Clark Kent’s alter ego is Superman, Bruce Waynes’ is Batman, and now a Gold Coast real estate agent moonlights as a Hollywood actor and a stuntman.
Alex Fleri and his wife Victoria, who also acts in movies, are part of the Amir Prestige Property Agents team, and when they’re not starring on the silver screen, they’re selling multi-million homes on the glitter strip.
Alex says he graduated from the Australian Stunt Academy at the end of 2019, and since then, he’s performed in Marvel Studio’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as Baz Luhrmann’s biographical, musical drama Elvis.
“Through the academy, I started to meet some of the Hollywood actors I had idolised,” Alex says.
“I sparred with Dolph Lundgren, Michael Jai White and then Jean-Claude Van Damme.
“Jean-Claude Van Damme I really connected with quite strongly, and he did a private sparring session with me and said, ‘You’re pretty good. Why aren’t you doing movies? You’re a big guy, you can move well, we should work together’.”
Making movies
The onset of COVID-19 means Alex and Van Damme haven’t been able to work together yet, but Alex will be playing a lead role in a movie to be filmed on the Gold Coast in March next year.
“That’s an acting role, but I’m asking them if I can do my own stunts,” he explains.
“Then I’ve got another to shoot around Easter, and both of them have got well-known actors as the lead.
“Then there’s a third movie we’re in discussion with for Victoria to play a significant lead, and every time I think of that movie, I just think it’s a winner.
“It touches on the supernatural, that’s probably all I can say.”
Alex can share a little more detail about the flick he’ll shoot for in March.
It’s called Sons of Summer, and it’s a sequel to the 1977 Australian drama thriller Summer City, which was Mel Gibson’s first movie.
An unconventional path to real estate
Despite their movie schedule, Alex and Victoria still have plenty of time to sell real estate, including properties like 101 Commodore Drive, Paradise Waters.
But the pair’s journey into real estate was undoubtedly less than conventional. With both growing up in the UK, Alex worked in his family’s designer clothing company, Original Blues, which was run by his father, Denis Fleri.
“My dad is a well-known designer in the trade, and he’s just done the knitwear in the movie The House of Gucci,” Alex says.
“He was recounting the story to the movie producers of how he was friends with Paolo Gucci and how they used to spend time together and come up with designs together.
“Then he freaked them out because he produced some of the original designs that he had from the ‘70s and ‘80s that he and Paolo had drawn together.”
Alex recalls that many famous names have been Original Blues customers over the years.
“Vivienne Westwood was a client of ours and used to come to dinner at our house,” he says.
“Burberry, Dries Van Noten, Kenzo, Paul Smith… We were at the top. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, they were all customers at one point.”
After leading the label’s push into the Japanese market as an 18-year-old, and having won The Queen’s Award for creating a global sales network in the highly competitive London fashion industry, Alex and Victoria, who met when she started working at one of the family’s clothing boutiques, decided to move to Australia.
Australia calling
That was in 2004, and after a couple of years of continuing with Original Blues from Australia, Alex started a construction business, and Victoria, who also has a background in education, was the head of the English department at Varsity College.
“My construction business was called Original Decking, and it specialised in outdoor areas,” Alex explains.
“I did the whole of Surfers Paradise, all the beachfront. I was the main contractor down there for all of the timber work, all of the benches.
“Then there were other clients such as Metricon, Clarendon, Coral Homes and residential clients like mums and dads that need a big extension or renovation done.
“We’ve done more than 400 renovations, additions and outdoor areas. Some of them were $2000, but some were $100,000-plus.”
Alex says he got his real estate license in 2009, but it wasn’t until he was selling his own project, 6 Costa Court, Broadbeach Waters, that he really caught the real estate bug.
Joining Amir Prestige Property Agents
In July 2020, the husband and wife team joined Amir Prestige Property Agents, headed by principal Amir Mian.
Alex says he and Victoria make a great team as he’s energetic and handles the ‘selling’, while Victoria is calm, organised and takes care of the backend of the business.
“She’s super efficient,” Alex explains of Victoria.
“I’m kind of go, go, go, and Victoria is doing all of the backend stuff and making sure I’ve done all my check and balances.
“She keeps me focused, so I’m not running off like a Labrador without a lead.”
Alex says his skills from the fashion and construction industries have stood them in good stead for real estate as they know how to run a business, they know how to sell, and they understand the critical importance of what buyers and sellers want, along with the unique stresses they may be under.
It also helps to recognise a quality build and how the design and orientation of a home best works.
The sky’s the limit
When they started in the industry, Alex and Victoria thought they would sell locally around the Sorrento area, but they soon had a listing in Paradise Waters, then Mermaid Waters and then Surfers Paradise.
“So we decided that being locked into one specific area wasn’t for us,” he says.
“Also, because of my experience in construction, I knew that a client might have a $1.1 million home, but their family members might have five $10 million homes.
“So, while Victoria and I didn’t need to chase every price point, we acknowledged that a client might have 30 more properties tucked up their sleeve, and if we said no to the $1.1 million property, we’d automatically be cutting ourselves out of the rest of the portfolio, and we’d be automatically saying we weren’t interested in doing long-term business.
“To us, that’s shortsighted. We treat every property with the same level of respect and the same level of detail because you never know where that will lead.”
Alex says their point of difference in the market is their hard work, fine attention to detail and uncanny knack of getting invited in for dinner when they doorknock.
“We recently had an open at a beautiful home, and Victoria booked a harpist to play… it added atmosphere and a real sense of occasion to the open,” Alex says.
“We’re there to sell a property and to make you feel that you really can connect with the property straight away. If we can assist with something that really makes the home showcase itself, we will take that opportunity.”
Getting their foot in the door
As well as having an extensive database and contacts list from their experience in the fashion, education, construction and movie industries, Alex says he and Victoria have secured clients with old fashioned door knocking.
“We know it’s one thing a lot of agents don’t like doing because they’re often chased off the front doorstep but, more often than not, we get invited into dinner,” Alex explains.
“So we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about movie stuff, we’ll talk about some of Van Damme’s antics, and we’ll chat about some of the clothing business stuff.
“We’re also always fascinated to hear about other people’s businesses, and pretty soon you’ve established a sense of rapport, and away you go.”
But Alex is adamant he and Victoria never hand out a business card or ask about selling their home.
“If they’re not smart enough to figure that out for themselves, they’re not for us,” he notes.
When it comes to juggling real estate and movies, Alex says he and Victoria have strong support from the Amir Prestige team, who can step in to handle elements like opens or contracts.
Victoria is also always working in the background, and Alex even ducks away to make calls on the days he’s on set.
“But with the movie stuff, would you believe it only takes three to six weeks, depending on the part, to film a movie,” Alex says.
So are Alex and Victoria tempted to leave real estate for the bright lights of Hollywood?
“No, we’re really happy with our current path, which is to stay with Amir Prestige, enjoy selling real estate and do a movie every now and then,” Alex says.
“It’s so unique to have that combination of opportunities and we’re just going to embrace that, stay humble and just get on with it.”
