I’ve spent my career working in California’s San Fernando Valley: Sherman Oaks, Encino, Woodland Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and the pockets in between, and if there’s one thing that separates this market from a lot of luxury markets, it’s proximity. Our clients often live a few miles, sometimes a few gates, from the industry that made them recognizable in the first place.
A listing agent in another city might treat a celebrity buyer as the exception. Out here, it’s Tuesday. That proximity is exactly why discretion has to be built into how I operate, not bolted on when a high-profile name shows up.
Luxury real estate runs on trust, and for a certain type of client, trust is inseparable from discretion. These are people whose names in a public deed record can move markets, invite security risks or simply cost them the peace they’re trying to buy along with the house.
When someone hands me a transaction in Hidden Hills or the hills above Encino and asks me to keep their name out of it, that’s not a favor I’m doing them; that’s the job.
How to protect client privacy
Start with the entity structure
The first layer of protection happens before any home is toured: the entity structure. Trusts, LLCs and land trusts exist for a reason beyond tax planning. When a client wants their name off public record, we work with their attorney early to set up the right vehicle, and I mean early, not the week before closing when the title company is asking who’s actually signing.
This is also where a lot of well-meaning agents get sloppy. A generic LLC with the client’s initials in the name, or a registered agent that traces straight back to their family office, defeats the purpose.
I push clients toward a blind trust or a purpose-formed LLC with a neutral name, filed through a registered agent who has no other public connection to them, and I make sure the operating documents don’t require the beneficial owner’s name to appear anywhere that becomes part of the public record.
I’ve seen deals get delayed, or worse, blown open to the press, because someone waited until escrow to figure out the ownership structure. Get the estate attorney and the real estate attorney in the same room in Week 1.
Control the showing from the start
Showings are where privacy plans fall apart if you haven’t thought them through. I limit the number of people who know a showing is happening to the absolute minimum: the listing agent, maybe one assistant and whoever is escorting.
In practice, that means no public showing times, no open houses and no address in the MLS remarks beyond what’s strictly required. Appointments get confirmed by phone, not text thread, and never through a shared calendar invite that a dozen people at a brokerage can see.
If a client’s profile calls for it, I’ll also stagger arrival and departure times so a car isn’t sitting in a driveway long enough to draw attention from a neighbor with a camera or a passing car with one.
Set the terms with everyone on the property
With staff, contractors, photographers, stagers, anyone who sets foot on the property, I have candid conversations up front about what discretion means in practice: no phone photos, no social posts tagging the neighborhood, no mentioning the address to anyone outside the immediate team.
I don’t frame this as a request. I frame it as a condition of working with me, and I’ve turned away vendors who couldn’t commit to it.
For anyone photographing or staging the home, I’ll ask that listing photos be scrubbed of identifying details: no house numbers, no mail with a name on it left on a counter, no personal photos left on display, and I hold marketing images until I’ve reviewed them myself.
Give each person only what they need
The instinct for a lot of agents is to loop everyone in so nothing falls through the cracks. I do the opposite. Each person on a deal gets exactly the information required to do their piece and nothing more.
My transaction coordinator might know the terms but not the buyer’s identity. The photographer might know the address but not the price.
It sounds inefficient until you realize that every extra person who knows the full picture is another point of failure. This same logic extends past the sale: I’ll ask a client whether they want the closing recorded at all, and if state rules allow it, whether a trustee’s signature can stand in for theirs on documents that never need to touch their own name.
Do’s and don’ts for protecting client privacy
Do:
- Loop in the estate attorney and real estate attorney together, in Week 1, before any structure is chosen.
- Use a purpose-formed LLC or blind trust with a neutral name and a registered agent with no public tie to the client.
- Keep the guest list for any showing to the smallest number of people who can still get the job done.
- Have an explicit, upfront conversation with every vendor about what discretion requires, before they’re hired, not after a leak.
- Compartmentalize information so no single person outside the client and their attorney has the complete picture.
- Review marketing photos yourself before they go anywhere public.
Don’t:
- Wait until escrow to figure out how title will actually be held.
- Put identifying initials, addresses, or personal details in an entity name or its public filings.
- Post showing times, addresses, or exterior photos anywhere searchable before closing.
- Assume a vendor understands discretion just because they’ve worked with high-profile clients before; spell it out every time.
- Let convenience talk you into sending the full file, price, identity, timeline, to someone who only needs one piece of it.
- Treat privacy as a favor you’re extending. It’s part of the service you were hired to provide.
The real thing being protected
At the end of the day, the house is almost beside the point. What I’m actually protecting is a person’s ability to move through the world without their real estate becoming public property.
That’s a harder thing to deliver than square footage or a good negotiation, and it’s the part of this job that high-net-worth clients remember longest, because it’s the part most agents never think to build in the first place.
Emil Hartoonian is managing partner at The Agency Calabasas, Sherman Oaks and Studio City. Get connected on Instagram.
