Real estate mogul and reality star Ryan Serhant has no shortage of experience when it comes to meeting the expectations of his rich and famous clients.
Serhant, who rose to fame starring in the Bravo show “Million Dollar Listing New York,” has closed billions in luxury real estate sales over his career. The 39-year-old is headlining the new Netflix reality show “Owning Manhattan,” which follows Serhant and the agents at his firm SERHANT. as they take on some of New York City’s most expensive listings.
During an interview with FOX Business, Serhant revealed some of the wildest requests that he has received as a real estate broker to the stars.
“My mind always goes to animals,” he said.
Serhant continued, “New York City, where I’m headquartered, is pretty tough on animals, obviously. You share one door with 300 people in a building. So, there’s height and weight restrictions for dogs. You can have cats mostly – but there’s noise issues. There’s all these things, safety concerns and all that.”
While Serhant has found navigating Manhattan’s rules and regulations for common house pets challenging enough at times, he recalled being taken aback by clients who wanted him to find homes where they could live with exotic animals.
“I’ve had people come to me with like, ‘I have a questionably legal python. Can you find me maybe a loft with no doorman, so I can just move that in?’” Serhant remembered.
“First of all, I will never be within range of any python,” he said. “OK? I’m not your broker if that’s what we’re talking about.”
“I’ve had a client a long time ago who needed enough space for his kangaroo,” Serhant recalled. “So, what are we talking about here? What is it? What is this world that we even living in? Just find an apartment and live your life.”
Though Serhant is accustomed to going above and beyond in his industry, he told FOX Business he has had to draw the line at some point.
“Couldn’t do it,” Serhant said. “Couldn’t do the kangaroo and also couldn’t do a python. It’s New York City. Want a python? Go to Australia or go to Australia with your kangaroo too. There’s other places for you to live, but you’re not allowed to be here if that’s how you want to.”
“New York City has problems with loud 3-year-olds, let alone carnivorous animals,” he added.
However, Serhant noted that some of his high-net-worth clients have been able to skirt the rules.
“I went into a Tribeca loft one time with an incredibly wealthy person. And I saw what I thought were dogs. And they weren’t. They were full-blown Siberian wolves,” he recalled. “And I froze because I’m like, ‘That’s not a dog. Also, that other one is also not a dog.’ I’ve been in rooms where I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a really, really large cat. What kind of cat is that? That is so large with fangs and I don’t even know what they were. They look like mini cheetahs – in New York City.”
Client requests to accommodate unique pets are not the only unusual asks Serhant has encountered.
“I’ve had other apartments… people who’ve asked me for things like… I was in a situation once with someone very, very well known who had a structural engineer come to check the durability of the ceiling, so he could install swings in the ceiling,” Serhant said.
“He didn’t want the ceiling to come down, didn’t know if it was drywall or if it was just like timber or whatnot, if he could anchor into the cement,” Serhant continued. “Because in his house in LA, he has significant indoor swings.”
“I try to kind of stay out of those conversations,” he added with a smile.
One common denominator among all of Serhant’s rich and famous clients is that they only want the best of the best.
“If I dial that down a bit more, they want special,” he explained. “They want special treatment, but they also want special property. Very rarely – unless it’s purely for investment or buying for a kid, or they’re never going to be here – do people who are super wealthy and publicly known want a regular apartment in a regular building with regular walls and regular views.”
“They want something special,” Serhant continued. “We have a high net worth department that also caters to celebrities called Signature. It’s on our website, it’s different branding and everything. That really caters toward finding, sourcing and creating those special opportunities for special clientele.”
Serhant noted that security and privacy are top concerns for his clients. He explained that he and the SERHANT. team are emphasizing both aspects while handling sales and marketing for the new $600 million residential project, Williamsburg Wharf.
Developed by the Naftali Group and Access Industries, the 3.75-acre, 850-unit waterfront project is located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. Though Williamsburg’s popularity is on the rise, condos in the area don’t typically fetch prices comparable to those of Manhattan’s most premium neighborhoods.
However, Serhant is hoping that Williamsburg Wharf’s amenities will attract high-end buyers who value their privacy.
“[It’s] the first time I’ve ever done something like this where we’re taking a kind of like Upper West Side, Tribeca, highly exclusive new, development condominium project and dropping it into Williamsburg,” he said. “Where there’s a private circular porte-cochère for cars so that paparazzi don’t come and see you, private garage, underground basketball court, high floor private ice skating rink over the East River…. just things you don’t do in Brooklyn.”
“They want stuff like that – special,” Serhant added.
Serhant told FOX Business that privacy concerns are the biggest dealbreaker for his celebrity clients.
“New York City is a vertical city,” he said. “You have a lot of people who are very, very public who just don’t want to live with their window treatments down. And if people know that you are in 14B, and you can see into 14B from, crappy old building across the street, that creates a security risk. It’s not even just privacy. And so those are tough ones sometimes.”
“I found amazing homes for clients in the past, but because you have almost direct access with binoculars or whatever, they’re hard no’s,” Serhant continued. “And so that’s a big one.”
Serhant’s new show “Owning Manhattan” will not only follow the entrepreneur and his team’s efforts to sell Manhattan’s most exclusive real estate, the series also chronicles the rise of his firm. The mogul founded SERHANT. at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020 amid an uncertain time for the real estate market.
SERHANT. has now expanded to seven states and employs over 500 agents. During his interview with FOX Business, Serhant shared insight into what viewers can expect from “Owning Manhattan.”
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“It is a first-person view into the high stakes world of New York City real estate – some of the most glamorous real estate I have ever shown on camera before from $10 million homes to $250 million penthouses,” he said. “And a first-person view into the building of a company from scratch.”
“Owning Manhattan” premieres June 28 on Netflix.
