Stephen Udoff developed a passion for buying and selling real estate at a young age; at 21, he purchased his first investment property, and at 22 obtained his real estate license. He’s been racking up awards and recognition ever since. Now, at the age of 31, he was just named Realtor of the Year by the Malibu Association of Realtors (MAR).
The current president of MAR, Jerel Taylor with Sotheby’s International Realty, said in an interview that Udoff, “showed exceptional leadership in getting realtor members support during the Woolsey Fire. He made contacts and got us lots of support locally, statewide and nationally, getting options and grants for our Realtor members after a stint with the California Association of Realtors (CAR) team.”
Udoff said the fire slowed down everyone’s business, and that the home of one of his best friends was lost.
“Our world stopped, but I think people are starting to see the rebirth of Malibu with all the flowers in all the social media and photos,” Udoff said, predicting, “in a couple years, the rebuilt homes will be even bigger and better, with a stronger sense of community.”
Not long after getting his real estate license, Udoff was named Rookie of the Year by Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, an international company. “I got a couple of big beach sales right after I first started,” Udoff said, “plus, I did charitable work.”
Although Udoff grew up in Calabasas, his very first job, when he was only 15, was working at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at Cross Creek. He also came to Malibu to surf and helped out with surf camps at Third Point for special needs kids.
He attended San Diego State University and studied abroad at Oxford University before starting in real estate. While he first worked in San Diego, it wasn’t long before Udoff returned to Malibu and affiliated with Pritchett-Rapf Realtors. He later joined Pacific Union International, a luxury real estate brand, which was eventually bought out by Compass. He currently works out of Compass’s Cross Creek office and was in the top 10 percent of sales volume in 2017.
During his years working in Malibu, Udoff has coached Little League and Malibu AYSO soccer. Professionally, he’s been on the Malibu Association of Realtors board for the past six years and served as the organization’s youngest president last year. He’s also made state-level contacts by joining the California Association of Realtors, where he also served on the board. Two years ago, he was appointed by the president of CAR to the executive committee—the first Malibu agent and the youngest person ever to hold that state-level position.
“My marketing and advertising has always been out of the box,” Udoff said, and he has awards to prove it. He got the 2013 Social Media Savvy Award by Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate and was nominated for the 2017 Inman Innovator of the Year Award for using Snapchat to rent out a Malibu home for $80,000 a month.
According to a write-up in Yahoo! Finance, he thinks of Snapchat and Instagram as professional platforms and a way to engage with prospective clients. He even created his own hashtag #SunsetSteve to brand all of the posts of his various listings.
“Snap videos and the additional commentary really show the house as it is and let you preview the house as if you were actually there,” Udoff told the publication. The renter was a woman in her 40s from Dallas who leased the house sight unseen one week after he posted the videos on Snapchat.
“Sunset Steve” is his real nickname. “I love sunsets—it’s the best time of the day when you can relax,” he said to Yahoo! “I started posting sunsets on Instagram with the hashtag Sunset Steve, and people started calling me that.”
