- Renowned real estate broker Ryan Serhant has been appearing on reality TV for 10 years.
- The new Netflix show follows Serhant and his colleagues as they negotiate deals for wealthy clients.
- Beyond the attractive homes, Serhant said he wants to showcase the tricky parts of the agent business.
In 2012, Instagram didn't have a video feature, the housing market was cautiously celebrating signs of recovery from the 2008 crash, and Ryan Serhant made his debut on Bravo's reality show “Million Dollar Listing New York.”
The show was one of the first real estate reality shows of its kind, and viewers followed Serhant and other real estate agents behind the gilded doors of prime New York City real estate, including a $17 million, three-story townhouse in Greenwich Village and an $18.5 million loft in SoHo.
Serhant's new show, “Owning Manhattan,” premiering on Netflix on June 28, is the latest addition to this collection.
Serhant explained that in the “Million Dollar Listing” era, there was a “voyeuristic” element for viewers who wanted to pull back the curtains and see the city's historic brownstones and jaw-dropping penthouses for themselves.
“We were showing people something they'd never seen before,” says Serhant, 39. “It was the lifestyle of the rich and famous,” she told Business Insider.
But now, with the rise of reality TV shows promoting luxury homes, more real estate agents posting photos and videos to social media, and even the hobby of Zillow-stalking, it's easier than ever to get a peek at rare properties.
If “The Real World” was “reality TV 1.0” and shows like “Million Dollar Listing” were “2.0,” Serhant explained, Netflix is poised to usher in “reality TV 3.0” with its new series, which he believes has a new angle that will keep viewers hooked and off their phones.
“Real estate is no longer the special thing,” Serhant explains. Instead, the attraction is “the lives of the people who work in this industry.”
These lives — his own and the lives of the other agents he hired to work at the real estate company he founded after leaving the established real estate firm Nest Seekers in 2020 — will be on full display in “Awning Manhattan,” an eight-episode season premiering June 28 on Netflix.
The show Viewers will be taken on the journey of the ups and downs of careers building in the fiercely competitive environment of New York City real estate, including recent Broadway turned real estate broker Chloe Tucker Kane and Tricia Lee, who is expanding her dominance in Brooklyn and looking to take over Manhattan.
“I didn't want this to be a glitzy spectacle,” Serhant says. “New York City can make or break you.”
Serhant imparted wisdom to new agents.
With four reality shows and a decade of TV experience under his belt, Serhant is in a great position to mentor newcomers and the agents who report to him to round out the cast.
When Netflix was scouting the original cast, Serhant called them together and told them to take an entire weekend to think about their decisions, to be vulnerable on camera and ready to tell viewers the full extent of their journey, even during the days of filming. They don't want to share, and Serhant warned people not to get involved if they just want to “be famous and sell toasters.”
“This isn't from years ago. Audiences can see through this kind of bullshit,” he said.
In the end, several agents backed out, but 12 brave brokers agreed to appear.
Serhant also had to test his own weaknesses on the show.
“I've never been a CEO in front of the cameras before,” he said.
Serhant said challenges he faced while filming included losing top agents to rival firms, having to fire employees who broke company rules, and having to manage clients and revenue just as much as younger agents.
But he said it was important to be honest with the audience.
“If this show is the most vulnerable and the most authentic on the planet, it's going to be a great show,” he told BI.
Television can move viewers' minds and attract new customers.
With more than 2 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million on YouTube and 806,000 on TikTok, Serhant already has a platform that offers a glimpse into his daily life and business philosophy.
Still, he said, nothing compares to the power of television.
On any given day, Mr. Serhant might be ecstatic to be selling Mercedes-Benz-branded homes in Miami or showing off a new luxury condominium in New York City.
But he found that customers were always fascinated by the personal appearances they saw on television.
“All anyone else was interested in was, 'I'd love to work with you, I saw your wedding in Greece' or 'I'd love to sell all these buildings with you, my wife went through IVF too,'” he told BI.
In the first episode of “Awning Manhattan,” Mr. Serhant said he wanted his four-year-old, eponymous firm to be the No. 1 brokerage in New York City.
He knows the eyeballs — and client — What his new show brings.
“Our business is international,” he told BI. “Netflix is the largest global distribution network on the planet.”
