Mega mansion owned by rags to riches real estate star

PHOTO: Zed Nasheet

Zed Nasheet’s sprawling bayside mansion with its ultra-contemporary stone and marble décor and garage full of European cars is a far cry from where he lived two decades ago.

That home, a two-bedroom apartment in a rundown neighbourhood and without a functioning shower, definitely didn’t have a Lamborghini parked in the driveway.

Back then, the star Melbourne realtor was crammed into a tiny crumbling flat in Pakistan with his mother, father, and three brothers, as well as six other refugees.

The Nasheet family had fled war-torn Afghanistan, first travelling by car out of Kabul but later being forced to walk to the border over the course of three gruelling days.

Eventually granted asylum in Australia when he was 12, Zed and his family settled in Melbourne and began rebuilding their lives.

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“I didn’t speak much English,” Mr Nasheet, now 32, recalled. “The only things I knew how to say at first were ‘I love you’, ‘You’re beautiful’, and ‘How much?’

“I didn’t know what a proper bathroom looked like until [we arrived]. We had lived in poverty. Having a can of Coke was a special occasion. I’d never had a strawberry until [arriving in Australia].

“That’s the reason for my drive. Australia is the land of opportunity. You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you put your mind to it. We’re so fortunate to be here.”

Zed isn’t apologetic about treating himself for his hard work. Picture: instragram.com/zed_nasheet

His first brush with entrepreneurship came when he was 14 and worked at a hotdog stand outside a nightclub in Melbourne’s CBD.

“I was meant to sell those hot dogs for $4 but I was reading about the power of soft selling and up-selling,” Mr Nasheet said.

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He began offering upgraded hotdogs and premium topics, as well as combos, and used his charm to get tips, soon earning on average of $20 a pop from the rowdy punters.

Zed now lives in a sparkling mega mansion in Melbourne. Picture: realestate.com.au

After school, he landed a job at a Telstra store while studying a diploma of business and marketing, until a fateful encounter with a disgruntled customer changed the course of his life.

“This lovely lady came in complaining about her service, but I turned the complaint into a sale by helping her. She offered me a job in real estate. She said, ‘Son, you’ll do very well’.”

Some might call it luck, but Mr Nasheet said luck is merely “when preparation meets opportunity”.

Zed has worked his way up from the bottom rungs of real estate to the very top. Picture: instagram.com/zed_nasheet

His first few years at a Harcourts agency proved to be a steep learning curve, but he absorbed as much knowledge as he could from those around him.

Mr Nasheet started small, selling apartments, and then bigger homes, before eventually moving on to a new agency.

Pretty soon, he was the top-selling real estate realtor for LJ Hooker in Victoria for three consecutive years.

Three years ago, he founded Zed Real Estate, based in Hampton East and mainly specialising in luxury and boutique real estate.

Zed Real Estate specialises in luxury and boutique real estate and is based in Hampton East. Picture: Zed Nasheet

It’s an enterprise he now runs with his three brothers, Maseeh, who served as chief executive officer, Qaiss, who manages rentals, and Tavab, who manages sales.