Trading Secrets - 263. Mary Bonnet: Selling Sunset star breaks down the unseen side of season 9, navigating the luxury real estate industry, overcoming dark moments, and the art of resilience

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

This week, Jason is joined by luxury real estate expert and Selling Sunset star, Mary Bonnet! As one of the faces of the Netflix show, she is a VP, a senior agent at the Oppenheim Group with over 15 years of real estate experience. Mary has built a powerful career at the intersection of television and personal branding. Beyond the stunning properties and glamorous show, Mary’s story is about independence, strength, business growth, and credibility, how she used a massive global platform to amplify her professional brand, attract high-end clients, and expand her influence in an ultra competitive industry.  Mary breaks down her take on Season 9 and how editing shapes the reality viewers think they’re seeing. She opens up about making it clear to production that she refused to be blindsided, and why being financially smart has been a priority throughout her career. Mary also shares the importance of presenting yourself well in the luxury real estate market, the real behind-the-scenes of what the job actually looks like, and the terrifying experience of being robbed during the wildfires—losing $250K in jewelry and only receiving $1,500 back. She dives into the migration out of LA and how that shift is reshaping her business, what she sold in her first year, her perspective on prenups, and how going into business with an ex impacted her credit. Mary reflects on what she’d do differently, how she defines luxury real estate, and the extensive due diligence required to verify buyer funds. Plus, she shares the story behind her biggest real estate deal, the first time she ever yelled at a client, and her best advice for buyers entering today’s market. Mary reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss! Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: John Gurney Guest: Mary Bonnet Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group  All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals & Deals! Rula:  No waitlists, no frustrating back-and-forth.Rula makes it easy to find a mental health provider who is accepting new patients, and appointments are available as soon as tomorrow. Plus, Rula sticks with you throughout your journey, checking in to make sure your care is helping you move forward. Go to Rula.com/tradingsecrets to get started today. Quince: Cold mornings, holiday plans—this is when I just want my wardrobe to be simple. Stuff that looks sharp, feels good, and things lil actually wear. For me, that's Quince. And the bonus? Quince pieces make great gifts, too. Give and get timeless holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to Quince.com/tradingsecrets for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Nutrafol: See thicker, stronger, faster-growing hair with less shedding in just 3-6 months with Nutrafol. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code TRADINGSECRETS. Booking.com: If your vacation rental isn't listed on Booking.com, it could be invisible to millions of travelers searching the platform. Don't miss out on consistent bookings and global reach. Head over to Booking.com and start your listing today. Get Seen. Get Booked on Booking.com

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by luxury real estate expert in selling sunset star Mary Bonae is one of the faces of the Netflix show. She is a VP, a senior agent at the Oppenheim Group with over 15. years of real estate experience. Mary has built a powerful career at the intersection of television and personal branding. Beyond the stunning properties and glamorous show, Mary's story is about independence, strength, business growth, and credibility, how she used a massive global platform to amplify her professional brand, attract high-end clients, and expand her influence in an ultra-competitive industry. Fresh off season nine, today we will dive into the business behind

reality TV, the ins and outs of luxury real estate and how Mary turned exposure into an enterprise. We've had Jason on the podcast. I think we've had Michelle on the podcast. Mary, we are so excited to have you on trading secrets. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. We were talking a little bit before and I was like literally you are the perfect guest. It's like pop culture meets money, reality TV, real estate professional, which is a whole topic

right now. And I think also I wrote a book on this called Talk Money to Me. It's all about the intersection of love and money. which I know you have had many stories with. I sure do. We got a lot to uncover here in a short period of time. Okay. Let's start with this.

So reunion of season nine just came out, right? So, and if for anyone that lives under a rock, it's trending on Netflix right now. It's in the top five of all shows. But for anyone listening that might have not seen season nine, how would you summarize it? Explosive. Explosive. Okay. That's a good word.

Would you say you were part of the explosiveness? Because I didn't think that, I mean, you obviously had your up. and downs will get into that, but like, I wouldn't say your character, if you will. Your personality was explosive. No, I'm never explosive. I think that I was pulled into it more, but I had an explosive time in my life this season. I was with robbery and all kinds of stuff like that, and emotions were high. But no, I don't, I'm not an explosive kind of person.

and I'm pretty much like, okay, let's, are we done? Are we done? Let's move on. I feel like you're the mediator. I am. They call me mediator Mary. That's like, that is definitely your brand, your edit, everything you've done over the last nine seasons. Do you think that what we see of Mary, I mean, everyone in reality TV has an opinion of their edit versus like what the reality is. What's your take on what it has been and what it was on season nine. I think season nine I was pretty upset about the edit but normally I think all of us are true to who we are yeah except season nine got was not very good at it because there was so much that was happening that either got cut out that explained what viewers got to see or or

happened behind the scenes and then so I think everybody's responding to stuff that was happening and then the way it was edited, you're like, that did not explain that at all. So I feel like fans are probably confused, or they're like, where did this come from? Because it wasn't on there. And so I think it was a little frustrating, but, you know, it is what it is what can we do?

I feel like the beauty of reality TV, though, is like at least we have our own platforms that we could speak to it. Was there one scene or one, moment, you're like, that just like totally triggered you. You're like, that is so taken out of context. I think, yeah, there was the Flowers moment where I got upset about that. People think I was actually upset at Chelsea. Yeah. Who gets mad about flowers? It's like nobody. I was mad in production and I was yelling at production and I never yell. And that was the only time where I'm like,

I kicked him out of my house because, yeah. Over the nine seasons, that's the only time. Oh, yeah. I'm a team player. And even if I don't like something, I do it. You know, I try to say, well, I'm not going to say or do something that's not me, but I'll do it my way. Like, I'll say whatever I feel comfortable with because they do have a point that if I don't explain things, then the audience isn't going to know. They're not in my head or they're not like they weren't there during a conversation or something. So you have to explain it. It's a valid point. But my personality is if I don't like something. Okay, I don't like it. Yeah. Move on. I don't have to talk about it. I don't have to confront someone because I'm not

a confrontational person. And so this season, it was just like, come on. I was like, this is ridiculous. And I was upset with them because I just got robbed. I was like, I don't want any surprises. Do not try to blindside me with anything today because they love, they love. A good blindside. They need to keep guessing. That's how you get nine seasons, though. Oh, right. I know. And this time. they did it and I was like you guys who's it from Mary? Who's it from? And I was like I'm not doing this

and because I knew they set it up. First of all she doesn't have my address and she didn't know where my like when we were filming to have them delivered. I was like you guys are playing like you guys orchestrated this like no and finally they admitted they did

but everyone thinks I'm like just overreacting and upset about flowers. I was like I let you into my home let you film my closet, which is always off limits. And, and then they tried to pull one to start, like, stir up drama. And I'm like, I'm not playing these games. Get out. I'm surprised. Do that. Is that like you? You're going to figure that. I am. And afterwards, they were like, well, you could have just done this. I was like, and you could have just told me what you were doing. Yeah. Like, don't blindside me is what

I said. You know, I always work with you. And, and you could have just done that. They're like, yeah, you're right. I was like, do you think I'm going to respond well right now? Like, with being, like, price with something? No. And they're like, yeah, you're right. So it was just, I think, you know, it's a reality show and it is what it is, but I think it's gotten taken very, very out of context. I feel like they need those checks and balances for your guys, come on, let's keep it real. Yeah. You mentioned your closet. I think it's a good transition because it feels like selling sunset has become, it's the real estate stuff's great. There's also good drama. It honestly feels like at this point, it's like a high-end fashion show. I mean, even though,

we walked in the first thing. I'm like, beautiful, you got this awesome, like, holiday-type suit on. But, like, everyone on the show, I think a lot of people watch it to get, like, fashion tips at this point. My question to you is, and I always ask this to, like, other reality shows, when they're preparing for the show, if they're the lead or the cast, how much they spend on their clothing and things like that. Season 9, how much you spend an outfit, do you think?

If you had to take a wild shot in the dark. At least, at least 100. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. I mean, and that's like, do you guys ever behind the scenes say like, hey, maybe we should just like not dress so high ends? Well, you know, because part of it's hair and makeup and we have to do all the things. They don't cover any of that too. But I'm, I am not a bougie person at all.

And I'm, you know, I'm just very reasonable with stuff. If something's cute, I don't need like design or everything. I'm like, carry a nice bag and you can have like a well-made whatever, like outfit. And we're only allowed to wear the stuff once anyway. So I'm like, I'm not spending that much money. I'll invest it. So, but we get a lot of gifting too. So I think it's really cool.

And I take advantage of it. Some of the girls don't. But if there are certain brands I really like, I'm like, hey, I'll wear it on the show. And tag you guys. And they're excited. It's a win-win for everybody. So I just, I know, I just, I try to be smart with my money. I love it.

Because, you know, I can invest it. I can go on vacation with it. I can run to Bali when the girls drive me carry. Bali. Bolly's a good off, right? Fly first class to Bali. I'll take that money and go there. Why wouldn't you? Very relaxed when I get back. I love it. I love it. One thing about like with the industry, it seems like the luxury real estate market, even like a Ryan Serhan here in New York City, it feels like the attire is part of the brand. Every job has things where you're part of the brand.

It feels like the attire is part of the brand. But then also, I think, counterintuitive to that, there are a lot of buyers you probably work with that are like, I mean, look at like a Mark Cuban or like a Steve Jobs back in the day who wore like literally the same outfit. Some of those people don't dress up at all. So does it is how important is kind of your look in a tire in the luxury real estate market? Oh, it's extremely important. And why? Because they want someone, even the car you drive is very important. Interesting. Yeah. Jason had to talk me into that one. He's like, you've got to listen to me on this because it shows that you're, successful. You know what you're doing. It gives the impression that you are, that you're a

professional and you've sold enough homes to be able to afford this. Interesting. That's that, that's the thinking process, I guess, on it. But I think just being well dressed, it just gives off a good vibe. I mean, I think that people are drawn to people that have like a cool professional look. On our show, it's kind of funny because I see some of the, outfits. I'm like, guys, we're getting a little out of hand. A ball gown. You're showing like this. I know it's, I know it's TV and it's about fashion, but a ball gown? Yeah. I was like, come on. It's like next level. Unless you're going to the Emmys afterwards, like directly from the showing, maybe put on as like a suit. Yeah, like whatever you go here. Like at some point you got an eye roll a little.

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you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's rula.com slash trading secrets. You deserve mental health care that works for you, not against your budget. I mean, you've done this for over 15 years now. You had a leadership or had a leadership and then kind of like stepped down as leadership, but you're still VP, right? I'm a VP. I'm not a manager. Yeah. Yeah. Because I cannot deal. It was not a real estate manager. It was a manager of hurting cats that are cast. Right. I mean, trying to manage these women is impossible. And I was like, I don't want this drama. And I was put in the middle of it. Jason's like, well, Mary, you're the manager. Deal with it. I'm like, no, I don't

want to. So, yeah, I gladly slept down from that. I was like, I'm going to stick to real estate. I'll stick to real estate. I'll be a VP. We'll get into a little bit with that. manager was because I know you had some even pushback from the people that you were managing being like, of course you got this role. You're their favorite, blah, blah, blah. But I'm curious about this. You've done it for 15 years. You've been in management. You've stepped back from management, but you have a ton of experience. You've had a ton of success. You're saying that part of the advice is like you got to look the part and then get a car and do these things so like you show success. You've had it. Have you seen other agents then go buy these big things, buy these cars,

but not have the success and like actually put themselves in a form of financial debt for trying to put on a brand that actually isn't backed by success? I'm sure that that does happen. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I know that people have, they will do it and it's a struggle to, to maintain it. Yeah, that has happened. Because real estate is up and down. And I think people don't realize how hard it is. The show makes it look like it's so easy. Put on a pair of lupitons, go strut in, flip your hair. and be like, oh my God, it's so beautiful, sign here. And you get like $100,000 in your bank.

It doesn't work that way. There's a lot of hustle that goes on behind the scenes. There's a lot of unglomerous stuff that we have to do. And it takes a long time, and it takes a lot of patience because you're dealing with so many personalities. And most of the time, you're dealing with people during either their worst moment of their life, like they're moving or buying or selling because a divorce, having kids, like getting married,

whatever. And it's like these are losing a job. And so upsizing, downsizing, whatever. It's like those are very big moments in people's lives. And sometimes they're very highly emotional. So you have to kind of dig through and be patient when your clients are acting out or not doing things in their best interest. I'm actually really good friends with probably the worst clients I've ever had. And there are some of my really good friends now. But I had to look at what was actually going on. The responses were not normal for what was happening. And so I was like, okay, this is a sense of subject. There's something behind, like, I'm not understanding right now. And once I realized what it was, they actually bought me a diamond necklace at closing.

No way. So you're like a part-time therapist. Yeah. All right. We'll get in the nuances of your job. real estate and all that because I want to ask. But one thing we've already talked about is obviously jewelry, high-end fashion. And you already mentioned the LA fires, which then alluded to the burglary, which was a huge part of the season. I mean, talk to me a little bit about, and again, for anyone that hasn't seen it, talk to paint the picture of like when you, when you found out that you were completely robbed, what that was like, what you look to first, how much went missing the costs of all, like paint the picture for anyone that hasn't seen. Yeah. So it was during the fires, and Romaine and I went to a yoga event. It was for charity. My sister is a yoga instructor. And so all proceeds from, for three different classes she had that Sunday were going to help with all the animals that were affected by the fires and all the, yeah. And so I posted that a couple of the selling sunset cast were going to go support and raise.

money for the shelters and everything. And I didn't say which one that we're going to. There was like 8 a.m. I think 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. And I didn't say which one we're going to, but apparently they were sitting outside my house and like sticking it out. The minute we left, our neighbors end up getting the footage of them sitting like down the street watching for us. And the minute we left, they pulled up three masked and gloved men, jumped two of our gates. went in, cut our power, broke in, and, like, took all of my jewelry, my family heirlooms. It was 18 designer bags. My dog was missing when we got back.

My little Pomeranian, Thor, he was gone. And we got back in, and I saw, like, the side gate open, and I was like, that's, baby, I was like, did you leave that open? Because we're very cautious of it because of our dogs. Yeah. And so went through, and then I saw. one of the doors open that was a door we never use ever and I then I was like oh god okay hang on and I run in and my dog's always standing right there and I was like screaming the lights when it

turn on and I when I went in I saw like to the left my office at first I ran no I ran back out and I said I was like remain thor's gone he's gone and he's like no he's in there somewhere he's just sleeping I was like no he's gone because he always comes I was screaming his name but I couldn't seat in any other rooms because the light the power is off. Yeah. Went into my office and I saw it was just ransacked, went into my closet, which my dog will normally, like sometimes he will go in and lay on my clothes when we're gone, but I couldn't see anything. It was destroyed. Everything was gone I saw on my jewelry case. There's like an island in the middle and all my jewelry's out on display. And that was all gone. They got in my safe. Like the whole closet was destroyed. Everything

off the shelves and everything like that. And then our bedroom, they went in there and went through all of our drawers and everything and pulled things out and stole all my husband's jewelry and everything too. Unbelievable. When you first saw that, did you at all think it might have been personal inside job with professionals or like what was going through your head as far as like, who did this, who's responsible? Every scenario went through my head.

The fact that they knew where the key was for my safe was very strange. But then afterwards, our neighbor. government got robbed, like there was somebody that got robbed nearly every night because there were no police. The police had been defunded. The ones that we did have were out helping with the fires and trying to secure the areas out there. And so I called 911 and they told me to call back in a few days. They don't have any resources to help. Seriously, you call 911 and that's what they said. That is unbelievable. Yeah. And so my, Jason, thank God, he has. had just given a bunch of money for the new DA for his campaign.

Sure. And so he called him up. He's like, excuse me, he's like, you need to get officers out to her house now. These are our, we share dogs. Yeah. You know, and he was like, you need to get someone out there now. And he was like, I'm so sorry. Okay, hang on, let me see what I can do.

And so eventually that night someone came out, they never caught them. They never, like, really, it was, it was sad. But when we went to the police station, I don't believe. blame the police at all because they are in a lose-lose situation. Sure. They don't have enough resources. They want to be able to help, but then, you know, it takes them so long. They don't have enough cars.

By the time they get there, they get yelled at or people are threatening to sue because of stuff. And he's like, we don't know what to do. And then, like, I don't know what to do. Everyone's just going to lose-lose right now. And then these poor people that are losing their homes. I mean, it's, yeah, at least I had a home to get robbed. Right. It was just like, I mean, that's tough to find light and darkness, but like, if you're going to find light and darkness, what a good perspective to do so.

I just can't imagine what they went through it because losing that small malness stuff. Like it's, and the invasion of someone, it's safety more than anything, you know. But then to just lose everything all at once and have no place to go, insurance companies aren't paying out and stuff, it's like, I can't imagine. So I feel lucky. And in hindsight, I feel lucky. some of this stuff like family heirlooms are invaluable right but like if you had to put a number on how much you think was taken from you how much you think was robbed from your house it was well I didn't get any of the jewelry stuff back because I just fired my assistant two weeks before because

she never got my supplemental jewelry insurance damn because with supplemental jewelry insurance you have to like go through item by item and I already have to support the documentation like it's a whole process and that's why I was like, I need you to go get everything appraised because I had photos. I had itemized everything and I needed her to take them. I was in Egypt. I needed her to take them while I was out of town to make sure because it still wasn't done. And I ended up firing her over that. And then I got robbed. So I lost about $250,000 in jewelry. And then I got partial money back for a couple items. What, $1,500, I think is what? I got.

back for jewelry. You're kidding. I'm like, you lost 250,000 in jewelry and got $1,500 back. I think like, I don't know. You have a take on this. I think insurance is like the biggest fucking scam. Well, it's good to have insurance. You got to have insurance. You have to have insurance. But it feels like every single time I'm paying insurance, my premiums are going up. I'm still getting confusion about what's actually covered, what's not. When you do want supplemental insurance, like watches and stuff covered, you have to jump through 8,000. thousand hoops to two. Exactly. Yeah, my watch is like we're all taking time. I think, but I did get the money back

for the bags and some of the clothes. There we go. There's a good insurance story. And still to this day, do we have any idea or leads as to who did it? They caught one of the groups that did one of our neighbor's homes. And we have a neighborhood watch now. And we have private security that will drive around that's armed to try to help like at least hold them until the police can't arrive. So we all kind of banded together. We also have. something called a flock camera where the feed goes directly to the police. So if somebody calls, they can tap into it and see exactly where they are and see where they're taking off to you to try to like stop or get a helicopter above because it happens

so much. There were like 17 robberies and like a very short amount, I think in the one month period. Here's a trading secret for you. Listen, we all know that is the weather changes. We need to change what we're wearing and how we're wearing, but we need to do it at an affordable price because we all know apparel is so overpriced so quince has the kind of false staples you can actually wear wear and repeat like 100% Mongolian cashmere 60 dollar classic fit denims real leather wool outerwear here's the thing like i will tell you this when it comes to buying clothes i'm also so specific because there are all these labels out here and they're so overpriced but with quince you can actually get extremely solid quality and you don't have to worry about it.

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Knowing what you went through with insurance, do you have, like, any trading secrets as it relates to insurance or things you would do differently now, knowing what you know, or just any takes on insurance? Yeah. So there's something with your, well, this isn't exactly insurance, but your electrical panel, when you have your security system and like ADT or whoever you've got, have a sensor on your electrical panel because when they break it or lift it up and have a padlock on it and a sensor, because when they lift it up, it'll trigger the alarm.

And so otherwise, and then hardwire all of your cameras because they have Wi-Fi like blockers or something like that. And so they can stop the camera so you can't see. them. Luckily, we had our neighbors all pitched in and they showed the footage so that we could help try to track them down, however, the plates on the car were stolen, all this stuff like that. Yeah. It was all like strategically thought. Yeah. Professionals that did it. That's good advice though. Like I think the little tap on your electrical box. Yeah, because when they go in to cut your power. That's so smart. All right, outsmart these. Yeah. I think one of the things

you mentioned was like, of course, the LA fires, right? Yeah. Because this, impacted the burglary and then also deploying officers. I feel like on social media every time I'm on there, I'm still hearing so much about the LA fires as we should. And the one I'm hearing the loudest is Spencer Pratt. I mean, he is loudly proud there. I was curious with the LA fires, do you have a perspective on it living there or a take or anything that, how it's impacting business, just things like that? Oh, it's impacted business in such a monumental way. First of all, People just, it's almost impossible to insure for fires now. And the insurance companies aren't really paying out that much or you have to wait for a certain amount of time.

People are just moving out of the city between taxation, the increased taxation and stuff on property taxes and selling when people sell their homes. Developers aren't really, they're not able to make enough of a profit because of the taxation. and so there's not as much going on that interest rates are still high and then crime is up and there aren't enough police to be able to enforce the law and catch all of these people. And so a lot of people have moved out of L.A. And they're like, I'm not going to pay this much money to have my house robbed and nothing happens. It's like, where's the security? Where's like, you know, it's just, we're just in a unfortunate sense.

state right now in LA and then a lot of the people that lost their homes have either decided to rent for a while or just move to a different area because it's taking so long to rebuild and their kids have to restart in a different school anyway because all of the palisades burned down like all of Altadena and and part of Malibu and you know there's a lot of areas that were destroyed and so if they have to change their kids schools and stuff anyway because the school's burnt down. Yeah. Crazy.

Yeah. So they've decided to move. A lot of them are moving out of state to lower tax states like Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Nashville. Yeah. Great. Are you seeing that ripple effect also impact your business? I mean, you look at 2021, it was booming.

It was thriving. 2022 real estate was ripping. Are you starting to see a slowdown now? Absolutely. I started real estate in 2008. Okay. Yeah, we're like, that's a tough time to start. That's a tough time to start.

It is, but, you know, I've always said, like, if you can do well then, you can do well any time. Yeah. That really is a time where you learn how this hustle. You learn what it means to really work hard and really, really dig in. And I would say this is as bad as I've seen it. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's just on top.

of all the devastation, it's just, it's not just the housing market. It's politics. It's, it's a lot of things all combined that, that has just made it just a terrible, terrible time right now for real estate, at least in LA, Orange County's doing great, San Diego's doing great. Other outside areas are fine, but it's just everything, it's like a ripple effect and it's just a tough time. But Angelinos are very resilient. The market is resilient in L.A. There's so much business that goes on there.

So we will rebuild not only the homes, but the whole real estate industry and the market. It will bounce back, but it's pretty bad right now. Do you weather the storm or do you strategically start making moves of like trying to sell into some of these states or areas that like you're seeing higher demand? Like, what do you do? Both. I'm very lucky that I'm busy with, I've got the show, as income, and I'm a good saver. I'm not, it comes back into where I'm not bougie and I, you know, I don't have to have a designer everything and do like five star everything.

So I'm a very good saver. I believe in investing. And so I'm okay. But I also, I do a lot of collaboration work with different brands. And I, I, you know, just have the show income. to rely on too, but otherwise I have gone down to Orange County. I've got a couple clients that said, would you ever come down here to do stuff? So I've started, you know, learning more about the Orange County real estate and about the areas and stuff because I go where the business says. Yeah. I am not. Follow the money, baby. Follow the money. On Instagram, you got 2.1 million followers. TikTok, you have 476,000 followers. In a year like this, where you're starting to see real estate slow down a little bit, is it possible for you to earn more on social media

than you would in real estate? Yeah, definitely. Significantly. Yeah, and I have done that one year, and it was even a good year, but I earned more on social media. But this year, for sure, earned more between social media and the show.

What other year was that that you earned more on social than the show? I don't recall, but I've made a good amount of money from real estate that year, but it was a good year for social media. It was before they started doing micro influencers. Oh, yeah. And so... Then it was ripping.

Oh, it was good. It was great. We trade secrets. We talk money. I have to at least do my job and ask. You can deny the question, but can you share how much you made? Like, what's the most you've ever made on social media?

I don't think it was over a million, but it was pretty close. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool. Yeah. I also want to ask you this, a real estate. When you started year one, I always think it's cool to see where people started to where

they got. So when you started in 2008 versus where you are today and like how people know you and the brand you've created, it's like night and day. So in that first year though, when like I think it's relatable to a lot of our listeners is they're like trying to navigate the career. Oh, how much did you make? My first year. Yeah. I got lucky because most real estate agents do not, I mean, if you saw one home your first year, that's pretty good because it takes a long time to build up clientele and to actually go through it and have it be successful closing. I sold three homes. my first year. I was in the beach cities. I sold one in in the Hollywood Riviera, one in Palace Verdes and one in Herrano Beach, one in

Hermosa Beach, and one in Palace Verdes. And then I almost sold one in Hollywood Riviera, but it fell through. And so that was, that was pretty good. I don't know how much I made. I think the Hermosa Beach one was $2 million, was a $2 million property. The one townhouse and Redondo was maybe 900,000, something like that. And then the Pellas Verde's one, I think it was a small condo. And that was, I think, around $6.50 something. So whatever the commission is on that. But still like that, not a bet for a first year.

No, for a first year, it's pretty good. You're breaking six figures, you know what I mean? And in 2008. Yeah, and in 2008. You were in the top 1% of all of all real estate agents that are out there. Yeah. We had Rebecca Minkoff on, right, who was the housewife. And we talked a lot about love and money and stuff. And she talked about her pre-nump a little bit. And she introduced what I had never heard, which was called a flusie clause. And when she talked about it, it ended up going super viral. But she said how she's a flusy clause in which if she dies or she's still living, if her husband marry someone else, even if she's gone, any access to like funds, trust funds, any money is immediately shut down. Like immediately.

It's called the Flusi Clause. Really? Yes. So I wanted to ask your opinion, one on the Flusi Clause. And additionally, do you have a take on, when it comes to 11 money? I know you've been through the ringer. Do you have a take on pre-nups? Oh, I'm very for pre-nups.

Okay. My ex-husband, I had to file bankruptcy and everything because he, I didn't have one. And he took everything, ran up a bunch of credit in my name. I got back from London and found out my 800 and like 20 credit score was down under 500. And I was like, how is that possible? And then realized what had happened. So preempts are amazing. I have one.

And because our situation has changed quite a lot since the beginning of the show when Roman and I got married, we have additional things to it when we bought the house. Like I'm very fair. and I wanted to make sure even though I put down like the money for it I make more money and remains fine with that

like he doesn't care but he contributes people think we're saying he was a gold digger and stuff he contributes and always wants to he's a very stubborn stubborn man and he would never

I don't think he would ever try to take my money but you'd never know separations and divorces can get brutal and people turn into people that they weren't before fighting for money. So we do have that. And basically it states that any money that I put into the house

comes back to me first. If we sell it, then he gets like this, like an amount that we both decided was fair based on, like when we're in love and in a good place, what is fair? And then I think that's good because then you never know what happens and you don't want to spend all your money giving it to attorneys. Like you want to do what's fair when you're in love, when, you know, you have the wits about you to not just try to destroy the person's life. Sure. I mean, it doesn't need to come to that. If the relationship's over, just move on. So it sounds like you got the fair clause in your preened up, but you don't have a flusy clause. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's pretty ironclad, but I'm also a very fair person. And same thing goes with him. It's like, I'm not going to

try and take anything of his, what you walk into the relationship with, you take out, whatever is. And we still have separate bank accounts. We don't have joint bank accounts. I will not do that again. I was burned. And he understands it, though. He gives no problem, like with it. He has no problem signing any pre-up amendments or anything like that, like post-nup really it is. But amendments, he's like, whatever you want, I'll sign it. I love it. Yeah. And I think just having the conversation, the biggest issue is like so many people don't have that conversation, that's afraid to have that conversation, just having that conversation creates so much clarity. So you're not, it's not like, you're not wondering, what do you think, what do you do?

It's like, no, he's cool with it, I'm good with it. We know what it is. There's no question marks and no gray areas, like healthy in relationships, especially with the money and finances. This episode, Trang Secrets is brought to you by booking.com. I've got to say, if you're looking to grow your vacation rental business, this is the place to be. Booking.com is one of the most downloaded travel apps in the world. And for good reason, since 2010, they have helped over $1.8 billion. vacation rental guests find places to stay. That's billion with a beat. But here's the thing.

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platform. Don't miss out on consistent bookings and global reach. Head over to booking.com and start your listing today. Get seen. Get booked on booking.com. you mentioned that your credit was like an 820 and then it went to 500 and then you found out I heard a little bit about this story how you and your ex went into business together right but you were watching over the accounts and he was my understanding is he's doing projects and just not recouping money not getting paid what happened to the situation where you were still watching over the accounts that at one point you didn't see like all the stuff he was doing Well, because it happened after.

So this was, so what happened with the business was there were, it was construction and stuff. And so there were two things back to back. One of them, like they just weren't paying out. And the other one, they just got, he got, took basically a project too big for him. And, you know, you lose money on certain things. The expenses are more than you expect. And then other people pay late. and stuff. At the same time, his father got cancer. And so things were just, we were just

watching it, just kind of going down. And at that time, it wasn't anything like, he wasn't like conning me or doing anything at that time. I don't think he was just, he was a risk taker. Yeah. And, and there was just two back-to-back things that were very unfortunate. And once we went to, we decided to move to London, just start over, moved to London, because our relationship was also, like, if he, he became abusive and everything too. But at that time, we were like, okay, fresh start, let's just try. I thought maybe being in a different environment, being around his family would, like, calm him down. It was the dumbest thing I've done, like, to do that because it only got worse. He then had a sense of power, being on his turf. And when you first move

there, everything was in his name until I had the visa, disposal visa in place and the NRS number, whatever it's called, I can't remember until I had that. I can't open my own bank account. I can't have a telephone. I can't have anything. I was at his mercy. And he had all the money in his account. And within that time. Which was your money. Which was, yeah, which was our money at that time. But he took a bunch of things out in my personal name, credit cards and everything. maxed them all out that I never knew anything about. And because we were in London and they have a completely different credit system there. So he just used your information and looked out and then like signed on your behalf.

Yeah. Holy smoke. And that was while you were still married. Yeah. Gotcha. Real. Yeah, I didn't have a lot of recourse unless I sued him. But then I found out when I was back in the States, obviously broke.

And like he just like abused me like physically for like pretty bad. So I just, I bolted back to the states. I was like, I'm done and found that out. And so I'm like, yeah, I'm not having anything to do with them. I'm not going to charge him with anything or I didn't have the money to get an international attorney. Right. Because it's a whole other avenue. Yeah.

Because he's in London or UK. So, yeah. Don't share bank accounts. Yeah. Don't share your bank accounts. That's unbelievable. When before you went to, I always like to dive a little bit into this because I think if someone can learn something from what you went through to prevent themselves to going through it on the finance side,

that's always like helpful and impactful. When you're in the States, what did the bank accounts start at and what did it go down to before you're like, we got to get out of here? I don't remember what it was in the beginning. I mean, it wasn't what they are now, but it was probably a couple hundred or something and there maybe something like that. Maybe I don't remember so long ago. but you know it's money isn't what it is now but but it was still i felt like we were doing

we were doing well a good amount i mean you know we could live comfortably having that in our account and stuff like that and and yeah and then it went down to zero i was working two jobs when i was in london he lost his job i was working two jobs once i was able to get a job and then it yeah it was it was kind of a nightmare i love london though i still have i still have a love for London. Just not him. Yeah, screw him. And then your biggest financial lesson from that, like, what would you do then knowing what you know now? It sounds like a pre-nump and non-shared bank accounts, anything else? Yeah. I would lock my, I would lock, keep a lock on your credit.

Right idea. Yeah. It's because then they have to notify you if anybody does that. If I would have done that, that would have been notified. Because he was doing it behind your back with your information so you wouldn't get any type of notice unless you had some type of credit lock on it. All right. That's a good lesson. So I'm sorry that you had to go through all these things, but you've obviously learned a lot of lessons and these lessons that you're putting out there are going to help other people. So it's like your experience will then create a legacy. All right. Let's get into, we have just a little bit of time left with you. So I want to touch on real estate market. So in the luxury real estate market, I think we hear this a lot, especially

in the TV shows. What does luxury stand for? Like, what is the price point in which it then becomes luxury? I don't know if there really is actually, like an exact number. Yeah, is it like if it's over two million, it's luxury? If it's over three million, five million? Like, what's the luxury number? I mean, I think probably technically it's over, it's probably over a million means luxury or something. I think technically, but it depends where you're at. In L.A., it's like, true. You can barely get a condo. But, you know, I think it depends on the area and what market it is. go to Indiana, you know, you can be Geist Reservoir, because I'm from Indiana, so I can just pull this out of nowhere. But, you know, that's a very nice area. Carmel, Indiana is a very nice

area. And so that's their luxury market is probably still under a million, I would think. Like, it's probably one to two would be probably max, I'm assuming. I've been back in a while. All right. What is your strike? So in like in L.A., like where you're like, okay, on the lower end, I'll represent deals here, higher end. like, well, there's probably no ceiling, right? You're like, the biggest and the best. What's probably the lower end? I think Jayze and Beyonce bought one of the high-end ones.

Yeah, how much did that one go for? I think it was like $150, $200,000. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah. That's great. But your strike zone would you say is where? Like your average size 20%? I mean, I think the luxury market, it's around, I would say $3 million.

I would say $5 million, it starts real luxury, but $3 million in L.A. It depends where and what the house looks like, what it offers. Sure. You know, you can have a $3 million house in the middle of Bel Air that's a tear down. It doesn't mean it's luxury. It's in a luxury area, and you're getting land value. Got it. That makes sense.

With social media where it's at, like you see all these people doing these tours and they're trying to get pictures of these house and then there's celebrities' houses, do you have to go through due diligence process? Do you get proof of funds before you show anyone? Is that always the case sometimes the case? How does it work? Absolutely. I have actually really good clients now.

They're part of the Formula One family. And I did that to him. And I was like, I need proof of funds. I didn't believe him. He's like, I'm going to tell him one day, cash, da, da, da. And I was like, Google him to my system. I was like, yeah, it sounds pretty. fake to me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, but then on Google, it came back. It came. Ask him for proof of funds. I want, and, you know, I want this, this, this. He's like, okay, start sending it through. And now he's, he's so much fun. I'm friends with him and his wife and his kids and everything. But I told him, I was like, I didn't think you were real.

I was like, send him over proof of funds. He's like, and I did. He was like, I know, you know. But there's a lot of times that they're not. They'll even send through fake proof of funds. And we have to then call the bank and very, verify their proof of funds and people just want to meet you and so they'll or impress their girlfriends acting like they have the money to go look what I'm I'm getting ready by maybe

you can stay with me I mean it's so creepy have you caught people sending you fake proof of funds no way oh yeah yeah we don't know what the point is yeah I mean besides just trying to show off or waste our time maybe look cool I'm like how cool does it look when we find out They're fake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Majority of those, like, let's say at a $5 million home, I'm always curious.

Over $5 million. What percentage would you say, just guessing, of those buyers will take out a mortgage and finance it versus pay cash? Between $5 and $10 million? Let's say like $5 and $10 million. Probably 50-50. 50, some pay cash, some don't? Okay.

Interesting. And then what's the largest deal you've ever done in your career? $35 million? Damn. Yeah, 35 million bucks. How'd you celebrate with that paycheck? I don't know. What did I do? That's a big hole. I don't know if I did anything. I was probably too busy to be able to celebrate.

There's been a couple where I want to celebrate. I'm like, I'm too tired. Yeah, too tired. I'm like, I can't. I'll rain check this. I probably at the time just had a drink and cheers myself or something. I love it. Do you have of all the people that you've worked with, you already mentioned someone from F1, but all the people you've worked with, Can you think of like the wildest celebrity negotiation? Wildest celebrity negotiation. I've worked with a couple of celebrities. French Montana.

French's team was really easy and cool, though. That's cool. Yeah, they were really great to work with. So it wasn't really crazy. Oh, well, I guess the $35 million house. So there was this old guy that lived there and the property that they bought was going to be renovated. Okay. But it needed to be renovated.

They wanted to. a house next door that his wife used to live in. They had adjoining properties where it was kind of cute and crazy at the same time. But they would walk through this little secret passage to each other's properties. Well, she ended up passing. And so he decided that he was going to go ahead and get rid of the other one. So they got both of the properties together. People had been asking them forever if he would sell the other one. So we got the one down from $50 million to $35,000. and then at the last minute, because it was my client's birthday, and something about that was, he was out on the boat and it was named the same thing as something else.

He's like, this is a sign. I'll go ahead and give you both of them for this, if you can close by the end of the day. And because we were like talking to them, we're like, and normally we don't ever let them meet each other or anything. We had them meet because we're like, I think that they're going to get along. And sometimes we'll do that. We're like, if we think that this could truly help, sometimes it can backfire. So you have to be very careful doing it.

Sure. But we had the meet. They really liked each other, admired each other. And at the last minute, we got my client, both of the homes for $35 million instead of 50. How quickly did you do that? That day. You did a deal for $35 million in one day? How?

Because he's got cash. Yeah. He's got a lot of cash. So that was it. Yeah, we did the deal. They signed off. Well, I mean, I think technically they had to wire the funds. And so the deal wasn't, escrow wasn't closed the same day.

It takes a couple days to close. I think it was five days or something, seven days. A 24-hour close on 35 million. I love it. If you're dealing with hair issues like thinning or shedding, but feel totally stuck on where to go next and what to try next, trust me, I get it. I've been there.

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Just go to Nutrafall.com and enter promo code trading secrets. Find out why Nutrafall is the best selling hair growth supplement brand at Nutrafol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com. Promocode trading secrets. That's Nutrafall.com. Promocode trading secrets. One of the last question I got you is you mentioned earlier that you had troubles with negotiating with someone or it was just like a tougher deal. But then they bought you a necklace after. In the luxury real estate market, is that something that, I don't want to say the word expected,

but is that a norm that someone would buy you a gift after? No. Okay, so that's a very occasion. Yeah, we get clients gifts, but they... That's what I was thinking. That's why when you said it was, they go back to that. Yeah. Well, you can tell how difficult it was.

Yeah, yeah, this guy was a pain of the house. I believe they told me afterwards I was the fifth agent that they had. but, you know, they're actually really lovely people. They're, you know, eccentric and very lovely. But it was, I have never yelled at a client before. And there was at one point where I screamed at him. Like, he said, pull out, I don't care, because he was going to lose. Like, he was afraid potentially losing $20,000, like, on something that he was never going to lose that.

It was with inspections or something. But he already had the money in there that was, that was, He couldn't get back. Interesting. And so he already signed off, like, to release the funds. And it was like, $200,000. And I was like, no, we are not pulling out. Yeah.

And he was like, well, no, I'm just, I'm not going to lose this money. I'm like, you've already, if you pull out, you've lost this other money. But he was in such a, like, like, he was so terrified and just like, like, not thinking clearly. And I could see he was just, it was a moment. I was like, go talk to your wife. and I have a feeling you're going to, like, turn around. I'm not doing this yet. Talk to her first.

And he's like, no, I don't care. I was like, what do you think she's going to say when she finds out? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's like, I don't care. I was like, yes, she do. Yeah, she do. Trust me. He sure do.

There's another place I can help you with. Yes. And he was like, no, I said to do it. I said, and I'm telling you, no, take a moment, breathe, go talk to your wife and come back to me. Unboldened. And so, yeah, and she told me later on, he's like, he had so much respect for you from that point on. Because I was yelling at him. I was like, you're your owner's enemy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You saved the deal and you saved the room. Yeah, right. And that's where the perip hat comes on, right? You did it all. I love it. All right, well, here's the deal. I'm in the midst of buying a home right now.

And I need a couple, like, little trading secrets here. So give me some, anybody that's listening to this, it's a buyer right now. My understanding is it is a buyer's market. So are there any things that you would say, hey, look out for this or think through this or just a couple tips before we wrap. Yeah, I think really, really consider the property taxes, the amount of property taxes. You know you're paying them, but you really have to work that in to if you're getting a loan or whatever. You have to make sure like just budget wise that you're accounting for that. Like mine, for instance, when I get back next month, I've got to fork out another 30 grand. So it's like you have to, you have to make sure you're preparing for that and you're adding that in to your monthly budget because it's, It does add up all of the repairs and expenses along the way, you know, a lot of people don't realize, yeah, you want to pool, but do you know how much that's going to cost you per month? And a lot of people get in over their heads.

I mean, in certain price points, they don't care. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I also have a lot of clients and, you know, the one to three million price point. And when you're heating a pool and filling it and stuff every month and you're adding on an extra $1,000 a month on a extra $1,000 a month on. stuff like that. It's like, okay, well, you have to think that through. Your insurance is higher. Everything's higher. And so you have to make sure you're accounting for all of those small, what seems to be small. Yeah, the things you're not thinking about. Okay, one last is a selfish question. But on a listing price, like, do you have a rule of thumb as to, you can of course

go in below listing price? But is there a rule of thumb? Like, don't go under, I don't know, making this up 20% listing price 10% like do you have a rule of thumb with an offer like you're gonna offend the seller if you go in under this percent of what listing prices yeah that's it's always so hard to to navigate that yeah to talk to people about that because they're like no just go low it'll be fine that is not fine they're going to be offended and they won't even respond they'll just be like don't respond anymore yeah but so it really depends on the situation like if there are multiple offers if there's a bunch of interest don't try to play that game It's like come into what is reasonable, but your best foot forward, but where you still have a chance to work up a little bit because they're going to most likely come back to all people best and final offer.

So don't play all of your cards right away because you never know if the agent that's selling the listing agent has a relationship with another, like if you're representing the buyer making the offer. We don't know if they have a relationship, but if somebody else where they could technically be like, oh, well, we got an offer for. this, so you need to beat it. You know what I mean. So you have to be careful not to play all of your cards. If you have a good relationship with the other agent, feel that out and try to, like, having a good agent is huge. It's huge. Because you have a name, you have a reputation already. You have relationships with the other agents where you're like, hey, listen, here's what it takes. You know, we work well together. Let's get this done. And so you can, you can really, they have trust and they have confidence that you're not a newbie agent that doesn't know what they're doing

and you're going to be able to have client control and get the deal done. And so, yeah, so having a good agent is important. People think that they can just get by going to, I mean, I'm just going to throw something out of it like Redfin or something like that, doing one of the agents where it's like a very small, I don't even know if that's the thing because we don't work with them that much. But where it's such a small percentage or list your home yourself or something like that, it's like, oh, God, I don't think you know what you're getting into. So I think, yeah, having a good agent is key. That's good advice.

It sounds like it's an art and it's a dance. Don't overstep and work with your agents. It is, yeah. Yeah. And then going in low, I mean, you can go in low if there's no, if there's no other offers or even if there is an offer, but don't be offensive. Like, because it's never going to happen. If the house has been on the market, though, for a, there's a, there's,

not a certain number. It's just like use your gut as to what is offensive. Okay. Okay. You'll know what's offensive type of. If the, yeah, if all the homes in the area, if all the comps show they've sold at this price and it's a very comparable home, then don't go in like 200,000 under, it also depends on the price point. Sure. So don't go in like significantly lower. If it just came on the market, people are like, don't waste my time. And they get, they get mad and they think well this is how you're going to be for the rest of the escrow if they went into escrow so so you kind of have to you know it's walking a fine line on that one just see what you can get try to push it a little bit but don't do it so much that they're going

to be like you're an asshole okay okay last question i got before we get your trading secret season 10 has it got greenlit are you going to be on it have you signed contracts where were we at with season 10? We don't know, actually. We initially, they want to pick up season 10. It all depends on the ratings. So three weeks after it airs is when we know if ratings are good enough for them to officially green light it.

The cast right now is not getting along. So I don't know exactly what's going to happen. Netflix is extremely frustrated. I'm extremely frustrated. I don't know what's going to happen. We'll have to wait and see. I honestly think it just depends if people start acting like adults. And if Netflix start, or not just Netflix,

I think like also Jason has a lot to do with it. Production has a lot to do with it. Poor Netflix is actually just sitting back like, will you guys please behave? Give me a great opportunity. Right? And it's true. It's like what, like what is happening?

So I'm not going to be involved in something that is so negative and where if it is ruining my reputation, like from just lies and stuff being put out there, I'm not interested in that at all, and I will happily walk away and focus back on real estate. But if the attitudes can change and we can go back to being women empowerment, like focused and being, using our platform for positivity and good and to show women that you can do anything, you can come from anywhere and be successful. I'm in. I love that. I love that. Well, we'll wait. We'll see. I think in this just little hour, you clearly have demonstrated all that.

What you've been through and powered people through your stories from burglary to financial abuse and everything else that you discuss. So we appreciate you being on. But you got to leave us with the trading secret. So it's specific to your life, the way you manage finances, your career. It could just be a motivational quote, just something that either you live by or that you think is unique to you given your experience. I will say it again because I don't think enough people have heard it. It's very simple. And I think the world will be a better place. Everyone will be happier. You'll be more successful and trusted in business. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Yeah.

Very simple. Yeah. And it's a universal thing that wars would stop. Everyone would love each other. In business, there's no shadiness going on. It's like you can trust the people you're shaking hands with at the end of the day. It would be a much, much better world if everyone just treated each other like they would want to be treated. I love it.

I love it. And I think I always like to say, like, what is my trading secret? I think I learned, I think my trading secret I think I learned is like in your life, It sounds like you are relentlessly willing to continue to put your heart out there. And even when you continue to put your heart out there and it doesn't work, you're still like, I'll fight for it. I'll go to London. I'll give it a shot.

But then you can quickly so fastly be resilient and adaptable. Be like, okay, that fucked me up. It drained my bed. It drained my credit. But I'm coming back. Like, watch out. No one's going to stop me. And then you're going to learn lessons.

I'm going to keep growing. And I think in life we all deal with certain scenarios where you have to either stop and it sets you back or stop and it moves you forward and you continue to sometimes get hit in the face with a burglar or whatever and it stops but it seems like you never move back you just find ways the art of resilience that is your tagline right there all right mary thank you so much for being on train secrets where can people find everything you got going on the mary bonnet is on my ig on i think ticot and possibly even snapchat i'm not sure but and then i've got marybonnet dot com and that's it I think I have a book too we're going to talk about it I have a book oh my god how to

selling sunshine selling sunshine we'll talk we're going to give a copy away stay tuned to the recap we're going to talk a little bit about your book in this episode Mary thank you very thank you thank you ding ding ding we are closing the bell to the selling sunset episode with Mary David what'd you think talk to me crazy stories she had she came with some stories that I'm sure we'll get into over this recap. But, yeah, I mean, we've had some selling sense that folks on before, season nine. Crazy little tidbits there about how she left us with, a little cliffhanger season 10 up in the air.

The cast isn't getting along right now. Netflix, a little frustrated and wants them to play nice. They can't get out of their own way right now. So a lot of juice, I would say, and a lot of interesting stories that I definitely was not aware of from the, the robbery, which I have more notes on that than I think anything, from that to her story of her ex and in-depth needs and desires for a pre-up because of what happened to her. I was intrigued because some of these stories went deeper than I thought when they were first mentioned. So that was my takeaways.

Well, pop culture meets money. That's what we do on this podcast, right? We already know that since recording this episode, Chris Shell Stiles has said she will not be back for season 10. And there's a lot of, I mean, you heard her allude to it a little bit, but it sounds like there's just a lot of frustration between Netflix and the cast

and the direction that the show is going to go. So who knows what will actually happen, but there's that. Then you talk about, I mean, gosh, the financial abuse, the physical abuse she's been through in relation. relationships, the robbery, like the resilience of Mary is just truly unbelievable. And again, like I said, my trading secret takeaway, she always finds a way to like use the worst of the

worst as a way to like grow to be better and have new perspectives. But man, there were so many nuances of that robbery and the financial abuse that she had dealt with that it was just, I was just taken aback. I didn't expect that. And the biggest takeaway of all that for me, was the fact that she was able to start over on her own without what it seemed like help. Like she didn't have money for international lawyers to really go after her ex. And she was like, you know what? I'm just going to keep doing my thing and get myself back on my feet, which was crazy. And then, you know, again, I'll probably touch it up 15 more times.

That robbery story. For the end of that robbery story for her to say, at least I had a home to get robbed. I actually ended up feeling lucky versus all the people. people who went through the feeling of robbery, which is their possessions being taken away from them and their house and everything else all in an instant. Really, it just crazy perspective and humbleness. And she is a warrior. Like, she's a warrior in a lot of those aspects of things that she's gone through that no one ever wants to go through in their lives. Not just both of those things, you know, one of those things would be enough for anybody in any of their lifetimes.

Absolutely. Then you take. all that, couple it with the show, which is pop culture, then couple it with the reality that we're living in right now, which is a huge real estate crisis. You could hear it in what she was saying, you know, they're struggling a little bit. It's been a tougher year. You can see it. I'm in the market right now to buy a house in Nashville. As you know, I have my place in New York, too, David. Got that in September and I'll keep that, but I'm going to claim residency year in Nashville. So I could tell you, like, in the market here, things are overpriced, and sellers, it's a buyer's market, and sellers are just sitting. Like, they're not willing to reduce their prices based on what they thought in their head they were going to get if they sold in 2022, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2024.

That's no longer the case. It's just 2025 market is not the 22, 2022, 2023, 2024, 24 market. And you're seeing a lot of these homes sit for 60, 90, 180 days. So that's what I loved about this episode. We talked about some of those realities like we already alluded to and mentioned. But we're also dealing with a real estate crisis in the United States right now. It's interesting, you know, President Donald Trump put recently out a plan of his to do a 50-year mortgage note, which, you know, for me, politics aside, let's just talk about the matter at table. It's one that I just don't agree with. The reason I don't agree with it is because your total interest costs are going to be so significant over a 50-year period. And I think at the end of the day, it's kicking the can to what is inevitable, which is the problem we have with real estate right now is a lot of things. But the two biggest things are costs. And the next biggest thing is supply. There just isn't a big supply of home. So I feel like it's kind of kicking the can. And especially when people

try and retire later with material debt that they're dealing with because of a 50-year mortgage, It's not something that I'm for. So that's what I loved in this episode, though. Like we touched on what's happening in the economy today, the real estate market, stories that, you know, we can all learn from through Mary's experience. And then you got the mayhem of reality TV. And my gosh, there were some interesting stuff there even about, you know, I'll tell you, selling sunset has become, like I said, it's a real estate show, but it's like a fashion show,

too. It almost has like a real housewives vibe these days. 100%. And just to throw a couple of those, some other elements we learn. today that go into this real estate mess, people providing fake proof of funds, like the fact that it's a real thing is crazy. And then you're getting into the mix. I know you see it a lot in Rochester here where, you know, she said it's about 50, 50,

50 people who pay cash for people who go for a mortgage, a lot of these, you know, a lot of these different not maybe not luxury real estate markets, but a Rochester market, people are just coming in and gobbling up homes with cash and, you know, winning all those offers and paying over-asking prices with cash and kind of knocking those people who need the mortgages and the 30-year mortgages, you know, kind of out of the races here a little bit. So there's a lot of factors.

I think a question that I have for you, too, is like, who is the person that's in the best situation right now when it comes to the real estate industry? Is it an owner? Is it a buyer? Is it someone who's looking to sell? Like, who's in the best financial situation? Like, am I in the best situation?

is a homeowner who bought in COVID, who has a 2.9% mortgage rate in a 30 years? Like, who or would I be better off being, you know, a seller and selling my house because I, you know, I've almost going to make 2x off it? Like, who's in the best position? The problem that you're having right now is, first of all, great question. That's why I love these recaps because those are questions, David, that people are listening right now that have, but they're afraid to ask because it like sounds 101. And that's the beauty of what we do and how we do it. And I love it. One of the problems that, we're dealing with right now is there just is not a big supply of homes available. And one of the

reasons are like your home, it has 2xed its value. The problem is, though, if you go and sell it today, where are you going to go? Yeah. Because the price points are still so high. So people are in this paralyzed state of not doing anything. I think the biggest winners in this market are precisely you. And maybe I'm wrong with this assumption, but my assumption is, that you guys are in a position where you don't have to move. You know, we got, we got two on the way, so you'll be a family of four here soon. Very soon. Very soon.

But you don't have to move, right? You're in a home that you bought at a low price point. It's appreciated significantly. You have a very, very, you have the cheapest money you're going to get 2.9 percent. And you don't have to go anywhere. Like that is a, your net worth is up based on the value of your home. Your interest rate is locked in and a rate. that likely we'll never see again in our lifetime. And you have a beautiful home for your entire

family to grow into. And by the time that you're ready for that next home, there will probably be a massive shift in the real estate market. So you're the ultimate winner. I think right now it is a buyer's market. I know that. I've studied it. I understand it. Buyers are getting a better deal today than they would have one, two, three, four years ago. And the biggest thing was back in like, you know, COVID 2020, 2021, 22, 3, 4, there's so. much shifting and where people were living and why and what they expected the future would look like, you would go look at a home and you would have to literally write your offer the second you stepped out and you're usually going over asking price and you probably still lost.

Today, these homes, I'm looking at, I mean, I went to look at 18 homes the other day. The average days on market for the homes that I looked at were 85, 85. And some of these people are sitting at eight months and they haven't lowered their price. It's like, buddy, wake up. You're not getting it. there's a massive shift. So I don't know if that answers your questions, but I honestly think you're number one right now. Yeah, no, it does answer my question. It makes me feel really good about myself right now. Probably the only financial decision I've ever done that has worked out

my benefit. Well, Bitcoin's taken right now. I know we're still trying to find your Bitcoin two years later. The only good time to have your crypto not found is when it's tanking. So it makes it feel like a little bit better. But a question that I have too is in someone in my situation like you said it's you know if we were looking to take advantage of the equity we've gained in a new valuation of our house we're just having to buy an overpriced or uh in a in a market where i'm going to get a worse insurance rate um is there any potential for hope for someone like me where rates go down but prices of uh prices of homes kind of stay the same so that i can um one day sell and take advantage of all the money gain but then also move and yes maybe

Maybe I'm paying for a home that's also gone up in value, but the mortgage rate is down closer to where I could not have to eat such a big mortgage? You know, it's a great question. I don't have the crystal ball, but I do think there's going to be a shift in real estate. And when I talked a little bit about President Trump's plan of the 50-year mortgage and why I am not for it and don't support them against it, it's because it doesn't hit the crux of the problem that first-time homebuyers have right now in the United States and majority of home buyers are dealing with. There just aren't enough homes right now, and the cost is too high.

So I think if you put a solution in, like, you know, you put a little bubble gum and tape it up with a 50 year mortgage, sure, that will kick the can. But eventually, I think there will be some form of correction in which there's still inflation will happen. And you will have massive appreciation in your home. But through that time, you'll also be able to save some money because you're earning more, you're making more. I don't know if we've talked about your promotion on the podcast, but you got a little promotion going and you'll be in a better position. So I think time will come. Right now, again, it is a buyer's market, but I think you'll even find a better time to exit and then get into a new home. But listen, there's going to be people that disagree with me on this. There's some people agree

with me on this. It's just there is no crystal ball. We don't know what's going to happen. We'll see what happens. And, you know, it shifts fast. It shifts quick. I talked to someone the other day who's a big time earn finance, big, big time New York City finance person, like decades and decades of material material experience. And you'll like this, David. And we started to see it last week. He thinks that we might be living in this AI bubble where there's too much attention, there's too much money, there's too much going into it, there's too much buzz, there's too many investors behind it. And it's not producing the impact that they expect it to. and or it's just not going to produce the profitability.

And no, we can't at all justify that there's an AI bubble now, but what we do know is last week when we saw some of the financial results starting to come in, we saw that tech was struggling a little bit with profitability and the market took a material dip. So who knows, man, there's so much moving and shaking out here. We'll see what happens. Yes, I did see that. Very interesting for the old school folks like us.

Um, yeah, I was, I was a lot there, Jay, and I, I liked, I appreciated all your, all your inputs and knowledge on that, uh, topic. One thing, I'm, you know what? This feels like a little bit of an old school recap where I'm just dumbing it down for the people a little bit. Um, I do have one kind of definition. I haven't had a definition here in a long time, but, uh, she was, Mary was talking about, um, her, her breakup story, how her ex went in and basically signed off on a lot of credit cards, max them out, used all the, all the money and then, uh, obviously left her. And her credit score took a massive dip.

So not only she's starting on her own, she lost a lot of her money, but her credit is tanking. And she said that if she could have gone back and done anything, she would have kept her credit on lock or got a lock on her credit. What exactly is keeping a lock on your credit? What is it? How do you do it? And why would you do it maybe for a different situation other than this?

For sure. I love it. Well, there's credit monitoring. And then there's credit locks and freezes. essentially what all this jargon does in one is it helps protect against identity theft by monitoring, stopping, and just analyzing when new credit accounts are being opened under your name. So if you had the monitoring in place and securities in place and locks and freezes, she probably would have seen when her husband was putting this credit in her name and it wasn't her.

So at the end of the day, you can do a credit freeze. it's completely legal. It's completely free. And you can do credit monitoring, monitoring, which usually comes at some form of fee. But the biggest thing I would suggest in, you know, I'm not getting paid to say this. I truly believe in the product is credit karma. I think it's a hell of an app. It's owned by Intuit.

And it's a great place to start with monitoring your credit, keeping all eyes on your credit and making sure that anyone or anybody fraudulent is taking any form of credit inquiries in your you're getting you're getting notification on it and there you have it my questions always get answered i said it before sometimes you come on to learn something sometimes you come on to learn about someone i think we kind of did both here i learned a lot about mary i have some tangible takeaways you pump my tires and told me i'm actually in a good financial position in one thing of my life so all in all trading secrets episode 200 and whatever run success i would say we're ripping and Roarin will have to see what happens with all the moving parts, real estate, selling

sunset, episode 10, and of course, what's going to happen with AI? I think I talked about it a little bit there, David. I gave you just a little touching go, but it is important to know that Michael Barry, who famously shorted the U.S. housing market before its collapse. That was in 2008. Remember the movie The Big Short? He is the one specifically who placed bets worth over a billion on against the share prices of the biggest AI chipmakers in the world. So he nailed the short on the mortgage crisis. Will he nail the short on the AI bubble with the two biggest AI chip makers in industry? We will see. But a trading secrets will keep you posted. There's a lot of action. We're going on the holidays. A lot happening in our lives. Make sure to give us five

stars. David, I'm excited to get through the new year. And I'm even more excited for me to be in the hot seat. Because, of course, what Jason tells all, coming up here soon, probably in January-ish, who knows when we'll record. But I think we could both say from January 1, 2025 to currently November, soon to be December 31st, 2025. We expected a twister year. And boy, did we get it. Any comments on that before we wrap? No, that'll be the first of many trailers. And we'll have lots to talk about, I'm sure, come January. Lots to talk about. David Ardenwin, always always good to see it. Make sure to give us five stars. And thank you for tuning into another episode, Trane Secret, one you can't afford it.