Anna & Cristina

Anna Zarro, 39

Manhattan, NY

Owner of ANNA ZARRO – a real estate consulting company

When Anna came to New York, she had $7,000, 3 suitcases, a one-week hotel reservation and zero contacts. It was a culture shock from growing up in Hawaii, but she knew it was New York or nothing. Today, this real estate consultant owns her own boutique firm specializing in new development and her company has many layers. They serve as the owner’s representative for developers, strategize with marketers, coach brokers and advise any media or marketing materials. She’s created a true one-stop-shop and now works with the largest developers on luxury condo buildings ranging from $50M to $4B. But before all this success, she worked at Town Residential on the corporate side working on new development skyscrapers. It was there she met Cristina. While they had some cross over at work, their friendship deepened when they were both sent to a huge, global real estate conference in China in 2017. They knew they would link up at some point but of course they ran into each other at the closest blow dry bar to the hotel. That week was spent bonding, partying, laughing and networking. This friendship then blossomed into their New York lives.

Cristina was born and raised in NYC and groomed from a young age to work in real estate. Her Mom was an actress turned real estate agent and as a single mom, she brought her only child to showings, the office, work dinners and networking events. Today, the mother-daughter duo own Coté Luxury Real Estate. These two work with high-end clients where the properties range from $10M - $80M. Cristina recently helped Kenan Thompson, Kaley Cuoco, Gerard Butler and the Founder of Dean & Deluca find their fabulous, exclusive homes. While owning a company with her mom has brought her incredible success, there have been hurdles along the way. Many times, throughout Cristina’s life, she feels like she’s had to become the parent. But at the end of the day, her and her mom have been through so much and had to lean on each other. When Cristina was 14, her home was destroyed by the 9/11 attacks. They lived 2 blocks from the World Trade Center.  Having to fully start over, her mom’s incredibly wealthy friend had them move into her $40M Brooklyn home, which was quite the culture shock. She was sent to a new prep school and when she turned 18, she got her real estate license. Cristina knew she would need it as soon as she graduated from college. From there, it’s all been about work, work, work. Something she and Anna have in common.

From the outside, Anna has a tough exterior. For her career to flourish she had to be forward, confident, adaptable and resilient. But inside there is a soft, warm, over-analyzer who is now ready to find the one. Throughout her 20’s and 30’s, she always went on dates, had a lot of situationships, but never really made the effort to keep them going. It was laughable to her when a date would ask to meet for dinner at 8pm. How would she do that when she’s working until 1 am every night? But all of that changed for Anna when she was 36, at the prime of her career. It was Thanksgiving weekend in 2019, and she felt a lump. Because of her network, she was able to fast track and saw the best doctors and radiologists in the city. She found out it was triple negative breast cancer and would have to do 16 rounds of chemo, surgery and then radiation. This traumatic life change created a shift in her perspective on life. She needed to slow down and change the way she worked because life is short and now she understood that more than ever. Today, Anna’s fully in remission and ready to put in the effort and be vulnerable because she wants to be in love with a person, not just her job. Luckily, Cristina is also single and the two really have the whole ‘blonde, brunette’ thing going for them. Cristina always brings the fun side out of Anna! How can she not? Cristina is spontaneous and energetic. Anna says she’s sunshine in a bottle! While she’s a bubbly force of nature, Cristina feels like her life is a rom-com. Chance encounters with guys she’s matched with (but also lost touch with) on the subway, dating a wealthy tech exec who turned out to be a sociopath, meeting a hot guy on the beach and deciding on a whim to move in together after 1 week… there’s always a story when it comes to Cristina’s love life.

With the high commissions and needing to project an image of success, these two besties know how to spend their hard-earned cash. Both these girls are heavily in the gala scene, which means gorgeous gowns, shoes, and expensive tickets. Cristina tends to be asked to emcee many of these charity events, which makes sense since she dabbles in stand-up comedy. If these two aren’t at brunch at The Mark with their friends, they are at one of the many social clubs they belong to or planning high-end broker events. Anna decided on a whim to fly to Paris to get her hair done. Just for the hell of it. These girls carry the handbags, collect the Louboutin’s and go on all the exclusive trips and vacations. Speaking of vacations, one thing about Cristina is that she enjoys having alter egos, especially while away. So, she’ll bring a wig and use an accent to the play the part. Like the time she went to St Barth’s for the Dolce and Gabbana party at Eden Roc. She was her Ukrainian alter-ego, Svetty. Stephano Gabbana himself, asked to wear her fur hat and they danced the night away. 

At the end of the day, these two friends have had wild journeys full of success, laughs, hardships and struggle. They really lean on each other during the hard times to keep smiling. Cristina is the detail oriented one who tends to obsess about things, where Anna is blunt and likes to move it along. While different, they both have one thing in common… they’ll do anything to get the sale done. Cristina compares herself to I Love Lucy. One time she wanted to sell a house to a big, Wallstreet finance guy and to really go the extra mile, she tracked down his son who she found out was a martial arts teacher. So, she went and took his class. In her eyes, you must be a chameleon to succeed. And for Anna, she knows to be taken seriously as a business owner and a woman in this industry you must have a balanced life. Being out and about and being seen is what helps her business because it’s all word of mouth. While this blonde and brunette may be very different, their friendship stands the test of time. All it takes is one look to know how the other is feeling, and they will forever be finishing each other’s sentences.