3 Pieces of Advice From The Star of Million Dollar Listing
The popular real estate show will make its S.F. debut on Bravo July 8 and Bisnow caught up with the star broker, Ryan Serhant, who took a few minutes out of his booming career in NYC to give us some advice for the newest cast members.
1. What He Wished He Knew Before Filming
Ryan tells us lead time is often the hardest part of preparing a reality show, with real estate moving quicker than editing. "In one or two years do you want to be selling the same $400k homes with leaky faucets or is your goal selling $10M homes every day? The show is a massive shotgun in your mouth saying you need to be the greatest biggest real estate broker now or it's all over," he says. "It's the business you want to be doing in the future. Make sure people see that on TV."
2. Don't Call Yourself A Celeb
Ryan says that unless you're a Kardashian, don't consider yourself a celebrity—or act like one. "If you are a good real estate broker and want to be the best, that is the reason you should be doing the show. Use it as a marketing tool and milk it for all it's worth." He says the show is a great platform for giving out business cards and earning some credibility in the market.
3. What It Takes To Be A Top Agent
It's still all about work ethic. Ryan says he's most interested in hiring someone with mental and physical endurance who can lose 10 deals in one week but show up at Sunday at 8am ready to go. "After the first season I did OK but I was against two very experienced agents. No one cares [cast mate] Fredrik Eklund is 10 years older than me. I still had a bedtime when he started in real estate." One of Ryan's latest listings: Thirteenth East + West, an East Village property that's going to be transformed into luxury towers, rendered above.
Here's Ryan at the kickoff party. He tells us he's about to launch a project in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Lower East Side is also a hot area, he says. "The market is on fire and it's so expensive. Only so many people can afford $6M three-bedroom homes."
Tune in to Bravo on Wednesdays to catch Ryan on Million Dollar Listing New York.
