New 'Love Is Blind' Season Features A CRE Broker. We Asked Him How It Went
When Nick Pugh stepped onto the Los Angeles set of the popular reality dating show Love Is Blind last year, all the industrial leasing and sales broker could think about was the clear height and column spacing.
"I said, 'Gents, this is my love language right here,'" Pugh, a senior associate at Rockville, Maryland-based Scheer Partners, told Bisnow in an interview.
While the other contestants were gazing at the rooms they had only ever seen through the television screen, the 31-year-old, Montgomery County native was looking through the lens of his day job marketing warehouses and distribution centers.
Pugh was one of 29 contestants from the D.C. and Baltimore area trying to find love on the series’ seventh season, the first six episodes of which were released on Netflix Wednesday.
The show takes the singles through two weeks of what is essentially blind speed dating. Through a blue glass wall, the participants learn about one another — their hopes and dreams, fears and quirks, careers and families — everything other than what they look like.
That is, until the proposals. Contestants who think they have met their match pop the question, and only then do they see the person behind the curtain, or in the case of the show, behind the glimmering blue wall. Then, it's off to an engagement-moon in Mexico where the drama, partying, sex and heartbreak commence.
Pugh, a single father to a 10-year-old son, said he auditioned for the show because he had found dating in D.C. to be difficult and superficial.
"I haven’t had any luck," he said.
As he has gotten older, Pugh said he has shifted his mindset to seek out "the deep, intimate and mental connection versus that of a physical one."
"This is a very unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build that foundation without any distractions," he added. "That level of rapport in such a little time can't be replicated elsewhere."
It’s singles like Pugh, looking to find their perfect partner through what the show calls "the experiment," that has captured the imagination of so many Americans.
The sixth season of Love Is Blind was the most watched show across any streaming platform this past March — the month after it was released — with 6 billion minutes watched. It has ranked among Nielsen’s Top 10 most-streamed titles 23 times throughout its lifetime.
In the lead-up to the premiere, Pugh said he was extremely nervous about how his on-screen persona was going to come through, but he is happy with how he’s portrayed. The show cuts down two weeks of footage of blind dates in "the pods" into a handful of hourlong episodes.
"I was an extension of my son, my family, my friends, my firm, and in this case, too, the brokerage community," he said.
"I conducted myself in a manner where everybody from every brokerage shop would be proud to say they did a deal with me," he added.
Now Pugh is back to work, getting into his normal routine. He’s working on deals for pickleball and padel venues and supply chain and storage firms at the moment.
"I’m back to what I love doing — industrial real estate," he said.
Pugh has been in commercial real estate for the past four years after shifting gears from the talent recruiting industry in 2020. But he said CRE has felt like his life’s calling since he was young.
"I grew up playing cities, like zoning office, zoning industrial," he said. "Total geek. And I've always been a relationship guy, been a deal guy."
But something has changed since his time shooting the reality series: He’s already been recognized out and about in the CRE world.
“It's a small-knit community. And I don’t think many other commercial realtors have been out doing these kinds of things,” he said. “I'm just a simple guy. I prefer to go to the grocery store and not be recognized and enjoy that time. But it's what I signed up for. And if that means somebody asking to take a picture during a tour, you know, so be it.”
