Ben Bandari - Inside Dubai’s Real-Estate Gold Rush: Million Dollar Listing Star Explains the Boom

Full transcript: Ben Bandari on London Real

2:59 Brian Rose: This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Ben Bandari, one of Dubai’s most influential real estate power players, top selling broker and featured star and executive producer of Million-Dollar Listing UAE. You arrived in Dubai more than 20 years ago with just a few hundred dollars and went on to build one of the city’s most successful real estate empires responsible for over 20 billion dirhams or 4 billion pounds in completed transactions.

3:26 From surviving market crashes to dominating the luxury sector, you’ve helped define what success looks like in Dubai property. Today, we’re speaking directly to viewers around the world who want to understand how to buy real estate in Dubai, the exact steps to invest safely, how to separate good developers from risky ones, which payment plans make sense, and the red flags most buyers miss. Ben, welcome to London Real in Dubai.

3:53 Ben Bandari: Wow, thank you. What an introduction.

3:55 Brian Rose: Amazing. Amazing. Thank you. Yeah. Well, let’s jump in, because I am starting to fall in love with this city and I’m also in the market and so even if the cameras were broken, I’m still going to be really finding everything in your brain because I really find this whole place fascinating and the real estate is something I don’t know enough about.

4:13 So maybe I’ll just jump in. How did Depay Dubai become one of the top five real estate markets in the world? And what makes it different from London where I’m from to Miami to Singapore?

4:26 Ben Bandari: Well, first off, I think it’s the safety and the security within this city. I mean, you can have your wife, your daughter walk in the middle of the street, outside at midnight, 1:00 a.m., 2:00 a.m.

4:39 You don’t have to worry about a thing. The safety and the security is next level. You won’t find it anywhere in the world. That’s first. How did Dubai become the top one of the top five cities within the world?

4:52 I think it’s just there’s many factors. Since the introduction of freehold back in 2020 2021 This city had a plan. His Highness and the leadership, they had a vision to basically attract foreign investment to bring basically expats here and to basically expand the culture, the tourism and the city itself, and they’ve done a great job. I mean, I’ve seen it all, right from the beginning from 2002 up until today. When I first came here in 2002, it was virtually impossible.

5:30 It was, you know, I was going back every year visiting my family in Canada. I’m originally from Canada, Vancouver, Canada. And people wouldn’t see me for a year. I’d go to the gym and they’re like, “Oh, Ben, where where have you been?” Right?

5:42 And I’m like, “I’ve gone to a city, a country, UAE, Dubai.” And they’re like, “Where is that?” No one had heard of it, right? And I’d go back every year and every year I’d go back. They’re like, “Oh, yeah.

5:52 That’s that place where they’re building those man-made islands. Oh, isn’t that where they’re building the world’s tallest tower?” So, I think His Highness, he really, he’s just created a marketing machine. The PR, the marketing, you know, he’s just done such a great job with the entire city. I mean, the leadership from the very top level, from the UAE, from Abu Dhabi, the entire country.

6:12 It’s just, I mean, I think you live here. You, it’s, it just, you have to come here. You have to see it. You have to experience it to believe it. Yeah.

6:22 You have to feel it. You have to feel it.

6:24 Brian Rose: I heard someone say that the Burj, you know, the Burj Khalifa as a project might not make money, but as a marketing asset, it’s brought so much money into this country and so many eyeballs. And if you add up everything that it brought up in value, it’s probably done an incredible return. Absolutely.

6:40 Ben Bandari: I mean, the world’s tallest tower, everyone’s talking about it. I have people because I used to sell, I sold about 48 units in the Burj Khalifa back in, it was postco, so that’s another story. I was on the verge of going bankrupt. I decided to specialize on a property, so I’m like, you know what, I’ll start selling the most difficult property in the world where no one can have access to because it’s literally, it’s a guarded. You have security, you have 11 CIDs constantly, the whole building is being monitored 24/7.

7:15 So I’m like, you know what? I’ll work somewhere where no one has access to, right? And then I’d have clients from all over the world, like high net worth individuals, and they would just buy a unit just to tell people and bragging rights, I own a unit in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, right? And they would come here maybe 2, three days out of the year, stay in it, not even stay in it, go to a hotel, but just for the sake of saying that I own a piece of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower.

7:44 Yeah. And we’re seeing a lot of billionaires and a lot of other high net worth people bring their families here, invest in properties, but I’m sure these people have choices, right? It’s, you know, London, we have our own issues right now, you know, Miami or Singapore or other places. I mean, how do those compare or is there no comparison, because also the tax treatment and there’s everything else.

8:04 Ben Bandari: I I mean there’s really no comparison.

8:06 You have 1,000 families moving to Dubai weekly. Not 1,000 people, 1,000 families. I mean, you can feel it in the streets when you’re driving. I mean, it’s every hour is now rush hour. The streets are packed, right?

8:22 Brian Rose: You’re feeling it. Yeah, I’m feeling it for sure.

8:25 Ben Bandari: It’s just everyone from I have people, because I’m originally from Canada, right? We have, I have so many friends, family from Canada, US, especially with everything that’s happening around the world. Everybody’s looking to come here.

8:38 Everyone’s looking to move here because of tax reasons, because of safety, because of security, because of crime, because they want to park their money somewhere safe as well. There’s so many factors. I mean, the list goes on. We can just sit here till tomorrow morning.

8:51 Brian Rose: Somebody once told me that, like, every time there’s a crisis in the world, people move to Dubai, right?

8:56 So, Russian Ukraine war, people move. COVID. People move. Taxes get worse in London. People move.

9:03 Ben Bandari: It’s like whenever there’s a crisis, the Arab Spring, right? People move. The wars. I’ve experienced so many wars within the regions. I’ve been here since 2002.

9:11 Brian Rose: You saw that?

9:12 Ben Bandari: Yeah. And then for a couple days, for a week, everyone’s like, “Oh, wow. Oh my god. Oh, what?

9:17 Middle East. It’s crazy. There’s a war.” And then what happens? Everyone moves to Dubai.

9:22 Ben Bandari: The money pours in because of the safety, because of the security, because of the stability, and because it’s a safe haven.

9:29 Brian Rose: Reminds me of that word, antifragile, you know, that comes from that book I think by Taleb where, when you know something gets shocked, a system gets stronger. Yes. And when the world gets shocked, it’s like Dubai wins every time because people finally realize it. They move here and they show up and they’re like, “Wow, not what I thought it was.”

9:47 Great analogy. Yeah. Talk about the biggest misconceptions, because my dad lives in San Diego, California. And when I’m over here, I’m like, “Dad, you got to come here.” And he’s like, “Well, aren’t you worried about, you’re next to Iran and aren’t the Israel’s doing this and this?”

10:00 And I’m like, “Dad, you know, there was a school shooting last weekend in America. We don’t talk about that, right? We don’t talk about the border crisis. We don’t talk about. That’s normal in the US.

10:09 I know the fires away.” Like, they conveniently ignore that and then they look this on the map and they assume a lot of things about. Is that something you have to deal with international investors or people that are just unsure?

10:24 Ben Bandari: I mean, initially when we were marketing back in the early days, yes. Dubai, oh, Middle East, you know, I would fly to actually once, my ex-wife is Persian.

10:34 She’s Iranian. And we flew to LAX and she has Iranian passport. So once we got to the security point, they’re like, made a big fuss. You know, she’s got a little bow on her hair. She’s like all makeup and security, security.

10:49 They pulled us over and they’re just like, “Where are you coming from? This from Dubai.” “Oh, you guys have real estate there.” “Oh, you sell houses. What do you do?

10:57 You have houses there? Where do you guys live?” You know, it was just like it was crazy the questions that they would ask. I was just so ignorant. But now I think since COVID and post-COVID, now the entire world, because you had so many influences moving from the UK from all around the world where everything was so where it was closed and shut down and people were living freely over here you know because the government had initiated so well after post-COVID and they had basically, they had random checkups, they had basically they had cleaned the city.

11:33 And people were partying in the clubs, you know, doing business like everyday, you know, enjoying their everyday life while people were basically locked up in their apartments just, you know, sitting on Netflix, stars play, scrolling on their Instagram and social media and watching basically Dubai move forward. That was a big moment for Dubai and moment and a good moment for you as well. Co.

11:57 Ben Bandari: Yeah, because after that, you know, we’ve had an influx of people from all over the world.

12:02 They realized you know how great the leadership is over here and you know we sell properties and we sell real estate so it’s, it was, it’s been great for business. Okay. It’s been amazing. Yeah.

12:13 Brian Rose: For people that don’t live here, what’s kind of some of the areas in Dubai and what are the things that you think are most exciting?

12:20 Right now you and I are downtown. We’re kind of near the Burj Khalifa. This is where a lot of businesses but a lot of highrises are Dubai Mall. It’s happening more of an urban center. I live up at the Address Beach Resort, which overlooks, I think, where you live on the Palm.

12:35 Yeah. And that’s the man-made island and that’s this whole more of a beacher beach vibe up there, I would say. Then of course we’ve got this new Palm called Jebel Ali, which is kind of further towards Abu Dhabi and then there’s rumors the airport’s going to be maybe located further over there. So how do you first advise people as far as what you think is are great areas to be in? Right.

12:57 So Dubai has something for everyone, right? This, like you said, this is downtown. You’ve got DIFC, you’ve got the Dubai International Financial Center and where all the bankers are just next door. Palm Jumeirah, which is where I live. I have an office as well.

13:11 It is beach resort kind of living, but it’s also family because you have parks, you have restaurants, you have hotels, you have pretty much everything over there. And then you have Emirates Hills, the Dubai Hills, which is kind of like the Beverly Hills of Dubai. So you’ve got the high net worth individuals who have their mansions and then you’ve got the affordable housing as well. So there’s pockets all throughout Dubai. But Dubai has something for everyone.

13:38 Okay. And that’s the beauty of Dubai as well. Everyone is kind of meshed and lives together. It’s not like the US where you have Beverly Hills and then you have like Compton and Watts. Right.

13:53 Brian Rose: Right. Right. And is Dubai going to run out of space? I always ask myself that. Or is there just still plenty of building opportunities?

14:03 Ben Bandari: I, it’s, I mean that’s up to the leadership. It’s and how they basically release. There’s plenty of land. But I think they have a strategy. Obviously they don’t want to release everything all at once.

14:17 It’s supply and demand at the same time. The real estate market is being controlled as well. I think they learned from the subprime market back in 2008 2009. There’s a lot of policies that were implemented as well within the Dubai Lands Department and RERA for example, the escrow accounts where investors basically when they’re buying off plan properties they pay money and the money goes into the government accounts so that money is not being distributed and paid directly to the developer.

14:48 So everything’s being monitored, making sure that the developers are building what they’re promising the clients. So it’s more of a regulated market now than what it was back when the market had initially started. It was more cowboy times.

15:03 Brian Rose: Yeah, it was right. You didn’t know if the money you would put to deposit for a property, you might never see it again.

15:10 Ben Bandari: It was crazy. Like developers and everyone would just jump if anyone who had money would jump on the opportunity. For example, they’d go buy a parcel of land. They’d launch a project and then there was no escrow account. So clients, investors, end users would pay their money directly to the developers accounts, right?

15:28 Developers accounts would take that money and then they’d go and buy another parcel of land. Okay? Right? So instead of building, they were just doubling down and buying more land and just launching more projects, like speculating themselves, speculating style. You can imagine when 2008 when the subprime happened, right?

15:49 And these developers had to basically build, you know, a lot of them couldn’t. So it was, I mean, it’s a learning curve because it was a very, it was a very, it was a premature market. Right. Right. It was a very, it was in the infant stages.

16:07 Now it’s much more mature. It’s regulated. You know, the government is overlooking everything. It’s the safest market actually within the Middle East and the MENA region right now.

16:18 Brian Rose: A lot of people see it growing.

16:20 They see the buildings. They see everybody moving here. And of course, they’re asking you the million-dollar question. Is the bubble going to burst? Is 2026 going to be the time where real estate prices come off after I think they’ve been going up for seven or eight years?

16:35 What do you say?

16:36 Ben Bandari: I would say I’ve been hearing this for the last 23 4 years. Is the bubble going to burst? I mean in 2008, the whole world basically burst there, right? It was, is it waso it was unavoidable because of the subprime because of the US and all markets are obviously linked together but look, I think all the Dubai has I don’t see it going down.

17:02 I don’t see any bubble. I don’t see it bursting. It’s good value for money compared to all the other major cities in the world, the other four, five, 10 major cities in the world, you compare it, London compared to Los Angeles. everywhere it’s good value for money. Still good value still.

17:19 So you spend that $2 million or $3 million, the equivalent you’re going to get in a Miami, LA, Singapore, London, it’s not going to be the same spec. Buy double, the double, the area. Double. Right. Yeah.

17:31 Brian Rose: And you get the safety and the tax treatment and all these other perks on top of lifestyle, right?

17:36 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Which I think is the most important thing. Lifestyle in Dubai. Yeah.

17:40 Brian Rose: No, I think that too. I’ve been in the financial markets for a long time and you know, look, market cycles make sense, but this is such a new phenomenon here. It’s such an undiscovered gem and even though now a lot of people have heard of Dubai and now, you know, the Beyoncé comes here and the rabbit still very few Americans as a percentage have been here. You know, what percent? 1% you know, still a lot of people don’t know, right?

18:06 Or haven’t experienced it. But I mean what is what is the, I think there’s a, the statistic is like 50% of Americans only have passports.

18:14 Ben Bandari: Yeah, it’s low. right, I mean US is a world itself.

18:17 Brian Rose: Yeah, true, and also in the with global taxation, it’s that it doesn’t have that extra perk for coming here.

18:24 So, I think there’s been a fewer Yanks coming through. But the UK, look, I’m in London now and I spent the last 20-some years of my life there. I fell in love with that city back in 2002 when I moved there permanently. I always joke, I love the city so much. I named my show after it.

18:39 I ran to be mayor of London. My kids were born there and I used to say I was going to be, I was going to be buried there. But it’s just changed so much that I’m just frustrated when I’m there now because you’re living in a country in decline. And when I’m here, you’re in a country on the up. And I just see so many amazing opportunities here, plus the culture.

19:03 It’s this place is full of hustlers and people that do things and I love that type of energy and I don’t feel it in these major cities where a lot of people feel like they’re kind of collecting a check. The infrastructure is going down and, look, I think America’s having a resurgence now, but for most of Europe I think it’s going to continue grinding down for the next 20 30 years. I agree. And so this place is super attractive in that sense and it just feels good.

19:29 Ben Bandari: It’s not only that it’s yes. It’s the energy, but this country is built on respect as well. Yeah. There’s zero tolerance, you know. It’s not like back home where you and I are from, you know.

19:43 It’s, and there’s a misconception. A lot of people they come here thinking that it’s the UK or it’s US and Canada and then they quickly find out that it’s not. They do the wrong things and you get punished. Yeah. You get reminded real quick.

19:59 You get reminded real quick. do that. And you know, people have the wrong conceptions about it. And I always say for that’s what I love about this country to be honest with you. That’s why I live here.

21:12 Okay. Because the respect. Because of the respect. Because you know, I grew up in Canada when I was very young. I was born and raised in Canada.

21:18 Middle Eastern, you know, heritage, descent. I was different than all the other children. I was bullied as a child. I was picked on. I was beat up, you know.

21:27 So, I grew up going through all this. And then just, you know, people asked me, “Would you go back? Would you ever go back to Canada?” And when I first came here, people asked me, this was 2002. Why?

21:38 Why did you come from Canada to the UAE? People, everyone wants to go to Canada. And I’m just like, you know what? I’m just, it’s, I’m done. I’m done with that.

21:50 And then you come here and you see everyone respects you. People treat you, talk to you with respect. They, and the Arab culture, they respect the women. They put them on their head like a crown. Yeah.

22:02 Brian Rose: That surprises most Westerners. I remember when I went to get my golden visa, I had to go downtown to one of the government offices and there was the men’s line and the women’s line and I was like, damn, they get their own line. And I remember there was no one in the women’s line and yet I still had to wait in the men’s line and then the front parking spaces were for women. And it’s like if you’re a woman here like just you know the safety and then just the treatment and respect.

22:26 It’s like people assume cuz we’re in the Middle East that there’s this certain relationship. No, you’re a queen and you can do whatever you want and no one’s going to mess with you. Now I don’t know what it’s like for a woman to get cat called at 2 in the morning, but I see what happens in London and in the hooligans and stuff like that. And look, sometimes when there’s a football game on in London, like I don’t want to be in the tube that day, you know?

22:46 It’s like I’d rather not. It’s just drama. So, I think women are always like completely surprised.

22:53 Ben Bandari: Absolutely. And then like you got to be respectful.

22:56 Brian Rose: You know, I got here late, and I was checking into my place at the Address and the agent wasn’t there and I started to get a little bit angry and I was like, “Check yourself. This is not London.”

23:06 Ben Bandari: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

23:07 Keep it respectful. Absolutely. There’s no swearing. You’re not allowed to swear here. You can’t give anyone the birdie, you know, you’re straight to jail.

23:13 It’s like, you know, which is it’s, you know, you I respect this, you know, and it keeps me in line as well. Yeah. Yeah. That too as well. That’s the most important thing.

23:23 Brian Rose: Yeah. It’s got a lot of nice things that, you know, you see, you don’t see here that everywhere else it is. You know, in the US there’s a liquor store every corner. There’s a strip club here and there. It’s just all real low energy stuff and it starts to drag you down.

23:36 And then here it’s like, no, it’s respect. And then family and if you have kids like everybody dotes on your kids like when you’re here you take them to the pool everybody’s just you know the kids get all the you know treatment everybody loves you it’s just that vibe. Absolutely. You mentioned something earlier called off plan. And this is something I don’t ever hear talked about in other cities but it’s something that’s a staple of Dubai and it’s another one of these options to buy.

23:59 And tell me what that is specifically. I guess it’s buying something that isn’t built yet, that’s like a something that’s going to be built in the future and by doing so you can get it at a discounted price, and is that something that a lot of your clients look to buy?

24:13 Ben Bandari: Absolutely. Absolutely. Because as you know, Dubai and the UAE as a country is generally very, very young.

24:18 And then over the last 20 years it’s so in the US and Canada they call it pre-construction sales. Yeah. And off plan, what buying off plan means is that you’re buying directly from the developer which is building. So it’s a lot of the investors and people from abroad, cash flow is an issue because obviously they can’t get mortgage as well. So they’re paying on a payment plan.

24:42 Right. Right. And then all developers they have different payment plans. So developers which obviously have a higher demand, such as for example, I can, I’ll name a few of them like Emaar, Damac, some of the older old school developers their payment plans are a little more aggressive so it’s either 70/30 or 80/20 so that means that you pay 80% during the construction and you pay the balance 20% on handover. Okay.

25:06 And then you have some of the newer developers who’ve just entered the market because they want to ride the real estate boom and obviously the market’s on fire. They have to give a more attractive payment plan. So some of the developers, they go as low as 20/80. So, for example, you pay 20% and then you pay the balance 80% when the property’s handed over, which also is high risk as well because that means that the developer or the private developer has to pay from their own pocket rather than pay from escrow and the buyer’s capital and funds which are going through, a risk of non-completion.

25:46 Noncompletion. Yeah. Or if anything happens, God forbid, if they go dry or if there’s finance, there’s an issue, then there’s going to be delays with the project or the project could be stalled and then it has to go to RERA and then RERA has to basically evaluate everything goes to the courts and they look for other investors to come take over the project. So there’s many factors. Okay.

26:06 Brian Rose: Do you have a lot of your clients buying off plans? Oh yeah. Okay. Anybody from abroad? There’s then there’s that inherent leverage if you’re doing that, cuz you’re paying on a payment plan, smaller amounts.

26:18 Ben Bandari: Anyone from abroad. Yeah. The whole world is buying property in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, even now Ras Al Khaimah, because now you have the casino coming up over here. You have the Wynn Hotel. Yeah, man.

26:28 We have buyers from all corners of the world which you’ve never seen before. Really? From Venezuela, from Brazil.

26:36 Brian Rose: Why is that?

26:37 Ben Bandari: They’re comfortable with real estate because they’ve had it in their portfolio and yet they see this as a great way to kind of leverage that.

26:46 Yeah. I mean, look, every buyer, every investor has their own reasons, right? They want to get money out of their country, tax purposes, want to relocate to Dubai. They want their kids to maybe study a few years down the road, go to university over here, you know. Okay.

27:03 Everyone has a different reason.

27:05 Brian Rose: Okay. And you’re seeing interest from everywhere now. All over the world. Is that because every six months it just proves itself again, proves itself again, and Dubai is still here.

27:13 It’s still growing and after a while people just say, every month it’s, you look at the Dubai Lands Department reports, it’s month on month, it’s just like it’s, they’re, it’s beating its own record. The sales is just crazy. It’s insane.

27:27 Brian Rose: You mentioned the recordkeeping, cuz I’m at the Address Beach resort and I was asking about some of the two bedrooms and checking some prices out and a real estate broker, she sent me a screenshot of the exact prices that everything had had traded at over the last 6 months.

27:43 And I’m not aware that that’s easily accessible in a lot of cities in the world. In London, I don’t know if you could find it. Really? Or find something that was I don’t know that was in real time and felt like it was absolutely correct. Right?

27:58 And I’m know is Dubai just ahead of the curve when it comes to digitized information and accurate.

28:05 Ben Bandari: Yeah. This came into effect a few years back, actually. As you mentioned, from 2002 up until I think, co everything, it was like a bit of a cowboys market. There was no data whatsoever.

28:17 But now the Lands Department are releasing and you have tools like Property Monitor, for example, which you can subscribe to. So us real estate brokers we have access to this data. So when you’re when you bump into a client such as yourself at the beach or you’re talking to someone, yes, you can just download all the files or the transactions in that building or in that community, send it over, and it’s the best way to show the clients that you know what you’re talking about as well.

28:45 So yes, that data is very easily accessible to even end users and investors.

28:51 Brian Rose: That’s nice. Yeah, because yeah, whenever I’ve looked in London, I always, I usually just get more talk usually like here are the exact prices and this what’s going on. I see. What are the big red flags that people should be aware of when investing in Dubai and even other Emirates property?

29:13 Ben Bandari: Big flags, I would say, firstly, get yourself a good real estate broker. Make sure that your real estate broker is RERA registered as well. Which means that basically everything is being regulated. So if, for example, if anything does go wrong and a lot can go wrong within the city, but then you have someone and something to fall back on. You can go to the authorities, and that person or that broker and agent is liable for their actions.

29:42 Because you know, in this city now, everyone’s jumping on the real estate bandwagon. You have taxi drivers, you have zofurs, you have everyone basically becoming a real estate broker and not being registered as well. So they’ll offer you real estate. Everyone’s just basically trying to make the quick buck, the quick, the quick commission. And then you know things sometimes do go wrong as well.

30:11 Brian Rose: Okay. So, make sure they’re registered.

30:13 Ben Bandari: Yeah. If they’re not registered, then there’s really nothing you can do. You can go file a case in the police, but then Good luck.

30:18 Brian Rose: Okay. So, that’s the start. What about developers? And when you’re evaluating certain things, are there ways to check on that or should your broker help you with that or?

30:27 Ben Bandari: That’s why you pick a good real estate broker.

30:29 But look, I would always tell my investors and my buyers that always look at a developer’s track record as well. Look at their history. Look at their track record. Look to see which buildings and what they’ve developed in the past. We’ve got a lot of developers from Australia, from Canada, from the US, from Latvia, all over Europe coming here setting up shop doesn’t mean anything.

30:51 Brian Rose: Okay. Right. Yeah.

30:52 Ben Bandari: So you know if you, that’s why you have the developers and the likes of basically selling out Damac, you know, when they launch projects, it sells out within hours. I think Damac had a record, 10 billion, and it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as well.

31:11 They just announced it two nights back, 10 billion within 24 hours and it’s because of name reputation and because of you know, handing over and delivering. So most of those buyers are actually repeat buyers and customers, clients buying their second, third property with the developers, right? Yeah. They have big names here. Yeah.

31:29 And they have their names all over the buildings. It’s crazy.

31:32 Brian Rose: And so even if I’m a newbie to this, I see a everywhere and I see the Damac buildings and you know I see him in the White House and I’m just like okay you know you know you hear and you see and yeah, you know that there’s some real legitimacy there.

31:45 Ben Bandari: Absolutely. So be very aware of that.

31:47 Right. Absolutely. And they have credibility as well.

31:51 Brian Rose: Okay. How do you deal with all the wannabe brokers?

31:55 Because you’re in a crazy space. Yeah. Where, like you said, everyone in their mother thinks they can do what you do, which is unlike, I would say, any other profession in this city where a construction worker, you need some skills. Maybe everyone wants to do my job now, too. But how do you deal with that?

32:11 Because, you know, again, people are flying in all the time and they just think, I’m just going to go do this thing. They see, you know, the real estate influencers online and we’ll talk about you later and they think, “I’m gonna make easy money.” Yeah. They watch these real estate reality shows, right? Yeah.

32:26 Exactly. Which we’ll get to.

32:28 Ben Bandari: Yeah. How do we deal with them? Look, so I have a real estate company, Benco Realy.

32:34 We’ve got 70 salespeople as well. We don’t just hire anyone. We get about, I think, over a hundred a week. People sending their CVs, messaging me directly. For me it’s all about integrity.

32:51 It’s all about empathy. Dealing with your clients. It’s not a short-term business. It’s a long-term relationship. I tell all my staff as well.

33:00 My first client from 23 years back is still my client today, right? So, there’s always going to be good brokers. There’s always going to be bad brokers as well in the market. At the end of the day, like I said, do your research, find a good broker, and make sure that that person is going to take hold your hand and take care of you. We have, I have a lot of investors.

33:25 I have a lot of people that reach out to me and they just, you know, they, Ben, we’ve been offered this by a real estate broker. What do you think? I’ll give them my honest opinion. I’ll say, “Yeah, go for it.” You know, that real estate broker actually, you know, gave you a good investment opportunity.

33:41 You should definitely go for it. Right, then I have a lot of investors that contact me and they say, “Ben, we’ve been offered this. We want to basically go through you because we know you’re going to take care of us.” Right? And I’ll tell them, “Listen, this is not a good investment opportunity.”

33:56 I could easily take them to the developer. They wanted to buy that. They’ve been pitched it. They’ve been sold that, right? And I can easily make the money and just walk away.

34:04 But then what? Couple years down the road, they’re going to be like, “Ben sold me that property. All you have is your reputation. Right. Exactly.

34:14 I want to put my head on my pillow and sleep comfortably at night. I don’t want, I don’t want my investors, my clients basically saying, “Oh, that damn Ben, you know, he sold me that shitty property and you know, now I lost money on it.” So, I’ll turn away clients. I’ll tell him straight up, don’t buy that property. It’s not a good investment.

34:34 Brian Rose: You’re thinking 20 years from now.

34:36 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Is what you’re thinking, a year or two years, because I know that client will come back and he’ll appreciate the advice that I give him. Whereas a lot of people come here in a transition type of vibe, I’ll make some quick money and go home. Oh, they’ll sell me anything, right?

34:48 They’ll take them directly to developers who offer 8 to 10% commission as well. These are some of the developers that don’t have the marketing, don’t have the name, don’t have the reputation, don’t have the track record, and they’re desperate to sell their properties. So these are the brokers that will end up taking the clients to those developers and they’ll misguide them. They’ll give them misinformation. They won’t, obviously they don’t, they don’t care about the relationship.

35:17 They just want to make the quick buck, close the sale, and move on to the next client. It’s unfortunate.

35:23 Brian Rose: Yeah. But it does happen in the market. I mean in London we call them estate agents and they don’t have a good rep.

35:30 Ben Bandari: Typically, I mean it’s everywhere around the world. It’s like we’re compared to used cars salesman as well, right?

35:35 Brian Rose: Yes. Yes. And it’s a tricky thing cuz you really have to try to think long term in something that only rewards you once every few years.

35:42 But if you do have a good experience, you go back to that person. I worked in the city of London for a while as a derivatives broker between all these institutions. So I had clients at the end of the day for like eight or nine years. And you have to really think about how you’re gonna do business because you know there’s you know you’re just gonna kill yourself if you try to burn things for quick returns. Like people are looking for someone that they can inherently trust, and when you can do that, like you build a great business.

36:10 Absolutely. Yeah, it’s, it must be tricky to navigate with all those people coming in here.

36:15 Ben Bandari: Yeah. But I mean we, it’s our business is a bit different. It’s referral, it’s relationships.

36:21 So, service is number one, after service obviously is very important, is integrity is keeping that relationship with our clients. Our clients, when our clients are happy, then they refer other clients to us as well. I don’t do much marketing besides being on a TV show. But when I first started my company, I didn’t have these property portals like Property Finder, Bayut, Dubizzle, you know, I was just a one-man team and I was basically just wheeling and dealing and just off my referrals and relationships and then when I started scaling and I started hiring people, you know, they started requesting these tools.

36:58 Ben, we need Property Finder, we need Bayut, we need online presence, you know, we need to start using social media. So, I’m more of a dinosaur. I’m like old school. But then I’m like, yeah, we need to be, we need to be up to date with the times, right? So now we do have social media presence.

37:17 We are on all the property portals and I needed these tools when if I was to scale and I was to grow my team and now, thank God, alhamdulillah, 3 years back, two years back, we were, it was just me and my wife. Today we’re 70 plus and soon we’ll be 100.

37:31 Brian Rose: Okay. And you embrace the tech, but you don’t rely on the tech. Personally, I don’t.

37:36 Okay. It’s still about personal relationship. It’s personal relationships.

37:39 Ben Bandari: Yes. The way best business is done.

37:41 And I tell my team as well. I’m like, there’s only so much you can do off the tech. You have a property on Property Finder on Bayut. You get the lead. That buyer is going to deal with 10 other real estate brokers as well, right?

37:58 So, you need to basically set yourself apart and differentiate yourself than the other real estate brokers as well.

38:05 Brian Rose: Yeah. Yeah. So I used to tell the kids on my desk is. You know, you sell yourself first and then you sell the product.

38:13 Ben Bandari: 100%. Yeah. And that’s what people, they want to deal with someone they can trust that they like that goes out of their way gives them the extra mile. You know and you remember that. 100%.

38:22 It’s like going to the mall. Right? Who likes to go shopping in the mall by themselves? No one. I like to go with my wife.

38:28 I like to go with my friends. We like to, you know, mingle, sit down, have food, talk. You’re shopping. It’s the same when you go shopping and looking for properties as well. Right?

38:38 Brian Rose: Yeah. Yeah. Keep that personal. Let’s talk about you becoming super famous now as a social media influencer. Million-Dollar Listing really blew up last year.

38:50 You’ve also got season 2 coming soon. I may or may not have seen the trailer and it might have looked pretty, pretty cool. Tell me about this show, maybe the history of it and how you were able to land that in Dubai because that’s a big deal and then the success which I think shocked everybody.

39:11 Ben Bandari: Absolutely. So, Million-Dollar Listing, UAE, it’s a US franchise as you may know of.

39:17 There’s Million-Dollar Listing Los Angeles who started 15 years back. Then you had New York, with Ryan Serhant, which was 11 years of success as well. And then you had other franchises. We’re the first franchise outside of the US. So we’re the first international franchise and because of our success now there’s a Million-Dollar Listing India as well.

39:40 Okay. Which came out just last year and they’re on season 2 right now.

39:44 Brian Rose: Okay. Did London miss the boat?

39:46 Ben Bandari: Well, from what I’ve heard there’s going to, they’re in talks for a Million-Dollar Listing Europe.

39:51 Okay. A country. I’m not sure exactly what it is. Okay. or which country it is, but floodgates. Now, people are starting to look at the franchise, okay, in other countries.

41:04 But, no, it’s been a blessing. It’s been great. I actually was a big fan of the show. I was watching it. And you know, I had missed the whole social media trend.

41:17 I saw my competitors and people came into the market after me. blow up and they set up companies. And I was like, man, why is this show not here? Right? We have some of the best properties in the world.

41:31 We’ve got the world’s tallest tower. We’ve got man-made islands. The market here is pretty crazy as well. You’ve got a lot of real estate drama, right? And so, you know, a Million-Dollar Listing UAE would be like the most perfect fit.

41:46 And so, that was back in 2015. And I was knocking on a lot of doors, looking for sponsors, looking for just someone who believed in it and who would just take it and run with it. A lot of rejection, 5 years, and it was actually a full-time job. It was like it really hampered my real estate business because I knew that this was the one. I knew that if this, if someone bit or if someone believed in this and ran with it that this would propel my career and it would be an instant hit.

42:25 So back, right, it was pre-COVID I mean it was a cold call, His Excellency in Abu Dhabi. I had given up on Dubai because I was getting rejection after rejection and I had met

42:38 Brian Rose: Why was that?

42:39 Ben Bandari: Because it was a tremendous success in LA or New York. Huge success. So, but it did it never aired here.

42:46 Okay. So, people didn’t get it. They’re like, why would people care? Million dollar what? Like, you know, and then I had

42:53 Brian Rose: it’s dollars too.

42:54 Ben Bandari: Yeah. A Million-Dollar Listing. And then I had a developer which I sat with a very big developer and I was sitting with the marketing department and they’re like, and it was, I think, it was 2015 16. The market was, it was not as hot as it is today. It was actually quite down and the developer, the guy, told me, can we change the name of the show because we’re more into affordable housing now.

43:15 And I’m just like I literally, I wanted to run into the wall head first. Like I’m like, are you serious? That’s like changing McDonald’s, you know, like changing the name to something else. Like this is the vibe of the show, right? They just didn’t get it.

43:28 A lot of people didn’t get it. A lot of people liked it and they loved it and they’re like, but when it came to budget and spending, cuz it’s not cheap. It’s quite expensive. That’s what it costs.

43:38 Brian Rose: I mean, is it millions of dollars to produce?

43:40 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Oh, yeah. More. Yeah. Chunks.

43:42 Brian Rose: Okay. Yeah. It’s not cheap. I was actually quite surprised. Okay.

43:45 Brian Rose: How many episodes in a season?

43:47 Ben Bandari: So, it really depends. Like, our season 1 was nine episodes. Season 2 is 12 episodes.

43:53 Brian Rose: And each episode is how long?

43:55 Ben Bandari: 45 minutes. 45.

43:56 Brian Rose: Okay. And you’ve got onset locations. You’re filming people.

44:00 You’re tracking them. There’s a lot of moving parts. How many characters are in there?

44:04 Ben Bandari: Like, so we have five. Five.

44:05 Ben Bandari: Five characters and then there’s all these sub characters and buyers and things like that. Buyers and sellers. Five brokers. Five brokers. Yeah.

44:12 Full-time brokers. It shows their. It gets quite candid actually. It goes into our personal lives. It shows our families.

44:18 It shows our relationships with each other. There’s a lot of drama. A lot of drama. But real estate drama. We’re not, not trash TV drama, but real estate drama.

44:29 Brian Rose: You’re not a drama queen, though. You’re actually, seem like a pretty cool grounded guy.

44:34 Ben Bandari: I’m cool. I’m cool. Yeah.

44:35 Brian Rose: Until somebody messes with your business.

44:37 Ben Bandari: Yeah, you know, I can, I could have a temper, a bit of a temper, but it takes a lot.

44:42 Brian Rose: Okay. So, they have to push you really hard.

44:45 Ben Bandari: Yeah, I’m not young.

44:46 You know, I’ve gotten, I’ve experienced a lot. I’ve gone through a lot in my life. So, I’ve learned to control my emotions much better than when we were obviously when I was younger. And I have, I have 70 staff which obviously I have to deal with. So, I have to be, I have to be cool, right?

45:03 Brian Rose: But the TV likes emotions.

45:05 Ben Bandari: But the TV likes emotions. And there is, there is emotions. There’s drama. I have one of my co-stars who basically works with me.

45:13 She works for me. She’s full of drama.

45:15 Brian Rose: Okay. She’s still working for you.

45:17 Ben Bandari: She’s still working for me.

45:18 Brian Rose: Yeah. It’s still a good sign.

45:20 Ben Bandari: Yeah. But we have a great relationship, but on camera there’s a lot of drama. Okay.

45:25 Ben Bandari: Yeah. She’s spicy. She’s a firecracker.

45:26 Brian Rose: Okay. That’s good.

45:27 We need that. So, just real quickly back, you called His Excellency in Abu Dhabi and that was what finally clinched it.

45:34 Ben Bandari: It was just one phone call and it was elevator pitch. I pitched it so many times that I had perfected it. Okay.

45:40 It was just like you’re and actually when I first called him he didn’t answer the phone and so I’m like, of course he’s not going to answer. He’s, you know, and then he called me back 15 minutes later and I’m like, wow. Yeah. I never forget where I was, what time it was and you know the time and the place and I was just like I had so many emotions running through my body and I’m just like, he’s like, I answered the phone. He’s like, yeah, I had a missed call.

46:02 I said, “Your Excellency, you don’t know who I am, but I know who you are. I’m calling you because of a real estate reality show. It’s in 140 plus countries worldwide, and it’s a two-time Emmy nominated show. This is no joke. This is the real deal.”

46:15 And he said, “I’m interested. Tell me.” And I told him. And then he’s like, “Okay, what do you need?” And I said, “I need everything.”

46:26 As I’m not going to lie to you, $10 million. I’m a real estate guy. It’s just an idea. Okay. But this is going to be something big.

46:33 And he started laughing and then he started pitching. He started, we had a conversation and he was running ideas. Can we do this? Can we shoot over the Louvre Abu Dhabi? Can we have drone shots and we can call all the sellers and we can get properties?

46:46 And I’m like, this is music to my ears. He got it right. He got it. Right. And then within, I think, a couple hours someone from his office called me and he’s like, Ben Bandari.

46:56 I’m like, yes. He’s like, can you, when can you come to Abu Dhabi? I’m like, you tell me. I’m there. Right.

47:01 And then I went to Abu Dhabi and I sat in front of five people and they were all expats and every single one of them had watched the show. They knew the show. I didn’t even have to pitch it. And they’re like, “Why hasn’t this been done?” Same question you asked me.

47:13 And I’m like, “You tell me.” And they’re like, “This is brilliant. We know the show. We love the show. This is great.”

47:21 Brian Rose: And that was what year?

47:23 Ben Bandari: This was 2000. This is 2019. 19. Okay.

47:27 November. Okay. And it took a few years to get, so we hit co, right Okay, so everything stopped. 2020, we hit co, right. And we were at risk of losing the show But then everything changed, because what happened when we hit co, everybody was glued to the TV, so content went up even more popular.

47:51 Yeah, it was about to be cancelled and they’re like, oh what, no, let’s go full force So then after co, and I remember we started doing a casting call as well. We were like, everyone was wearing masks, everything was on Zoom call. We’re just getting ready for when life was coming back, right? Yeah. So, that was exciting times.

48:10 I was super excited. I’m like, “Wow, this dream is coming to like it’s coming to a reality.”

48:15 Brian Rose: And so, then when did you actually film and then when was it released for the first season?

48:21 Ben Bandari: So, we actually started filming in 20. It was good question.

48:24 Wow. It was end of 2022. We filmed the Q1 of 2023 and we aired in September of 2023. Okay. On Starzplay.

48:39 Okay. It was the first international franchise on Starzplay and within 24 hours we broke all records. 3X subscription. They had never seen anything like it. They were completely shocked.

48:54 Brian Rose: Like, your show drove massive subscriptions to the entire platform.

48:59 Ben Bandari: Massive. And they had never seen anything like it. Within 24 hours, we were number one. Hm.

49:05 Brian Rose: How did you pull that off? I mean, I’d love to know.

49:09 Ben Bandari: And myself, to be honest with you, I think it’s just good content. And the brand. And look, this whole country, this whole city is built on real estate, right?

49:19 People are thirsty for this.

49:21 Brian Rose: Okay. Right. Yeah. And like you said, visually there probably isn’t a better city in the world.

49:26 And then the clientele and the people. I mean, but also you got to do it right, you know, and that’s your first season when you don’t really know what’s going on.

49:34 Ben Bandari: Oh, we didn’t know what we were doing to be honest with you.

49:37 Brian Rose: And also a lot of you guys, like you’ve never done this before. Like you’re probably not used to people getting in your personal life and talking to your wife and Not at all.

49:45 Digging deep.

49:46 Ben Bandari: And I was, I was petrified to be honest with you. I was petrified.

49:49 Brian Rose: I heard you say in an interview that like it was really uncomfortable for you to be on camera. Which is surprising because you seem very confident now.

49:56 Ben Bandari: I mean, yeah. I mean, practice makes perfect, right? I’m comfortable now.

49:59 Brian Rose: Also, that’s a different type of media. That’s different.

50:01 Ben Bandari: Yeah. But it’s now become second nature. But even when I was told, when we actually had finalized everything, they said, “Ben, you’re going to be executive producer. You brought the show. However, you need to go through the auditions like everyone else.”

50:17 And I was like, “Shit.” Wow. Yeah. I had never been in front of the camera. I’d never created any content.

50:23 So, I started doing content training. I hired someone. I started going in front of the camera. I started putting reels on social media. I think I put 10, 15 reels and I got more and more comfortable and then just, but even when we started filming like I had Josh and Matt Altman in from the Altman Brothers from Million Dollar in Los Angeles.

50:41 They flew in. They did a cameo with us on episode one and two. And these guys, I’m like, and I had to film with them and I’m like holy moly. So comfortable. Right.

50:50 Brian Rose: Right. They’re more comfortable with the cameras on than when they’re off.

50:53 Ben Bandari: Right. Exactly. They do it in their sleep.

50:54 Right. I was like shaking, like shaking and I watched season one and I’m like, oh my god, I was so nervous here and I was like but it doesn’t show. And I’m like, “Wow, this is the magic of like. Yeah. cinematography.”

51:08 Brian Rose: And just, it was also real. I think people, they love something that feels real and feels genuine. And I bet they could feel that with you. Yes. Right.

51:18 Yes. Like sometimes it’s nice if you see someone there a little bit, you’re like, “Okay, but this is this is the guy.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

51:25 Brian Rose: So, you hit it, you hit all the points in that first season, obviously.

51:30 Ben Bandari: Yeah. I mean, thanks to Imagination and the production and the beauty of production, everyone looked great. The show did extremely well. And you know, I had time to basically watch it and I’ve, I’m probably the, my own and Million-Dollar Listing, biggest fan, and I watched it so many times and I’ve watched it so many times that my wife is like, “Oh my god, please.”

51:53 She’s getting sick of it, right? But I, why I would watch it is because I want to see and I want to learn myself, okay, for season two what I do and how I am and on camera and what I can do better. Right. Okay. And it was a big help.

52:11 It was extremely.

52:12 Brian Rose: What did you do different in season 2?

52:14 Ben Bandari: So, I was a lot more comfortable. One, I look, I took the pros and I took the cons, you know. I was like, if you, if I watched season one, I wasn’t very myself.

52:23 So, I wouldn’t conversate. I barely put any sentences together. It was like short answers. And so, I’m like, you know, people didn’t really get to see the real side of me. Okay.

52:36 Right. And then, I at that time, I was going through a divorce with my ex-wife as well. And I was in a relationship with my current wife. So, I’m like, okay, I have to be candid, right? It’s hard.

52:52 It’s hard. The world is watching. How are they going to judge me? You know what I mean? And so, I didn’t want people seeing that side of me.

53:03 Now, obviously I’m married to my wife. And I just let it all out. I’m just like, you know, I don’t care what people think. Good. You know, I got positive feedback from season 1.

53:16 No one really judged me. People are going to be judgmental regardless. There’s always going to be haters out there and there are.

53:23 Brian Rose: But you know that we had that conversation before the cameras were rolling, right? The more haters the better.

53:29 Ben Bandari: It’s the better. It’s the only way. When you get more lovers, you’re, you automatically get more haters. Absolutely. I’ve learned to embrace it.

53:35 Brian Rose: Yeah. And so this season, we’re going to see more of Ben. We’re going to see deeper, longer conversations. We’re going to get to know you better. You’re going to see the real Ben.

53:45 Okay. All right. What about season three? What are we going to see? Oh my god.

53:48 Ben Bandari: I’m super excited for season 3 because season two, and I’m not just saying this, it’s going to air very, very soon on Starzplay, December 10th. As a matter of fact, we’ve just come to know. It’s going to be 100 times better than season 1. And I thought season 1 was amazing when it first came out. And, you know, I’m just like, but then after season two, I was like, wow.

54:14 Okay. So, I’m sure season, you know, we just, we’re just going to have to, we’re going to step it up every single season. So, season 3, we’re hoping will be green lit very soon. I’m quite confident that we will. And we’re going to have some nice surprises.

54:31 It’s going to be much better as well.

54:33 Brian Rose: So, two years between the first and second season, and then maybe the third season comes sooner.

54:38 Ben Bandari: I’m hoping so. We’re, I, the vibes I’m getting, the things I’m hear, I’m keeping my ear to the ground, but the things I’m, I’m hearing is definitely it’ll be much much sooner. Okay.

54:48 Brian Rose: I hope so. What do we see different in season 2? Is it more drama, deeper characters, more sexy real estate? What do we see in season 2?

54:57 Ben Bandari: It’s more of all of that.

54:59 You just mentioned.

55:01 Brian Rose: Okay. So, there’s definitely drama. There’s fights between the brokers. I saw.

55:08 Ben Bandari: Yeah, there’s the, there, there, there is. the properties are much sexier. Okay. Right. We had, because of season one, we had a lot more we had, we, because it was tried and tested and because people had seen the success of season one and they knew what Million-Dollar Listing UAE is about.

55:30 You know, people were more receptive, and they allowed us to basically film their properties because here in the UAE, a lot of people are very private as well. Right. And so couldn’t get access. We couldn’t get access. But here now getting permissions was, were much easier.

55:46 A lot of the landlords and sellers wanted to be on camera. Season one, we had a lot of push back from people. Okay. They didn’t know because there were other shows or wannabe shows that had aired on YouTube or on other channels in BBC. I think two, three, there were a few shows that were aired in the UK that didn’t portray the country in such a good way as well.

56:11 Okay. So, people didn’t want to be a part of that. Okay. And they didn’t know what Million-Dollar Listing is going to be. But with the success of season 1, yeah, it was much easier.

56:20 Brian Rose: If I have a property and it’s featured on your show, does the value of that property is it up 20%?

56:25 Ben Bandari: No, I wouldn’t say so. No. But I mean, if it’s that this show was featured in Million-Dollar Listing, would you like to buy it? This property.

56:32 So, look, when we, when we, when we film, it airs like months down the road. So, the property’s probably sold. Okay. But the next. Anyhow, but the next time.

56:42 But look, developers who are on the show, they get to feature their property, right? So it’s great exposure and it adds value to that development company and obviously to their developments as well.

56:52 Brian Rose: And you have some amazing sponsors as well. So everything is progressing.

56:56 Ben Bandari: Yeah, we have amazing sponsors.

56:58 We have Aldar and we have Damac. I mean, they’re giants themselves. They don’t really need a show like us to basically add value. But it does add value. Because we have clients from all over the world that are watching the show, right?

57:12 And when they watch the show, they see these developers and they see the beautiful properties that they are developing.

57:20 Brian Rose: Yeah. So, more eyeballs. Why do people get fascinated with this stuff? Like, what is it?

57:25 Your thought about it? Like, why does this show do 3x the number of subs on something compared to all the other great shows out there? We got reality shows, you got dramas, like what is it? Is it selling a dream? Is it getting access like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?

57:39 Is it the drama? Is it characters you normally never would meet, you know?

57:45 Ben Bandari: Yeah, I think look, it’s not all reality shows do well, but I think it’s everything that you just mentioned. It’s drama. It’s the real estate.

57:56 People want to look into people’s lives. They want to see basically their relationships and how candid it is. Like, me and my wife’s relationship, it’s quite I’ll save it for season 2, but some even our cast members for example, very competitive, right? Egos doing deals, okay? Who’s a top broker, who’s not a top broker, okay?

58:19 Who’s build more than the other broker, right? You’re dealing with superstars, people who are competing with each other. Everyone wants to be number one. Everyone wants to be the top broker in this country, in this city, right? Even my co-cast, right?

58:38 They want to be better than me. Yeah. Right. They compete with me. The respect is there, right?

58:44 We’re friends. We respect each other, but it’s a competition at the end. There’s a scoreboard.

58:49 Brian Rose: And there’s a scoreboard. Like a real dollar scoreboard.

58:52 Ben Bandari: Big time. And you can’t refuse. Everyone’s watching.

58:55 Brian Rose: Okay. And you like that.

58:56 Ben Bandari: I love it. Right. I love it. I’ve always been competitive from very very young age, from my childhood. I always wanted to be number one.

59:04 I always wanted to win. I don’t like to lose. I’m a winner. I’m not a loser.

59:10 Brian Rose: How’s your life changed now that you’re famous, internet famous, you know, reality show famous?

59:17 How does it change your life, your business, everything?

59:21 Ben Bandari: I’m very blessed. Everything is because of God. Firstly, everything happens for a reason. I’m very fortunate.

59:28 I have people within this industry, within the movie industry, within the media, and they come to me and they’re like, “Ben, I don’t know how you did it. I’m in this industry, and I have no idea cuz I couldn’t do it. My hats off to you.” Right? So, getting a project like this and landing it and getting it off the ground, I think it’s, you know, it’s not me.

59:52 It’s a higher power. So, I’m very fortunate. I’m very blessed. It’s completely changed my life for the best. I’m very grateful and I’m very thankful my business has like 100xed There’s a difference as well.

1:01:05 You know, I have, I’ve leveraged the show. I know how to leverage the show. You know, people can be on the show and not everyone does well, right? I think differently than a lot of other people. I think outside the box.

1:01:19 There’s really no box for me. I just, it’s, yeah, it’s been great. You know, sellers are contacting me, buyers are contacting me, developers basically want to give us exclusive stock. You know, it’s opened so many doors. I’ve been able to contact and reach people that I’ve never been able to sit with.

1:01:39 One of them being yourself. I mean, I’m very fortunate and blessed to be here. It’s an honor and a privilege as well. You know, when I was introduced to you, I was like, “Wow.” you know, this gentleman wants to have me on his show. So, yeah, it’s, you know, I’ve met a lot of great people because of the show, and I’m doing a lot of business with a lot of great people also because of the show.

1:01:59 So, everything I have today is, well, of course, there’s experience, there’s my knowledge, there’s my skill set. And I’m damn good at what I do, but, the show has been a big, big, has had a big impact on my life and my business.

1:02:13 Brian Rose: You know, I’m laughing because most people look at the success you’ve had on the show and they’re like, “Oh, that’s Ben’s overnight success, you know, and then when they hear the story, not to mention you’ve been pitching this since 15, but also everything you’ve done in your life that allowed you to be the businessman that allows you to be that guy on camera.”

1:02:35 Yes. It’s like most people’s overnight successes were 10 years, 20 years in the making.

1:02:41 Ben Bandari: 100%. I mean, it’s life is a learning curve as well. I mean, I’ve failed so many times.

1:02:47 I went bankrupt almost two, three times, you know, subprime and then 2008 was really tough. Yeah, 2008 was really, really tough. I lost half my wealth. Thank God I had some property. I had passive income, but, you know, I went through some depression and obviously I’m real estate is down and then thank God it came back and I was very young as well.

1:03:05 I was a young. It was the first recession I’d ever experienced. I didn’t know any better.

1:03:09 Brian Rose: Must have been a dark time in the city. Oh my god.

1:03:12 I mean, I heard stories that people were driving their luxury vehicles to the airport and parking them there and there were all these flat and tired, dustied, you know, luxury vehicles cuz everyone had just bolted. You have to stay. Yes. In the mess. Yes.

1:03:26 And try to clean it up somehow.

1:03:29 Ben Bandari: Yeah. I was literally this close to going back to Canada because everyone had left and but then I’m just like, there’s no way. No way. I just thought of the past.

1:03:42 I’m not quitting. I’m still

1:03:44 Brian Rose: And you still believe in this place.

1:03:45 Ben Bandari: I believed in this city. I believed in this leadership, in the leadership and the vision of His Highness. And I believed.

1:03:52 I was a believer. Yeah. Yeah. And I still believe.

1:03:55 Brian Rose: And so that was a rough couple years, but then you stayed and people can see that you stayed, right?

1:04:02 Ben Bandari: Yes. And I learned as well. I failed hundred times, thousand times. I still fail every single day. I mean, just rejected.

1:04:11 I just, I lost a deal first and I lost 6 million dirhams. I didn’t sleep till 4 in the morning. I’m just exhausted. I’m tired. I’m saying I had three cups of coffee.

1:04:21 And, but it happens. Still happens. It still happens. And I tell my team as well, I stand up every Monday and I say, “Look, and I have new joiners and they’re like, it’s quite funny actually. I have to tell you this.

1:04:34 One of the storytellers, showrunners on the production team was watching us while we were filming and then and she’s like, “Wow.” And she saw our success and the money, the amount of money that we’re making. And while we were filming, she said, “Ben, I’m going to come and work for you when this is done.” And I was like, “Okay, yeah, sure.” Right.

1:04:55 And I’ve heard it a hundred times. Sure. Right. And then we stopped filming and she’s like, “Ben, I’m coming to work for you.” And she wasn’t joking.

1:05:04 Now this lady is working for me. She’s working now under Saras Sarant who’s also on the show as part of her team. So she’s gone through training for the last two weeks and she’s crying every night after she leaves the office. People are rejecting her. People are hanging up the phone on her.

1:05:23 She’s like, “Ben, I thought it was so easy.” She’s like, “This is a difficult job. She can’t take it. She can’t cope with it. And I keep, and I’m just literally every night I’m messaging her and I’m saying, “You are strong.

1:05:40 You are better than a 100,000 of those brokers out there. You have what it takes. Just believe in yourself. Work hard. Have discipline.

1:05:48 Stay consistent. Keep going. And you will get there.” Well, she’s like every day she’s failing. And I tell her, I failed a hundred times, a thousand times.

1:06:03 I fail every day. But it’s what you do when you fail and you get knocked out. It’s how you get back up.

1:06:12 Brian Rose: Cold calling is such a hard thing to do. Oh my god.

1:06:17 Most people can’t handle it, you know, and it just they can’t. Your top businessman, your top everybody, you know, and they know they have to force themselves into that fire, but it’s such a humbling thing to do. And it’s so hard not to allow it to crush your ego. In this country as well, cuz it’s illegal to cold call, but still people are doing it because it’s the only way. How are newbies?

1:06:38 How are people within the industry supposed to meet people, contact people, find people who want to sell their property, find people who want to buy?

1:06:46 Ben Bandari: So there, I get 100 cold calls a day because I own properties. So, and I’m like, “Excuse me, do you know who you’re calling?” I’m a company owner. I’m in the real estate.

1:06:54 Thank you so much. Right. And do you know it’s illegal to cold call, right? I bug them a bit. I take a piss at.

1:07:00 Brian Rose: But yeah. But just facing that rejection. I mean, people can’t, some people can’t handle rejection. Yeah. Yeah.

1:07:07 Yeah. Yeah. I had a mentor back in the day and he’s a high performance coach, has a castle in Scotland, and he used to tell the kids that come to his show, he’d be like, “You’re 1,000 cold calls away from your first deal. In your first deal, you’re going to make just under a million dollars.” And if you think of it that way, then get out there and smile and dial, but still, you know, and maybe it’s these days.

1:07:29 Maybe we’re raised in a digital generation. We won’t get into that. We’re old school. We’re, we’re, you know, different generation. But you know still even knowing that you know maybe it’s a certain number it’s still hard for people to do that.

1:07:41 Ben Bandari: Oh yeah. You know. It’s all, it’s all here. It’s all mindset. It’s all mindset.

1:07:46 Yeah. You know how I mean? I wake up in the morning tired, exhausted, frustrated. Like, why am I doing this? You know, I look in the mirror and I’m like, okay, I know why I’m doing this.

1:07:58 Cuz I’m the best. I want to be number one. I got something to prove. Not to anyone but myself and my kids and my family, right? Otherwise, I could, man, I could retire today.

1:08:10 Like, you know, I’ve got enough I’m good.

1:08:13 Brian Rose: Now, you’re an influencer. Second season is coming out. Yes. Somebody asked me to ask you a question.

1:08:21 They said, I want you to ask Ben this. They said, who determines value in this city? Is it the investors or is it the influencers? because you’re now you’re both, and you can see the power of an influencer. How important are some of these names?

1:08:39 How important is your show for driving value, driving investment, driving even allocations?

1:08:46 Ben Bandari: That’s a great question. Repeat the question one more time.

1:08:51 Brian Rose: Who’s more important, investors or influencers? or who drives maybe more of the decision-making and then the future pockets of value in this city or in all the Emirates?

1:09:04 Maybe that’s changing even.

1:09:06 Ben Bandari: That’s a great question. I said bit of both. Yeah, it’s slow, probably going from investors into influencers more. Yeah.

1:09:16 Brian Rose: Yeah. Cuz it’s an attention economy too, right?

1:09:21 Ben Bandari: So it’s like what are people talking? I mean, look, I mean, Dubai is on the map. It doesn’t need us influencers anymore.

1:09:33 Brian Rose: Right. That era has ended. Yeah. But when I come here and I’m looking for property, yeah. I want to talk to Ben.

1:09:42 Yeah. Right. I know him. I’ve seen him. Familiarity is a huge thing.

1:09:46 Ben Bandari: Yeah. But you know, I’ve found, I’ve come, I’ve found out that a lot of people are intimidated to contact me, to work for you, to buy from you, to buy from you. Both. Interesting. I have a lot of investors who I’ve fallen out of touch over for whatever reason over the last 20 years who’ve watched the show or have seen snippets or trailer or seen me on social media and they’ll contact me.

1:10:18 Oh, Ben, how are you at? Just as a matter of fact, this morning, some lady called me up, which I haven’t seen for since 2012, ex-colleague of mine. I was sitting with someone and they’re like, “You got to meet this agent. He’s a superstar. He’s got a his own TV show, Million-Dollar Listing.”

1:10:38 She called me up. I was like, “Whoa, blast from the past.” But a lot of people are intimidated, you know, like I hire people from companies as well. And then you join it and they’re like, why has, and then they’re like, my colleagues call me up and they’re like, why hasn’t Ben Bandari reached out to us or called us to offer us a job and I’d love for people to come and join me. I’d love to expand my company and to hire good people, but how am I supposed to know that those people are out there and that they want to come and work for me, you know, and I get thousands of messages on Instagram, like random messages.

1:11:17 I get people from India, from Bangladesh, from Sri Lanka, everywhere around the world. Sir, I want to learn real estate. Sir, can you train me? You know, like I can’t filter all of these messages. It’s a high quality problem, right?

1:11:30 So I would, I would rather have the people within the industry who have experience, even some of the investors, you know, just reach out to me. I’m just, I’m very approachable. You can go online. My number is there. You can just give me a call.

1:11:45 You know I’m just, you know, I’m a real estate guy looking to do business.

1:11:50 Brian Rose: Yeah. But that influence is now hugely important for you. Like, having that profile now just brings everything in.

1:11:58 Ben Bandari: It’s been amazing.

1:11:59 It’s been amazing.

1:12:00 Brian Rose: I, I for anybody out there and I’m curious what your advice is for real estate people becoming influencers and increasing their digital footprint. But I had a guy on the show, Grant Cardone. He’s in Miami one time and he once said, he said, “Look, a lot of people have the wrong impression of me and they think I’m a weirdo and a jerk and all these things.” But he said, “Look, if you don’t know me, you can’t do business with me.”

1:12:24 Yes. And I always thought that was fascinating because you could be the greatest broker in the world. You could have been in Dubai for 20 years doing the best deals, but if nobody knows you, you’ll never do business with them. But if they know you, that’s the start. And that’s kind of maybe a little bit there’s no bad press.

1:12:38 100%.

1:12:38 Brian Rose: And so you’re doing it now with the reality show. Yeah. When all your employees come to you and some that can’t make it on the show or people listening right now, what do you say? Do they need to build a social presence?

1:12:50 Ben Bandari: 100%. Okay. 100%. You need them. All the exposure is everything.

1:12:55 Social media is everything. Now we have a tool and it’s for free. Right. I mean, Gary Vee was here with Ryan Serhant at Aldar Experts. They had an event and Gary Vee and some lady got up and it was a Q&A and she said, “Listen, I’m just like, I don’t know what, what to content to create and it’s just so difficult, and I’m, I have a phobia to go in front of the camera and I’m afraid of just creating content and it’s going to be similar like everyone else’s.”

1:13:20 And he’s like, “No, it’s not going to be similar like everyone else’s. You can say and do exactly the same thing as someone, but it’s going to be different because it’s you. Yeah. And he’s like, “Forget about everything.” And it’s here.

1:13:31 This is what’s basically messing you up. Yeah. Post now, right? Just post now. Just get in front of the camera, film something, and you can be your biggest critique as well.

1:13:42 And the more you do it, the better you’re going to get at it. He’s like, “Just do it.” That’s it. Yeah. Gary’s just dark.

1:13:49 Brian Rose: Yeah. He’s an inspiration. On my show a few years ago in London. That’s why I’m amazed how quickly you got up to speed because you said about a, you know, you were training yourself and then you’re all of a sudden on camera when I started 14 years ago and I was most, people in media are introverts actually and most YouTubers are quite introverts. Isn’t that crazy?

1:14:09 And yet this is the way we kind of express ourselves. And so I remember talking to the camera and doing 20 takes just to try to say a sentence and judging, my people think their voice sounds stupid. All the usual things, but that’s the only way forward. And if you just do it, do one a day. Do one a day.

1:14:24 One a day. Pretty soon you’ll just get better and better.

1:14:28 Ben Bandari: I did, I did my casting call, which I avoided. Everyone did it on Zoom with the casting director. I completely avoided it.

1:14:35 I did my own video because I thought it would be easier. I sent it through to Image Nation and the head of production called me to the office and he played it for me and he said, “Listen, if I send this through right now, you’re going to get cut.” He said, “You’re going to get cut.” He’s like, and he played it for me and I’m like, “Yeah, you’re right.” And it was a 10-minute long video.

1:14:56 And Brian, it took me 10 hours to create that video. I was shaking. I was stumbling. My, it was horrible. It was the worst day of my life.

1:15:06 It was just like, “Okay, let’s read it. Redo it again.” Okay. It was horrible, right?

1:15:14 Brian Rose: But you did it.

1:15:15 He took me into his office. He opened his laptop. He’s like, “I want to show you something.” He showed me another casting video of a lady who was in the real estate industry for like 4 months. Showed me her video.

1:15:30 She was so calm. She was so collective. She was just like perfect in front of the camera. And he’s like, “How long have you been in this business for?” And I’m like, “20 years.”

1:15:42 He’s like, “How much have you, how many, how much have you sold?” And I’m like, at that time it was like around 18 billion. 18 20 billion. I’m like 18 20 billion. He’s like, “This what’s your biggest sale?”

1:15:52 And I’m like, “Half a billion.” He’s like, “This girl is in the industry for 4 months. Her biggest sale is 6 million dirhams and she’s better in front of the camera than you are. Wow. So, So, and then he’s like, “And who are some of the celebrities that you’ve sold to?”

1:16:10 So, I started naming some people and he was blown away. He’s like, “Are you kidding me?” So, he’s like, “You have this, you should be the most confident person in front of the camera.” And so, it actually hit me like a ton of bricks. He called up the casting producer or director and he was like, “Joel, you’re going to interview Ben next week.

1:16:36 This is the date and the time.” And it’s done. So, I left that office like, “Wow, it got me thinking all week and I was like, “This guy is absolutely right. I have everything that they want. I should have this in the bag.

1:16:57 And so I did the interview the next week and I nailed it. Like, I, I went in there, like confident, like boss, you know, like, okay, I got this, you know, okay, no one’s got anything on me, right?

1:17:08 Brian Rose: You just reminded yourself.

1:17:09 Ben Bandari: He reminded me, right? Okay.

1:17:11 You know what I mean? And then I started reminding and I’m like, he’s absolutely right. Right. All of these guys are dying and begging to be on this show and they don’t have anything. They don’t have what it takes.

1:17:23 I’ve got everything. I’ve done the sales. I’ve got the numbers. I’ve done the time. I’ve got the properties.

1:17:33 And so, yeah, it was, it was a bit of a.

1:17:35 Brian Rose: Just the camera slap in the face.

1:17:36 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Exactly. The camera was getting in my way.

1:17:38 Brian Rose: It was just getting, it was just getting in your head.

1:17:40 Ben Bandari: Getting in my head. So, you just let it drop and I’m going to be me like I was in a meeting like I was closing a deal. I’m going to be that guy. Yeah.

1:17:47 Right. That’s it. And then it was boom. Boom. And then yeah.

1:17:49 And then they, and I did that interview and then they’re like a week later they’re like he sent me a message. You nailed it, man. It was great. And then I never looked back and then got more and more comfortable in front of me. Isn’t that crazy?

1:18:01 Brian Rose: Because if he had sent that video then people wouldn’t know who you are.

1:18:05 Ben Bandari: He’s like, the broadcast, he’s like, if I send this now to Starzplay you’ll get cut. There’s. He’s like, do you want me to send it? And I’m like, no.

1:18:13 Like, please don’t. He knocks sense into me. That’s so good. So I have a lot to owe. Like I, I really he’s genuinely, he’s got a very special place in my heart.

1:18:24 Brian Rose: It’s inspiring to know that a guy at your level still has to get so physically uncomfortable to get to the new levels and most people don’t realize that. They would just think it’s kind of easy just to keep making these steps, but you had to put yourself to the fire to even make it through that.

1:18:38 Ben Bandari: Yeah. So, absolutely. We always have to.

1:18:40 Ben Bandari: Absolutely. And even in our business today, like, um, I just like I tell my staff I tell my team I’m like I’m learning every single day. Don’t think like Ben Bandari, 20 23 years, 24 years in the Dubai real estate, the UAE’s number one broker. I was ranked the number one broker, you know, he knows it all, he’s, it’s easy, you know, let’s go, let’s join Ben Bandari, let’s make a million dollars. Doesn’t work like that.

1:19:05 Ben Bandari: It’s hard work.

1:19:06 Brian Rose: Right. Yeah. 10 years from now. What do you want your business to look like, your media profile to look like, what is Million-Dollar Listing UAE look like 10 years from now.

1:19:20 Ben Bandari: Oh, wow. Good question. Uh, I’m going to give you the censored version cuz I, it’s all It’s all, uh, the road map is there. It’s all planned out. It’s all planned.

1:19:34 Yeah. But I don’t want to, I don’t want to, you know, tell the competition. No. Yeah. I don’t want to tell the competition.

1:19:38 And then it’s better not to speak about it before it happens as well. Okay. But what I can tell you 10 years from now, largest, most successful luxury real estate company in the MENA. And I have a long ways to go because I’ve got catching up to do. But I’m be doing Million-Dollar Listing for 10 years down the road.

1:21:00 Brian Rose: Could be. You never know. Never say never. You could be the old guy they bring in once rolling in in a wheelchair. Right.

1:21:09 Right. Lays down the wall and then leaves. Yeah. Exactly. May do came.

1:21:13 Ben Bandari: Right. Exactly. But look, it’s such a great show. It’s such a good great franchise that I think definitely it will continue to do well with or without me. But I would rather focus on my empire and build my business as well.

1:21:31 I’ve got a lot of plans. And I’d like to give Ryan Serhant a run for his money and be the number one real estate company, not only within the MENA region, but globally, worldwide. I’m very ambitious. People may say I’m a dreamer, but that’s what they said when I started talking about Million-Dollar Listing as well about 10 years back.

1:21:56 Brian Rose: The way this region is growing, you might actually pull that off, right?

1:22:01 Ben Bandari: I mean, you see so many franchises coming from the US, Sabes, RE/MAX, you know, Century 21, you know, you have Coldwell Banker, you’ve got these other guys as well. You got so many, they’re they’re all coming from the US, you know, why not go that way, right? We already have an office in London. We’ve set up a boutique office. So, you know, most of our high net worth individuals, I’ve got maybe three billionaires that have relocated from the UK to Dubai and they’ve set up businesses here in DFC just shut down completely in the UK, right?

1:22:43 Brian Rose: More coming. They’re all coming. They’re all coming.

1:22:46 Ben Bandari: Yeah. I’m, we’re in touch with a lot of them.

1:22:48 Brian Rose: And so, yeah. What’s your advice to someone who wants to jump into this industry? I mean, you talked about the woman that joined you that was on the reality show and then she moved to you and she’s getting a real dose of what it takes to be a high stakes broker in a city like Dubai. Do you encourage people to go out and feel what it’s like or what advice do you give to a 22-year-old out there who wants to be the next Million-Dollar Listing star?

1:23:19 Ben Bandari: Yeah, I’d say I would say it’s all about mindset firstly.

1:23:23 It’s not easy. You watch Million-Dollar Listing, you watch these reality shows, it’s obviously it looks easy. This lady who’s joined us, she’s extremely smart. And she got it right. Because now she’s got two mentors, right?

1:23:43 I would say if you’re looking to get into the business, right, find a mentor. Find someone that you can learn from, you can sit next to and see what they’re doing. Someone who’s successful as well, because then you don’t have to, like, I got thrown in the deep end. I came here in 2002. I didn’t have anyone to learn from.

1:24:00 I had to learn everything on my own. It wasn’t easy. It was difficult. But you know, I was hungry. I had drive.

1:24:08 I was very ambitious. Even though I come from a wealthy family, my, I’m well, not wealthy, well-off family, but I moved here. I was living here alone and I didn’t have my parents’ support and I had to make it on my own. So, I mean, the market has grown. There’s so many successful people, you know, and it’s easy to find good real estate brokers now.

1:24:30 It’s a digital era. You can go online, type top brokers in the UAE. Names will pop up. You can go meet these people like myself, you know, sit, have a coffee with them. I hired one person, cuz they sent me a video.

1:24:43 They’re like, “Hi, Ben Bandari. I’ve seen your Million-Dollar Listing. I’d love to meet you.” And I, he actually sent it on my WhatsApp and I was quite intrigued and I’m like, “Wow, this guy actually took some time, made a video, and sent it to me. I want to meet this guy and found your number.”

1:24:58 And found my number. Right. Exactly. So, I met him for a coffee and he’s like, “I want to learn from the best. I want to work with you.”

1:25:06 That’s what’s going to propel my career. And I’m like, “Smart kid.” And so, I hired him.

1:25:12 Brian Rose: Yeah. You give a lot of opportunities to people, right?

1:25:15 Ben Bandari: I do. I give. Well, I do.

1:25:17 Brian Rose: Yeah, I’ve heard you talk about this. I’m surprised.

1:25:21 Ben Bandari: Maybe too much. Sar Sorhan, who works with me, she’s like, “Ben, you’re too nice. You’re too kind and you give too much opportunity, and you give people a second chance. People have done, you could say, I’ve been done wrong and badly, but, you know, it’s I forgive, but I don’t forget. And I like to give an opportunity and a second chance for myself.

1:25:46 You know, and I’m sure. I like to clear my heart and just.

1:25:49 Brian Rose: Yeah. And I’m sure that’s also brought you some loyal team members.

1:25:52 Ben Bandari: It has brought me a lot of good people, great people.

1:25:55 I’m very blessed to have a good circle of people around me. I’m very selective as well. We don’t hire just anyone. I could be 500. I could be a thousand.

1:26:03 I could be the biggest real estate tomorrow. But you know, I am who the people around me, like, it’s, you know, you are who the people that are around you and surround you and the people that you rub shoulders with. So I’m very very selective with people that I bring into the company as well. And I don’t always get it right. You know, you’ll have that bad apple that comes in.

1:26:25 We’ve had a few of those but then they leave very soon and very quickly as well. They don’t fit within the culture.

1:26:32 Brian Rose: Yeah. Yeah. You got to keep kissing frogs out.

1:26:35 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Exactly. People think once you make it then it’s easy. You got to keep kissing problems. Otherwise, you’re not going to find that next gem.

1:26:42 Brian Rose: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. How do people get in touch with you if they want to, you know, have you as their broker or one of your teammates and what’s the best way for people to do that?

1:26:55 Ben Bandari: Just go to my Instagram, Ben Bandari.

1:26:57 And you can just message me. Okay. Yeah. But just don’t send me these like spam messages, you know. Yeah.

1:27:07 Brian Rose: You don’t want those.

1:27:08 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Yeah. Send me, send me like a video or something, like, and then that usually catches my attention. Okay.

1:27:14 Brian Rose: You know, that’s for the people that want to work from you and people that want to invest with you. Website Benco, what’s the best place?

1:27:23 Ben Bandari: Yeah, bencoy.com. We have our website up. And yeah, you can just, or you can just message me, DM me.

1:27:29 You can go online through the property portals as well. A lot of people are going through there contacting me cuz my number is not there. And you can connect me. I do pick up all the time if it’s, and if it’s worthwhile meeting. I try to meet people but my schedule is so busy.

1:27:50 Brian Rose: Yeah. I don’t know how you find the time to do that. A coffee here and a coffee there and the day’s over.

1:27:54 Ben Bandari: Honestly, we have three companies now. Okay.

1:27:56 So we’ve got we’ve Benco, we’ve got 70, then we’ve got DevCore, which is a project sales and marketing. So it’s taking projects and exclusive buildings from developers. We do the sales and marketing for them. And then we’ve got Highgate Investments, which is an investment company. So we raise capital as well, and we do development.

1:28:13 So we buy properties that are old, like 20 years old. We gut them out. We keep the bones and then we refurbish it. We add some extra built-up area. We get permission.

1:28:25 We add value to that property as well and then we put it back on the market and we sell at a premium and we’ve made 30 to 40% return on investment for our investors within 18 months. Wow. So we also invest, we put our own money. Okay, into that. So we’ve got skin in the game.

1:28:43 Brian Rose: That makes you very different. Yeah. And how long did you start doing that?

1:28:48 Ben Bandari: That company is now one year old. Yeah.

1:28:50 Okay.

1:28:50 Ben Bandari: And I’ve actually become a partner 6 months now. But I’ve added so much value because of obviously the gentleman who started the company. He did, he was, he was struggling the first year. He took on projects.

1:29:03 He did it at cost. But then when he actually delivered and made his investors and they were sole investors so they would buy the property, he would refurbish them for and he wouldn’t make any money. But once he made his investors money, then he came to me and he said, “Ben, this is what I’ve done. This is how much money we can make. I need you as my partner.

1:29:24 I just need you. I need your name and I need your reputation. And I need and I said, “Okay, I’m in. I’ve got nothing to lose.” Now, we’ve got eight ongoing projects.

1:29:34 We’ve got Emirates Hills. We’ve got Palm Jumeirah. We’ve got. We’re doing 70 million plus. And we’ve got so many investors through my brokerage and through my brokers who are pitching to their investors and they believe in this.

1:29:48 So, it’s a vertical, you know what I mean? This business is complementing that business. So the same people that would find properties for people are actually now pitching in the opportunity to invest in and they’re investing in this even more Really.

1:30:03 Ben Bandari: Yeah. Well, of course, cuz the property is a one-off and this is it’s a, yeah, it’s a niche.

1:30:09 Okay. It’s not like every other property. So, we add value to it. We develop it, right? And then it’s also, we also invest ourselves and then we’ve got multiple investors.

1:30:21 So it’s not just, so we set up SPVs in DFC and everything’s regulated and audited and we’ve got Ernst and Young and yeah, everything’s structured and it’s a safe investment as well and we’re very, very conservative as well. So if we feel like we can, if the market is, for example, at 200 million right, we’ll project to be to sell it at like 170 million just in case there’s a shift in the market and the market does go down a bit but it’s yeah it’s it’s exciting.

1:30:52 Brian Rose: Do you like that part of the business?

1:30:55 Brian Rose: It’s a little different than the traditional broking.

1:30:58 Ben Bandari: Yeah. But it’s real estate at the end of the day, right? It’s real estate.

1:31:02 Brian Rose: You’re selling more principal risk and you’re putting it more on the line as opposed to being the middleman.

1:31:07 Absolutely. But also you have so much information from being the middleman and so many contacts and a different kind of information than a developer or a typical investor which in some ways can make you more nimble. Yes. You know, more aware of things. Absolutely.

1:31:21 Brian Rose: Yeah. It’s a pretty cool place to be.

1:31:22 Ben Bandari: Yeah, it is.

1:31:23 Brian Rose: All right. So, that’s exciting.

1:31:24 Brian Rose: Hopefully, more seasons coming for the listing. This one airs December 10th.

1:31:28 Ben Bandari: December 10th. Yeah. Okay.

1:31:29 Brian Rose: And people can watch that on Starzplay.

1:31:31 Ben Bandari: On Starzplay. Starzplay.

1:31:33 Brian Rose: So Starzplay is, anywhere in the world I can watch this.

1:31:36 Ben Bandari: No, this is within the MENA.

1:31:38 Brian Rose: Yeah. Okay. MENA. Okay. Season one.

1:31:40 Ben Bandari: After Starzplay, we were on it’s also on Apple TV. If Starzplay and Apple TV, if you have Starzplay, then you can also watch on Apple TV. But then it went, right, season one went, was in the UK as well. On Hey.com and then it went on NOW TV. It was on a few a few few of the UK streaming services as well.

1:32:01 Which was which was great cuz I mean, I we were in station in one of the hotels with my wife and then I had this British couple run up to me. Oh my god, Ben Bandari. And I’m like, do I know you? And he’s like, I’ve watched Million-Dollar Listing UAE and he literally dropped everything, his kids and everything and started talking to me and he’s like, I’m here. I’m visiting my friends.

1:32:22 Oh my god, they’re not going to believe I met Ben Bandari. And I was just like, wow. I was, and my wife was like, shocked and surprised. I mean, here, yes, every day brokers, we go to events, real estate people, they know me. Everyone knows me in the real estate world.

1:32:36 Even within the mall, people have stopped me. But someone from the UK, and then I’m hearing from other people, like my friends in Australia have seen you in Canada. Man, it’s been really, really humbling. It’s been great. We were on Roku in the US.

1:32:50 Brian Rose: So Roku is massive.

1:32:51 Ben Bandari: Yeah. That was great. My cousins, my family, everyone in the US watched me.

1:32:57 Brian Rose: The crazy thing is that asset is going to continue working for you for years and years and years.

1:33:04 Five years from now, somebody might watch season 1 for the first time and then they’ll start a relationship with you and then then they’ll look for season 2, three, and four, and you’ll be doing all those things. I mean, it’s incredible what long form content can do to build relationships with you. Absolutely. I started doing this 14 years ago and I didn’t really know what I was doing and, I was just having conversations with people and learning, but it’s this long- form content.

1:33:29 And what I found was that people start developing these really close relationships with you and you’re doing that with Million-Dollar Listing. It’s not a 60-second reel on Instagram. It’s like they get to know who you are and you’re vulnerable and they see your goods and your bads and it’s something that we still haven’t explained yet. Absolutely. And I still get people to stop me on the streets.

1:33:49 And, Brian, that interview changed my life. And I used to just say thanks and they grab my arm. Brian, it changed my life. And because it was the perfect piece of content they needed at the perfect point in their life with someone telling them that they needed to maybe stop doing that and start doing that. And somebody recently made an expression was a huge influencer on stage and he said, “I think one YouTube subscriber is worth a thousand Instagram subscribers.”

1:34:16 And they said that is because YouTube content is typically long, longer form, 10 minute, 20 minute, 30 minutes sometimes. And that’s what you’re doing with Million-Dollar Listing. And their point was is that you’re really developing a relationship with that person. And so it doesn’t surprise me that you get someone like that coming up to you and it’s going to happen more and more and more and again then it relates to business in an incredible way. So, look, congrats to you.

1:34:40 Ben Bandari: Thank you so much. And congrats to you.

1:34:42 Brian Rose: Oh, well thanks. I’m a big, big fan. Yeah, you’re doing a great job.

1:34:46 Ben Bandari: Oh, thank you. You know, I have a lot to learn from you.

1:34:49 Brian Rose: Look, I have the best seat in the house. I always used to joke that if the cameras were off, I would still do this because I get to sit here with the best and learn from the best and then I get to progress in my life. So, so thank you.

1:35:00 Brian Rose: Great sitting down with you. Congratulations. I’ll be spending a lot of time in Dubai.

1:35:05 Ben Bandari: Well, I’m glad, glad we met and I’m glad now that we’re friends and hopefully we can meet up and do this more often without the cameras. Yeah, let’s do it.

1:35:13 Brian Rose: All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Pleasure. Thank you.