Kriti Mehrotra
With Netflix’s ‘Buying Beverly Hills‘ living up to its title by having a billion-dollar brokerage called The Agency right at its front and center, we get a true insight into the world of luxury real estate. After all, it elucidates the fact closing deals on high-end properties isn’t everything — maintaining a channel of communication to ensure both client as well as agent satisfaction is just as crucial. So, since Founder-CEO Mauricio Umansky did agree to look into hiring a Director of Operations for the same internally toward the end of season 1, let’s find out if it went through or not, shall we?
Has The Agency Hired a Director of Operations?
Although there is no Chief Director of Operations at The Agency as of writing, the truth is the thriving firm is gradually evolving to include more and more administrators in its employee roster. The HQ in Beverly Hills has Ricardo Beer (formerly Director of Franchise Operations) as Vice President of Franchise Sales (West), Tara Scholl-Gettles as Senior Vice President of Franchise Operations, and Jaron Robbins as Operations Director for the Grauman-Rosenfeld Group in particular, along with a few additional recent hires. Plus, from what we can tell, other branches are also actively taking in qualified individuals to fill senior management roles.
This intense process of recruiting apparently kickstarted once Mauricio realized there was no way he could manage everything while also being in the field, especially considering the company’s growth. There’s also the fact two of his trusted senior agents, Ben Belack and his eldest daughter Farrah Brittany Aldjufrie, made it known (either directly or indirectly) that they felt unappreciated and were dissatisfied with the commission split percentage. According to the Netflix original, they were both genuinely considering parting ways with The Agency for good despite the personal connections if nothing improved, and it looks like Mauricio came through.
It was actually Farrah who opened up to her stepfather before suggesting that maybe bringing somebody else into the business would be the right decision — an idea he was thankfully very receptive to. They all simply wanted their work relationship to feel 50/50 rather than one taking advantage of the other, even if they were boss and agent, so Mauricio did his best to listen and then made his decisions. Though, of course, the primary thing on his mind was always figuring out a proper plan on how to move the organization forward and grow its overall revenue for everyone’s benefit.
“Sometimes I get frustrated, and sometimes I feel I’m on my own, and just feel like, would it be easier for me to leave?” Farrah conceded to Mauricio in the show. “We [all the brokers] realize that you’re so busy doing what you do best; that you’re growing The Agency. You’re the top agent in the country. And so we want to be the last people to say, ‘Hey, we need – -‘… to be bothering you… And I think one of the things we can do to solve that problem would be to hire a Director of Operations… We just want the best for all of us.”
To this, Mauricio actually replied, “Look, I’m glad that you guys are wanting to have this conversation because that means you want it, and you give a sh*t, and you care. But you guys have to understand that it’s a salary that would be coming out of the commissions of the team, not of the Agency, right? As long as you understand that, it makes all the sense in the world to me because I have way too much going on, and if somebody can look at that, I have no problem with that. I think it’s a brilliant idea. I love it.” After all, there’s only one CEO, but The Agency has offices across 6 countries, with over 1,500 agents in total.
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