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Go behind the scenes with Inman’s Dani Vanderboegh to get the answers to all your burning questions on the newest releases. Stay tuned to Real Tea, the intersection of real estate and reality TV.
In another addition to its real estate reality TV portfolio, Netflix launched Owning Manhattan on Friday, June 28, 2024. It’s based on Ryan Serhant, of Million Dollar Listing New York fame, and the top agents (mostly) at his 4-year-old, self-funded New York City brokerage, SERHANT.
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After a floundering acting career, Serhant got into real estate 12 years ago. He spent a decade of that time on MDLNY before deciding to start his own brokerage.
As his agents will be the first to tell you, Serhant has a unique understanding of social media, with 2 million Instagram followers, more than 809,000 TikTok followers, and 170,000+ followers on X, formerly Twitter, which is why Serhant created SERHANT. Studios, an in-house production company, to help ensure that he and his agents have everything they need to craft high-quality social media and marketing at all times.
If you’re not familiar with Serhant from social, you might recognize Serhant from Million Dollar Listing: Ryan’s Renovation, Sell It Like Serhant, Million Dollar Listing New York: Ryan’s Wedding, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, or even his cameo on And Just Like That …
As an audience, we haven’t really seen what Ryan Serhant has been up to since MDLNY went on pause in 2022. “On pause” is the fun term that Bravo has for removing someone or something from the air, with the ever-mysterious opening for it to return or unpause at any time. But with Serhant’s new Netflix show, one wonders if that will come to pass in this case.
Below, get caught up with Serhant in his own words.
Ryan Serhant
To kick the show off, and presumably fill in the blanks for unfamiliar viewers on the new streaming platform, we’re reintroduced to Ryan Serhant.
“My name is Ryan Serhant. And I’m one of the top, if not the top, real estate broker in the world. And I do over $1 billion in sales every year. I’m a CEO and founder of SERHANT., the greatest real estate brokerage in the history of the known universe. And I never, ever exaggerate anything,” Serhant says with levity.
“After selling real estate for 12 years and being on a TV show called Million Dollar Listing New York for 10 years, like a lunatic, I decided to start my own company. We’re at about 350 agents, and it’s been about two and a half years,” he says.
SERHANT. launched in 2020, but there’s a lag between filming and when the show aired on Netflix. And in a pre-launch interview, Serhant told Inman that the agent count is now closer to 600 agents.
“Every single person told me to not start my own company. And when everyone said no, I took that as a hard yes. Now I’m competing against huge companies, majorly funded companies, with billions of dollars. And then me by myself. Right now, we are the No. 6 brokerage in New York City. But I don’t want to be sixth at anything. I want to be first,” he said.
“I bet my entire life, my house and every single dollar I have — because I am self-funded here — on the success of this business. I walk the plank by myself every single day. If this doesn’t work out, there is no plan B for me.
“Plan B is … is … is bankruptcy,” Serhant stammers at the end of his intro. “So it, you know, it has to work.”
Check out Ryan Serhant’s official bio here.
Meet the agents
After getting reacquainted with Serhant, he begins to introduce us to his world of penthouses, high-priority clients and top talent.
“We look for agents who are incredibly hardworking, have a great book of business. I want multimillion-dollar producers. I want the best of the best to work here. And if you can’t sell, you can’t be here,” Serhant says in Episode 1.
Get to know the big personalities making their debuts on Season 1 of Owning Manhattan below.
Jordan Hurt
Team: Serhant
Formerly Ryan Serhant’s personal assistant, the longest-lasting one according to the bossman he now calls “Daddy Warbucks,” Jordan Hurt has blossomed into a top producer gunning for the “King of Tribeca” title.
“Some may think that I have an unfair advantage with Ryan. However, Ryan is kind of like family to me. I’ve done everything, from like his Christmas shopping, I was at his wedding, I was the first person in his office to hold Zena. I’ve been there through it all. You know, whether it’s fair or it’s unfair, it is what it is. And I put my time in, so I don’t know what to tell them,” Jordan Hurt says.
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“I’ve never had an assistant last as long as he did, and now he’s crushing it. Penthouses over here. Condos. Breaking records over here. Man, you must have learned from someone amazing,” Serhant says of Hurt, pointing to himself.
A little different than Serhant’s relationship with his other agents, Serhant and Hurt are enjoyable to watch as they go on a shopping spree buying suits together, work through real estate problems and attend event after event together.
Serhant seemingly often asks Hurt if he wants to go back to being his assistant. Hurt says no, but that there is a number that could make it happen. (It’s $500,000.)
Check out Jordan Hurt’s official bio here.
Jade Shenker
Team: Serhant
Jade Shenker is SERHANT.’s first commercial agent, the driving force of SERHANT.’s Commercial Collective.
“My goal for SERHANT. is to run the best commercial division that New York has ever seen — and make it sexy,” Jade Shenker says on the show.
“SERHANT. is the most followed brokerage in the world, and it’s brilliant to be able to use that following and close deals. My goal with commercial is to bring Ryan’s residential marketing approach to the plain boring commercial industry,” she adds.
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“Jade threw me a curve ball,” Serhant says on the show. “I met her, and she was like, ‘Oh, I do commercial. Most people think commercial real estate agent, they think old white guy. But commercial real estate is a $20 trillion industry. So Jade has connections and wants to get into commercial — there could be a huge opportunity there.”
Shenker keeps the innovative thinking coming all season long. From taking risks with marketing to throwing must-attend commercial events, she’s one to watch.
Read Jade Shenker’s official bio here.
Nile Lundgren
Team: Lundgren
With more than a decade of representing clients in New York City and beyond, Nile Lundgren has more than $300 million in sales under his belt, according to his bio.
“$20 million is my sweet spot,” Lundgren says on the show.
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“Nile is an incredibly accomplished real estate shark. One day he’s in New York City selling a $30 million mansion, the next day, he’s in Abu Dhabi, riding camels with billionaires,” Ryan Serhant says.
Lundgren also hosts “The Broker That Never Sleeps” podcast and contributes on Fox Business and Varney & Co.
Check out Nile Lundgren’s official bio here.
Genesis Suero
Team: Lundgren
Génesis Suero is a successful, Dominican-born television personality and New York City property expert. She moved to the U.S. when she was 13 and became a citizen at 21. In 2018, she was one of the first Dominican immigrants to win the Miss New York USA title and has since become a correspondent for Telemundo’s En Casa Con Telemundo.
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Take a quick look at her Instagram (with 149,000+ followers), and you’ll find pictures of her alongside A-list celebrities, including Anne Hathaway, Shakira, Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, Tom Cruise, Gerard Butler, Guillermo del Toro, Salma Hayek — the list goes on and on — through her role as an entertainment reporter with Telemundo.
You don’t see a ton of her on Season 1, but when you do, she brings the heat.
Read Genesis Suero’s official bio here.
Tricia Lee
Team: Tricia Lee
Before jumping to SERHANT. and teaming up with her partner, Jeffery St. Arromand, Tricia Lee sold $200 million in her solo career. Before her real estate career, she owned and operated nail and beauty salon, Polish Bar Brooklyn.
“Through owning my nail salon, Polish Bar, I got to know every woman in Brooklyn. Over the course of those 10 years, I had 23,000 clients in my database that were probably the most powerful people in the city. And that is the foundation I used to really build my real estate business on,” Lee says.
She works on the Tricia Lee team with her significant other, Jeffrey St. Arromand. “Working with your significant other … I would never suggest it. I don’t suggest it. I do it. And I do it well.”
“Tricia Lee is the honorary mayor of Brooklyn. She’s a million-dollar producer. I could go anywhere in Brooklyn with her, and she would not only know how to sell every property, she would also know who lives there,” Ryan Serhant says.
Throughout the season, viewers will see Lee and team working hard to expand into Manhattan.
She’s been a speaker on Expert Marketing with Black Enterprise Small Business Expo, Tom Ferry and SERHANT.’s Sell it Like Serhant course. She’s also been named BK Reader’s Top 5 Black Real Estate Brokers two years in a row.
Read Tricia Lee’s official bio here.
Jeffrey St. Arromand
Team: Tricia Lee
Jeffrey St. Arromand is the business partner and significant other of Tricia Lee. He’s won three Emmys as a sports television producer, and he lends those storytelling chops to his real estate marketing.
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With Team Tricia Lee, he’s had a hand in selling over $300 million in real estate, according to his bio.
Team Tricia Lee ranks in the Real Trends Top 250 Teams.
Read Jeffrey St Arromand’s Official bio here.
Chloe Tucker Caine
Team: Chloe Tucker Caine
Growing up in Los Angeles, Tucker Caine always had dreams of becoming a Broadway star. She played Sophie in Mamma Mia! on Broadway and did a Broadway National Tour before turning to real estate, thinking it would be a side gig.
“I thought I’d see Chloe Tucker Caine on the marquee, and it just turned out that I had bigger dreams. I wanted the whole damn skyline,” she says on the show.
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“Chloe’s actually newer to the business. But even though she didn’t have that much experience in sales, you just know sometimes with people. She’s a performer,” Serhant says of the fireball agent. “She is fiercely competitive, and she has a strong personality. She does not take no for an answer — for better and for worse.”
Chloe is hungry for that next step, and Ryan Serhant thinks she’s ready for it.
Check out Chloe Tucker Caine’s official bio here.
Jessica Markowski
Team: Bogard New York
Born and raised in New York City, Jessica Markowski was raised in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, by Polish immigrants.
She formerly served as the head of communications for Screenshot, a company founded by Kim Kardashian and later sold to Snapchat in 2021.
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Markowski has 227,000 Instagram followers and growing.
“People assume, like, ‘Aw, she’s just a pretty girl.’ I get that all the time. ‘She’s just a pretty face.’ ‘She’s just a social media girl; she’s just a model girl,’” Markowski says on the show. “So I work at SERHANT. because Ryan understands social media better than anybody else.”
Check out Jessica Markowski’s official bio here.
Jonathan Nørmølle
Team: The NextGen Team
“I mean Ryan himself said it in Downtown magazine, that I am the face of the next generation of real estate brokers, buyers and sellers. I plan on being a top-producing agent, not just at SERHANT. but in New York City. I mean the world,” Jonathan Nørmølle says on the show.
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With 437,000+ Instagram followers and a background in modeling, Jonathan Nørmølle has a unique aesthetic for real estate.
“Jonathan Nørmølle is not your typical real estate agent. Now, I sleep in a suit. He rolls out of bed, and he looks like a rock star. So I took a chance on him, and I brought him into SERHANT.,” Ryan Serhant says of the young agent on the show.
Read Jonathan Nørmølle’s official bio here.
Jordan March
Team: Empire Collective
Jordan March is the managing partner of the Empire Collective Team at SERHANT.
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With 16 years of experience, March has closed over $1 billion in sales and managed and trained more than 500 agents, according to his bio.
“Jordan March is strongly committed to advancing the principles of New Urbanism to mitigate the environmental impacts of buildings. This includes implementing strategies such as energy conservation, green technology, and sustainable architectural practices to foster environmentally friendly and sustainable communities,” MEAWW.com reports.
Read Jordan March’s official bio here.
Savannah Gowarty
Team: Elevated Advisement
This new agent from North Carolina had previous experience with a custom homebuilder before making the move to SERHANT. and New York City. As the season opens, she’s swimming in rentals, trying to prove she’s got the tenacity to do more.
“New York real estate is just a completely different animal, but I came to the city because I want to build an empire,” Savvannah Gowarty says.
“My goal at SERHANT. is to work my way up and sell multimillion-dollar properties. But right now, because I’m new to New York City, I have to start with rentals,” the newbie tells viewers,” she adds. “I could have easily stayed in North Carolina, but I wanted more for myself, and I know I can make it here.”
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“Savannah is one of our newest agents. She’s a Southern belle,” Ryan Serhant says in what’s probably not a great Southern accent. “I saw a unique personality in her, a real hunger to survive and thrive. And so I told her that she could join our firm under what we call our Apprentice Program.”
Check out Savannah Gowarty’s official bio here.
Jessica Taylor
After completing her business and psychology studies at Oxford Brookes University in England, Jessica Taylor moved to New York City in 2014.
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Specializing in luxury sales and new development, Taylor has been involved in more than $500 million in sales.
Some of her deals have been featured in the “Big Ticket” section of The New York Times.
Read Jessica Taylor’s official bio here.
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