Two decades after succeeding Barbara Corcoran as CEO of Corcoran Group, Pamela Liebman is following the brokerage’s founder to Hollywood.
This fall, Liebman will make her reality TV debut on Netflix’s “Buy My House,” the streaming service said this week. Picked up for six 30-minute episodes, the show will have a distinctly “Shark Tank” vibe: Four real estate mavens listen as homeowners pitch their properties, then decide whether they want to buy them as investments.
Liebman will be joined by Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, Los Angeles real estate investor Danisha Wrighster and former National Football League linebacker-turned-home-flipper Brandon Copeland.
“The show really gives viewers an interesting and entertaining glimpse into the unique stories and unrealistic expectations that people have when looking to sell their homes,” Liebman said. “Whether their passion project or, in their eyes, the greatest investment since Manhattan sold for $24, I was certainly entertained.”
The show may also provide an interesting glimpse into the changing perceptions of reality television within New York City’s top residential brokerage. Liebman has decried the impact of reality television on the real estate industry in the past, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2013 that Corcoran brokers were “appalled by what happens” on shows like “Million Dollar Listing.”
Corcoran agents were once discouraged from appearing on reality television, a policy that was apparently relaxed by the time “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Steve Gold joined the firm in 2018.
“Buy My House” will focus less on hustling agents hawking Manhattan penthouses and Malibu mansions and more on the economics of real estate investing and arrives amid a changing landscape for real estate shows. “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” filmed its finale last year, and “Million Dollar Listing New York” was effectively canceled by Bravo earlier this year.
Still, the debate over the impact of reality TV on the industry and its use as a branding tool for brokerages is far from settled. Earlier this year at TRD’s New York City Showcase + Forum, Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman and “Million Dollar Listing” star Ryan Serhant got into a public debate about the topic during a panel discussion.
In a spat that predictably spilled over onto Instagram, Freedman accused the shows of “deflating” the industry by fueling negative perceptions of real estate brokers, while Serhant argued they provide invaluable exposure and suggested legacy firms like BHS and Douglas Elliman were “kind of scared” of the competition they enable. (Elliman, it should be noted, has multiple brokers on TV, including Fredrik Eklund, Josh Flagg and Tracy Tutor.)
“Buy My House” premieres Sept. 2.
Read more
Residential
New York
Oh, Citysnap! CoStar-backed platform hopes to unseat StreetEasy