Realty Reality
For sale: Unique property, great exposure! Come for the viewing in classy Cape Town.
Listing Cape Town
Season 1 Wednesdays
BBC Lifestyle (*174) 20:00
“Agents have a reputation for being snakey. We have a stigma. But I watched Listing Jozi and people really got to see how hard we actually have to work to make money,” says estate agent Farrah Mia. So when Listing Jozi and Cape Town producers Nico Nel and Trevor Kaplan came calling, she pounced. Sold!
Farrah isn’t afraid of the spin and glitz of reality TV – she’s binge watched Netflix real estate reality series Selling Sunset. And she’s “a Chrishell” (Stause) but she adds, “Maybe she is a bit too kind. It was a nice reminder, watching her, that you need to have a little bit more of a backbone in this industry,” says Farrah. How much of a backbone? Farrah once flew from Cape Town to Joburg at her own expense to make sure someone signed the deal instead of sitting on their hands!
HIGH STAKES
You’ve been an actress and a model.
How did this differ? It was definitely different from doing a TV commercial or modelling job. When the cameras go off, I still have to do this job. And it’s more of an insight into my actual life than presenting gave. It’s real.
Your professional reputation is on the line – and you have no control over the edit! I thought about it before
I’d started filming. I thought, “How am I going to control this?” Or “How am I going to come across?” What are people going to say? Then about three days before filming, I said to myself, “I’m going to completely relinquish control – because I don’t have any.” Then I was much more comfortable. Once the cameras went on, we didn’t discuss angles, we didn’t really discuss much, actually. We just put the cameras on and do our thing.
DEAR DIARY
How did shooting the diary session work? They ask you a couple of questions, but Trevor and Nico mainly let us do all the talking. And I do talk quite a lot, so I’ll be interested to see what they’ve edited out and what they haven’t. It’s just like chatting with your friends and giving people more of an idea of how you were feeling or explaining the context of things more. There’s only so much you can do once it’s all shot.
Tell us a little about your diary wardrobe choices? They had completely different wardrobes (from the rest of the episode), so there was a lot of planning and a lot of maintenance. And with our diary outfits, we were able to be a bit more ourselves, because I’m not the most modestly dressed and I own that! It’s 2022, women can dress how they want to and still be respected and still be professional and still be good at their jobs. Most of the time I was filming barefoot, you just can’t see. How did you persuade your clients to be filmed for the show? On the Atlantic seaboard, a lot of our high-net-worth clients really value their privacy. It was incredibly tricky getting people to say yes. I said, “Put this on television and somebody might buy it!” I said, “This is just another form of marketing that no other agent can provide right now. It’s worth a shot if you’re serious about selling your property.”
What made some sellers flat out refuse to appear on the show? SARS (The South African Revenue Service)! Just kidding. I think people like their privacy. They don’t want people to know how much money they have. They also don’t want to let people into their house because it’s their sanctuary.
THE PROPERTY GAME
What’s one of the wildest things that you have done to sell a property? Fly to Joburg just to make sure that I had signatures. At my own expense! If you want the deal done, you have to make sure it gets done. Ironically, it’s usually the people with the higher-end properties that take their sweet time. What’s in and what’s out for staging a property in Cape Town? People lean towards minimalistic. They want modern. They want a neutral tone. Even if the house isn’t new, they want to feel like no one else has ever lived in it.
What did 10-year-old Farrah think was a dream house? It was probably one of those giant homes in Kirstenbosch. Something palatial. But 31-year-old me sees that it’s about the lockup-and-go security and views. And double-volume homes are exquisite. Floor-to-ceiling windows and lots of natural light.
Anyone got a house for sale?