FORBES – The Altman Brothers: How They Sold $200 Million In Real Estate

The Altman Brothers, Josh and Matt, have been dominating luxury real estate in LA’s most exclusive, posh communities since joining the prestigious Hilton & Hyland firm seven years ago – each conducting an average of $40+ million in sales each year.

In 2011, Josh joined the cast of Bravo’s hit real estate series, Million Dollar Listing LA, for the shows 4th season. For the new season, Bravo decided to introduce Josh’s mirror-image brother, Matt.

In this interview, they talk about the show, how they are able to work together on major real estate deals, how they manage their TV presence and more.

How competitive are you with your brother and how will his entry into the show impact how you go about your business?

My brother and I have a relationship that is unbreakable. Like most siblings when we were younger we always fought…As we grew up and we realized how important family was, we became the best of friends. We’ve been working with each other one way or another our whole lives. We understand how to work best together and what each other’s strengths and weaknesses are. As a team we worked better than anyone and are unstoppable. There’s a level of trust and in real estate and it’s vital to be able to work and trust a partner. There’s no way one of us could manage the volume alone, working together offers both us and our clients a huge advantage and we pride ourselves on being available 24-7. As far as competition goes, we are always competing, but like all great athletes we work best when we have great competition.

What are you most looking forward to this season and how will it be different than the last one?

I’m looking forward to viewers getting to see how hot the LA market is right now. The past few seasons have been filmed while the market was slow and in a slump. This season it’s out of control. It seems that with rates as low as they are, anything that is reasonably priced flies off the shelf. We love the game of real estate and as we all know cash is king. In order to get most steals in this market, you have to able and willing to make fast moves and close in a shorter time. Also, a lot of this season focuses on all of our personal lives and relationships. From my relationship with my girlfriend Heather (Madison’s former assistant) to partnering up with my brother and starting The Altman Brothers. Lastly, Bravo’s new Play Live feature allows viewers to interact with the show for the first time, and is a wonderful new addition that should be interesting to watch play out.

How exaggerated is your Bravo show from your business off air? Do you have to behave a certain way on TV and does that image push away prospective clients?

Great question and one that I get all the time. The answer is simple…Not exaggerated at all. From day one of taping 3 years ago, I’ve been myself. Good news for me is that the show is about my business, so I just ignore the cameras and do what I do best, and that’s close deals. The difference between our realty show and others, is that our show consists of real business and real life deals…if we look bad on the show it can really affect our business. I like it because it always keeps me on my toes and also because it makes me think twice before doing anything, and in real estate that is incredibly important.

As far as prospective clients go, we specialize in high net worth and celebrity clientele, this is something my brother Matt is very familiar with due to his past involvement at Creative Artist Agency (CAA), one of the largest and most successful talent agencies in the world. You have to realize we do about 150 sales a year and only tape about 10-12 of them, so unless a particular client asks us to be on the show, we never really even bring it up. The huge advantage of the show is that we are now some of the most recognizable real estate agents in the world. We could not be more fortunate and appreciative for the opportunity our production company World of Wonder and Bravo have given us.

What is the hardest part about your profession and what is the easiest?

Hardest part is that it never stops. It’s a lifestyle job. I can’t even think about a vacation because when I do take that rare time off, I find that I’m just working twice as hard. It seems that technology offers many advantages but vacations are not one of them. I’m on the phone all day long and when I’m away it seems as though I always have some huge deal that drives Heather and my family nuts. The easiest part is that I love what I do, so what most agents consider work, I consider play. I would do this job for free as it’s my passion…But, I also have a passion for making money and having success. I’m up before any other agents I know, and I am still at the office by the time they go home.

I come from a family where hard work is bred into us and in order to feel good I make sure I give it my all. I think the one thing I have to work on is appreciating the moment, and enjoying the feeling of closing some of these huge deals. This is tough for me because I often have a few things in the pipeline at the same time, so I never get to stop and fully enjoy that one because another needs my full attention.

Source: Forbes , August 06, 2013