There’s a notion that to turn out to be a prime agent in L.A.’s ultra-competitive actual property market, one must have private connections. Referrals and networking are the muse of success. Or, as one wag not too long ago put it, “You might want to know wealthy individuals.”
However one agent, Tony Mariotti of Ruby Residence, breaks that mould. Final 12 months, he repped the consumers of a $17.5 million Malibu seaside home owned by Skrillex and represented Rock and Roll Corridor of Famer Joe Elliott of Def Leppard in his buy of a $2.3 million pied-a-terre in West Hollywood, as reported by Grime.
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Mariotti’s purchasers on these gross sales weren’t related to him by referral or phrase of mouth. They merely discovered him by means of his Ruby Residence web site, which Mariotti has shrewdly optimized to rank on web page one among Google Seek for a number of phrases. Kind in “luxurious houses Los Angeles” and Ruby Residence comes up because the fifth consequence. Kind “Chook Streets houses” or “Los Angeles penthouses” or “Trousdale Estates,” and Mariotti’s website ranks No. 1., forward of Zillow. In complete, Mariotti did $33 million in gross sales in Southern California in 2021, up from $5 million the 12 months earlier than.
Lauren Pressey
Mariotti leaned into his digital publishing background to nab these high-ranking outcomes, which in flip generate buyer leads and finally gross sales. “I’m accustomed to what digital publishers attempt to do to get eyeballs and advert impressions,” says the agent. “I form of took the publishing mentality into constructing Ruby Residence.”
To that finish, he began publishing weblog posts in regards to the structure and character of assorted neighborhoods round Los Angeles on Ruby Residence’s web site, alongside actual property listings. “I used to be considering if I can write about issues that I really like like structure neighborhoods and business — all three are inextricably certain particularly in L.A. — possibly individuals will present up and examine [for example] Carroll Avenue’s Victorian homes,” he says. “I form of constructed evergreen content material about neighborhoods. I’m attempting to outrank Zillow, Trulia and Redfin, which simply supply houses on the market.”
Mariotti, who grew up within the Pacific Northwest, launched Ruby Residence in 2017, and for the primary couple years of its existence, he didn’t even try and do any actual property offers, although he had obtained an actual property license. “It was actually nearly getting some first rate visitors. In 2019, I used to be getting possibly 20 or 30 individuals registering [on the website] monthly or making a displaying request. I used to be ignoring them. I wasn’t out promoting,” he says, including that he first obtained his actual property license merely to “get the feed of listings on my web site.”
Ultimately, individuals who signed up on the Ruby Residence web site started reaching out to Mariotti about shopping for houses. “I had wives of well-known individuals, well-known individuals themselves texting me together with Tommy Lee,” says Mariotti (although no transactions ended up occurring with the Mötley Crüe rocker.)
His first sale occurred in 2019. It was, he says, “an accident.”
“I answered my telephone at 9 o’clock one evening. It was a lady searching for a house in Beachwood Canyon. She was focused on bushes and an enormous yard. I mentioned it is best to have a look at Outpost Estates. Two weeks later, she purchased a $2.8 million dwelling.” (Mariotti was then working as an actual property agent by means of the brokerage United Actual Property. “They’re a flat payment brokerage,” says Mariotti, a distinction to many actual property brokerage, which takes a set share of agent’s commissions.)
Lauren Pressey
His largest sale up to now was representing the consumers of Skrillex’s Malibu seaside home, who, sure, found Mariotti by means of a web-based search. “They discovered us, and so they registered on the web site. They have been abroad purchasers from Australia who invested in luxurious properties across the globe. They have been staying at Shutters and have been right here for every week and wished to have a look at houses in Malibu. They mentioned, ‘Our price range is $20 million.’ OK, let’s go,” remembers Mariotti.
Final November, Mariotti took his enterprise one step additional. He arrange Ruby Residence as a brokerage and now counts two different brokers, Judy Lin Younger and Beata Mandell, as a part of his crew. (Younger joined in the summertime of 2020, whereas Mandell “approached me to affix RubyHome — out of the blue — after repeatedly seeing Ruby Residence present up in search engine outcomes pages,” he says.)
Altogether Mariotti, who additionally sells within the Pacific Northwest, did $40 million in gross sales in 2021. And whereas that doesn’t put him into the higher echelons of L.A.’s top-selling brokers — Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker, for example, did $471 million in gross sales final 12 months, topping Actual Developments’ California rankings — Mariotti speaks with stunned delight at promoting a celeb seaside home for practically $20 million.
“I didn’t see that coming. When you instructed me 5 years in the past, ‘Hey you’re going to try this,’ I wouldn’t have believed you.”
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