When Monika Tu was asked to star in Luxe Listings Sydney, she had one note for the show.

If you have even a mild addiction to high-end real estate shows, then this face is one you’d immediately recognise.

The face of Monika Tu. 

Praised for her love of labels, skyscraper heels and penthouse apartments, Monika was a breath of freshly spritzed air when she walked onto our screens on Luxe Listings Sydney.

Watch the trailer for the second season of Luxe Listings Sydney right here. Post continues after video.

Video via Amazon Prime Video.

While we would happily watch house tours with Monika on repeat, how the real estate agent got to the lofty heights she’s at now is arguably much more interesting than the $10 million mansions she’s showing.

Especially because she started her career selling floppy disks at Paddy’s Market. 

So we decided to give Monika a call, to find out exactly how she went from bumbags at the markets to Birkin bags in million-dollar mansions. 

Monika moved to Australia from China in 1988 and immediately got to work finding a job.

She spoke almost no English, but worked as many hours as she could as a waitress and sold cosmetics, all while trying to study for her degree. Monika admits she worked “any job that would take her” – even washing dishes for 12 hours straight. 

However, after graduating in 1992 she moved to Sydney and began hustling at Paddy’s Market, armed with only a bumbag and a hand full of floppy disks she was trying to flog. 

But that role built up her drive, and she went on to grow her market business into a national corporation that now sells over a million tech products every year.

After taking stock of that success, Monika was looking forward to winding things down and treating herself to a well-earned early retirement at age 45. 

But then her husband asked her a question: “What about real estate?”

He had a passion for it, and with Monika’s business skills, there was potential for them to make a lot of money in this space. So they did just that. They registered the business name ‘Black Diamond Property Concierge’ and began cracking into the market they knew they had an edge in – international investors.