The selling sunset idea? Yeah. Like somebody, did somebody pitch you? Like how was, how was that process? And like, how did you, like, what was your thought where you're like i don't want to do this or was it appealing when million dollar listing came out like long time ago i was watching yeah oh my mom's obsessed with million dollar listings i do i love mdl so i actually messaged the producer way before i was with jason and i was like why don't you do a show like million

dollar listing just like like with women and he's like yeah that's a good idea but never it never happened then i joined jason and the producer pitched the show to jason and obviously we had a couple of male guys in our office as well but for some reason they decided to focus only on the beautiful ladies and i thought it was a cool idea because i could tell you and we have a sexy office great location luxury we could totally do the million dollar listing just women and we shot the demo and when I saw the demo I knew it's going to be a very successful show I just didn't realize how successful it really took took off yes what about that first like that pilot or demo were you like oh this is gonna be successful i think the cinematography we said couple of funny

funny lines and i thought it was like entertaining and the girls were all sweet and you know the music they put everything together to make it look like a sexy la show and i knew it's gonna be like you know it's the same producer as the heels so i knew it's gonna be right fully successful and yeah i just like every season just got it got better and better you know, it's the same producer as The Heels. So I knew it was going to be really successful. And yeah, I just like, every season just got better and better. No, I saw it coming. I knew it was going to be a good show.

Which I love because I think a lot of women look at things they produce or things they're involved in and they go like, I don't know if, I don't know if this is going to be successful. And I love that you knew. And I love that you own that you knew. Yeah. I mean, we we had great time shooting the demo and the pilot. And then when we saw it, I was like, wow, this is great.

And season one did OK. It didn't do really well because we didn't get any marketing. So nobody really knew about setting sunset. COVID. That one. That's when everybody discovered us. Yeah. Well, and how was filming the show? Because you filmed what was it season two during COVID? No, it was before we got lucky. We filmed season two and three back to back, right before COVID starting to be a thing. So we already had two seasons in the the making and then everything shut down for like about a year and then we resume kind of like we still had covid but it was people are

starting to get back a little bit to normal and then we had to test all the time we had to test like every week how do you feel like the market exploding changed the dynamics of the show or changed like the through line of the show you know it was a bit hard to get real estate in this in season four because that was we film season right after covid and covid was a pretty dry period they leave it in la la was really like hurting because it was a major shutdown um miami was booming but i wasn't filming in miami i was filming in la in la la the inventory was also very tight and you know you don't have high inventory and you but you also have less

international buyers because you couldn't travel for covid so it was a bit challenging to get the real estate in in selling sunset season four and doing like all these like extra events you know brokers open and get people together because we still have to have some sort of like limitation but we did it we make it work i mean maybe that's why there isn't they focus only on the engagement in season four with she was engaged or not engaged with christine because it was hard to find other things to to focus on i guess well and one of the things that i think my team has talked about is it's like when when you watch the show you like, how does anyone get any actual work done?

Like when you're filming the show, like how are you actually operating the business and doing that with all of the both on and off screen drama and storyline? So how rigorous is the filming schedule and does it impact your ability to actually do your job yeah i mean thankfully and the thing about me i had to fly from miami to la every week so i have to do a business in miami which by the way was my best like probably 15 months in my career we've still been back and forth because i also have girls on my team so for me personally i dedicate i dedicate some of the business to my associates but the intent the filming is tough i mean you film usually between tuesday and saturday now granted i don't film every week tuesday through saturday but they're like okay you're on call on thursday and

then yeah i come to the office in on thursday and hey now we're filming brokers open on friday can you make it so you have to kind of like be on standby between Tuesday and Saturday. And for me, like my business is mostly in Miami. So it's, it's for me personally, it was tough. I know that Mary was working a lot too. And she was like trying to bounce between the office and the real estate and showings. Some of the girls doing real estate less, you know, like more part-time. So it wasn't as maybe intense for them. Yeah.

But the ones who are doing it more seriously,'s it's a lot you know you film you have to get makeup you have to get outfits you know hair it's like you have to look all glam and it's full-time job on its own one of the things that we've talked about a lot on this show is the hidden both financial costs and emotional costs of just showing up as a human woman so you just mentioned you know all of the hair and the makeup and heels and dresses and all these like what what for you was the trickiest part of that i'm assuming netflix paid for it is there a budget for all of that or is are those your own clothes yeah i know it's our own clothes and stuff um so you're like doing your own wardrobe and shit too exactly and that's why you see me the basic one because i have no desire i mean look a lot of the girls use stylists right

and it's it costs money yeah and we get paid we get paid per episode and we get paid decent but i mean for me i have all these expenses besides like the clothing i'm flying you know i'm traveling i have to rent a place i have to stay somewhere in la right so for me like i just didn't want to spend money on a stylist um i didn't care to wear dolce gabbana to a scene to be honest i just didn't because i do real estate like i don't need to look like i'm going on a runway on a fashion show and i get it look the girls it's a fashion statement people watch the show because the houses and the fashion and the glam. Well, and it is like the double standard, right. Of like how we expect women to perform femininity,

right. Like how we expect women to look, you know, on a TV show selling luxury real estate. So it is this double standard. It is. And you look at Chelsea and Christine and they dress so like, so,

and you know, all of them crochet and you know like tiptoe and perfect and designers and all that and i'm like i'm flying for miami i just landed i'm like i do not have an energy to want to you know blooming deals to buy like a nice like outfit and spend thousands of dollars and get my hair blown out every day and yeah yeah so i got my basic hair and makeup just to look semi decent look i own my clothes they're nice clothes they're not like expensive designer but they're like you know intermix they are like theory um rice they're good brands they're not like super expensive but

also not like forever 21 which by the way you can make a cute outfit from forever 21 as well if you put the right bag and all that and i had that too not in the you know in my past but you know like my attitude is like listen i do really say i want to look professional i mean i want to look classy and that's my thing i'm not trying to be a hollywood star i'm not trying to be a fashion icon so every girl in the show has a different priority christine wants to be a fashion icon. So every girl in the show has a different priority. Christine wants to be a fashion icon. She's going to Paris Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week and that's her thing

and good for her. For me, I'm trying to just get more real estate clients and that's more important for me. So every girl in the show has that priority and, you know, I've been traveling.

I was pregnant. I'm like, the last thing I care is like, unfortunately, is like doing all this crazy glam. And yeah, yeah, I just want to be me. Have you gotten any criticism about that? Which I think is bullshit, obviously. You know, I think if I would probably put more effort in fashion in the show, maybe

be more va-va-voom. Maybe I'll get more scenes because it's interesting to watch. But it's not me, you know, and it's okay. We're all different. And I cannot pull off what Christine or Chelsea are wearing, for instance. It's just not me. So I give them credit on that.

Yeah. Do you look at reality television differently now because you were like you you're behind the curtain so i don't watch reality tv the only watch the reality tv show that i love was like mdl which i haven't watched in forever. And I like the Kardashian, but I haven't watched them in forever either. But look, I tell you, editing is a big deal. And the way they edit things, I mean, I can say something. I can say one sentence on something else and they show me, let's say like this, and nobody see that I said that.

And all of a sudden it sounds like I said something different. It's not happened as often, but it happens. I can roll my eyes on something or laugh at something and they put it in a different scene. So it's very, very interesting. Yeah, it's very tricky. Do you watch back episodes? Like do you do you watch episodes of the show? I used to watch more, but I haven't watched in forever, actually. But I used to watch more. I used to enjoy it more when I was actually when I featured more in the actually but I used to watch more I used to enjoy it more when I featured more in the show I used to watch it more but I feel like my sins got really butch

so I'm like I'm not going to watch myself sitting in an office saying one line because I don't care for it and that's also part of my decision to not go on with the future seasons of Selling Sunset yeah and I feel it's got to be really hard to not

be in control of your image or in control of how somebody uses yeah your your emotions the expression on your face that's got to be really really challenging yeah i mean we got used to it i mean season one i saw i was more naive about how we do a reality show and now i know like whatever i said i said i mean it so i don't take anything that i said like back and i'm not a control freak so i trust the editors i trust whatever they do it's fine you know it's a little bit tricky because yeah they want us to talk about certain situations and then if you don't talk about a situation, you're not going to be in the scene. You know, they're not going to show you. Right.

So you have to, like, play the game in order to be a featured participant. Exactly. Like people say, and I keep saying this, people generally like me on the show. But, yeah, I do have the comments, oh, Maya starts something and she leaves and she needs to get her. But it's not about that it's just because if i'm not gonna ask hey were you engaged or whatever then i'm not even gonna be in the show so it's hard to you you can't win yeah do you finally like you pick your battles where you're like yeah okay i'll participate here and then other times you're like no i'm not gonna do it

yes i mean we had a scene with shaq vanessa and i they wanted us to talk about jason and krishelle relationship and we didn't want to talk about jason. Yes. I mean, we had a scene with Shaq, Vanessa and I, they wanted us to talk about Jason and Krishel relationship. And we didn't want to talk about Jason and Krishel relationship. We said a little bit, but I mean, and sometimes in generally speaking, if I have an opinion,

I don't want to always share it because I can offend someone by mistake and which I didn't mean to offend. So sometimes I have opinion and I could be more direct if I wanted to, but I keep it to myself. And sometimes if I ask a question, maybe I sound more direct, but it's also because I know that's what they want us to talk about. And I kind of know where they're going with it.

So I participate. So, yeah, you do pick your battles for sure. I feel like reality TV, there is a certain level of authenticity, right? You're trying to be your authentic person. And yet you also know there's a camera in the corner, right? You know that somebody is watching you. Do you find that there is parts of yourself that you're maybe performing? Or like, do you feel that sometimes, like you mentioned, like, oh, I'm not going to say this, but but i normally would because like i don't want to start shit like what is there a process for you that you feel like i'm separating the me that exists versus the me that's on camera yeah sometimes i mean look when we do office scenes we film some of this for four hours and the cameras are there and sometimes you just forget the cameras are there you're just talking like bullshitting around in the office but if we go to let's say a broker event or something um and i see that unless i say something or ask a question i'm probably not going to make it to

the scene so i purposely say something it's not plain because i'm very honest generally and i'm very trying to stay all to myself but yeah it's necessarily sometimes if i ask a question that necessarily i probably wouldn't ask um but i'll ask it purposely to feature on the on the show so yeah it does it didn't happen to me yeah and i it's not for me like i'm not seeing it as a negative it's just like anybody's personality changes at least a little bit or you're just you're aware that like there's a camera like and you know you're going to show up slightly differently you know sometimes for the better sometimes for the worst just because somebody you know you know somebody's watching you in a different way exactly so i mean sometimes yeah we forget that the cameras are there and things happen but generally yeah i mean

we know we are shooting a reality show and you know we are on the mercy of editing and whatever they want to put in and you have to to uh like you said pick your battles how has the show made your life and business better and if you're open and willing to share how has it made it more challenging or worse so thankfully my character in the show character which is me really i come across as a as an agent a real estate agent which is a good thing so it helps me um not necessarily i will tell you of all these clients coming to my door but i think it gives me credibility uh with my business which is a good thing because if i want to pitch myself for a listing or work with the buyer people know she was on selling sunset she's actually you know a real agent and all that and she's great and all that it's like a it's like a resume everybody's seen they're like oh yeah marketing and it's everywhere so it's great i think the

show is great so it's so it helps in that aspect uh wait what was the other question tori oh i said like the how has it changed or like benefited your life versus like how has it made it more challenging or worse yeah and then you know instagram endorsements for instance we all do instagram endorsements so that's a great business too um great opportunities for us to just you know do that i do i have a real estate course for agents really new agents that i launched um the link is on my IG. You know, it's because I got all these emails. Hey, how can I be an agent?

Hey, we inspire people. So I think I cannot say anything negative that came out from the show. I think it's all positive, to be honest. My real estate course, the exposure, IG endorsements, marketing. I think it's all great. And that's why it was helpful for me to make a decision to not move forward with season six and seven,

which, you know, maybe I'll do cameos, but it will be tough because I'm in Miami. But it's hard. Everybody wants to do Selling Sunset. Now there is another reality show on Netflix with the agency they do in the show. There is one in Miami. Like everybody wants to do Selling Sunset,

but we are the original. And I want to tell everybody like step back we are the og and uh good luck would you ever do another reality show oh 100 but i would love to be yeah for sure and look they do selling they're gonna film sell in miami but it's a different cast. It's a different ethnicity. So they are targeting to different type of drama. But I would definitely do a reality show. If I don't have to travel to LA back and forth, because it's a lot. If I could just do in Miami, for sure. I think it's fun.

I mean, I love filming. It's just that with me, I have my kids and my husband in Miami, and I'm the one who's traveling and commuting. Oh, of course. That's a lot. Yeah, in addition to your personal life, kids and my husband in miami and i'm the one who's traveling commuting and oh of course that's that's a lot yeah in addition to yeah you know your personal life plus your actual business this is like a it's related but it's kind of a separate thing yeah what's better money reality tv or real

estate oh real estate for sure i figured because you know here's what my i think I mean unless you go on for like 15 seasons like MDL which you get paid per season then you can do your book and all that stuff and all these endorsements I mean all of the reality show they don't last too many seasons so at some point it's stopped and then what do you do right so you have to think about more of the five minutes of fame yeah you volunteer with an organization that is very important to you called Push Pregnancy. Can you tell us more about this organization and why it's so important to you? Yeah. So I'm trying to get involved more with like stillbirth organizations, pregnancy loss, because unfortunately I experienced pregnancy loss and a stillbirth. You know, stillbirth is

not something common, but when you deliver a baby after 20 weeks you have to deliver the baby because it has to come out from somewhere and it's a very hard emotionally uh thing to do to handle mine was nine months my baby was 38 weeks which is terrible i'm so sorry wow pretty bad luck you know bad luck it was some cold compression from what i would understand something that's very rare but it happened to me and i had to deliver and that's so hard maya i'm so sorry yeah that's thank you my third baby and you know it's been seven months and it's still it's only this will always follow me and then following that i just had a miscarriage which the miscarriage is like early nine weeks, 10 weeks. So I'm like, okay, you know, the chromosomes didn't make it, whatever. That's a different story.

But because I'm so open since season one about my pregnancy loss and now the stillbirth, a lot of women message me. So I try to be as helpful as possible because I know how I, the Push Pregnancy helped me and other organizations to cope with my pain. So I'm trying to share and be involved as much as I can with pregnancy loss and stillbirth to other women because my inbox of my IG is full of messages from those women who experiences loss. So it's important for me if I can help somehow to other women. And frankly, it's helping myself

it's part of my healing process too selfishly so I'm sharing my stories on IG because it's not because I want people to feel sorry for me but knowing I'm not the only one it's kind of like helping me I mean we're big here, Financial Feminist HFK, of like talking about taboo things, right?

Money is very taboo. We're trying to make these topics less scary. And I think what you're doing is beautiful because a lot of people, especially women, they go through these experiences and they feel siloed, right? They feel like they feel very alone and they're grieving. And so I just really appreciate that, one, you've been very open about your experience. It makes everybody else feel less alone. And two, that, you know, you're connecting people with resources. And, of course, yeah, if that helps your grieving process, great. You know, that's amazing as well that you can help

and it helps you you know i share my stories and i have like over a million followers and most of them are women so i got a lot of messages from women who had the same story but those women necessarily don't have million followers so they're like wait i had a stillbirth like i never met someone with a stillbirth like so for me my platform allowed me to understand i'm not alone because i have all this exposure but those women don't realize how common it is more common than they think that they are not alone so i'm doing as much as i can to be involved they're probably more do ig lives here and there participate share links and and all that stuff to help women, you know,

with the grieving process and, you know, the whole process, basically. How can we, as listeners, help organizations and families who have gone through losses like yours? I think mostly donation, I would say. Push Pregn say push pregnancy you know it's a non-profit organization so donation just to you know they're doing a lot to support in terms of like help financially for families or you know psychology psychologists grief therapists all these things putting events together those things cost money. So I would say donation mostly, maybe just create awareness as well, spread the word. But that's the most important thing. So I would say probably donation. I mean, I'm doing another organization called Aliyah in Action. She sent me a box. It was a small,

nice box after my pregnancy loss with a grieving book, with like soft socks, with like some lavender smell. So very sweet stuff. When I opened the box, I'm like, wow, with like some lavender smell. So very sweet stuff. When I opened the box, I'm like, wow, how sweet. And she needs money because those boxes cost money. So it's called Aliyah in Action. So I donate myself.

We'll link both of them in the show notes. That's great. Yeah, thank you. You know, and it's also, by the way, for families who lose their child after, let's say, you know, you gave birth, you had a baby for two seeds, you know, your son or your baby all of a sudden died with Q1 Slater. It's also a very traumatic thing to experience.

So those organizations are out there to help people in need. Yeah, you've talked both about, you know, being able to connect with women in their grieving process of losing you know a child or miscarrying but also you know having women be inspired to be real estate agents or to get more involved for people listening who are inspired by your story what would you tell them to the women who lost pregnancy or just real estate agents? It's more like if somebody hears, you know, your experience, both professional or personal, and they feel inspired by you and want to take action just in general in their lives, like maybe they want to pursue a dream that they've had. Maybe they, you know, they're trying to be more open about something that's happened in their life like what advice do you have for them you know i said uh listen to what what listen to to yourself uh we never

but agree for for grief for instance everybody grief differently pregnancy loss it's nothing to be ashamed of it happens stillbirth unfortunately happens not as common but still happens it's no it's no one's fault uh In terms of career, I think always pursue your dreams. Be ambitious. Go for it. Don't be afraid to fail because nothing is perfect. And for me personally, I had bad moments too with rejections. And I try to really work on my mindset to brush the

rejections off and just move forward because yeah i had a client who rejected me but then i got a new client and for me personally with griefing and all that crazy stuff that i've been going through and i had like really back-to-back really like emotional like stuff going on i just have to keep pushing and be lucky and thankful for what I have. And also stay busy, work out, exercise, have a good glass of wine at night, you know, and I'm not pregnant, I can drink. So that helps me to move forward. And, you know, you have to really like, try to work on your mindset to be optimistic. I know it's hard. Amazing. Mayaa thank you

for your time this was such a lovely conversation thank you you're welcome thanks for having me and uh don't buy a condo yet wait for the market to crash that's the closing advice um where can people find you and connect with you oh sure it's the maya vander it's on ig i have a tiktok account which i love it it's yeah i don't i barely i mean active there because i feel like i need to be goofy and cool and i need to get there do whatever the fuck you want on tiktok it's so boring they're like oh real estate you want to buy you want to sell i'm like yeah but and i have linkedin if you are professional and i have an email maya mayavanda.com so you can find me on social media amazing thank you again for your time thank you so much have a good one thank you to my again for joining us

for today's episode we are so excited to share even more with you this month about money at home and we hope you'll stick around subscribe rate, rate, and leave us a review. You don't want to miss any of the episodes in this little mini series we're doing. As always, we've linked important resources from today's episode in our show notes, including links to Aaliyah in Action and Push Pregnancy. As always, we thank you for your support of the show. We couldn't do this without you. And we also couldn't get really high profile, amazing guests like Maya without y'all's support. So if you listen, if you rate, if you subscribe,

that helps us continue to not only, of course, produce the show, but to also get incredible guests on who are super informative and who are literally coming off of your television onto our podcast, which is absolutely amazing. So thank you as always for your support, Financial Feminists. We will see you soon. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K podcast. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap, produced by Kristen Fields, marketing and administration by Karina Patel, Olivia Koning, Sharice Wade, Alina Hilzer, Paulina Isaac, Sophia Cohen, Valerie Oresko, Jack Koning, and Ana Alexandra. Research by Arielle Johnson. Audio engineering by Austin Fields. Promotional

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