Welcome to another episode of our series SOC Meetups by Superlogs Regroup, where we connect with some of the most interesting players in the Luxury Market. My name is Alvaro, and today will be happy with us a very special guest. Her name is Gina Michelle, and she is the Luxury Real Estate Agent at the Agency, In Los Angeles and Calabasas. She is a top producing real estate broker and designer with over 200 million sold in real estate, as well as ranked in the top 1.5% of real estate nation.
In this conversation, Gina will be talking about the current market in LA and how technology helps her adapt throughout this time. She also shares some insightful tips and motivation on her power routine. I hope you enjoy it. Hey, Gina, how are you?
Good morning, how are you? Good afternoon, good afternoon here, good morning for you. How is everything in California? You know, it's a little windy here today, and we still have COVID, but it's not as good.
I love the background, by the way. I'm very interested. This is trying to keep it interesting. Coming from you, there is no other way.
I mean, you're an amazing real estate broker, but also you have a background in design, renovation. So everything that you do is upscaled and to the next level. So very excited to have you here today. Likewise, thank you for having me.
Very nice. So I was making a quick intro about yourself. I mean, obviously, numbers speak by themselves. You've been ranked number one in the 1% of top real estate agents nationwide.
You're being featured everywhere. I mean, sold over 200 million worth of real estate. So my question for you will be, how do you make that happen? What's the formula?
I believe there's no substitution for hard work, right? And you know, as well as I do, that real estate on its base appears to be an easy sort of gig in the beginning. But it's really a hassle. It's a long time of day in, day out, making goals, and then making sure you're setting those production goals.
What's the story behind because you didn't start doing real estate? You were doing design renovation. So what was your story? How did you get to where you are today?
I actually, I got my first, I have a theater degree. So I thought I was going to progress. I came to be an activist, like everybody else. And then I woke up one day and kind of figured out that maybe that wasn't the direction I wanted to take ultimately with my career.
I got my real estate license, just to facilitate investment. But I just started an investment. I started buying and flipping. And I got our real estate license, just to facilitate flipping deals of my own.
I did not want to be a third agent. Actually, the thing against it, I thought like, I was going to be like an old lady on a bench file. It's like with the hair. And it was just so not my style.
I'm not going to put myself. But after I got my license, I moved into a loan office and I ran a large financial loan office for several years with my husband and other partner. And after that, I kind of segwayed into flipping renovation, design, and teaching other people how to renovate their homes so that they can maximize the value on their own. I think that's a good journey because you are now adding all those elements into maximizing topics, folks, for property owners that want to sell the properties at the highest price.
Plus also the ones that are purchasing those homes, you have the insight on what would you suggest to make the best out of the property. So it's incredible to add all those elements. That's a lot of value working with you. And I wanted to actually showcase one of the properties that you currently have listed.
Oh, this picture doesn't show very nice, but it's a $9 million home in Mamadook. And let me just pull this picture right here. I mean, it's a beautiful home. And it's very interesting every element that comes with it.
Tell us a little bit about this property. So this is my absolute favorite listing right now. And the reason is, is that it is so incredibly custom. It's setting a new standard.
This isn't in Cino, so in Cino, California. And it's setting a new standard for a new construction. It has an immense amount of woodwork that was all hand-milled on site and a really wide variety of imported materials that just really make it a super sophisticated product. It has Japanese shiichi bong colliding.
If you look at the black that you're seeing there, that black wood, every detail was particularly crafted with a luxury client in mind. But it's just a really cool, unique, and very special product. It will be the one word for this property. It is a one word tool.
It's magical. And the reason I say this is, it does give you the feel as though you've left Los Angeles for just a minute. And you stepped into, it sort of has a big bear, meets the mountains. All 28,000 feet of the lot is fully utilized.
So it just really feels like you left off Los Angeles for just a minute, as you can tear out the beautiful views, oak trees all over the property, and really incredible product. And also inside, it has, you can breathe inside, it has like that wooden floor. It's all well done in a way that it's cozy, but at the same time modern and luxury. So it's a good combination of elements.
Yeah, the wood gives it a lot of warmth, and there's woodwork all over the house. With this property, and with everything that we're currently facing, with the pandemic, still in 2021, lockdown, how have you seen this impacting the real state, especially the luxury market in your area? It's quite interesting. When lockdown here first happens about, you know, we're at last March, we felt a lot of everybody felt like we asked where they had the markets sort of tanked, the soft market tank.
And there were so many speculations as to what was going to happen with our market was this going to be the thing that kind of drove our market down because if you study us, we've been flying pretty high for several years. So was this going to be the thing that kind of took the air out of the market? What happened was quite opposite. So now that people are spending more and more time in their homes, they are valuing space and their homes more than ever.
We're seeing a push out of smaller spaces, out of city spaces, into places like the Valley and Cino, Calabasas, where they can get more like cool yard, extra guest house. These are the things that are driving people's, the buying it's not happening all over. For you personally, when it comes to your business, what's been the biggest challenge? Oh man, there's so many challenges.
It's a combination of, you know, when we first started selling in COVID, now you have a whole other way to sell house it, right? You have to cater to that. Everybody feels comfortable making sure that you're safe and selling houses in a pandemic, which is a completely different thing. So Gina, how have you been leveraging technology?
Because obviously you said it right. We're currently doing real estate in a very different way. So how has technology helped you or put you into the position of marketing the homes in a better way? I think over the last few years, real estate agents, especially top producing real estate agents, have become particularly followed, right?
There are more people following real estate because real estate is sexy. Bloody real estate is fun. It's sexy. There's a lot that shows about it.
So people want to follow it. And that has made it so that if you are marketing properly for your social media channels, you can stay in front of the audience, even independent, right? Made us know that we can sell real estate based on our social media. We can really do walkthroughs.
My partner and I do social media walkthroughs for every listing we have. We see people watching, watching those live walkthroughs, and it's made us see that we can really do this from a virtual perspective. Right. Now that's interesting.
And look, I agree with you. It's very important to leverage that exposure to social media and obviously through events. But now we had to have to adapt and do the best we can, which eventually will come back to that stage. But for now, I think that it's also pushing a lot of individuals in this industry to get out of their comfort zone because before social media was something that not everybody was getting into, now that it's all the way around.
You either are in or you're out of the game. If you're in the luxury of agent space and you're not into your social media, I don't see how you're going to make it a listen to. How important is for you also personal branding? Personal branding?
Yes. I think it's very important. I am fortunate enough to be part of a company that is a luxury brand that is a very good job of pushing us as agents anyway. Beyond that, we want to make sure that we are catering to our audience that's following us.
So my partner and I do make sure that we are promoting ourselves as we promote our agency brand. Very good. And one thing that I really like to ask while we're in this conversation, I mean, you've been doing it all when it comes to luxury from design, renovation, selling, real estate. But what really is luxury to you?
Luxury to me is the ability to be comfortable. If it is, and whatever that is to you, right? So the ability to be comfortable, not to have stress or worry, just to know that it's a luxury to be able to wake up every day and know that you're good. That's a good answer.
I haven't heard that one and I ask it a lot. So being able to have the luxury of being comfortable, that's good. That's good. So with that being said, we're facing a time where a lot of people feel a little bit down, uncertain on what's going to happen next.
So it's always nice to hear somebody like you that stays uplifted, positive, crushing the goals and numbers. Also, you have a family. So I think you're a little bit of a huge inspiration for many. What is it that excites you in the morning?
What makes you wake up and be like, let's go. I don't know to be perfectly honest. There is something that is, and it's been there my whole life. There's something that's there that's excited about the day every single day.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be worthwhile, though most of the time I'm out there to get it and to win it. But I like moving forward in whatever that is. If it's fitness, I like moving forward. If it's bull setting, I like moving forward.
I like moving forward. I don't like staying stagnant to me. That is the worst thing. So I like to get up and know that I'm going to crush it in whatever it is that I said that day.
And if that means being a great mom, then that's what I'm doing. I want to really crush it, doing being a mom. But always move. Yeah, you move or you die.
Let's go. I like that. That's true. A lot of people get paralyzed these days.
You know what to do or direction to go? Just move. I agree with you. So that's a good one.
Any book or any role model that have shifted your mindset into a positive one? You know, I really, I've read a ton, right? So there, you know, all the big ones that I continue to read, I really like becoming super natural. I really like putting your headspace and creating your space.
I really believe in that. I really believe that you are creating your own manifestation of where your life is going. And I, in my personal day to day life, I have, you know, I have so many mentors, friends and mentors, guys and girls who are doing much more than I am. And it's always so amazing to be able to rep shoulders with and associate with people who are so incredibly good at their craft that you kind of look at that and say like, if they can do it, like, you know, I know what I can get there too.
Very nice. Well, thank you so much. I mean, for sharing all of that, I think it's been a refreshing conversation to learn about what is going on in real estate, down where you are plus also inspiration to get that uplifted, you know, motivation to move forward throughout this crazyness. If I were to say anything to anyone right now, it's a, it's a, right now the world is weird, right?
It's a weird world. We need to get sucked into all the negativity that's curling on the news. When you even talk to other people right now, sometimes I'll, you know, I pick up the phone all year, a little bit of negative, right? Be the light, be the person that is awesome, be the person that's going to get through it because this will end.
And because it is our job, I believe, to inspire others as we're going through. Beautiful. Well said. I think that's the right way to put it right here in your mind.
So thank you for sharing that. Now, Gina, if they want to reach out to you to learn more about what is going on with real estate or they want to purchase a home with you or sell, where can they find you best? I have the contact info, but it's too zoomed in. So maybe you can just.
There's my head. Rejection on Instagram at the real Gina Michelle and all my content information is there. Beautiful. So we'll put also everything on the comments and the captions so that everybody can reach out to you.
I mean, Gina, it's unbelievable. So totally recommended for anything that you need. As you can see, you are also uplifting, which is very important nowadays. You want to work with somebody that not only is knowledgeable and has the experience, but also brings you that energy, you know, that is the light.
So very, very happy to have you here today. I look forward to seeing you here, Miami, because I know you had in mind to eventually do that move. So I'll be waiting for you here. And you know, you have a friend here happy to to see you to work with you.
And if not, also to meet you somewhere in California. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. I remember embrace it beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.