If you’re familiar with real estate television, you’ve probably heard of the Netflix show Owning Manhattan. The series follows luxury real estate agents selling multimillion-dollar properties throughout New York City. It’s entertaining, and it showcases a side of the industry that many people aspire to join.
But there is another side of New York real estate that television rarely captures.
Most real estate agents don’t begin their careers selling luxury penthouses in Manhattan. Many of us start somewhere very different: renting apartments in neighborhoods like Bushwick, riding bikes between showings, chasing down landlords for keys, and working entirely on commission while hoping to eventually break into the sales business.
I’ve been a real estate agent in New York City for more than nine years, and I think there’s a television show hiding in that world.
When I entered the industry in 2017, I chose not to work at one of the large, established brokerages. Instead, I joined EXR, a growing brokerage that, at the time, felt more like a startup than a traditional real estate company. Back then, our office was located on Havemeyer Street in South Williamsburg.
The business model was simple. Listing agents would secure rental listings from landlords, and agents like me would work to rent them. Every day, I listened to conversations with property owners, negotiations over commissions, and discussions about how to win listings in an industry filled with competition.
Today, I work directly with landlords myself, and I’ve learned that every listing matters. A rental listing isn’t just another apartment. It’s someone’s investment property, and it’s also a critical source of income for the agent representing it.
That creates situations that are sometimes stressful, sometimes absurd, and often entertaining.
Sometimes getting a listing rented means tracking down a landlord somewhere in Bushwick because they forgot to make copies of the keys. Sometimes it means calling a landlord’s nephew, cousin, or attorney to help move a lease toward completion. Sometimes it means juggling multiple showings while trying to solve problems for both tenants and owners at the same time.
The landlords themselves could be a major part of the show. They’re often colorful, entrepreneurial, stubborn, practical, and deeply invested in their properties. Their relationships with agents can be collaborative, complicated, and occasionally chaotic.
And then there are the streets of Bushwick.
Unlike the luxury real estate shows that take place in glass towers and penthouse apartments, this show would unfold on sidewalks, street corners, and apartment stoops. Agents are constantly moving from one listing to another. Many of us don’t drive. We walk. We bike. We take the train.
I’ve spent days racing across the neighborhood in scorching summer heat, freezing winter temperatures, and pouring rain because a prospective tenant wanted to see an apartment and my commission depended on being there.
On some level, it feels a little gladiatorial.
The weather doesn’t matter. The distance doesn’t matter. You have to get to the listing. You have to show the apartment. You have to get the deal done.
The brokerage dynamics would be entertaining, too. We’re all colleagues, but we’re also competitors. We want each other to succeed, but we’re all working for commissions.
Can I let another agent rent my listing? Not if I can help it.
Can they try? Absolutely.
Some listings are exclusive, while others are shared among multiple brokerages. Every showing becomes a competition, and every signed lease feels like a victory.
Yet beneath all of this is a larger ambition.
Most rental agents dream of breaking into sales. We dream about winning that first building listing, representing a major property owner, or closing a deal that changes our careers. The promise of something bigger is always there.
The challenge is that dreams don’t pay the bills.
Before the sales commissions arrive, we still have apartments to rent. We still have landlords to help. We still have tenants to guide through the process. We still have leases to negotiate, keys to collect, and showings to attend.
Maybe Netflix never makes this show.
But if they do, they shouldn’t start in a Manhattan penthouse.
They should start on a Bushwick sidewalk at 8:30 in the morning, following a rental agent carrying a set of keys, rushing to a showing, hoping to close a deal before the end of the month.
Because that’s where a huge part of New York City’s real estate industry actually lives.
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