Realtor and star of Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” Ryan Serhant, has a motto that drives him to success: “Expansion, always in all the ways.”
But that expansion comes at a price.
The company is now four years old, and Season 2 of the series follows the CEO and his team of top agents as they sell some of the city’s hottest properties, including a showstopping penthouse at 200 Amsterdam Avenue with an asking price of $31 million.
Audiences have seen Serhant go from Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” to the CEO of his over company. The pressures of managing the company and being a parent take their toll.
Throughout the season, audiences see as Serhant struggles, and the stress gets too much to the point that he has an emotional breakdown on screen. It’s his most revealing moment yet.
“No one cries for the person at the top,” says Serhant when asked about showing this vulnerable side.
World of Wonder co-founders and the show’s executive producers, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, who also produced Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing,” cast the rising realtor in the New York edition of the franchise. Bailey said, “Ryan does always present as a selling machine, but there is this other side to him that I think he keeps closely guarded, because he is such a sales force.” Bailey continued, “To see it was really great, because I think perhaps some people don’t believe he’s got that.” He added, “He’s a big softie.
Barbato concurred, “This is just the first time he’s truly revealed the depth of his vulnerability, and that’s what makes this season so compelling, and that is also why Ryan has been so successful for so long, because he isn’t just a selling machine, there’s a real depth there to connect with.”
That vulnerability adds to the emotional stakes of the new season. In addition to exposing this emotional side, familiar faces return. Chloe Tucker Caine is back to work after maternity leave, and she has plenty of work to do.
Former Corcoran broker Peter Zaitzeff joins the company and goes head-to-head with the agents and competes to get his name on the sales board.
Here, Serhant talks about showing this side to him, company growth and how the mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has impacted Manhattan real estate.
I’m going to start with the final episode because all season we’re seeing your struggle to be this great dad to your daughter, but you also have to focus on work and you’re shown to be at your most vulnerable as you sacrifice family. What was that like, allowing that to be filmed on camera?
I haven’t talked about that yet, because I’ve only seen it once. Season 1 was a startup story. I was on the defensive the entire time. As a startup, l was like, “We’re not going to make it. This is insane. Why am I doing this? People are leaving. I’m firing people on camera live. I’m going to put all this out there to the world.” It was incredibly stressful. The people that I was letting go of were not good for my enterprise. So they were the villain.
Every show has a hero, and every show has a villain, whether you like it or not. You’ve got Romeo, and you’ve got Mercutio. And I personally was struggling while we were filming the show, because we film in real time. We film September through May, whatever happens happens, which I think is the magic to making a great show like this. Nothing is forced. Everything is authentic, whether you like it or not, and you’ve got to show up and be vulnerable every day. Otherwise, no one cares anymore. I was struggling the whole time because I was like, “I don’t think there’s a villain. Who’s my villain?” And then I watched the show, and I have a text message to Randy and Fenton and one of our other executive producers, Kelly, saying, “Oh my God, is my villain me?” I’m the villain of my own story. What just happened? I sat there at the end of the finale. I felt incredibly terrified, scared and nervous. I remember the deal I made with myself, my family, the people around me, that if I’m going to do a TV show, there’s no point in making something average, it’s got to be something no one has ever seen before, and you have to go big, or you gotta go home, and that means putting everything out there, whether you like it or not. It’s uncomfortable for me. If that story helps anyone else, then I guess it was worth putting it out there.
But it’s this theme that runs through the show, and it is so relatable. Everyone struggles with that balance. I guess I should ask you, how are you doing?
I’m going to get texts asking if I’m ok. But I’m so excited. We’ve been working on this for such a long time. I think you have good days and you have bad days. I built a real estate business on the back of Bravo, and I’m building a real estate company in real time, on the back of Netflix. I have never seen anyone do that before, and that’s something I find very exciting. I built a real estate team and an entire business season by season, and took it to the next level. And I am better now. At the time, it was a lot. No one cries for the person at the top, but heavy is the head that wears the crown. It is not all it’s cracked up to be, and what you end up dealing with all day long are the things that no one else can handle. That’s what I do.
Let’s talk about growth, and Chloe mentions it in Episode 3. How much has Serhant grown since the end of Season 1? I remember last time we spoke, after the show aired, you said the Serhant website crashed.
We’re so ready now. It did. It was insane.
“Owning Manhattan” came out in June 2024. We gained a million followers and subscribers across accounts just from the global awareness. We were in a couple of markets, but we were predominantly in Manhattan. It’s what we do, and it’s the majority of our revenue today. So 18 months later, I just opened in my 14th state. We went from a couple of hundred people to 1500 people. Now I have a staff of 200 to help manage. I raised money. You see that in the episode, too. You also see a venture fundraise. I’ve never seen a venture fundraise, and I give Netflix a lot of credit too, for looking at everything we shot and not just saying, “Nah, that’s not the format, or nah, that’s not what people want to see.” This show is a window that no one’s opened before, and what’s inside that window.
We raised the largest prop tech seed round in history. I’m on my way to opening in 12 more states and doubling the size of the company. My hope was in Season 1 that we were going to do, $3 billion that year. We do a billion dollars a month, and moving fast.
You’ve talked about the power of social media. You’ve been using it to promote the season. How has that changed the business?
A couple of ways. Most real estate brokerages and tech companies buy revenue. You incentivize customers to come to you instead of going elsewhere, especially when you’re building and growing, you go buy agents, and you buy teams. That’s what banks do, all companies, until you get to a point of equilibrium, when everybody wants an income too. Because of Netflix and social, I’ve never bought a single dollar of revenue at this company.
We’re going into great markets because the demand for what we do, compared to our competition, is so strong. As you can imagine, a lot of people who watch the show are in the real estate business, and we have people ready to set up Serhant offices all over the world because of Netflix and then because of social.
The season finale was interesting with the possible partnership with Harley and Jeffrey. I thought, “That’s quite a cliffhanger to end on.”
The music plays, and my eyes look up, and I break the fourth wall.
The show opens with me turning to the camera, which I think just sets the audience up to think, “I don’t understand what I’m watching now. This is not normal.” I don’t do it again until the final scene of the season. I love that book end, and I fought to have more, because the audience is watching the growth and fall through my eyes, so let’s talk to the camera more. We shot a lot more of me, but credit to our producing team and Randy and Fenton, who said, “Ryan, you don’t know everything. The book end is what works the best.” And I agree now.
I have to ask, after Zohran Mamdani was elected, people were like, “I’m going to leave New York. I’m moving to Florida.” Are people from New York really taking an interest in Florida real estate?
Some people have taken an interest in Florida real estate for a long time. It goes from warm to hot back to warm, and it is a tax advantageous state, not just to live in, but to build. It incentivizes companies as much as it incentivizes individuals to be there.
Maybe 36 hours of the Mamdani discount, we sold a townhouse in Gramercy, the next day, for half off, because the seller thought the world was over. They took a deal. It was $14 million. Our client got it for $7.5 million and signed a contract nearly immediately. Politicians come and go. New York City is forever. Manhattan has gone through terrorist attacks, hurricanes, financial collapse, and global pandemics. It can go through one politician. We made it through David Dinkins. We can do anything.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
