A day in the life of LA superbroker Aaron Kirman, who has hit $7 billion in career sales by selling Southern California's most expensive mansions, estates, and ranches

• Compass’ Aaron Kirman is one of LA’s top real-estate agents, with over $7 billion in career sales.
• The 42-year-old broker finds buyers for many of the area’s most opulent — and expensive — mansions.
• The star of CNBC’s “Listing Impossible” shares his packed daily schedule and how he fits it all in.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Los Angeles native Aaron Kirman emerged from humble beginnings in the San Fernando Valley to become one of the area’s top real-estate brokers, closing more than $7 billion in deals throughout his career.

And he’s got the lavish listings to show for it.  

Take Elementi, an impossibly sleek Beverly Hills mansion that just hit the market with a $65 million price tag. The 18,000-square-foot new build in the tony Trousdale Estates neighborhood has seven bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and a slate of luxurious amenities: a 20-foot water wall; a 2,000-bottle wine cellar; a 150-year-old olive tree imported from Italy.

Developer Michael Chen tapped Kirman to find a deep-pocketed buyer for the property — which is also accepting bitcoin as payment.

A post shared by Aaron Kirman (@aaronkirman)

Now with Compass, Kirman, 42, has spent more than 20 years in real estate. He leads both his own eponymous firm with 90 agents and 10 staff as well as the brokerage’s international estates division. In 2020 alone, he closed over $725 million in sales, which made him the fourth-highest-grossing broker in LA, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

High-profile clients range from celebrities like Rihanna and Orlando Bloom to royal families from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. A sign of his well-connectedness with movers and shakers in the City of Angels? One agent on his team is Dalton Gomez, the 25-year-old engaged to Ariana Grande.

Beyond buying and selling, Kirman is also the star of CNBC’s “Listing Impossible,” a reality show which follows Kirman and his team as they convince stubborn homeowners to compromise in order to sell multimillion-dollar properties that would otherwise sit rotting on the market. And when he’s not closing deals on some of the most expensive homes in California, he’s mentoring young brokers, investing in new tech tools for brokers, running a charity, and working on his YouTube channel.

Kirman, who averages about 200 phone calls a day, let Insider follow along for a look at his typical schedule. 

7 a.m. 

Kirman gets up early every day. He makes it a point to stay away from his phone for the first 30 minutes, starting each morning with some meditation instead.

He dons his uniform for the day, which usually includes a simple, sophisticated black T-shirt from James Perse or John Varvatos.

A lover of Starbucks, Kirman said he can’t function without coffee — and needs three espresso shots to wake up. 

The next half-hour is full of calls with international clients. The early morning LA hours allow him to check in with buyers and sellers in time zones all over the world, from Asia to Europe. 

Kirman is the seller’s broker on this $23.75 million property at 1940 Bel Air Road.Photos by Matthew Momberger, courtesy of Aaron Kirman Group

He then peruses the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal to see how world, national, or local news will affect his listings or the people in his network.

Then it’s off to the gym for a morning workout. Self-care, Kirman said, helps him take even better care of his clients.

10 a.m. 

Typically, mornings are packed with some mix of listing appointments, property showings, and client calls.

Right now, that could mean a hefty hike around through the $46 million Villa St. Pierre in Bel Air. Sporting eight bedrooms and 20 bathrooms, Robb Report says the spread is owned by an Iranian family and has a fitness center, basketball and racquetball courts, a bowling alley, a bar, a wine cellar, and a movie theater). 

Or it could mean ramble around a sprawling $39.8 million, 16-bedroom Pasadena estate designed by architect Richard Landry, dubbed “king of the megamansions.” The manicured grounds have European-style gardens with perfectly pruned hedges and topiary sculptures, a Grecian-style pool, a man-made lake and waterfall, and a koi pond.

Boasting two five-bedroom Spanish-style villas, wine cellars, and helipads, the 3,500-acre property has been sought after by the world’s wealthiest, the Wall Street Journal reported, and is linked to billionaire CEO Mansour Ojjeh, who has major stakes in British car manufacturer McLaren and its Formula One racing team. The WSJ reported that he purchased the property in 1981.

12 p.m. 

Kirman squeezes in lunch, whether it’s a quick meal at his desk or a protein shake.

Meetings in LA and overseas used to fill his calendar. Pre-pandemic, he flew 300,000 miles in a year, according to the Los Angeles Times. But since the COVID-19 crisis began, he said, business has been robust — and sometimes even better — without all the time spent up in the air.

A post shared by Aaron Kirman (@aaronkirman)

The convenience of video calls and the sophistication of virtual tours has made it easier to negotiate deals even without visiting clients in person. More people are buying homes sight unseen, and it helps that Southern California home prices are booming thanks to pandemic-fueled interest in the area.

The rules have shifted for how much in-person time is needed to close sales, Kirman said, and he’s fine with spending less time in airports.

There are many perks to virtual meetings. With team meetings now all on Zoom — one every two weeks — attendance is higher, and it’s much easier to bring in guest speakers. “I’ll never go back to in-person meetings again,” he said. 

He likes to leave Wednesdays completely clear so the team can catch up. 

2 p.m. 

Some days Kirman’s schedule is so packed with back-to-back appointments at properties that he doesn’t have time to stop by his brokerage’s office, which is Beverly Hills. Still, he makes a point of coming in at least three times a week.

His beloved pups — a 14-year-old Havanese, Lucy, and a 4-year-old mutt, Jax — always come to the office with him. They usually arrive first, he joked, thanks to his assistant, who transports them from home. 

When he’s not traipsing around palatial properties, Kirman spends a lot of his day figuring out how to further hone his sales and marketing savvy by researching and testing out new technology platforms for real-estate agents.

In April, he launched a new tool called Estate Dynamics that uses artificial intelligence to scour the internet to find people who might be interested in buying one of the houses Kirman is selling — and then track their online behaviors to present them with the right property for their interests.

A post shared by Aaron Kirman (@aaronkirman)

Normally, he said, agents rely on existing systems — like a multiple listing exchange, or MLS, or web portals like Zillow or Redfin — to sell properties. The buyers (or buyers’ agents) see the properties for sale on those sites and then reach out, but Kirman wanted to find a way to proactively reach out to likely buyers.

“I got tired of that,” he said. “I wanted to be innovative and change the system, so we’ve worked on building a platform.”

If, for example, people search for a house with a pool or post on social media about a certain school district, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported, then Kirman and his team can use Estate Dynamics to target those internet users with ads for listings that fit their criteria. The overall goal, Kirman said, is to help his agents close deals faster and more easily.

3 p.m. 

After every client call, he touches base with his assistant to talk next steps, whether the topic is home staging, art curation, or offer negotiation.

Hundreds of millions worth of offers can be on the table at any given time, he said, and they’re all relatively pressing, in need of attention and immediate response.

“That takes a lot of time,” he said. “That schedule is always changing and moving because there’s always an urgency to something. It’s a tricky job to have.”

Sometimes buyers willing to spend $40 million will request to see a property immediately or renegotiate a deal, said Kirman, and he attends to their needs immediately.

8 p.m. 

Kirman is really a homebody, he admitted, and loves to spend time at home in Beverly Hills with his dogs and boyfriend. To wind down in the evenings, he might watch TV or go for a night swim.

For dinner, he’ll order from some of LA’s best restaurants — like Nobu or Mr. Chow — via a delivery service like DoorDash or Postmates. He’s joked that he’s even hidden his credit card from his business manager because he spends too much on food. 

10 p.m. 

Before bed, there’s usually time for some Netflix or YouTube. He’s recently enjoyed shows like “Emily In Paris” and “Ratched.”

Kirman heads to bed between 10 p.m. and midnight, because he said he needs a lot of sleep to be successful.

“Our days get so busy in operations,” he said. “I need time for creativity to focus on the spirit of growth and development.”

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