Rana Khaled & Rizwan Malik Hustle The Real Estate Scene In “Hot Market” On HGTV

Realtors Rana Khaled and Rizwan Malik are part of an elite real estate team in Hot Market on HGTV, the latest addition to their globally renowned roster of home-focused programming. The two entrepreneurs share with us their journey from being real estate agents to one of HGTV’s brightest addition to their renowned roster of home experts. 

Television isn’t a new space for Rizwan Malik who has acted on several TV shows. When it comes to properties however, he started selling them at 21 years of age and is the Senior Vice-President of Sales after a series of record-breaking commissions — the youngest person at his luxury real estate company to do so. He knows what each project entails and never wants his clients to deal with any stress. He loves a good challenge and will work with any property. It was after she transitioned out of her fashion business is when Rana Khaled moved from Montreal to Toronto. She was ready to start the next chapter of her career and in the spirit of her entrepreneurial journey she decided to get into the real estate business. Networking, meeting friends of friends she built her clientele, mostly those looking for starter homes. Fast forward to now, and we are very excited to see two fierce South Asians as part of HGTV’s latest show, Hot Market.

Geeta Wahab: What drew you to real estate?

Rizwan Malik: I was finishing my business degree at Ryerson University and while I was doing that I started to enroll at OREA college as well and get my real estate license because I always had such a passion for working with people. I still to this day hold the record for the highest number of sales or the highest dollar volume of sales in like a single calendar month.

Rana Khaled:  I’ve always been an entrepreneur. And we had started a fashion line with my sister and that fashion line, long story short, after a couple of years we kind of figured out that we had to relocate the business to LA for it to really start making money. And honestly I didn’t want to go to LA and start all over, and it’s very difficult. So, one of us had to go. My sister decided to go, and I decided to move to Toronto [from Montreal] because of the job opportunities.

Everyone thought I was crazy because Toronto’s a very hard market to get into. And usually people, you know, you have friends, friends of friends, family, cousins. So, for me I had to start from scratch. And I was on a limited budget and I had to network. My first year I won rookie of the year, and I’ve just been hustling ever since.

GW: Both of you have mentioned your previous working experience before becoming a realtor. How did that helped you become a better realtor?  

RM: As a teenager in high school, I was working at the pet store part time. I would work Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays.  And that’s where I first got the taste of being with people and having such a passion for working with people because you know, if a family buys a dog or a puppy, it’s such personal decision to be part of it and like it was just great to see all of that and how much joy. So, taking that into a full-time career, I still wanted to get that enjoyment and that pleasure and seeing that happiness on someone’s face when they buy their first home, because it’s such a huge thing.

RK: I was in fashion and accessories where I had my own shop as well. I sold Pandora jewellery before it exploded. I was exclusive in Calgary. I think I was nineteen at the time. Years and years ago. I just connected with people, knowing what people want. Not wasting people’s time.

Sometimes I meet people and they’re looking maybe for a specific dress or specific piece. It’s the same thing when it comes to a home. I can’t be showing them for a month things that they don’t like.  Within the first meeting I have to figure out what they like, what they’re going to invest their money in, what’s the home they’re going to fall in love with and my mission is to go and find that house for them. I think it’s knowing what people really want. And marketing myself properly.

GW: How did HGTV and Hot Market enter your world?

RM: Two years ago, I got a phone call, at first I thought it was one of my friends pulling a prank. She said ‘I work for a production company and we are currently developing a new show, it deals with high end luxury real estate’. And the more and more Ii spoke to her, I was like okay this is becoming less and less of a joke or a prank.

Seemed pretty legitimate. She asked if I would you be interested? And I thought ‘Absolutely!’ This is a no brainer. This is such a huge honour to begin with, there’s 80,000 agents in the province of Ontario, and you’re choosing to speak to me, so why would I not entertain this? I’m so happy that I did. They basically put together a little demo reel for the network. And I was selected as part of the final cast of five to bring this incredible show called Hot Market to fruition. And it’s just been absolute pleasure to film and to be a part of this whole journey.

RK: HGTV had a contact with an acquaintance of mine. She ended up referring me to the show. And she said ‘You have to meet this girl’. And we ended up meeting and the rest is history. It was like three years ago. It took time you know to get the right cast, and so it’s been seriously a journey. And by the time we started shooting I was very pregnant. I was, I think five or six months pregnant. On the show you see me very pregnant. (laughs)

GW: Transitioning to television, did you have any obstacles that you needed to overcome? (nervousness, getting used to having cameras around etc).

RM: I was certainly a little nervous on day one, but as soon as the cameras started rolling I quickly forgot that they were even there. I started to interact with my clients the way I normally would.

RK: For sure. It was so surreal that I was on camera and there were some nerves, but as soon I met the crew and the cameras started rolling it really felt like home! I loved every minute of it.

GW: Rizwan, how did you use your previous television experience in this case? 

RM: I have acted in the past, but my knowledge and command of the real estate market is what prevailed and helped me most in front of the cameras.

GW: How long are the shoots in the day? How many times a week/month?

RM: Shoot days ranged from 6-10 hours a day and we were able to get my part of the season filmed in about 25 days. This was over a course of two and a half months.

RK: It varied for me, but shooting days typically lasted the full day.

GW: How do you balance your own businesses with the shooting schedule?

RM: The shoot schedule was pretty spread out so it helped me manage my personal and business affairs quite easily. It also helps that I am naturally super organized!

RK: It is all about balance and organization, and luckily we set our own hours as real estate agents. I would just make sure that I met clients on the days that we were not shooting – or I could look to scheduling meetings with them afterwards.

GW: Let’s get down to business. What your advice for someone who is starting to think about investing in property?

RM: I’m in my early thirties. I have a lot of young friends who aren’t in the housing market yet. And whenever they ask me “What is the right time to buy? What should we do?” My biggest advice for them is don’t try and time the market. You can’t time the market perfectly. It doesn’t work that way. If we all had a crystal ball that we all could time it, we’d all be doing that.

For those who are on the fence about buying or not buying, is to enter the market. Because every year that you hold out, or every year that you wait out of the market:

A) not only have you cheated yourself out of $20, $30, $40, $50 or even $60,000 in appreciation, because that same condo you could have bought two years ago for $400,000 that one bedroom condo today is selling for $600,000.

B) Over the course of two years, even if you live in a modest property let’s say your rent is a $1,000 a month, over the course of two years you’ve also wasted$24,000 in rent.

C) You also could have spent that money towards a mortgage and paying it down. So, there are three different ways that you’re not doing yourself any service by staying out of the market.

Get in the market, if you’re not in it already. And if it means adjusting your expectations for buying, then buy a condo. Because the condo will appreciate. You will still pay down your mortgage in the condo. You will also save money by not throwing it away against rent.

The key elements are still there, whether you end up buying your dream home or your starter. But you need to start somewhere. And if you need to adjust your expectations, then so be it. But holding out, saying oh I’m going to keep saving until I can buy my dream home or my dream property, you’re not doing yourself any service.

RK: Great question! I deal a lot of first-time home buyers. That’s a huge pillar of my business. Some home buyers are thinking about renting. And I end up switching them to buying because they don’t understand that if they don’t get into the market now when will they get into the market? And I think we’re all aware of the market. It’s getting really hot. It’s getting even harder and harder [to break into the market) every year.

I was on the phone with my clients yesterday and they’re first time home buyers, and they’re “You know what we’re on a budget but we want a house, but we can’t get into the housing market.” I said “Okay, do you have kids?” “No.” “When are you planning on having kids? “In five years”.

I think people need to realize is they need to get into the condo market and it doesn’t have to be their forever home. They just need to look at it as an investment to be able to get into the housing market. And I think a lot of people just want to buy the big house right away. But that’s not what I did, that’s not what any of my clients did.

We’re all starting our lives, we’re all, just about to have kids or had just a baby, or just got married. We don’t have to go to the big house right away. I just purchased a house but I’ve owned my condo for five years. That’s how I got my house. I had to sell my condo and make my money.  Houses are very expensive. A regular house that needs tons of renovation is a million dollars.

GW: Okay so you’ve bought your condo or a house. And because you’ve spent most of your money getting that property you’ve got little left for upgrades. What budget-friendly tips do you have so people can personalize their home without having to do a huge reno?

RM: So great!  I bought a property outside of the city as well when I was only 24-years old. So, that was my first home, I still own that house today. It’s in Peel region, and one of the smallest things that I didn’t like when I purchased that house was that not all the door handles matched.

It’s a three bedroom, there’s at least ten doors on the two different levels. Some were brass, some were chrome, some were round, some were like little levers. I went in and I changed every single door handle. I went to Lowes and I bought new hinges that were two dollars each, so four dollars per door, and I replaced all the different door hinges. So now when I open every door in that house, or when I’m walking through that house, those are the little things that mean something to me.

When it comes to fixing things up it doesn’t necessarily mean that you must take down walls and rip out flooring. You can also make small decorative changes. One of the things that I really love is coming home to fresh flowers. And I buy myself an arrangement every single week. Just buy like twenty dollars in flowers a week and just throw them in a vase. It just elevates your standard of living in my opinion, that much more. It’s just like, to come home to something that smells fresh, to come home and you look at the bright colours. To me these are the little things that make a house a home.

Get your foot in the door and then tailor it to whatever you can do. You don’t have to spend $100,000 in renovations. A fresh coat of paint, fresh carpet, maybe fresh runners, these different elements make a huge difference. If you don’t like your kitchen you can have the kitchen painted for a fraction, or keep the doors but maybe update the kitchen counters for a few thousand dollars. The little minor things, you can spruce up an entire home for $5-10,000 and even that you don’t have to do immediately.

RK: You know it’s so crazy, I just had an amazing listing in Vaughan and it was for this beautiful home. I sold it in literally a day. [The former owner] didn’t have an eye. And I said “This is so rich!” I felt like I’m in a one-million-dollar home from the outside but from the inside it’s not the part.

You don’t need to go out and spend thousands of dollars. What I did is I changed cabinet handles, door handles. Paint is huge. Crown moulding and baseboards are huge as well. And it doesn’t cost a lot of money.  Adding a crown molding can make your place look very classic. No crown molding can make it look very modern. So, it’s really up to you how you want to go. It’s the little things. Are you putting curtains or blinds? It all should be seamless. When you look at a place you just want it to flow, you don’t want a lot of interruptions. Don’t get a TV stand. Hang your TV on the wall. These tips can make their place look so much more luxurious. It’s honestly little touches.

You can catch Hot Market on Mondays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV Canada and on www.hgtv.ca

Main Image Photo Credit: HGTV