In 2012, Instagram did not have video, the housing market was cautiously celebrating indicators of restoration from the crash of 2008, and Ryan Serhant made his debut on Bravo’s actuality tv present, “Million Greenback Itemizing New York.”
On the present, one of many early real-estate actuality sequence of its sort, viewers adopted Serhant and different brokers behind the gilded doorways of elite New York Metropolis actual property, like a $17 million three-story Greenwich Village townhouse or $18.5 million SoHo loft.
Serhant’s new present, “Proudly owning Manhattan,” which premieres June 28 on Netflix, is the latest addition to the gathering.
Serhant defined that in the course of the “Million Greenback Itemizing” days, there was a “voyeuristic” aspect for viewers who needed to drag again the curtain to see town’s historic brownstones or jaw-dropping penthouses for themselves.
“We have been exhibiting individuals what they’d by no means seen earlier than,” Serhant, 39, informed Enterprise Insider. “It was the life of the wealthy and the well-known.”
Now, although, it is by no means been simpler to get peeks into rarefied actual property, with the proliferation of actuality TV reveals that hawk luxurious digs, the rise of brokers posting pictures and movies on social media, and Zillow-stalking as a pastime.
If “The Actual World” was “Actuality TV 1.0” and reveals like “Million Greenback Itemizing” have been “2.0,” Serhant defined, he is able to usher in “Actuality TV 3.0” together with his new Netflix sequence, which has what he believes is a special approach to lure viewers away from their telephones and hold them hooked.
“The true property is not what’s unique anymore,” Serhant defined. As an alternative, the draw is “the lives of the individuals who work on this enterprise.”
These lives — his personal and the opposite brokers he employed to work on the brokerage he based in 2020 after leaving established agency Nest Seekers — shall be totally on show within the eight-episode season “Proudly owning Manhattan,” premiering June 28 on Netflix.
The present takes viewers on a journey of the ups and downs of constructing a profession within the cutthroat setting of New York Metropolis actual property, like Chloe Tucker Caine, who not too long ago transitioned from Broadway to dealer, and Tricia Lee, who’s able to increase her dominance in Brooklyn and take over Manhattan.
“I didn’t need this to be a glamorized present,” Serhant mentioned. “New York Metropolis will make you and likewise break you.”
Serhant handed down knowledge to new brokers
Courtesy of Netflix
With 4 actuality reveals and a decade of tv below his belt, Serhant is well-positioned to teach the newcomers or the brokers reporting to him who spherical out the forged.
When Netflix scouted the unique forged, Serhant gathered them collectively and informed them to take a full weekend to contemplate the choice. He informed them to be able to reveal weak moments on digicam and open up in regards to the full journey with viewers, even the times they’d slightly not share. Serhant cautioned them to not be a part of if they simply needed to “get well-known and promote toasters.”
“This is not years in the past, the viewers can odor out bullshit like this,” he mentioned.
A couple of brokers really ended up not doing the present, however 12 courageous brokers mentioned sure.
Serhant additionally needed to check his personal vulnerability on the present.
“I had by no means been a CEO on digicam earlier than,” he mentioned.
Challenges like shedding a high agent to a rival agency or having to fireplace an worker for breaking firm guidelines, all whereas managing purchasers and gross sales just like the extra junior brokers, have been troublesome to take care of whereas being filmed, Serhant mentioned.
However he mentioned it is necessary to be frank with the viewers.
“The present goes to be nice if it is essentially the most weak actual property present on the planet and essentially the most genuine,” he informed BI.
Tv tugs at viewers’ heartstrings — which may usher in new purchasers
Courtesy of Netflix
With over 2 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million followers on YouTube, and 806,000 followers on TikTok, Serhant already has a platform to share peeks into his each day life and enterprise philosophy.
Nonetheless, he mentioned, nothing compares with the ability of tv.
On any given day, Serhant may very well be ecstatic in particular person about promoting Mercedes-Benz-branded residences in Miami or exhibiting off new luxurious condos in New York Metropolis.
Nonetheless, he noticed that purchasers are routinely extra enchanted by the private glimpses they see on tv.
“All anybody else cared about was, ‘Hey, we might like to work with you. We watched your marriage ceremony in Greece.’ Or ‘Hey, we might like to promote our total constructing with you. My spouse additionally went by way of IVF,'” he informed BI.
Within the first episode of “Proudly owning Manhattan,” Serhant mentioned he needs his eponymous agency, simply 4 years previous, to be the No. 1 brokerage in New York Metropolis.
He is aware of the eyeballs — and purchasers — his new present will usher in.
“Our enterprise is worldwide,” he informed BI. “Netflix is the biggest international distribution community on the planet.”
