EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Serhant Reveals Boundaries He Has Put in Place To Protect His Family From His ’24 Hour-a-Day Business’

Real estate tycoon Ryan Serhant has built a billion-dollar business empire largely by making himself available at all hours of the day—to clients, colleagues, and reality TV audiences.

From having to “fix the microwave” at the very first sales listing he ever had, to fronting his personal money for “someone’s down payment for a very large apartment”—and then flying to China to track them down to get repaid—Serhant, 41, has gone out of his way to close a deal again and again since starting out as a real estate agent in 2008.

Serhant’s storied run on real estate reality TV has also amplified his all-in approach, whether it be dressing in ridiculous costumes for listing launch parties on the breakout Bravo series “Million Dollar Listing New York” or admitting he’s “out for blood” in Season 2 of his Netflix show “Owning Manhattan.”

The series shows him recruiting top agents from competing companies, challenging current employees to significantly up their game, and opening new satellite offices outside of New York—just a few tactics Serhant employs in his quest to “build the No. 1 real estate brokerage on earth.”

But the sophomore season of the reality show, which debuted Dec. 5, also shines perhaps the brightest light on Serhant's emotional ties to his career—showing the hotshot broker breaking down in tears at one point over the pressures of balancing business and family, before erupting in a fit of rage at facing competition from someone on his own team.

Of course, success at that level comes at a cost, and Serhant seems to acknowledge he’s been paying the price in both his role as CEO at work and husband and father at home.

It is a delicate balance that Serhant admits to Realtor.com® he has to fight every day to maintain—revealing that he has put in place careful restrictions to separate his personal and professional lives, and ensure that his business dealings don't have a negative impact on his wife, Emilia, or their daughter, Zena.

One of the most successful boundaries Serhant has implemented is taking time away from his phone, particularly when he's with his family at their New York home.

While he heavily relies on the device to run his business from anywhere in the world, when he’s home in Brooklyn, he’s intentionally being more mindful of his screen time to set a healthy example for his daughter.

“I try not to be looking at my phone when I'm with my daughter because a 6-year-old will just repeat what she sees, and if her parents are on their phones all the time, then that's what they're gonna do, and so I really try,” says Serhant.

Toning down his phone usage while dialing up efforts to expand his business has been a fine line for Serhant to walk.

“It's hard, though, because my business is 24 hours a day, but I really try to be as present as possible and let her know that the phone is not your first priority,” he adds. “It's just a tool. It's just one of the many tools that we have.”

Smartphones may be one of the many resources Serhant has access to, but it happens to be his preferred business tool that he almost “never, ever” puts down.

“I have a strap on the back of my phone, so I can shake people's hands,” he explains. “I can do everything I need and then I pull it back [to talk], ‘What's up?’ I'm pretty good.”

Beyond the on-the-go convenience of his handheld device, Serhant applauds its capability to perform every function he needs to keep his company running.

“My entire business—I don't use a laptop; I used a laptop once, like, last November, and I took a photo of it,” he admits. 

“I’m on a massive desktop right now, or I use my phone, and really, my entire business and life runs through a smartphone: listings, calls, photos, videos, contracts, filming, posting, virtual tours, and S.MPLE,” the AI workflow app Serhant created.

“Our company is run through an app,” he boasts.

As a company that prides itself on being tech-forward, SERHANT. has just announced a new collaboration with T-Mobile. The firm has adopted the wireless network operator’s SuperMobile plan, which rolled out in August and is available only to business customers, to boost connectivity for its app and agents. 

The added cell service assistance is something Serhant could have really used when his calls kept dropping while negotiating an offer for the $250 million Central Park Tower penthouse from the top of the Empire State Building during Season 1 of “Owning Manhattan.”

“That scene, a lot of people saw and it was something I didn't even pay attention to when we were filming it, or even when I watched it until much, much later when people were like, ‘Oh, my God, I feel his pain, I feel his pain,’” explains Serhant.

“I think T-Mobile's SuperMobile business plan will help all of our agents—not just me at the top of the Empire State Building, but all SERHANT. agents around the country—stay connected, stay responsive, and stay productive in a mobile-first world at a mobile-first real estate brokerage,” he adds.

Unfortunately, Serhant knows all too well the risk of losing a valuable prospect as a result of a lost call.

“So many of the homes that we sell—even in New York City, sometimes—are in areas where there are no cell towers,” he explains. 

“We're selling mansions in the mountains. There's no cell towers. In the Hamptons, we have $50 million homes in areas where there's no traditional cell coverage.

“I used to lose momentum the second my phone lagged or dropped signal, and a real estate client isn't going to hesitate to go elsewhere because they can't reach me,” he adds.

T-Mobile spotted the opportunity in Serhant’s spotty cell coverage, and sees his firm’s embracement of its business-ready connectivity plan as the best endorsement of its service.

“Every real estate agent I’ve met is dialed up to 10—running deals, content, and their business from their phone,” says T-Mobile Business Group Chief Marketing Officer Mo Katibeh. 

“That’s why I love SuperMobile, it's built for the kind of creative, mobile-first entrepreneurs you find at SERHANT. 

“And on ‘Owning Manhattan,’ you see exactly what happens when connectivity can’t keep up—dropped calls, stalled livestreams, and lost client momentum. Now with SuperMobile, Ryan and his team gets the performance, security, and coverage they need to compete at the highest level.”

Serhant has come a long way since his first experience working with a mobile carrier. He once was a hand model in mobile phone advertisements.

“When I first moved to New York City and I couldn't afford my rent, I held phones for AT&T for like a year,” he reflects. 

“Back then I had a flip phone, so things are a little bit different now.

“Now, here I am building an AI real estate brokerage and running everything as of today on SuperMobile because I need to rely on my phone no matter what, which is just like a very, very full circle moment.”

As for whether or not he’ll have a literal hand in any new ads or commercials, Serhant says so far, that call has not been made.

“My focus is on the business, but I guess you never know,” he teases. “That hasn't come up in my conversations—at least not yet.”