MERRY MARY
Mary Fitzgerald isn’t your average real estate agent or reality TV star, and it’s easy to see why she’s the fan-favorite on Netflix’s original series Selling Sunset, which follows one of Southern California’s most prestigious real estate brokerage firms: The Oppenheim Group (OG), located at the prestigious corner of Sunset Boulevard and Sunset Plaza Drive. As Vice President of OG, buying and selling luxury property is obviously her forte, yet Mary manages to do it all with a charming spunk that makes closing multimillion-dollar deals in the cut-throat Los Angeles and Orange County real estate market look as effortless as her darling bob cut.
Originally from Indiana, Mary graduated from Ball State University before spending several years living in New York and London. There, she cut her teeth in the luxury real estate industry while working for the Candy brothers at their London headquarters and was involved with notable projects such as 1 Hyde Park. Since making Los Angeles her permanent home, Mary has been furthering her already decade-long career in real estate with The Oppenheim Group where she works closely with the firm’s president, Jason Oppenheim.
Selling Sunset premiered on Netflix in March of 2019, and Mary easily stood apart from her fellow OG castmates for her unrivaled work ethic, integrity, and honesty. In the finale of Season 2, Mary, in fact, sold her wedding venue on the big day, taking a break from getting ready to show the property where she tied the knot with then fiancé Romain Bonnet!
Between the jaw-dropping real estate, endless drama, fabulous clothes, and Mary’s darling fur babies Niko and Zelda, it’s no wonder that viewers can’t get enough of Selling Sunset. Season 3 wrapped in August of last year, fans are eagerly anticipating the premiere of Season 4, and Season 5 has also been confirmed with filming underway. The new season will premiere on November 24th.
“I think it’s going to be the best one yet!” she professes. “There’s so much that happened during that season. Most of us just came back since the pandemic so some of us hadn’t seen each other.” There have been a lot of changes and “there’s going to be a lot of drama for sure,” Mary chuckles, especially considering that there are two new faces joining the cast.
While Romain has been in the picture since the show’s inception, he has now formally joined The Oppenheim Group as a project manager. It’s been fun to watch Mary and Romain’s romance develop since Season 1—being progressively more involved in Mary’s line of work, coming on board in an official capacity just seemed like the most natural next step for Romain, and Mary is relishing how their professional relationship has evolved.
“We work really well together,” she says of their partnership. “It’s great because whenever I have clients that want to remodel their homes, or they buy and they want to do additions or change out the kitchen, whatever, I can call him.” The French model-turned project manager is incredibly detail-oriented, great about keeping people on track, and excels at maintaining timely schedules. “Romain is just incredible as a project manager because he, as I think you guys can see on the show, he really doesn’t take crap from anybody and he has no problem putting people in their place,” Mary recognizes. “He’s amazing in this role.”
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Within the next six months to a year, “We’re hoping to start flipping houses together soon,” Mary shares. In the meantime, they have plenty of client projects to keep them busy. And there’s also their recent move to take into consideration. “Currently, we’re trying to organize to make room for more clothes because both of us just keep getting a ridiculous amount of wardrobe, especially with the show!” she laughs.
“We just keep getting more and more and more. And we thought we had plenty of room when we moved into here and we’re both like, ‘Yeah, we’re out of room.’ So, when we get another house, we’re definitely going to have to have at least four bedrooms, all of them with massive, massive closets because now we have three but we’re out,” she admits with a giggle.
When it comes to their first flip, timing plays a huge role in how they’ll make that next move. “We’re both so, so busy with our clients’ stuff and with his work. We have to figure out how we’re going to fit that in too and actually be able to spend time, somewhat of time, together.” Even though they work together, their differing roles make it so that they’re not really together during the day. “We’re just, like, task-oriented, and we’re not actually enjoying each other’s company.”
Their work usually comes home with them. “It’s almost never-ending for both of us. But if we just can even sit in the same room or next to each other while we’re both doing it, we’ll take it!” Quality time just looks a little different for them right now. “But, you know, that’s what we admire most about each other: both of our work ethics. And so, I mean, it makes us proud of each other whenever we see each other just working ourselves to the ground. In a way, we’re very proud.”
A lot of people have found it challenging to coexist with their partners over the past year or so because of the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mary and Romain seem to be better than ever. In fact, “It’s been both of our best years, Romain and myself, because the real estate market is on fire. There’s not enough inventory for all the buyers out there and it’s just a war zone. There is multiple offers and way over asking on almost every single property under, probably, five million. It’s pretty crazy. So for all of our sellers, they are loving it. But the buyers, it’s so difficult to represent buyers right now.”
This past year and a half has also drastically changed the way we work, and the real estate industry is no exception. “Not being able to do broker’s opens and open houses, that’s been somewhat of a challenge because it’s a great way to find new buyers and new clients when you’re in there. Then not having broker’s opens, that’s where all agents get a chance to go in right when it lists, so that you can see each property.” Not being able to pass along first-hand experience with a property leaves representatives like Mary unable to offer that vital personal perspective.
“I think for everybody I’ve talked to that are agents, it’s just like you almost feel like a bad agent because you can’t tell your client anything because you’re not allowed to get in there. You can do showings still! It just always has to be one at a time. Everyone had to be masked and gloved and stuff in the beginning. Now, masks are still required most of the time unless it’s a vacant property.”
Since people were stuck at home, many got to catch up on and check out new shows. “On the positive side,” of stay-at-home orders, Mary believes, “I think a lot of people ended up getting to watch our show that, you know, wouldn’t normally have had the time or even thought about if that wasn’t their genre of TV … but I’ve had so many people reach out to me saying, ‘I don’t normally watch reality, but I ran out of things to watch and watched it, and now it’s my favorite show!” The Oppenheim Group and Mary have even acquired new clients, such as French Montana, thanks to Selling Sunset.
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Speaking of all things new, Mary and Romain moved into their Valley Village home in January of 2021. “It’s super private. It was completely gated, which was very important to me just for privacy and for safety for my dogs. And then we’ve got a big front yard that’s just so nice,” gushes Mary. “I’m from Indiana, and so, it’s very just tranquil and a lot of trees and you don’t feel like you’re in LA when you’re here. And for me, I’m running around all the time, super hectic. So when I get back here, it’s just like a little sanctuary—it just has a very peaceful feel. I love it! It’s all one level, which I love single-story homes. And then we’ve got like a little backyard area where I put a hot sauna bath. So that’s my little sanctuary there.” While they may be outgrowing their closet space there, the area continues to grow on them, and they intend to stay in the San Fernando Valley even with their next home.
But for now, with the holidays upon us, even Mary is looking forward to some much-needed nesting and the new traditions she has adopted with Romain. “We typically go see his parents in France every year,” at Christmastime. “And so we’ll spend Thanksgiving with our family here and then we go out there for Christmas,” since Romain’s parents don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Truly a best of both worlds’ situation—who wouldn’t love a French Christmas? “It’s just so beautiful out there and his family is just incredible. So I really love being able to not only go to France, but also spending time with his family—I just absolutely adore them.”
Family, friends, home—these are the blessings Mary Fitzgerald holds dear. The holidays are a time to count those blessings and spend time with all who enrich our lives for the better.
Features Editor Elisabeth Ross
Photographer David Christopher Lee www.dclee.net
