Season seven of the reality Netflix show addresses real-life real estate threats in 2023
In episode four of season seven Selling Sunset, I had to keep pausing to rewind and rewatch the Oppenheim twins Jason and Brett bro-battle it out over Jason’s over the top plans for an opulent man-cave-esque new office right next to their existing office in LA. In addition to more room for hot new O Group agents this new space costing the firm millions will have a full bar, DJ stand, night-club style ladies room and a $40k billiards table. It’s clear that Brett thinks Jason has lost his goddamn mind.
Watching the two brothers lock horns was refreshing as Brett, who made a departure of sorts from the Oppenheim Group by actually opening his own brokerage called Oppenheim Real Estate in 2020, has always seemed the muted brother of the duo on the show. In this scene we finally get to really see Brett and he comes across as the far more market astute and economically savvy brother.
To put it mildly it seems Jason may not be reading the room very well in 2023/24’s real estate market. In a heated exchange Brett points out to him the reality of today’s market. To paraphrase he says ‘bro, you’re 50% over budget on this new space, filling it up with expensive boy toys and our sales volume in this market is currently DOWN 50%, we would have to have our agents make an additional $80-100M in sales on top of their current goals (which they’re not meeting) in order to pay for this!’
Then Brett went on referencing the Stitzer Burnett trial to point out “we (the firm) could now potentially” lose all the buyer-side commissions, fifty percent of our business— and this is where I first hit pause and googled “when did season seven Selling Sunset film”. It was shot in the first quarter of this year—ahead of the trial, and this is the moment in all seven seasons when in my opinion Brett suddenly leapt out to the forefront from the show’s shadows as actually a real, not reality show, business man. I have been watching the outcome of the what will be historically disruptive class action commission lawsuits and their subsequent copy cat suits and could not agree more. Now is not the time for a brokerage to take major investment risks, change is being thrust upon the industry and by the handful brokerages are being named in similar suits across the country.
In addition to the commission suits Brett points out that the firm is losing crypto and tech buyers in this current economy and what he doesn’t mention in the squabble, but is referenced plenty in the season is the new “mansion tax”. Some of us in real life might not have to worry too much about this, but in seven states this additional tax of up to 5.5% on the sales price of luxury homes is a real punch in the pocketbook. LA County where this show takes place has had a mansion tax in place since this spring of 4% on sales over $5M. This amounts to hundreds of thousands of additional dollars the buyer has to fund in order to purchase the home. The states that have some type of mansion tax to date are Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington and California (LA County only).
I think this episode really hit home for me because so much of the reality show— the extravagant listings, six-digit commissions, the celebrity clientele and not least of all the outlandish and often ridiculous fashion is so totally un-relatable to me that I considered the show almost fictional. Brett soberly recognizing the new reality we all may be experiencing together as an industry at least for the foreseeable future made the show finally feel just a tad bit more real.
