Real Housewives of Orange County resident Gina Kirschenheiter was in Big Bear on New Year’s Eve. Kirschenheiter, her partner Travis Mullen, and their six children have a tradition of “fancy dinners,” where they dress up, eat lobster or steak, and ring in the New Year with a ball drop.
Under the pretext of finding a spot for a family photo, Mullen lured Kirschenheiter out to the patio and its twinkling lights. Then he pulled her close and began to say, “There are so many beautiful things.” When she realized he was proposing, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
“Yes,” she said, and immediately asked the children if they knew. They were participating in it. In fact, one person was quietly filming the whole thing.
“After 8 years of being on TV, my favorite part of this moment was that there were no cameras around except for my stepdaughter hiding in the woods,” Kirschenheiter wrote on Instagram. “I will forever cherish this unexpected, simple and beautiful moment. Thank you, Travis, I love you.”
Real Housewives of Orange County fans watched as Maren and Kirschenheiter began dating in 2019. In 2023, they deepened their relationship and started a real estate team together. Since then, the couple has made nearly $25 million, moved to eXp, expanded to different states, and appeared on multiple conference stages, including the most recent Inman Connect New York.
Fresh off an engagement and an ICNY appearance, we spoke with Kirschenheiter about working with her partner, family business, and what it was like to be forced to parody Catherine O’Hara in an angry moment on TV. The following conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
What is your best advice for working couples?
It’s not easy to collaborate with a partner, right? It’s nice to be able to say, “He’s my partner in work and life,” but it’s a little difficult to navigate and needs to be worked out.
My advice is to always stay in your lane. Travis and I really figured out what works for us…and we stick to it…you have to identify what your role is and stay within that role.
You can work with business partners and ask for advice at any time. That’s the sensible thing to do, so if you need advice, the onus should be on that person. Cannot be over-inserted [yourself].
What is your favorite thing about working with Travis?
I love spending so much time together. It’s really beautiful and nice. It’s fun. Just like everything we do. I love having people working on it with me so they really understand. Everyone complains about work. It’s great when you can complain to someone who really understands, because their complaints are the same as yours. It’s also really great to be successful together. It’s really fun to feel like we’re building something together.
Especially for Travis and I because this is our second chance at love…it’s like our baby. It’s wonderful that what we have together is truly ours. Lord knows, we have enough biological children that it’s nice to have something together that feels like ours.
The two have six children, are Real Housewives, and now have demanding careers in real estate. How do you deal with mom guilt that comes with your daily hustle and bustle?
Honestly, it’s very difficult. It’s so hard, and it’s getting harder. I’ve had my real estate license for two years now and I’ve been very lucky and fortunate to have success with this qualification and go from strength to strength each year. We’re getting more and more business and that’s great. However, this is taking up more and more of my time, and it’s becoming very difficult to balance that.
I will never stop working…the mother guilt will never go away. The mother’s guilt is really huge. One thing I can say is that it’s very rewarding and I’m very grateful that the kids look up to me and respect how hard I work.
Do other housewives support your career in real estate?
They have been very supportive of my real estate business and have been very supportive of my relationship with Travis. I felt really supported by these women. And we know that we are cat lovers and that they are notorious for fighting with each other and everything else. But that’s what I really feel, so I actually want to say that. And the fact that these women never came for my career and never came for my man really fills my heart.
You entered the industry at a really interesting time…
Is that what we call it? interesting?
I joined the company at the worst possible time for the real estate industry.
You came along when the pandemic boom subsided and the NAR settlement was reached in 2024. So I’m curious, how were your first few years in this industry?
The real estate industry is in very tough times, so I don’t trade it. It’s not easy because things are very interesting and uncertain. You really need to understand a lot. And honestly, I think this is a good entry point. Because you just learn a lot and you have to work really hard for it.
If I had joined the year before and things had just jumped out at me, I would have had false expectations of what real estate was all about. And by the time we got into the next year, I think we were in a catastrophic situation.
I am entering at the most difficult time, which means things can only get better. For other agents who started at the same time as me, it’s like, if you can figure it out, you can live with it, you can be successful in the market that we’re in, and if you just hang in there, you’ll be fine. I expect it to be incredibly rewarding over the next few years.
You said you got all the leads. Do people tend to come to you because you’re on the show?
we’re doing everything that everyone else is doing [else does]. I knock on the door. There are areas in my community where I regularly knock on doors and bring gifts. Because that’s what you have to do as an agent. In other words, there is no easy way. There are no express lanes. This is not the case with real estate. Either you do it or you don’t.
I feel like there’s this curse, like the housewife curse, where a lot of people just put their name on a product or a brand… If you’re not there to do the job, you don’t get it.
My first buyer customer purchased a home within my community. They first contacted me because they knew me from the show, but then they contacted me on Instagram. They ended up moving here.
I primarily sell my community and I have 6 children in my community. I know every nook and cranny of the community and have taken them to every facility. We spent the whole day with them and eventually they made an offer on the house. And now I consider them friends.
Do you have any ultimate real estate goals?
I would like to become an investor. I really feel like that’s when you really get into the game. I love creating and I love helping people, but it’s like being a housewife. It has a reasonable lifespan.
And it’s exhausting. It’s a really tough game. So for Travis and I, the end goal is to try to move into the investment side of things, and I think that’s probably the trajectory that we’re going to be on.
Actress Catherine O’Hara passed away recently. What was it like being impersonated by her on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen?
To be honest, that was so crazy to me… For me, it was Beetlejuice. It’s in the fabric of my childhood, Beetlejuice. So, I always loved her so much…I think it was probably a year ago, and I was posting it at the time…my dad sent it to me, and I was like a very avid girlfriend fan…That moment where Catherine O’Hara was parodying me was so surreal to me. It’s like, “Oh, I made it.”
So I already posted it, but it was very sad [when she died]because she’s such a legend and such an iconic person… So, even though it was so sad, I’m so grateful for always having that little moment frozen in time. And I’m so glad I was crazy for calling a grown woman a “sloppy Chihuahua.”
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