Mary Fitzgerald: I actually hate reality TV and watching people fight — but life after 'Selling Sunset' has meant I don't touch homes worth less than $2 million anymore

The essay is based on a conversation with Mary Fitzgerald, a top Los Angeles broker. It has been edited to make it clearer.

Reality shows are not my cup of tea.

I don't like watching people fighting. Our show's spinoff "Selling the O.C." is more drama than I like to watch or be around on a daily basis. It's different from "Selling Sunset" as the agents are younger and they have more drama going on.

I'm happy that it's doing well, but I prefer to watch food or travel shows.

Being on "Selling Sunset" has helped our business a lot.

I think I speak for all the ladies when I say we've gotten clients from the show and we're selling at higher prices. I don't sell houses under $2 million unless it's for a friend.

Selling a house at a lower price point takes a lot of time and energy and you only get a small amount of money.

There's definitely both good and bad about being in business while on a reality show

I get a lot of clients from the show but I also get a lot of fake clients because of the exposure. People pretend to be clients in order to get in touch with us. We have to be careful about how we vet people.

It's more difficult to host open houses to make a sale now that we have to be more careful about our safety. There are a lot of crazies out there so we have to have security with us.

Since "Selling Sunset," there has been a lot of change in the office. When we're filming and there are a lot of people outside, we need armed security guards. It makes it more difficult to work in that area.

We don't tell you where we're going if you go alone.

Being recognized when I'm out and about is really uncomfortable for me

Being on "Selling Sunset" has changed things for me because I'm a private person. I'm good on camera because I've known my friends for a long time.

I'm comfortable on stage, even if I'm presenting an award or something. That is my work mode.

If I go to dinner with a couple friends and they are taking pictures and videos, I will stop. I'm so nervous. It is difficult to be closed off in my private life now.

This is what we signed up for, but there are still days when I feel like I don't want to do this

I've been on hormones for a few days because Romain and I are having a baby. I cried the other day because I don't want to do this anymore. We don't know not to take anything I'm saying too seriously.

Being on the show can get pretty overwhelming. The show does not cover our lives. Filming takes a lot of time, and trying to balance family, kids, work is a lot.

The changes and pressures of being on the show are mitigated by the good relationships we have with one another. We confide in our colleagues whenever we're feeling stressed or frustrated because we're all going through the same thing and we know where the other person is coming from.

My persona on the show isn't a problem for me in my real-life business — but that might be different for the other cast members

I'm pretty sure that our credibility has been affected by the show. I don't think I'm in the middle of the drama. I think my image from the show does not affect me as much as some of the other girls.

I'm happy with how I'm portrayed, even though production wants to peel back the layers on my personal life. I think there's a misconception that I'm less shy than I really am.

Bad business is not necessarily caused by having drama follow. The girls that cause a lot of drama get clients from the show as well. They may think that's cool. It works out for everyone.

The first season of the show was the scariest

I was worried about the first season of Selling Sunset because we didn't know what we were getting into.

Some of the new cast members can look back and have an idea of what it will be like, but for those of us who were on from the beginning, we didn't know if they were going to twist the storylines and make us look bad.

We were all very nervous about it. We fought with production because we wanted to know why they were doing it. We were more natural after the first season because we knew what was coming.

We know the production has a job to do 

We have many agents in the LA office. The agents people see on the show are the result of the production meeting all of us and deciding who they liked. It's understandable that some of the agents didn't want to be on the show.

I think there is more trust between us and production. If we say something when we're mic'd up that we don't want them to hear, that's not good. It's going to be used.

They are not always going to protect us, so we need to be careful. If we feel that something we said came out wrong, they will give us a chance to explain it in an interview.

At the end of the day, our priority is to sell great houses

The second highest selling agent in the office is me. The new addition to the team is doing well. Nicole has been with the company for a while but will be new to the show.

If we were doing this with a bunch of strangers, it would be a lot more difficult. It is fun even though it is a lot to get used to. I'm very thankful that we have the chance to do this and get so many great clients.

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