About

Why Kensington &
Beverly Is Different.


Kensington & Beverly is a unique and globally connected real estate boutique based in Beverly Hills that represents buyers and sellers of luxury property around greater Los Angeles. It is owned by Neil Rain Persad, the broker, and London native who specialises in high-end and luxury property.

After a successful 15 year corporate career at fortune 50 companies, he left to begin a career in real estate. After bouncing from one firm to another, he quickly realised that no-one was really doing anything different. It was all a smoke screen. Everything was sales driven, and no-one really seemed to care about the client’s best interest. He left to start Kensington & Beverly in 2010, with a goal to shy away from the typical trend and metrics, and to focus on the client’s best interests at all times. That last sentence is what really separates Kensington & Beverly from everyone else. It was long past due for someone in real estate to really start listening to what the clients needed….

Client/Broker Lifetime Relationship.

Consider me a white-glove service whose core value is centered on benefiting the client’s needs and goals. I don’t just sell luxury property. I take the time to learn who the clients are, where they came from, and where they plan to be in 10 years. This helps me guide their purchases, investments and sales. I will always advise you against bad purchases and advocate for the contrary

Buyers

Most agents tend to have an expiration on their patience. With me, I’ll take the time needed to get clients what they want. Often, that happens quite quickly, and it’s a matter of presenting the client in their best light so the seller wants to work with them over the competition. There is an art to it. Sometimes, that doesn’t happen immediately, and in those cases, it has taken 2+ years and a commitment to their changing circumstance and needs. In other cases, I have to protect the clients from themselves. Their excitement can lead them to do make irrational decisions and buying over-priced property. That’s when I get to work negotiating.

A Smaller Number Of Listings At Once


An agent with 20 listings at a time, ranging from $3m- $50m, will not have the availability to show, or the budget to market the lower priced listings. With the focus on a small handful of properties at once, there is no conflict of interest, and all my time is spent preparing, marketing, staging, meeting prospective buyers around the world, and showing the property personally multiple times a day, every day. You get me, not an assistant or inexperienced junior agent.

Contrary to popular belief, an agent having many listings or sales is not a measure of how well you’ll be treated or how quickly your property will sell. Presenting the very best version of your property for sale, getting the highest level of interest, and ultimately highest price, takes a lot more care and attention than the conveyor belt process. I see it as selling art.

Once the property goes to market, we all want it to sell quickly and for the highest price. Introducing the low volume and more exclusive price point model has proven its weight. Our properties don’t stay on market very long, and often have multiple offers over asking. It’s evident that an agent having too many active listings, hurts sellers as they simply cannot be in 20 places at one time and as available for each client.

My recent listing in Brentwood had 17 offers, was in escrow in 2 days, and sold for several hundred thousand over asking. Previously, the listing sat on the market with a team of “top” agents for 2 years with little interest.

Similarly, I had a client spontaneously in town from London for the weekend and he wanted to see a $15m modern property within walking distance from the Beverly Hills Hotel (his main criteria). There are few properties like it. The “top” agent, who has sold many homes in the area, did not respond for 36hrs as he was “very busy and also had an event to attend.” My client lost all interest and was on a flight back to London the next day. Unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence in our community. In another situation, a client who was in town from Beijing, had no interest in buying property at the time. I showed him one of our $8m listings, and he bought it on the spot because it reminded him of a house he used to frequent in his childhood.



A World Class Presentation


Luxury properties require a lot more than a website, drone video and a flyer. Most of our luxury properties are sold via personal relationships, emails and calls made to prospective buyers and exclusive partners. It is very much a personal Roladex venture. It involves going through an entire client list developed through decades of corporate roles, referrals, events, meetings and even chance encounters. Each property also receives an extensive print, web and social media marketing campaign as well as the traditional distribution and syndication through the multiple listing system.


Off-Market Opportunities


Many of our high-end properties are matched off-market from a buyer to seller. They never see the light of day and remain undisclosed for privacy. I do not publicise nor share images on the site or online. Signed N.D.A’s and exclusions lists are required by all prospective buyers. Sellers in the $30m+ range often prefer this route to avoid unnecessary solicitation and disruption to their private affairs. I always encourage owners of properties under $20m to go to market for maximum exposure due to a much larger volume of available buyers.


In-House Staging & Decorating


Further separating ourselves, all interior decorating, staging, photography and art are done in-house by skilled, unique and talented artisans. Our properties are presented with style. Rather than use the same design and staging firms as everyone else for the cookie-cutter look, our properties look lived in and have soul. This allows prospective buyers to relate and is yet another crucial vehicle to sell the property quickly.


A Network Of Local & Exclusive International Brokers And Buyers.


Kensington & Beverly are exclusive partners with Beauchamp Estates, the leading European boutique with an impressive client list. With offices in London, Cannes, Nice, Mykonos, Israel and New York, their footprint in the luxury high-end is untouched. As their sole partner here in Los Angeles, our buyer referral network is unmatched.

In instances, there are a very small handful of buyers around the globe that can purchase certain properties. By having great relationships with other brokers in Los Angeles and around the globe, I have the potential interest list covered. In the luxury market, having international and local presence is key for our buyers and sellers. It is often the difference between selling a property, and it remaining on market without activity.


take the next step

Find your
dream property.

Neil Rain Persad

Origins


Neil Rain Persad, a British ex-pat is the acting broker and owner. He was born and raised in London with parents of Caribbean descent. His parents emigrated from Trinidad, and found themselves as young adults in a harsh reality of a not so welcoming London in the 1970’s. From very humble beginnings, his Mum was an emergency room nurse, while his Dad worked his way from a nurse to a respected position at the United Nations.

By advice of his primary school headmistress, he sat the entrance exam to Emanuel Secondary School, one of the top private schools in England. Receiving a half-scholarship to attend, he found himself surrounded by everyone from the affluent and notable, to royalty. At the end of every day, he would join a small group of outsiders at the train station who went home south of the river Thames, while the others went home to central London mansions and affluent lifestyles. Americans tend to pool all Brits into the same category, but the reality is that this was a clear illustration of the British class system. This contrast and unique ability to exist in both worlds was the unexpected honing of a skillset that would be invaluable in a later real estate career.

After graduating, he had a falling out with his parents. Initially he stayed with a very talented and handy uncle who taught him carpentry and remodeling, and an aunt that put 3 meals on the table every day. A short-lived return to his parents ended horribly. Without their support, he related to life more as an artist, with an interest in art, architecture, decor, and music. After exhausting the aide of charitable friends and their families, he eventually found himself homeless at 16, living on the streets of London for an entire year while waiting for help from local assistance programs. His only belongings were two guitars; a Les Paul, and an Epiphone, along with a backpack holding a few clothes.

After working odd jobs, including pizza delivery, he was taken in by a Venezuelan and Spanish Taekwondo champion Elias Biescas Rue, who taught him Taekwondo free of charge, and became a big brother and mentor to him. Under this guidance and training, he excelled at Taekwondo, and went on to compete at the national level, often knocking out opponents with Elias’ signature hook kick. In one sparring session, he regrettably broke the skull of the national champion at that time, with the same kick. This surprising education, life experience, training, and discipline would go on to shape his ethics and rules towards life, and ultimately his real estate practise.
Slowly rebuilding his life, he worked at a sound production company loading trucks for events, with the promise to be trained as a sound engineer. During this time, he rekindled his relationship with his parents. 5 years had passed since the last time he had seen them. His Dad encouraged him to use his dual citizenship status and make a go of a life in the United States. Something he had wanted to do for himself, but had been unable to.
Knowing there was a looming move to Los Angeles, he spent some time travelling and living around Europe, working odd jobs, and experiencing architecture and design around Europe first hand.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1998, initially staying with welcoming family, and subsequently set out on his own to begin the next chapter. He didn’t know anyone outside of a few family members. Returning to education while working 3 jobs, his first job was loading trucks at a Robinsons May distribution center. Later, while renting a small room in the hood, he taught Taekwondo where one of his students Wayne Chen, won an Olympic medal. Wayne gave one of his medals to him as a sign of appreciation.

After graduating university with a bachelor’s in business management, he began a 15-year corporate career working at fortune 100 companies such as Disney, Sony, Goodrich, and eventually ended up in investment banking at Merrill Lynch during its golden years. During that time, he bought his first house and was misrepresented on the purchase. He learned everything a real estate agent shouldn’t be from this experience.

Unexpectedly, just after rebuilding their relationship, his Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Pancreatic cancer. Pulling the equity out of his home to pay for his father’s medical bills and to fund a life-saving surgery, his father didn’t survive, and passed away at 52 years old. Neil was 25, almost $1m in debt, and back to rock bottom. Fortunately, a successful career unfolded, but the death of his father encouraged him to later walk away from it to begin following his love for art, interiors, property and décor.

Upon being told that the Beverly Hills market was tough to penetrate and that he should think about suburban areas, his first deal was for $1m in the Hollywood Hills. Over 12 years, he has built a client base of celebrities, business personalities, several billionaires, and royalty from 3 nations.
After migrating between all the top firms in Los Angeles, he eventually realised that all of the above, gave him a very unique perspective on life and business. He also identified that all the top players and firms in LA were wholly focused on sales and numbers. Behind closed doors, everyone was the same, but sadly no one really seemed to care about their clients. This became the epicenter of Kensington & Beverly, his own firm that would focus on taking care of clients, their welfare, habitat, assets, and ultimately well-being of their family.

“After my experiences, disappointments, failures and minute successes; I unequivocally understand the needs of my clients. I will never do anything to comprise that. This is my one gift. My mission is to use this, to protect them, but get them what they need.”

Upon rescuing his dog, Nala, a Boxer-Ridgeback mix, Neil became best friends with Marc Ching, the pet wellness and animal welfare advocate. They quickly bonded due to their unique life experiences. They had major influences in each other’s lives and Neil became a board member and ambassador for Marc’s small rescue that housed only the worst-off dogs. This later became The Animal Hope & Wellness Foundation. In 2018, he split his time between real estate, and restructuring and re-staffing the foundation. In the same year, they wrote the bill to ban fur in Los Angeles, which was passed in 2019. Today, you can find Neil training at Lb4lb boxing gym, Rey Diogo Jiu-Jitsu, and playing one of his “3” guitars.


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