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From Copenhagen Tennis Pro to Top LA Real Estate Agent: Meet The Agency’s Peter Mac
Selling luxury homes with multi-million dollar price tags is no easy feat, especially in Los Angeles, CA. Home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Venice Beach and luxurious addresses spanning Beverly Hills, the Pacific Palisades and Bel Air, being a top agent in such a competitive market takes a keen understanding of financial markets, seasoned selling skills, ceaseless dedication to providing extraordinary customer service, as well as dedication and a bit of charisma– all attributes that The Agency’s Peter Mac has in spades.
“In terms of brokering deals, I just love being able to work with so many different people, figuring out what actually makes them happy, and then helping them to fulfill their goal and get their dream house,” says Peter Mac.
Recently named by Real Trends as a Top Agent in the Country, Peter has been integral to selling numerous high profile properties, such as Spiderman’s former Los Angeles home, the prestigious Palihouse Hotel in West Hollywood, and the highest selling home in history in Studio City for 11 million; but these are only the tip of the iceberg. Back in 2015, and relatively new to Los Angeles, Peter made a huge mark in the industry when he broke the record for the selling price for square foot on the Pacific Palisades’ coveted ABC Street.
“I always think outside the box to essentially get the best deal done for my clients. I love to find good deals,” admits Peter. “I have a lot of repeat clients that come back to me because they know and feel I will go the extra mile just to get them a minimum of five or ten thousand dollars extra if I can see an angle to do that.”
Having been in LA for a little over a decade now, Peter has sold countless properties across the city’s most sought after areas, including Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood and Hancock Park.
With real estate agents in LA being a dime a dozen, and countless of those being originally from the city, standing out to new clients is not easy, but Peter has more than just a few aces up his sleeve. Aside from having an MBA in finance and economics, and a strong understanding of changing markets, Peter is no stranger to hard work, something that is easy to see from his previous career as a professional tennis player.
“When I was playing tennis I was not one of these wonder kids that had the best talent or the one that everyone thought was going to make it pro, I just worked harder than everyone else. When other kids would get picked up by their parents to go home for dinner, I ran home to get the extra exercise, when people were going to the movies I went to the wall and would start hitting balls by myself,” Peter explains.
“At a very young age, I just knew that I had to with harder than everyone else to reach that level, so once I got injured and I couldn’t play tennis anymore, I took the same formula into real estate, and I knew that if I worked harder than everyone else, I would become successful.”
Upon transitioning to Los Angeles, Peter quickly got to work studying the multiple listing service (MLS) on a daily basis. He would focus on one area of the city for an extended period of time, studying everything that had traded and everything that was on the market, and then he’d move onto another area, until finally, he knew the ins and outs of the entire LA housing market.
He says, “I also spent a lot of hours with architects, contractors, and consultants from the city, doing a lot of research and asking a lot of questions all of the time, when I wouldn’t understand something I would keep asking questions until I understood it.”
However, long before moving to LA, Peter had already established a strong understanding and gained a lot of experience in real estate, in fact, it was a part of his life from a very early age, and becoming an agent was quite a natural progression for him.
“I remember my mom used to buy a bunch of properties on auction when I was young, and she would always take me along when she needed to view them,” recalls Peter. “During the last semester of my MBA we were required to have a full time job in a similar field, so at that point, I asked my older sister for a job at her real estate brokerage.”
Peter made it to the top of the leaderboard after working as an agent at his sister’s firm for only one year. His quick success actually caused some office tension, as the other agents thought his sister was giving him leads, which wasn’t the case at all. Forced to disclose his secrets to the rest of the firm, he explained that because all of the leads came into a common email that could only be opened at the office, he would go into the office at 4 a.m. and get to work before everyone else.
“My sister demanded that everyone meet the following Monday at 4 a.m. so they could see what I was doing,” says Peter laughingly. “They were all in shock and said okay, this kid is hungry, he deserves it.”
After finishing his MBA and finding record breaking success at his sister’s firm, Peter branched out and opened his own brokerage, Peter Mac RFE. With a big vision fueling him forward, Peter hired an assistant and a full time sales agent, and rented a storefront in the most expensive part of Copenhagen
“Everyone told me I was crazy to start with so much overhead, but I learned at a very young age it takes money to make money. So in essence I went all in. I clearly didn’t sleep the first four months because money was flying out and I didn’t get any in,” Peter recalls. “After four months I clawed my way to get a few deals through and then it kinda just rolled through like a domino effect. We just needed one success story.”
Two years after opening Peter Mac RFE, Peter’s brokerage became the number 3 top selling brokerage in Copenhagen. There’s no question that when Peter puts his mind to something, it is going to be a success.
Today Peter works for The Agency, a tech-driven boutique luxury brokerage, which has closed more than $45 billion in real estate transactions since 2011, and has 60 offices spanning six countries. Founded by Mauricio Umansky, The Agency recently became the exclusive partner of sales and distribution for Sonhaus, which is a current leader in selling luxury secondary homes, a new market that allows buyers to have fractional ownership of a second home at a fraction of the cost.
“I’ve known Mauricio Umansky for some years and we have become good friends,” says Peter. “It’s fun to have someone so successful to look up to. And it’s fun to be in the same office with a lot of top producers in LA.”
Aside from putting his negotiation tactics and financial genius to work, there’s another area of real estate that Peter excels in– matchmaking. For Peter, matchmaking is all about knowing the needs of the client, and equally as important, the attributes of each and every area in LA that can provide what the client wants.
“A matchmaker is basically the definition of a good real estate agent,” admits Peter. “If you have a family that has a $3 million budget and they want to live in prime Beverly Hills, they can’t do that, so you have to find an area that has everything similar to Beverly Hills, but has the house that they need for $3 million, that is the matchmaking.
One A brilliant example of Peter’s matchmaking skills took place on ABC Street in the Pacific Palisades when a broker called him with an eye-catching, but challenging plot of land that he couldn’t pass up. With ready to issue plans approved by the city for two homes to be built on the land, Peter went to work in search of two buyers to join forces on the project, with each needing to put in 2.25 million for their portion of the land, and an additional 2.5 million each to build the individual homes.
“The challenging part here was you had to find either one buyer who wanted to build two homes and had the capital for that, or you had to find two buyers that would work together and build a home each,” Peter explains. “I ended up bringing my general contractor, the developer, to buy one of them, and I had another investor buy the second one, and I actually matchmade them where the investor then hired the developer to build his home as well.”
An even greater testament to Peter’s role in this match, is the fact that neither the investor or the developer had considered looking anywhere other than the Hollywood Hills for property– that is, until Peter showed them the light. All in all the project was a huge and relatively quick success, with the developer and the investor walking away with a $2 million profit each.
A true gem, Peter Mac has proven time and time again that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible; and his willingness to go the distance has helped countless families find their dream home.
“Peter is hands down the best real estate agent I’ve had the pleasure to work with. He understands the Greater Los Angeles market, in particular the Hollywood Hills area and takes time to understand your wants and needs in finding your dream home,” explains Mari, a client Peter helped find a home. “What separates him from the competition is his work ethic, tenacity and relationship building with you as the client and his fellow agents in the market.”
