Photo: Ryan Serhant/YouTube In September 2020, Ryan Serhant, the Nest Seekers broker who became famous on Million Dollar Listing, launched Serhant., his eponymous brokerage . At the time, it seemed anomalous. Manhattan’s luxury market was in a COVID slump. Personality-driven independent brokerages had become rare in New York’s high-end market, giving way to the likes of Compass.
“The inside baseball is: People who go to Serhant. want to be famous,” said someone who works in the industry. “They have side hustles or passions that work well with Ryan’s.” Clearly, a chance at the spotlight has been a factor in bringing some new agents over — for example, the Bogards, a husband and wife with a team of six who came over from Compass this month, said they planned to launch an internet show.
Of course, it’s unclear how many others can follow Serhant’s singular path to success. There’s also the question of whether the time, effort, and money involved in building a social-media following with high-quality content is the most sensible way to sell luxury real estate. The industry’s most adept social-media personalities tend to be up-and-coming agents using new platforms to build a client base, rather than the heavy hitters at any given firm.
How much all this slick content costs to produce is another issue. Marketing expenses are borne by the agents at most firms. Serhant. says that it covers the costs of guided video tours for properties listed at $10 million and up — like this $14 million Upper East Side penthouse listed with Loy Carlos, a longtime Corcoran agent who joined Serhant. in the fall. For less rarefied properties, Serhant.
“During the pandemic, we started doing a lot of sight-unseen sales, and I realized we weren’t really equipped to handle that kind of business,” said Abby Palanca, who took her five-person team from Compass to Serhant. this month. “We were taking videos on our phones or Zooming people through.” At Serhant., Palanca said, she was looking forward to “better photos, better videos, maybe a podcast.” And, it was nice to know that if she did ever want to do a YouTube series, “they have those resources.