What Realtors Can Learn from Selling Sunset And what Selling Sunset can learn from Realtors

The clothes! The catfights! The C-list celebrities! There are so many reasons to watching Selling Sunset! As a Realtor, I don’t think I’m alone for watching for the houses. What’s it like to list a property for $30 million? What’s it like to have a buyer with that budget? Most Realtors can only dream. And because this industry pays on commission, most of us won’t earn in a year what the Selling Sunset gals make for one deal. Sadly, there’s no correlation between the amount of commission and the amount of work necessary to close the deal. Personally, I’ve had homes selling for under $200K that have been a nightmare and helped buyers with million-dollar condos that took under five hours of total work. I tell myself it all balances out in the end. Eventually.
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Even though the personal drama seems to dominate Sunset, there are still lessons to be gleaned from these real estate fashionistas. When Jason sat down his team and warned them that the high interest rates had put a damper on the top end of the market, he echoed what my own broker had been saying. Here are some moments from this season that rang true to me… as well as moments when I wanted to give those agents some advice!
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*“In real estate, you can’t sit around and wait for the phone to ring.” – Chrishelle.

This is so true. Although most agents don’t have a TV show to help with their exposure, we’re all encouraged to continuously reach out via text, phone calls, videos, etc. For the most successful agents, trying to drum up new business is a fulltime endeavor. Those of us who do sit back and wait for the phone to ring are often the last people sellers actually call.
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“My deal fell out of escrow. Turns out the fire insurance was $200 thousand dollars.” – Emma. Are you surprised that someone willing to pay $20 million for a house doesn’t want to pay $200,000 a year for insurance? So was Emma. But she shouldn’t have been. While we don’t have to worry about fire insurance in Florida, flood insurance is a big deal, especially for one-story properties right on the water. Savvy Realtors put up insurance quotes on the MLS with their other disclosures so there are no surprises after the house has gone under contract. I’m sure Emma will know this next time!
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“The penthouse isn’t worth that price. You and Jason are too personally invested in the project to see that.” – Chrishelle. More words of wisdom from the series main character, who has learned to stand on her own two feet as a woman and a Realtor during the series. Being too personally invested is enough of a problem that real estate agents sometimes ask their colleagues to represent them instead of selling their own homes to avoid making costly errors. Selling and buying a home is an emotional process, overlaid with memories and relationships. Jason, Mary, and Romain worked so hard on this penthouse, it’s easy to see how they may have lost perspective on its true value. Guess we’ll have to wait till next season to find out!
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“Our sellers are canceling the listing because Jason didn’t go the showings.” – Emma. Maybe this is the same house that didn’t sell because of the fire insurance. Not sure. While Emma is dead right that agents need to fulfill the promises they make to their clients, blaming the broker for not attending the showings is silly. Houses aren’t rejected; price points are rejected. When a house sits on the market, the seller and agent need to either reduce the price or make changes so the home’s value equals the sales price. No one’s going to reject a house they love because the broker wasn’t at the showing.

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“You texted my client and offered to show him listings!” – Bre. In an earlier meeting, Bre said she never asked clients to sign buyers agreements, saying that her clients were friends and she trusted them. Then she shows a house to a client, who tells her that Emma texted him, offering to show him properties! While I have no doubt that this show is heavily edited and conversations don’t portray exactly what happened, Bre’s dilemma is not uncommon. In Florida, a buyer’s agreement has no legal heft—no one is obligated to use a certain agent for a sale, even if said agent spent a year showing the client properties and writing up offers. Still, poaching is considered such bad form that I prefer not to speak to friends while they are buying or selling homes with other agents in order to avoid “tampering.” (Also because it’s seriously annoying when friends choose to work with other agents, then call me to complain about what their agent is doing wrong.) Did Emma really try to poach, or did the producers edit Bre’s conversation with her client to make Emma’s text sound worse than it was? I don’t know. Last season Emma had a client who told her that Christine had offered her $5000 to use her instead of Emma, which was such a weak bribe it seemed almost unbelievable. The lesson: Only work with people you trust.
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“Jason put you on my listing, and then you didn’t do anything!” – Nicole. Nicole seems to be taking the villain spot vacated by Christine. Or maybe she and Chelsea are sharing it, I don’t know. This entire storyline confused me, because as Chrishelle pointed out, the sale in question happened three years ago and she and Nicole had been friendly since. And Nicole’s beef should have been with Jason. More broadly, this issue of Jason putting agents on listings is a problem I don’t have, and I don’t know any other agents who do. Maybe it’s a California thing, but here in Florida, agents get their own listings. Still, agents sometimes split listings with other agents who who might not do their fair share of the work. It happens, it sucks; you learn your lesson and move on. Chrishelle said she had referred clients to Nicole, so it seemed like she had paid her back in any case. To me, this just seemed like more manufactured drama to make Nicole look bad and Mary seem like an ineffective manager. The lesson here, again: Only work with people you trust. If you make a mistake, chalk it up to bad luck and remember that things even out in the end. One day you might be the agent not pulling her own weight but getting a check at the end of the day.

Selling Sunset may be a guilty pleasure, but the show also reinforces important lessons for agents. As a realtor, I may not have billionaire clients, a camera crew or a size 0 body, but I can do everything possible to sell my listings and get my buyers ready for the biggest purchase of their lives. But if anyone knows a billionaire looking to buy in Pinellas County, Florida, please send her my way!

*quotes aren't exact, but I tried!