Influential Woman · Real Estate
Maria Octavio
Real Estate Broker Specialist, CITISPHERE
New York, NY 10018
Her Story
About Maria
Maria Octavio is a real estate broker with CitySphere Real Estate Property Group in New York City, where she has quickly risen to become the firm's top producer after spending seven successful years at Douglas Elliman. Alongside her real estate practice, she is the founder of The Perfect Wife Concierge, a boutique property management and owner's-representative service she built from the ground up after relocating to Manhattan from Venezuela. Drawing on deep relationships with supers, landlords, and service professionals throughout the city, she pairs her real estate expertise with a concierge-style approach, guiding clients through every stage of buying, selling, renting, and maintaining a home in New York's competitive market.
Before entering real estate, Octavio built a rich and varied career spanning journalism, documentary filmmaking, and creative direction in advertising, skills she now channels into crafting compelling narratives around the properties and lifestyles she represents. She is also an accomplished fiction writer and visual artist, having earned her master's degree in comparative literature from the Universidad Central de Venezuela after raising her four children, and pursuing formal photography training at the International Center of Photography. Her literary work has been recognized with the Premio Monteávila and a fellowship from the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos Rómulo Gallegos, and her photography has been exhibited internationally in New York, Portugal, Venezuela, and Peru.
Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Octavio serves as president of BNI Chapter 56 in New York, a networking organization she has belonged to for over nine years. She moved to the United States on an Extraordinary Ability visa in recognition of her achievements as a writer and photographer, later earning her Green Card and, five years after arriving in Manhattan, becoming a U.S. citizen. Known for her belief that listening is the key to understanding each client's needs, Octavio continues to grow her own team at CitySphere while remaining active as a writer, photographer, and community leader.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maria
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my determination, my ability to transform and adapt, and the lessons I've learned from failure. Humility and self-belief have also been central to everything I've achieved.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my father, who taught me that humbleness is the key to any good thing in life.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I encourage young women entering this industry to embrace AI as a helpful assistant, while always double-checking its outputs rather than relying on it blindly. When choosing a brokerage, I advise looking for one that offers strong training, coaching, and back-office support — you want a brokerage that suits you, not the other way around. I also emphasize the importance of building a strong network.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The rapid adoption of AI presents both an opportunity and a challenge in my field. It's a powerful tool for increasing productivity, but it can also make mistakes, so its outputs must always be verified. I also see a real need for brokerages to provide practical, hands-on training and support for new agents entering the industry.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Humility, helping others shine, seeking beauty, determination, and resilience are the values that matter most to me, both in my work and in my personal life.
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