Several real estate professionals who appear on the current season of NBC’s “The Apprentice” television show aren’t wasting a minute of their newfound stardom.
Perhaps taking a cue from the show’s centerpiece, real estate billionaire Donald “The Donald” Trump, several contestants are branding themselves to capitalize on their reality show airtime. “The Apprentice,” now in its third season, features 18 candidates vying for a job opportunity to work in a management position for one of Trump’s companies.
Six of the 18 job applicants on the show are real estate professionals: there are two are real estate brokers, a real estate agent, a real estate developer, a mortgage broker and a real estate investor.
Brian McDowell, 29, a broker for McDowell Realty & Co. LLC in Wildwood, N.J., has launched a Web site featuring an alternating picture of himself in a suit and in a plastic Viking hat. McDowell’s site notes that “Brian is available for seminars, corporate functions and events.”
The site also notes, “Have a business concept? Need a partner? Pitch me your concept in five sentences or less and e-mail it to (me). I’m always looking for new and exciting ventures.”
A biography at his Web site details his entrepreneurial experience, including his launch at age 21 of a retail novelty business called McDowell enterprises that specialized in glow-in-the-dark products. He has since partnered with a company in China to trademark and brand “Glowlites” products.
He later entered the real estate business, and has received the service mark for a shamrock for-sale sign.
“Throughout my life, I’ve considered and opened several businesses, some have been a success while others have failed,” he stated at the site. “People will never succeed if they don’t try something new.” Some of my most recent ventures are Shamrock Development; Resortmax, a vacation rental site; and Realadex, which offers daily industry news, weather forecasts, stock market reports and new MLS listings for real estate Web sites.
The McDowell Realty Web site promotes McDowell’s appearance on “The Apprentice.” McDowell Realty specializes in the Jersey Shore and Philadelphia, Pa., real estate markets, with plans to expand services to the Cape Coral, Fla.
Michael Tarshi, 25, a Boston real estate developer who appears on “The Apprentice,” has a Web site that offers a number of autographed products, including pictures, hats and yes – his own brand of chocolate bar. The tarshiBar “will be available for order soon,” the Web site states. It is described as a “smooth, rich milk chocolate bar.” The candy bar weighs 2.25 ounces and carries the motto: “make love to your stomach.”
Kristen Jane Kirchner, 31, a licensed mortgage broker at First Financial Bancorp in Los Angeles, Calif., doesn’t have a self-branded Web site up and running yet. But she has registered for ownership of the www.kristenkirchner.com site name. Kirchner in 2001 appeared on a Fox reality television show, Murder In Small Town X. Her hair was blonde in that show, but in “The Apprentice” she has dark hair.
Other real estate professionals appearing on the show include Kendra L. Todd, a Realtor for RE/MAX Advantage Plus in Delray Beach, Fla.; Audrey Evans, 22, who is reportedly a Realtor for Huntsman & Associates in Sandy, Utah; Chris Shelton, 22, a real estate investor and Realtor for RE/MAX Associates in Henderson, Nev.
According to a biography at “The Apprentice” Web site, Todd assisted in the development of My House Real Estate Inc., a real estate marketing company that specializes in condominium conversions and land acquisitions. She also has been featured as a radio personality on “My House,” a Florida real estate investment talk radio show.
The biography for Evans states that she “has become a very successful real estate agent, one of the youngest agents ever to be certified in Utah.” Evans is reportedly working to obtain a broker’s license.
And Shelton reportedly “commands a portfolio of properties valued at over $1 million.”
The current season of the “The Apprentice” features a new twist. One team of job-seekers features entrepreneurs with no more than a high school education, while the other team features college grads: it’s “street smarts” vs. “book smarts.”
Todd and Tarshi are on the “book smarts” team, while Evans, McDowell, Shelton, and Kirchner are on the “street smarts” team.
Other applicants for a place in the Trump organization include:
- Tara Dowdell, 28, senior government manager;
- John Gafford, 32, technology firm owner;
- Tana Gertz, 37, sales executive;
- Angie Harper, 41, gym franchise owner;
- Craig Williams, 37, shoeshine business owner;
- Erin Elmore, 26, lawyer;
- Todd (no last name available), 34, sales manager;
- Verna (no last name available), 31, business manager;
- Danny Kastner, 39, marketing technology firm owner;
- Stephanie (no last name available), 29, supply chain consultant;
- Bren Olswanger, 32, prosecutor;
- and Alex Thomason, 29, prosecutor.
***
Send tips or a Letter to the Editor to glenn@inman.com or call (510) 658-9252, ext. 137.
