Upscale Real Estate repped by down-home Agent Morabito
On Shaefer Street in Culver City, there is a home that clearly stands apart from the rest of this older neighborhood. Not surprisingly, it is the newest home on the block — built from the ground up, recently completed, and prepped for mid-October showing.
The price tag of this home is an exuberant $2.7 million, more than twice the selling price of neighboring property.
This property and others in Culver City and the Pacific Palisades, are under the watchful eye of agent Michael Morabito of The Agency, a Beverly Hills-based company that specializes in high-end property sales across the Westside and Los Angeles.
Morabito is not your average real estate sales agent, but a something of a property sales specialist. He doesn’t juggle dozens of listings and clients, but works hand-in-hand with investors and developers. Together, the team creates expensive ‘projects’ in established, but not necessarily wealthy neighborhoods.
Morabito’s role is to bring high-end property together with an affluent clientele.
“We are redefining the luxury market sales,” Morabito says. “With each sale, we are setting records.”
That’s not bragging, but a fresh and progressive sales approach that The Agency is undertaking. Agents specialize in multi-million dollar homes, which have their undivided attention, Morabito says.
On a warm October day, Morabito meets a guest at the front of the $2.7 million Shafer street home for a guided tour.
This two-story Shaefer street house is spectacular to view from the outside.
“You know what I love about this home,” Morabito says. “No keys.”
He smiles and taps a keypad to open the front door. He gestures to follow him into the tastefully-decorated living room. This home, featuring 5 bedrooms, and 5.5 bathrooms, is meticulously detailed by home stagers, who whom Morabito has a close working relationship.
He slides open the glass door to the backyard.
“Can you imagine the parties that you could throw,” he marvels.
Indeed. The back lawn is green, lush and manicured. A small pool is artistically carved on one side of the yard, and the patio area looks ideal for small soiree, or perhaps a quiet area for family members to soak up some SoCal sun.
Morabito leans back and takes in the grandeur of the home. He is not at all what you might expect of a real estate agent. At age 36 and a family man with three young children, he could be mistaken for the neighbor down the street, playing ball with the kids. Or taking a casual walk to the local Starbucks. He’s dressed on this day for weekend comfort.
Born on Long Island, N.Y. and raised just outside of Philly, Morabito graduated in 2004 from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He followed in his father and grandfather’s footstep, working the corporate ladder. During his college years, Morabito served as an intern with Merrill Lynch. “Wall Street,” he says. “Take the elevator up to your cubicle. Long hours. It was a patriarchal society, where you had to wait your turn to [advance] up the ladder.”
After college he accepted an offer as a full-time financial advisor with Merrill Lynch.
Likewise, tradition and old-school values have been a part of Morabito’s personal life.
His parents were high school sweethearts, he says. “Their friends were high school couples, who stayed together for life. Everybody knew each other from school, and stayed connected.”
Along the way, Morabito married his wife Sarah. Not his high school sweetheart, but introduced to him by a friend of close family friends.
In the early millennium, Morabito’s father decided to leave his job in New York trade options for Southern California property sales. His brother-in-law (Michael’s uncle on his mother’s side) was in real estate and needed some assistance in expanding the family business.
Soon after, the younger Morabito relocated from the east coast to the Palisades area of the SoCal’s westside. He too saw potential in real estate, and the milder California climate was icing.
Transitioning from financial advising for Merrill Lynch to high-end real estate for The Agency had its similarities, and its differences.
“I carried over the structure and discipline [of the corporate world,] to the world of real estate development and sales,” Morabito said. “In real estate, it’s more like being an entrepreneur.”
He said that today’s homebuyers differ from their parents in not remaining for decades in one home.
“People would stay in a home for their life, 30 years or more, but today it’s more like seven years,” he said. “We’re seeing more turnover.
Incorporating social media today, the use of video segments and TV are prominent means to attract potential buyers, especially those from out of the area.
Still, there is something to be said about traditional staging in an Open House on a Saturday afternoon.
“I utilize all platforms of social media, “ Morabito said. “But to sell a home, the Open House brings people in and gives them the experience of living in the home. We bring in a food truck, and give visitors an opportunity to live in the home, eat here, relax and connect with the house.”
Ask Morabito a question about any aspect of the new home, and he responds with an informative answer.
“I’m involved with the different stages of development, attend lots of meetings, so that I can answer any questions about the project that a potential buyer might have,” he said.
“For example, if a person wants to know why a home has a ‘progressive’ floor plan, why its compartmentalize, shorter in the front and then gradually opens up wider and taller, I can answer that. Because I know the thinking [behind the floor plans].”
Morabito often has four or more projects going on simultaneously, and in different phases of development. His clients have included celebrities, but says he works with them indirectly — usually with their reps.
(For security purposes, he doesn’t disclose the names of high-profile clients)
As neighbors show up to tour the new home, Morabito says that only about two or three out of 30 visitors are serious buyers. Not a problem, he says. “All in a days’ work.”
To meet with Mike or inquire about the properties he represents, contact him directly at 424-672-4111 or mmorabito@theagency.com
