EXCLUSIVE: ‘Selling the OC’ Stars Reveal What It’s Really Like to Work with Famous Clients — and the Efforts They Go to to Keep Them Happy
The cast members of the hit Netflix series ‘Selling the OC’ are stars in their own right, but in their work they are often at the beck and call of some very big celebrities and other big clients, who often come with some pretty big demands.
Season 4 of the show, which debuted in November, features a luxury real estate agent Kaylee Ricciardi reveals she’s working with a celebrity buyer, music producer and DJ, Diplomawho helped him find a private retreat in Southern California where he can both retreat and record music.
The 35-year-old member of The Oppenheim Group explains that she “first met Diplo at Burning Man about 12 years ago” and “got to know him really well” while hanging out with him and his group of friends over the years.
During that same period, Ricciardi built a reputation in the real estate industry by specializing in high-quality short-term rentals for clients attending popular music festivals.
“I started renting out luxury vacation rentals at Coachella, and that led to me getting my driver’s license about five years ago now,” she explains. “This niche has allowed me to create a network from celebrities to the biggest CEOs in the world.”
Diplo, with whom music was made Beyonce, Justin BieberAnd Madonnais one of Ricciardi’s best-known clients; However, the Newport Beach agent hopes to represent more famous faces in the future.
“My goal is to get more high-profile clients,” she says.
Although Diplo didn’t ultimately purchase the $13 million Malibu mansion he toured with Ricciardi, he’s still working with her to find the perfect property.
“We are still actively looking,” Ricciardi revealed to Realtor.com®. “He has very specific needs, including a desire to have an ADU that he can convert into a studio.
“He is also looking for something similar to his estate in Pompeii, Jamaica: a place where he can live whenever he wants, rent to select clients and use as a creative space. We are just focused on finding the perfect match for him.”
During her scene with Diplo in “Selling the OC,” Ricciardi admits that working with her friend made the whole house tour process “so much more fun than usual,” because it turns out that many of her high-end clients tend to have unrealistically high expectations of what she can and should deliver.
“In my experience, the needs are sometimes a bit ridiculous, especially when it comes to rentals,” she says.
“If someone pays an exorbitant amount (they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for, say, a four-day rental), I literally get a call at 4 in the morning saying, ‘There’s something in the vent. You need to come over here now and get it out.’
“And I thought, ‘Okay, what could it be?’ They say, ‘It’s asbestos.’ I’m like, ‘The house was built in 2000, there’s no asbestos in it legally,’ but I’ll go there.
“I climbed a ladder at four in the morning, half asleep with one eye open, took out a down ball and threw it away.”
While these late-night home visits are not necessarily an emergency, Ricciardi recognizes that they are necessary to respond to ensure clients feel well cared for.
“Things like that happen a lot, and I just have to accept it and swallow it,” she admits. “It is what it is. I’m grateful to have them as a customer, so I’ll just shut up and move on.”
Ricciardi’s costars have also had some difficult clients to deal with.
Fellow star of ‘Selling the OC’ Polly Brindle She has endured her fair share of “drama” when handling transactions, adding that it’s not just luxury buyers and sellers that can be difficult to deal with, but other real estate agents as well.
“It’s dog-eat-dog, and unfortunately you’re going to have to deal with some big personalities that you have to navigate through and sometimes there’s drama with different personalities and the competition that comes with luxury real estate,” she says.
As one of Netflix’s most popular real estate-related reality TV series, the episodes of ‘Selling the OC’ are packed with office politics and personal clashes between the cast members. As a result, a show star Brandi Marshall explains that the real ups and downs of selling multi-million dollar properties can sometimes be overlooked.
“We don’t just come across an advertisement, [clients] I like to write an offer,” says Marshall. “It usually doesn’t work that way.
“We show and show and show and show and show until we are often blue in the face, and Than it’s time to make an offer… but for the sake of TV they have to shorten that a bit.’
Real estate agent and ‘Selling the OC’ personality Gio Helou reinforces Marshall’s point by saying he showed a Newport Beach property “40 times” before an offer was made.
While cast members “wish people would see that part of the real estate process on the show,” they are happy that the over-the-top properties they represent are prominently showcased because they too are fascinated by all the unique features.
‘Selling the OC’ star Alex Hallwho won an intra-office competition to list O Group boss Jason Oppenheim’s stunning $15 million estate in Newport Beach, CA, points to the extraordinary property details that continue to capture her attention.
“Some homes have cool features, but the wow factor for me is the unique location, proximity to the beach or the home itself and where it is located,” says Hall.
“Like a view or someone who has a pool that’s right above a cliff, where you never see a pool that close to the beach, or in that particular neighborhood, the properties here in southern Orange County have a unique character in that way versus a feature of the house.”
Show newcomer, Astyn Zerbonitalks about an “absolutely insane” map that recently amazed her.
‘I recently saw a house with many secret paths where, for example, you open the bookshelf and then it leads to a secret place. [pathway].
“[There] Below this house was an underground shooting range that led out the back in case you needed an escape route.”
Meanwhile, Ricciardi reports that the most impressive design element she’s encountered is a cold plunge pool completely exposed to the elements.
“There’s a house in the desert with a cold dip,” she explains. “There’s no lid on it or anything. It’s just open air.”
“The average temperature [in the desert] is like 100 degrees,” she adds. “A cold plunge that works 24/7 at 35 degrees, no matter what… is incredible.”
As Ricciardi continues the search for Diplo’s ideal home, it looks like she and her fellow “Selling the OC” stars continue to amass a list of properties with A-list amenities that will satisfy even the pickiest VIP.
