“Million Dollar Listing NY”: A box full of deals

Recap of season 6, episode 2

Ryan Serhant, Steve Gold and Fredrik Eklund
Ryan Serhant, Steve Gold and Fredrik Eklund

Selling real estate would be so easy, if it weren’t for the people.

As they spiral into the sixth season of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” our three heroes find themselves dealing with the usual cast of characters: the buyer who dips on the deal, the client who wants it their way or the highway, and the developer who needs their project sold yesterday.

This week, Steve’s power struggle with his clients of the same name continues. Ryan’s divide-and-conquer strategy in Brooklyn hits a snag, and Fredrik calls on an old friend to help get a developer off his back.

Father knows best

Only two episodes have aired, but Steve Gold’s clients at 234 East 23rd Street have crossed the threshold of what’s bearable. The two Steves, who believe “comps really don’t matter,” are sold on selling their overpriced pad for $12.5 million–even though the price tag sent two potential buyers out the door quicker than you can say “no deal!” Stuck with no offers, Steve follows the advice of high school friend-turned-assistant Jessica, who recommends putting the apartment on the rental market. It’s not ideal, but it’ll stop the bleeding, for now. He reaches out to a rental broker he’s ghosted for a while (there’s no shame in real estate!) before consulting the ornery clients.

Steve meets the two Steves (and another Steve who somehow made into the mix) at the negotiating table, which always seems to be situated in some dimly-lit, trendy bar. The cousins initially scoff at the $50,000-a-month offer, but begrudgingly place a call to Daddy/Uncle Dearest–the true owner of the apartment. He’ll settle on renting the pad, so long as they can continue their search for potential buyers.

What could possibly go wrong?

A beard grows in Brooklyn

Thanks to his new outpost in Bed-Stuy, the bearded one is off to a fast and furious start selling off Brett’s 100-home portfolio in Brooklyn. In just 30 days, Ryan and his team of 9 + ? unload 23 of the 50 properties they were supposed to have sold in three months’ time. There’s just one little speed bump. The developer who put in a full-ask offer at 1305 Albemarle, the portfolio’s crown-yet-cracked jewel, rescinded his offer following an inspection of the 10,000-square-foot mansion. And to think we missed a Clue-inspired open house for this!

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Following the setback, Ryan taps into a group of potential buyers he knows will really enjoy the home’s many structural defects: architects. The logic seems a bit backwards, but one of the designers does bite–for $500,000 less than the manse’s $3 million asking price. Ryan doesn’t think this is a lot of money. You know what’s a lot of money? The $79.5 million in deals his team has done so far! He makes this point by having his driver deliver a box full of deals during his meeting with Brett, who apparently needs to see all of Ryan’s hard work so he can appreciate that $500,000 a little less. Brett, however, won’t let go of the home easily because of sentimental reasons — he rode past it on his bike as a kid, after all! The nostalgia wavers quickly once Ryan gets a new offer for $2.75 million.

One man’s fixer-upper is another man’s multimillion-dollar manse.

Mr. Soho no you didn’t!

The “anxious developer” has emerged as a trope on “MDLNY,” and it seems as if Fredrik gets stuck with a handful of them every season. It appears Michael Kirchmann, the architect/developer of 25 Mercer Street in Soho, will be no different. During his “interview,” he calls out Fredrik for being more of a glass-and-steel kind of guy who’s out of touch with the neighborhood’s low-rise, cast iron buildings. The self-proclaimed Mr. Soho isn’t having it!

“I wear history glasses and read history books,” Fredrik says.

After bestowing some historical tidbits on us, like how the neighborhood used to be home to the city’s red light district, Fredrik stomps his feet and whines a little bit to prevent Michael from showing the five-unit project to any other brokers. He’s just the man for the job.

Fredrik throws a big party to show off the units, which include a 100-foot-long townhouse priced at $16.5 million, and an unfinished penthouse asking $17.5 million. It takes only 22 minutes for Michael to badger Fredrik about how many units he’s sold, but his constant creeping seems to work. They walk away from the open house having sold two of the project’s smaller units at $8.25 million a pop. The townhouse and penthouse units are proving a bit trickier to sell, so Fredrik makes a call to a budding real estate enthusiast: fellow network star Bethenny Frankel.

To be continued (in the form of a Bravo spinoff!)