Ryan Serhant, the charismatic star of Million Dollar Listings New York, might have bit off more than he could chew Monday after posting an April Fools’ Day prank on Instagram in which he claimed to be retiring from the real estate industry and stepping away from his hit Bravo television series.
In a new post on Tuesday, the Serhant Team founder acknowledged that the innocent prank set off a flurry of calls from worried clients, colleagues and even his own mom, all inquiring about his “decision” to retire at the ripe old age of 34.
“WOW,” Serhant wrote a days after publishing the original post. “Before doing my April Fool’s post yesterday, I thought MAYBE a few people would buy it. BOY WAS I WRONG. Brokers called my clients. My team panicked. My MOM freaked out. And Luis Ortiz congratulated me! 🤦♂️ Let me clear this up: I AM NOT RETIRING FROM ANYTHING EVER.”
The post was meant as a light-hearted joke on April Fools’ Day similar to several others published on social media by real estate brokerages like RE/MAX, which claimed it had discovered the lost city of Atlantis or another by Vendor Alley founder Greg Robertson, who published an article claiming Compass had acquired the National Association of Realtors. In another case, a brewing company claimed to be merging with Windermere Real Estate.
But the joke was lost on even some of Serhant’s own colleagues, who took the Emmy award-nominated reality star at his word. Members of his team and his mom panicked while brokers from rival agencies tried to poach his clients, according to the top broker.
“I never thought this day would come, but today I am officially retiring from real estate,” wrote Serhant, who has nearly a million Instagram followers, in the initial April 1 post. “This will also be my last season on Million Dollar Listing NY. I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I can’t believe I’m even writing this right now, but I think it’s time.”
“My Real Estate career and Million Dollar Listing New York are the two best things to ever happen to me, next to Emilia and Zena,” Serhant wrote in a follow-up Instagram post on April 3. “Don’t forget: 10 years ago I was a 24 year old hand model and I still can’t believe any of this is real. WORK is in my blood. And I will outthink, outwork, and outmaneuver everyone until the day I die.”
In the photo, Serhant holds a poster of all the commission checks his team received over the past year and insisted he had no plans to retire any time soon.
“I won’t retire until I literally can’t get out of bed, and even then, I’ll still find a way to continue pushing,” Serhant wrote.