Owning Manhattan

When I was ten years old,

I was in the car, driving with my grandfather,

and we went by a cemetery.

He turned around and he said, "Ryan, do you know who's in there?"

And he said, "In there, you have artists, mathematicians, athletes,

the greatest people in the world..."

Morning.

"...but you'll never know who they are."

"Do you know why?"

And he got really stern.

He said, "Because cemeteries are full

of wasted potential."

That's a lot to say to a ten-year-old kid, but I'll never forget it,

because that was the moment I realized I didn't wanna lead an ordinary life.

My name is Ryan Serhant.

I'm one of the top, if not the top, real estate brokers in the world,

and I do over a billion dollars in sales every year.

I'm the CEO and founder of SERHANT.,

the greatest real-estate brokerage in the history of the known universe.

And I never, ever exaggerate anything.

After selling real estate for 12 years

and being on a TV show called Million Dollar Listing New York for ten years,

like a lunatic, I decided to start my own company.

Worth it.

We're at about 350 agents, and it's been about two and a half years.

Every single person told me to not start my own company,

and when everyone said no,

I took that as a hard yes.

- What is going on today? - Did you check your email?

-Oh, are we doing a sales huddle? - Yeah.

-The sales huddle. -Oh, I didn't know that.

Now I'm competing against huge companies,

majorly funded companies with billions of dollars,

and then me, by myself.

Right now, we are the number six brokerage in New York City,

but I don't wanna be sixth at anything.

I wanna be first.

Z, I just wanna call and say I love you. You'll be in bed when I get home.

I'm going into our sales huddle. Do you have any advice for me?

-Bye, Daddy! -Okay, bye-bye, Zebu.

On top of running the brokerage, I gotta try to eat here and there,

sleep sometimes, work out,

pay attention to my wife so that she knows I still exist,

and try to be a dad at the same time.

It says "sewer."

-"Sewer"? -Know what's in there?

Do we have to teach her that?

Am I even alive right now?

-Hi! -How have you guys been?

-It's good. -I haven't seen you in a minute.

-I like the shades. -Keeping my head down, yeah.

Weird how many people I don't know.

- I know. -Hey.

I bet my entire life, my house,

and every single dollar I have,

'cause I am self-funded here,

on the success of this business.

I walk the plank by myself every day.

If this doesn't work out,

there... there is no plan B for me.

Plan B is... is...

is bankruptcy.

So, I mean...

So it, you know... so it has to work.

-What's going on? -Good to see you.

-Hi. Hello. -Hello.

We need a bigger boat.

-Excuse me. -Yes.

Excuse me. Excuse me.

-Oh, the hair! - Whoo!

Oh, so many colors.

Are we good? Ready?

Here he comes.

- - The man of the hour!

Okay, okay, okay!

Listen, here's where I want to start. We have a packed slate.

There's a lot that we want to get to, and it's a beautiful day.

Right? The Knicks are playing a game tonight.

-Who's going? -

You are? Where are you sittin'?

Row two.

I'm on the court, but I'll wave to you.

I've spoken to a lot of you over the past couple days, past couple weeks.

Some of you are here for a matter of seconds.

There's agents who signed up literally today.

Some of you've been with me from the beginning of the firm.

Some of you've been with me for the last eight to ten years.

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.

You all have been crushing it, by the way.

We now just crossed $1.3 billion in active listings as a firm.

Which is the most we've had since we started.

-Give it up to every person in this room. -

We'll have a couple people take it to the wall.

First, uh, where's Jordan Hurt?

Jordan started as my assistant,

He said, "I don't wanna be your assistant."

-"That's the worst job I could imagine." -

"I wanna now be a power broker."

And he just broke a record in Tribeca.

Please go write it on the wall.

The wall is like a stamp of approval.

And when I'm writing myself down for a 3.5 million

next to somebody that did something worth 30 million,

I'm like, "Yeah, I did it."

-Where's Jess Taylor? - Yes!

Jess Taylor, Brad, Jim, and Jamie

sold an amazing apartment in Brooklyn Heights.

It was over $8 million, and you sold it.

Go write it up on the wall.

You know, I look on the wall and I see these $1 million deals.

I mean, why... why would I boast about a $1 million deal?

If we're doing, like, ten-plus, sure, let's boast about it. But...

And last, one of the strongest women I know.

She does a 20 and a half million-dollar deal over the phone.

Take all the markers and go to the wall, please.

The SERHANT. office is 100% like a Lifetime movie. Yes.

Don't you need a little bit of crazy to do real estate in New York? I think so.

-So, you with me? Yeah? - Yeah!

You wanna change the game with me?

- Yeah! -Yeah? You wanna build something big?

- Yeah! -All right. So let's go!

Let's go! All right, ready, everybody?

Ready, set, SERHANT.!

- Yuriy, you know what today is? -No, Ryan.

-Today is Make Money Monday. - Ah.

-Ready, set, go. - Go.

Hey, do you know it's Make Money Monday?

**** you!

Maybe not for them.

Right, Yuriy, we're going to Central Park Tower. Uptown.

Central Park Tower is

the newest residential tower in New York City,

and it rises 1,550 feet in the air,

which makes it the highest residential tower in the world.

Stay here. Don't move. This is a good spot for us. I'll be back.

It is the true definition of a trophy penthouse.

It really is.

And, man oh man, when we listed that thing,

it was the penthouse heard

around the world.

At 1,550 feet,

the just-completed Central Park Tower

is the tallest residential building in the world.

The most expensive home ever,

a quarter of a billion dollars.

I've had the penthouse listing at Central Park Tower for three months,

and I have three months left on the agreement,

which means I've gotta get this penthouse sold.

The elevators move at 2,000 feet a minute.

They're the fastest residential elevators on the planet.

So here we are, 129.

-I want you to close your eyes. -Okay.

Because it... it is a sight to be seen. So close your eyes.

Kayla is one of our top agents at SERHANT.

-Keep your eyes closed. Great. -Okay. Closed!

-Sorry. Okay, this way. Go straight. -

She works with buyers all over the world.

She does mega deals,

and she has a buyer from Asia who's interested in the penthouse.

Wow!

This is insane.

Welcome to the penthouse at Central Park Tower.

So the apartment interior is 17,545 square feet.

You have 1,400 square feet of exterior.

Okay.

The family, they're all spread across the US and Asia,

and they're looking for a really large space.

The building was designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill.

Wow, these views are like... I've never seen views like this.

When you look at this building from Long Island, Central Park,

or from the Moon, you know exactly where you are.

Wow.

Now, what I love about this room, and we've set this up as a den...

Okay.

...is it's a $250 million apartment,

but you still need your TV room.

-Sure. Yeah. -You're still gonna live here.

You need a room to, you know, get cereal.

-The breakfast room. - Right.

You know, someone who's spending $250 million,

they have similar concerns about their family

that someone who's spending $250,000 has.

"Is my wife gonna be happy with this? Is the closet size enough?"

"Where's our personal security going to stay?"

I mean, there's some different concerns, obviously.

But at the end of the day, it's going to be someone's home.

And hopefully, it is these people's home.

Where we stand now, we're higher than helicopters.

Wow.

Helicopters fly through the city at about 1,100 feet.

You'll see helicopters fly beneath us.

- Oh my goodness. - Crazy, right?

My ear popped three times on the way up here.

So now I understand why.

And, as you know, there's a 100th floor private club