Meet The Disruptors: Edward Fitz of ‘Domicile: Game of Homes’ On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself, and your business. The Agency’s success and growth has been fueled by Mauricio Umansky and Billy Rose; founders with a big, expansive vision. They dreamed of a firm full of great agents and staff, all in pursuit of a common goal: to redefine the sale of real estate, especially luxury properties, in a more collaborative, innovative and engaging way. The Agency now has over 100 offices around the world and continues to evolve and grow.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Edward Fitz, Partner of The Agency and Founder of Domicile: Game of Homes.

With a real estate career spanning 25 years, and now as a passionate tech entrepreneur, Domicile’s Founder, Edward Fitz established his reputation selling significant, unique homes in some of Los Angeles’ most prestigious neighborhoods. It’s no exaggeration to say he has represented some of the most famous and influential figures in America. He has consistently placed in the top 1% of realtors nationally and has been named on the Wall Street Journal/Real Trends “Top 1,000 Real Estate Professionals” list. As a highly regarded expert in the industry, Edward also wrote a popular column about Los Angeles real estate featured on MarketWatch for several years. He has been a partner at The Agency for 12 years and now is paving a new path in the real estate tech space with Domicile.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I’m from Portland, Oregon, which was a fantastic place to grow up. It still is, but from pretty early on I knew I wanted to experience more than my hometown could offer. I had bigger things in mind. I’m a dreamer, but I’m also a practical guy. I knew there were two things I loved the most: singing and houses. I sang as often as possible, and looked at houses even more. When I was a kid I’d ride my bike to open houses almost every Sunday, right after I’d designed a perfect center-hall Colonial house on the back of the church bulletin (during the sermon). At one point when I was in college, I was in nine different singing groups, and at the same time starring in “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” at a local community theater. And studying for an Oregon real estate license. I had two voices in my head, one that said “Go to New York and be on Broadway,” and one that said “Don’t be an idiot! Sell real estate and do shows on the side!”

New York was too tempting to resist, so I moved there, and I did alright. I made some commercials, did a lot of extra work in TV and films, and even starred in an off-off-off-off-off Broadway show, “Saved!” written by a couple of guys from Garden City, a suburb of New York. It was a satire of TV evangelists and TV religion, and one of the writers got very famous a few years later. His name was Jonathan Larson, and he wrote a little show called “Rent.”

After five years in New York, I decided maybe I should take a sabbatical in Los Angeles. One of my New York buddies had moved there and he was — guess what — selling real estate. He was making bank, so I got my license and never looked back.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

Absolutely! We’re disrupting the outmoded model that has dominated online home pricing for years. You see, I greatly dislike Zillow. I can’t begin to tell you how tired I am of clients telling me “Zillow says my house is worth a Billion Dollars!” I’m obviously being facetious, but the dirty little secret of algorithmic valuations is that they can be way, way off. Ask Spencer Rascoff, the founder of Zillow. The day after his house in Seattle sold for a little north of $1M, Zillow put the value at $1.75M. A little red-faced, Spence? Feeling the burn?

But here’s the thing — tools like Zillow and Redfin, despite their flaws, have become gigantic successes in a way that no one ever dreamed. As entertainment. Eighty percent of the 250 million monthly online housing browsers aren’t looking to buy or sell — they’re just having fun and they can’t get enough!

Enter Domicile. We’re not just riding the wave of this fascination; we’re turning it upside down. Domicile gamifies real-time MLS data, putting it in the hands of our users, who can guess on every aspect of real estate. Listing prices, selling prices, local, state and national trends, home design and architecture, even celebrity house gossip and historic homes! And we’re not stopping there. Our next move will be to let our players use their expertise to wager real money, and turn their knowledge into winnings by accurately guessing listing and selling prices and answering home-related questions. It’s a game of real estate mastery, and anyone can play!

And here’s the most exciting part. By harnessing the collective wisdom of our users, we’ll shake up the industry’s algorithmic status quo. We plan to revolutionize the way real estate insights are gathered and utilized. Domicile isn’t just an app; it’s a force to be reckoned with — a game-changer poised to come to the rescue of an industry desperate for innovation. As a seasoned agent, I’ve witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by the real estate industry. Domicile isn’t just another real estate tool. It’s a game-changer that has the potential to redefine how we approach home valuation and engagement. Agents, brokerages, appraisers, lenders, home builders — even big retailers like Home Depot and Target — will have an entirely new toolbox full of unique data to help guide their decisions. By empowering users and reshaping the landscape of real estate, we’re paving the way for a more dynamic and informed industry. Stay tuned: the future of real estate tech and housing browsing is about to get a whole lot more exciting.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My friends John and Jaye Rogovin set up a dinner with a potential investor they wanted me to meet. I was ready and raring to go, and at home that afternoon I was going over my pitch when I noticed a couple of red dots on my notes. Fast forward to a nosebleed of biblical proportions, a trip to urgent care, ongoing bleeding the medic couldn’t stop, so a trip to the hospital, and an emergency medical team stuffing my nostrils with yards of gauze. Hoo boy.

I was still bound and determined to go. My partner tried to talk some sense into me, but to no avail. So I went, looking like Jack Nicholson in “Chinatown”, and sounding like Peewee Herman in his Playhouse. I was great, a great big mess. Everybody was ever so sympathetic, and maybe I seemed a bit heroic. But a heroic mess.

Net-net, no investment, and a wasted opportunity. But live and learn: I now know that sometimes I need to hit the pause button, apologize, and live to fight another day. *Postscript: I was scheduled to go to a real estate conference in New York the day after that dinner, and while the nose-pack team was working — and while I was in mouth-breathing mode — I asked them if they thought I’d be okay to fly the next day. Call me crazy. But determined!

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I’m a lucky guy. I’ve had lots of people in my life to admire and learn from.

- Mary Crowley was the founder and CEO of a company called Home Interiors and Gifts, which sold home decor and gifts at home parties, like Mary Kay Cosmetics or Tupperware. My mom worked for Home Interiors for 20 years, and was one of its top producers. Mary was her mentor, and became one of mine. The company went from operating out of Mary’s garage in Dallas, to being acquired in 1997 for almost a billion dollars. Mary became one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her time, an example to thousands of women and men, and had a special place in her heart for my mom.

When my mother died of cancer, I was living in New York and I went through a pretty rough time, emotionally and financially. I reached out to Mary for help. I still have the letter she sent me, offering to send me $1,000 a month. She wrote, “Ed, work and develop your tremendous God-given talents and ability. I’ll be praying for you and expect to hear from you regularly, to let me know how things are going with you. God bless, keep working, and know that things will be getting better and better as the years go by.” A check for the first $1,000 was enclosed. Those checks continued until I got back on my feet. I’ve never forgotten her generosity, and I try hard to follow her lead, in business and in generosity of spirit.

- Mauricio Umansky is the founder and CEO of The Agency. He and his partners had the vision to create a brand that bursts with style and enthusiasm, and has arguably transformed the way luxury homes are marketed and sold. And he was one of Domicile’s earliest investors. There are two things that I admire him most about him:

1. In our business, there’s a lot of backbiting, but Mauricio can always find ways to like and admire our colleagues; even some who are well known louses. Mauricio reminds me of Will Rogers, the 1930’s humorist whose name is plastered all over Southern California, who famously said: “I never met a man I didn’t like”. That’s Mauricio. He finds something to like about pretty much everybody.
2. Mau is a problem solver of a very high caliber. He and I met on a deal 15 years ago, when he represented the seller of a very expensive new home in Bel Air, and I represented the buyer. The roof inspector claimed that the entire roof was installed wrong, and would need to be redone. The seller called BS and the deal was hanging by a thread. It’s a long story, but it has a positive ending. Mauricio called a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who had aerial photographs of the roof being installed, and it was done to code. Problem solved, and the deal sailed through. It was the largest residential sale in California that year, and my client has lived there very happily ever since. With no roof leaks.

To top it off, Mauricio is a great dad and a great friend. I’m a bit in awe of him. Like everybody.

- John Bates was a business professor at Lewis and Clark College, where I spent four great years. He and his wife Susan led a study trip to Europe, and I was lucky enough to be included. John and Susan came to Portland from New York City where John had a very successful career at Merrill- Lynch. They were incredible teachers: savvy and sophisticated, yet down to earth and approachable. The trip was a turning point: the time when I grew up and began to see where my life could go and the person I wanted to become.

There are lots of great stories from that trip, but my favorite is the time the group took a bus to a museum, and as we were getting off, I stepped aside so that Susan could go before me. I thought I was being chivalrous. Susan, who was and is very plain spoken and practical, looked at me with a cocked eyebrow and a faintly annoyed smile and said, “Ed, thank you, but just get off the darned bus!” I still laugh out loud when I think of that remark, but I learned an important lesson that day which has served me well, literally and metaphorically:

• I try to be polite and kind, regardless of the circumstances.
• But I take my turn when it’s due. Don’t get in my way.
• I expect others to do the same or get left behind.
• I try to always act in an efficient and practical way.

But I always keep in mind, in life and in business, that there are times when the smartest thing to do is just get off the damned bus.

Can you please share 5 ideas one needs to shake up their industry?

Five is a lot! But here goes:

1. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself, and your business. The Agency’s success and growth has been fueled by Mauricio Umansky and Billy Rose; founders with a big, expansive vision. They dreamed of a firm full of great agents and staff, all in pursuit of a common goal: to redefine the sale of real estate, especially luxury properties, in a more collaborative, innovative and engaging way. The Agency now has over 100 offices around the world and continues to evolve and grow.

I’ve reinvented myself several times: from a redheaded, freckle-faced, bike riding, choir singing kid, to acting and singing in New York City, then on to a successful career as a real estate agent in Beverly Hills. And now, as a tech entrepreneur and founder of Domicile, I intend to reinvent how real estate is searched, sold, and valued. In the process I intend to make housing-browsing more fun, and help the industry I love save itself. Each reinvention has had its challenges. I have no regrets. I’ve followed my dreams and my passions, and my life is full of excitement, surprises, and fulfillment.

2. Be ready to buck the status quo.

Like most kids, I used to ask my folks all kinds of “why” questions. Sometimes they’d engage with me, and sometimes they’d just say “Because Ed, that’s just the way it is”. But sometimes “the way it is” can evolve into “the way it was”. Domicile bucks the status quo of algorithmic valuations, by turning passive browsers into involved players. Here are a few of my heroes who bucked the system:

• Galileo looked up into space and logically determined that the sun does not revolve around the earth. It’s the other way around, of course. But in the 16th Century, that was a mind-blowing discovery that changed the way people thought about our universe.
• Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Carousel and The King and I. Their first show together was Oklahoma. It combined songs and ballet with a serious plot, and a main character was killed off in Act II. Unheard of! Before Oklahoma, musicals were usually just fluff — entertainment to amuse tired businessmen and their wives. During out-of-town tryouts, people in-the-know were sure it was a stinkeroo. “No legs, no jokes, no chance!” was the word on the street. It opened to rave reviews and big box office. The word on the street changed to “No tickets!” 80 years later, shows as different as Hamilton, Wicked and Sweeney Todd are still using the R&H formula.
• Rosa Parks decided she’d had enough. She didn’t give up her seat on the bus on December 1, 1955, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott was born. Lyndon Johnson was able to push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress partly because of Rosa’s courage that day.

Robert F. Kennedy said “Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’ “.

I see Zillow’s Zestimates and ask: Why not Domicile?

3. Collaborate. It’s okay to acknowledge when someone else has a better idea or plan than you do. They do. The Agency is a prime example of how collaboration can lead to bigtime success. Collaboration has been key to my success in real estate, and continues to be as Domicile evolves. My co-workers, my investors, my family and my friends have all contributed great ideas that wouldn’t have occurred to me, and I’ve built on those ideas. No collaboration? No Domicile: Game of Homes.

4. Stay informed! Read, research, ask questions, be ready to give answers, get involved with your colleagues. As an example, it’s no secret that the real estate business has changed dramatically over the past ten or fifteen years. Social media, Zillow/Redfin, online info, “fake” news, and most recently the disturbing and baffling actions of the National Association of Realtors in settling a lawsuit that should never have been a challenge to win They’ve created all kinds of new opportunities, as well as some big challenges, and as with almost anything, knowledge is the ultimate tool. Understanding the dynamics of the old paradigm is crucial for crafting solutions and navigating the new terrain effectively. After all, informed decisions can pave the way for groundbreaking shifts in every industry.

5. Persevere. The odds may not be great, but in order to do much of anything, you gotta stick to it. The journey can seem just too doggone hard, but if you keep on keeping on, it usually gets easier. Keeping on doesn’t always mean following the exact same path, though. Being flexible is paramount: circumstances change, national organizations screw up (yes NAR, I’m talking about you), so being adaptable is critical. As is being patient.

One of my earliest listings was a fabulous fixer in a prime location in Beverly Hills, north of Sunset Boulevard. A center hall Colonial, just like the ones I had drawn in church! I got the six month listing through pluck, force of will, and a pretty postcard saying how effective I’d been at selling another white elephant nearby. The very rich sellers liked me a lot, and were in a position to help my career by referring me to their friends.

I brought the sellers seventeen offers, three of which they accepted. Each time, the buyers would back out after inspections. They’d fall in love with the great style, architecture and prime location, then pull out once they realized how much time and money would be required to restore the house. Plus it was a down market, and very few buyers were taking any chances. And the sellers were too stubborn on the price. I was getting pretty discouraged.

I went to the head of my company (a former brokerage at the time) and had a heart-to-heart chat. And he gave me the single worst piece of advice I’ve ever had. He told me that if it was that stressful, just give up the listing for a while, but stay in touch with the sellers and you’ll get it back. WRONG! There were a lot of things he might have suggested: switch up the marketing; bring in a colleague to share the listing; go away for the weekend. Relax! Stick with it. Persevere!

The sellers (who were completely willing to leave the listing with me) immediately hired a different agent who talked them into slightly reducing the price, and who was so lax that if an agent called her to show the house, she’d tell them they could pick up the key at her front desk.

It sold within three weeks. So after I briefly considered slashing my wrists, I changed companies. And got busy selling other houses.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Domicile is still in its infancy. Our next step is to up our game by adding Skilled Gaming wagering, as I mentioned before, and upgrade the Home Games feature to be more interactive and visual. But the company slogan is “Domicile: It Means Home.” Which of course it does, and not just in English. The French say le domicile, the Germans; domizil, the Italians and Spanish speakers; domicilio. And they all evolved from the Latin word domus, which means home. I believe that Domicile will be a household word, and the preeminent brand in all-things-home, all over the world.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking?

Whenever I need a dose of inspiration, I tune in to “How I Built This.” It’s like diving into a treasure trove of entrepreneurial wisdom. Two episodes that really struck a chord with me? Kevin Systrom & Mike Kreiger’s Instagram journey and Steve Kaufer’s Tripadvisor saga. Despite huge challenges, they both became globally recognized brands.

One common theme of both episodes is that those founders never imagined that their businesses would have a social element. Since I envision Domicile evolving into a comprehensive “home” platform, maybe even the “Facebook of Real Estate, “ their stories inspire me and fuel my ambition and creativity.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Mary Crowley: “Be somebody. God doesn’t take time to make a nobody”. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are. All human beings have unique skills and talents. Use yours. Stay curious. Nurture friendships. Work hard. Be of service. Grow.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

You know, I’ve been thinking lately about starting a movement called “Make Courtesy Common.” In my lifetime, the general tone of society has changed. And not for the better. So much of being courteous is just common sense. My dad used to say, “Hey Ed, don’t take your half out of the middle.” In other words, take your share, but don’t take part of somebody else’s, too.

Take for instance: you’re waiting for an elevator. When the door opens, why not let folks off before barging in? It’s just respectful, plain and simple. And it makes sense! If you accidentally cut someone off in traffic and they honk, there’s no need to be a jerk about it — just give them a little wave to say “sorry dude”! Holding the door for someone is another easy one. It’s like saying, “Hey, I see you there, and I’m happy to help out.” And of course, if someone holds the door for you, a quick “thanks” goes a long way.

It’s not that hard, folks. Courtesy is collaboration at its most basic. So, let’s get back to basics and make the world a bit nicer for everyone.

How can our readers follow you online?

On Instagram I’m @edwardfitzla and Domicile is @domicile.game.of.homes

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!