Ryan Serhant Explains How ‘Owning Manhattan’ Is More About Real Estate and Less About Catfights

Fans of Million Dollar Listing: New York loved the ambitious young real estate agent Ryan Serhant. For years, Bravo viewers have been watching him grow his business, open his own brokerage, get married, and have a child. Now, after a long hiatus and ten successful seasons on Million Dollar Listing, and one season on Sell It Like Serhant, Serhant is back with his own reality series show on Netflix: Owning Manhattan.

In many ways, it will remind you of his previous show and other real estate reality shows – and there are so many of them – but this one is more about real estate and less about catfights. The show is filmed in Soho, at Serhant’s offices, and around New York, giving you a look into some of the most exquisite real estate in the city, what it’s like to be an agent, and the great payout if you make it in this business.

Collider sat down with Serhant for an interview in a $58M Bel Air mansion with a breathtaking view of the city ahead of the show premiering its first season on Netflix.

Owning Manhattan (2024)

Real estate mogul Ryan Serhant leads one of New York’s top firms, pushing his agents to secure the city’s most prestigious listings. The high-stakes reality series follows the drama and competition as agents navigate the glamorous, cutthroat world of luxury real estate, aiming to close multimillion-dollar deals​.

Release Date

June 28, 2024

Cast

Ryan Serhant

Main Genre

Reality

Seasons

1

Ryan Serhant Is Excited to Showcase His Individual Talent on ‘Owning Manhattan’

Collider: I’ve been watching Million Dollar Listing since the beginning. You were only 24 when you started…

Ryan Serhant: I was, not anymore.

Collider: Now that you have your own show, when you look at other agents do they remind you of yourself?

RS: You know there’s a moment in filming this show, which was a very surreal experience for me, because I don’t think we ever actually get older on the inside. I think our backs just start hurting, and our hair just gets gray. We had an open house, a $20 million penthouse. One of my agents who didn’t get the listing shows up and it’s all live. Like we’re filming things as they happen. [They] show up with a super soaker water gun to a broker’s open house, jumps in the pool and then starts spraying everyone with water. For a split second, I saw myself, because I’ve done that before, but a long time ago, but I didn’t bring a super soaker. And so, watching these agents operate today, having grown up with me, it’s so outer body.

I mean people tell me all day, everyday, ‘Hey I grew up watching you with my mom, I grew up watching you with my dad’. I got into real estate because of you, so to now have those same agents now work with me, work for me and to be on a TV show with me, it’s like it’s very weird.

Collider: And that was exactly my next question. Do you have many people approach you and tell you; because of you we got into this business? A lot of people watching Million Dollar Listing want to get into this business, but It’s really hard.

RS: Yes, it’s very hard and one of the things I love about Owning Manhattan and Netflix is how realistic this show is. Like it is a real depiction of what it’s like to buy and sell incredibly expensive homes in New York City, with very specific clientele. And you get to watch that deal process through and through. Something sells, something don’t, some people lose money, some people make money, some people are able to earn commissions and stay in New York City other people, you’ll see, don’t make it. The cast that starts the show – and I didn’t plan it this way, just happened – is not the cast that ends the show. You know not everybody makes it, it’s a tough business and I think I am a fair CEO, but I am definitely demanding and I’m not for everybody.

Real Estate Agents In New York’s Salary Isn’t What You Think

Collider: Can you tell who’s going to make it, and who’s going to quit because it’s too rough?

RS: I think people will have to watch it I don’t think it’s that obvious at the beginning, but New York City is a pressure cooker in and of itself. Just living in New York City, you live in a microwave of stress. You then add on a Commission sales job, with no base salaries, no benefits, taxi cabs, delayed trains. You know, 20 hours a day at work and that pressure cooker, that microwave turns into like a full-blown oven. And you watch all of that. And I think it’ll be interesting for people to really see what it’s like to really make it or not make it in New York City.

Collider: One of your agents, I believe it was Jonathan, who said that most agents in New York earn about $40,000 a year. Not many are making millions, is that true?

RS: “t’s very true. Most real estate agents don’t make any money. Most real estate agents just have your license and they do on average, two deals a year. It’s actually a little bit less than that. Active agents obviously do more than that, but it’s hard. You know, you have 80,000 real estate agents in kind of the greater New York City area. There’s not 80,000 homes on the market, it’s not 80,000 sales happening every year.

The competition, even if you’re great, even if you’re well networked, is very, very, very fierce. And I think Owning Manhattan is doing a really, really good job of kind of playing both sides. You know, there are moments that are hilarious, like I think for anybody that watched me on Million Dollar Listing New York, like you got to have a sense of humor. We are selling real estate like it’s gonna be OK but it’s also super stressful at the same time, and you go kind of back. It’s like that seesaw of, ‘Wow this is really fun! to: ‘Oh my God I can’t take it anymore! and some agents will make it some won’t.

Collider: You really have to have nerves of steel to be in this business

RS: Yeah it takes thick skin.

Real Estate Is Sexy to Watch

Collider: How do you deal with the stress?

RS: I do what everybody else does, I agree to do a global reality TV show and just air all my dirty laundry to the entire universe and see what happens. You know, I think that’s the best way to deal with stress.

Collider: When you started with ‘Million Dollar Listing New York’, there were not too many reality shows about real estate, and now they have tons of them. Why are people so drawn to these kinds of shows?

RS: I think real estate is an inherently sexy thing to watch. It’s very visual, you know. Watching a TV show about day trading stocks is interesting, but it’s not visual. You kind of have to make it visual. Real estate, the visuals are already there. I mean look at this view we’re in a $58 million mansion right now just for this interview, so I think people like the visuals. I think people like seeing inside wealthy people’s homes, there’s still a little bit of that old school, secret lives of the rich and famous and then seeing what it’s like to work in these high-stakes, high-pressure environments like New York City, it’s just entertaining, you know our stress is your entertainment.

Collider: Totally. What’s next for you? You have Owning Manhattan, maybe Owning Savannah?

RS: Savannah Georgia? We did just open in Savannah Georgia.

Collider: I know, that’s why I’m asking.

RS: I don’t know, I don’t know. I think let’s see how it goes with Owning Manhattan first, I’m excited for the world to see it and then we’ll see what happens. But you know me, expansion always and always.”

Owning Manhattan is Available on Netflix. Watch the full interview with Collider above.

Stream Owning Manhattan