“Million Dollar Listing NY”: The buyer’s movin’ on up … stairs

Recap of season 6, episode 9

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

On this week’s episode of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” Ryan wins a listing, but isn’t so hot on his “reward” for selling the apartment, Fredrik hops back aboard the baby train, and Steve looks just below the floorboards to find a buyer for his latest listing.

Here’s where we left off.

Broker friend forever

Sometimes real estate brokers go to great lengths to win a listing. Okay maybe it’s all the time, but who knew Ryan would need to observe Shabbat and attend a birthday party to score to his latest commission at 117 West 21st Street. Thank goodness it happened to be the same function, because Ryan refuses to cross that line between broker and friend. The guest of honor is David Amirian, the developer behind the coveted project. Ryan’s not there to celebrate (he didn’t even bring a gift!) but he does a pretty decent job of stalking David throughout the evening, who’s being superbly coy about the whole thing. He wants Ryan to relax and enjoy the party he doesn’t even want to be at.

David uses the gift of song to reveal he’s selected Ryan as the project’s broker, because apparently Broadway actors make house calls now. Ryan shouldn’t blow out the birthday candles too soon, however. David’s only given him the keys to the $18.5 million penthouse, which he’ll have to sell if he even wants to think about getting that beard on the other eight units. He hosts an open house, which David attends so he knows he’s “serious” about the listing, and happens upon Manish. It appears that he has a buyer — and a $9 million home in the Hamptons for Ryan to sell if he can get David to accept an offer that’s $1 million below ask.

“This is a full-on bribe,” Ryan says. “And I take bribes!”

They negotiate and get the offer up to $18 million, which makes David very happy. So happy that he rewards Ryan with the rest of the project, albeit with a catch. He must sell it with another broker whom David had on the back burner just in case. Ryan is understandably dejected, but wait, there’s another catch! David also hands Ryan Thirteen East+West, the project’s sister building.

All is right in the real estate world.

The buyer below

Guess who’s back, back again, Ian’s back, tell a friend.

Ian is back, hurling “bros” and giving Steve absolutely no room to negotiate with his latest listing at 101 Warren. The duplex penthouse is massive, and comes with a hefty price tag to boot: $13.5 million. Ian’s already made it pretty clear that he won’t “budge a penny,” so Steve begins his hunt for a buyer inside the building, before it hits the market. He meets with Ken, who’s the financial advisor to the client that lives right below the penthouse. Steve sees an opportunity to combine the two apartments into one massive mega-pad. Ken is on board, but puts down an offer of $13 million… which, to be fair, is a very good to place to start.

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“My advice to you, and I’ve been doing this a long time, take the known over the unknown every single time,” Ken says. “What you’re going to do is unknown.”

How prophetic.

But this is Ian we’re talking about, bro! He tells Steve to move full steam ahead, because $500,000 below ask ain’t gonna cut it. Shortly after the penthouse officially hits the market, Steve lines up 19 showings (apparently people do like carpeting in the master bedroom!), which renews the interest of the neighbors downstairs. Undeterred by Steve’s constant stream of ugly sweaters, Ken arrives back to the bargaining table with a $13.2 million offer. Ian counters with $13.35 million, best and final, and the two make a deal — but not before Ken makes another dig at Steve’s style. He offers him the sweater as a parting, but Ken says to keep it so Steve can give it to his daughter one day.

Men!

Oh baby

Though Fredrik continues to kill it at Steiner East Village, with not one, or two, but three deals for penthouses, he’s still scratching his head about how he can give back to the community. He’s already raised $30,000 for a cooking program for kids, but wants to do more.

It could be that Fredrik and hubby Derek have baby on the brain. They’re resuming their quest to have a child, following last season’s devastating news that the surrogate carrying their twins suffered a miscarriage. This time around, however, Fredrik wants Derek to take the lead.

“I think when I do it, it’s not meant to be,” Fredrik says. “We have a track record that’s not so great.”

Derek reminds him they’ve been on this journey together from the start, and his tenderness and empathy toward Fredrik makes him a frontrunner for “Husband of the Year.”

To get back on track with giving back to the community, Fredrik meets up with his driver Alberto, who got him thinking about all of this stuff in the first place. Fredrik cries it out, Alberto dances it out, so we suppose that helped? In the end, Fredrik decides to launch a foundation to support the city’s homeless youth, so it’s nice to see two episodes of reflection turned into something.