Cindy Ambuehl, the La Real Estate Star Points Out the Power of Social Media & the Forever Power of Caring for Your Clients
“I was very blessed as a sitcom actress, then I ended on JAG for three years. It was fabulous. But while they were all taking their studio bonuses and buying matching motorcycles and jet skies and Aston Martins, I was out buying real estate.”
Cindy Ambuehl credits her pragmatic streak to a modest upbringing in Orange County with a police officer father and housewife mother. “I was raised that the simple things in life are the important things. I didn’t need all that to make me happy.”
Nowadays, Cindy Ambuehl is now at Compass, formerly a partner at The Agency and sells top-tier real estate mainly on the Westside, where she creates much of her business due to a robust social network. “My clients seem to hug Sunset Boulevard,” she says with a chuckle, referring to the ultra-luxe corridor running from Malibu to Beverly Hills.
“When clients are following my stories and my posts—I do funny videos with my kids and my husband—people feel like they know me. It creates a feeling of familiarity and trust.”
Much of her approach to real estate involves a smart melding of new and time-tested practices.
“In 2018, it’s done differently and we love that,” she says, referring to the practical benefits of technology. In the process, she points out, sometimes the focus gets blurred on a real estate agent’s most important function—to help shepherd one’s client through an important, often deeply personal purchase. Don’t let that happen is her advice, particularly to newer agents.
“Don’t ever attach yourself to the outcome, because then you’re not honoring the process that gets you there,” she notes. “If you honor the process, the outcome will happen.” The process in this case: “Caring for our clients, period.”
Cindy Ambuehl’s media acumen can be seen in one of her current listings, a glossy Brentwood showcase. Listed at just under $11 million, and a few minutes north of Sunset on North Tigertail Road, the home has piqued the interest of pop-rock royalty Justin Bieber, who Cindy Ambuehl hosted a showing for in early May.
The Los Angeles Times pointed out its “It” factor when they listed it as Home of The Week. Much of this is documented on her Instagram feed, along with her live clips from the fun shindig thrown to premiere the home.
Cultivating client relationships is where Cindy Ambuehl shines. Her nearly 40,000 social media followers get to know her via frequent postings spanning real estate business, travels and a full and animated home life that includes her husband, actor Don Diamonte, and their seven boys.
“Social media gives buyers the chance to put a personality to the name,” she says.
“When clients are following my stories and my posts—I do funny videos with my kids and my husband—people feel like they know me. It creates a feeling of familiarity and trust.” Social media was a tool she was initially egged on to use by her sons, and her faith in its business value was cemented when a single post led to a referral from Dallas and a subsequent sale.
“He saw one of my posts and within 21 days I had sold the guy a $10 million house.”