The luxury property mogul who sold the Playboy Mansion was born with a terminal blood disease.
Mauricio Umansky, founder of The Agency in the US and star of Netflix’s Buying Beverly Hills, delivered a masterclass in obsession to hundreds of Australian real estate agents at the Australasian Real Estate Conference.
His central message cut through the industry’s comfortable mediocrity: stop being average.
“One percent of real estate agents are great at their craft,” Mauricio said.
“The other one percent, those people are excellent. That’s what you wanna do. You wanna get to that 1%.”
The Beverly Hills-based agent, who has sold properties to Michael Jordan and Lady Gaga, traced his relentless drive to a childhood lottery ticket most would never want to win.
Born in Mexico City with a blind right eye and a terminal blood condition, Mauricio survived against odds of one in fifty thousand.
“At six years old, I won the lottery,” he told the packed conference hall.
“And it allowed me to enjoy life and be grateful for life, for being alive, for having a heartbeat.”
That early brush with mortality shaped his approach to real estate—a sport, he insists, not just a job.
After dropping out of college and starting in textile sales, Umansky pivoted to property in 1996.
His first year netted $183,000.
He made himself a promise: never have a worse year than the previous one.
By 2007-2008, he ranked as America’s third-highest agent and California’s number one, selling $653 million without a team.
The secret,Mauricio argued, lies in “obsessive” preparation.
When pitching for a $100 million Los Angeles listing, he arrived with five specific buyer names and a detailed sales strategy.
“I went in on that pitch, and I gave them five names of people that were going buy the house,” Mauricio said.
“I sold it to the first person that was on my list.”
But knowledge alone isn’t enough.
Mauricio emphasised the art of listening over talking—a lesson he demonstrated with an unnamed celebrity client backstage at a concert.
After hearing her specific requirements for a paparazzi-proof oceanside property with space for livestock, he pulled up one house on his phone.
She bought it.
“What’s going make you excellent is when you know all of the inventory that is for sale.”
With so many agents struggling to build sustainable businesses, his message resonated: excellence demands obsession.
His daily routine reflects this philosophy.
He hasn’t used an alarm clock in twenty years, waking naturally with excitement for each day’s challenges.
The mindset extends beyond sales technique to lifestyle balance.
When working with family—his daughter Farrah now sells over $300 million annually—Umansky enforces strict boundaries.
“Don’t bring work home,” he advised agents juggling family dynamics.
“Keep working at work, keep home at home.”
For Australia’s real estate professionals facing rising interest rates and cooling markets, Mauricio’s blueprint offers a path through uncertainty.
The industry’s top performers don’t just survive market cycles—they use knowledge, curiosity, and relentless preparation to thrive regardless of conditions.
His final challenge to the room was simple: treat selling as a sport requiring daily training, not a job requiring occasional effort.
In an era where AI and online platforms threaten traditional agent value, Mauricio’s message feels both urgent and timeless.
Clients have unprecedented access to information, making deep expertise the ultimate differentiator.
The agents who embrace obsession—with knowledge, service, and continuous improvement—will claim their place in that coveted 1%.
The rest will remain statistics in someone else’s success story.
