Noah Kaplan doesn’t regret turning down the opportunity to be an assistant for Fredrik Eklund, star of Million Dollar Listing. Instead, he affixed his gaze on a bigger goal and is using his blossoming real estate career as the vehicle. Kaplan created Thousand Dollar Listing, a web series about the everyday struggles of the New York real estate agent who isn’t dealing in the luxury market.
Noah Kaplan will join Ryan Serhant’s team soon.
Shows like Million Dollar Listing portray luxury real estate in a consumable way the TV-watching public can understand. The buyers are finicky, needy, and have the funds to be so. The agents are quick-witted and ready to place the buyer in the seven-figure home of their dreams. It’s just that easy.
But the reality — unlike the reality of so-called reality tv — is that most real estate agents in New York are competing for limited sales. Kaplan decided to show this side of everyday real estate through his new web-series, Thousand Dollar Listing.
Thousand Dollar Listing is a true story
Thousand Dollar Listing is realty reality for Kaplan. He really did only earn $32,500 (he says $31,000 in the video, but he made another $1,500 before the end of the fiscal year). He really only earns commissions in the low thousands and sometimes, perhaps more often, in the hundreds. And he really did move back in with his folks in Riverdale when he was 28.
“I needed help from my parents to continue living, but I feel like that’s pretty common in New York,” he admits.
Through the ups and downs of his real estate career, one thing has always remained: Kaplan says his dream is to work in entertainment. This dream has manifested itself in various forms for the 30-year-old agent. He played guitar for Brooklyn alt-rock group Bellechord. A brief stint with Liquid Blonde put him on stage at the Highline Ballroom. He flew to Thailand last year to record a video for Brian Poole-Di Salvo. Still, he needed to find a way to earn a comfortable living.
He earned his real estate license six years ago after graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in economics and jumped right into the industry. A few years ago, he worked in the front office of Core Group, a NYC-based real estate agency, which is where he was offered the job of Eklund’s assistant.
“I just knew I’d be a terrible assistant,” Kaplan said. “I have borderline ADD and knew that I couldn’t just sit in a chair all day.”
But after turning down the offer, Kaplan set his sights on merging his passion for entertainment with real estate. He enlisted the help of Gabriel Packard, Nolan Doran and Dave Burdette to help create Thousand Dollar Listing. Eric “Breezy” Baker, another friend, helped him create the theme song. Peter Grosz, Kaplan’s cousin and former writer for The Seth Meyers Show and Colbert Report, has taken an advisory role in the development.
The first episode featured Isaiah Moore, a struggling young actor searching for an apartment in New York. Moore was really living on his friend’s mom’s floor.
Now, Kaplan is moving forward. He was working with Corcoran Group Real Estate, but has since left due to a conflict with his web series; Kaplan says he is currently in contact with another Million Dollar Listings personality.
