Kriti Mehrotra
Emma Hernan is honestly one of the most polarizing figures in Netflix’s ‘Selling Sunset‘ — some fans love her, some can’t stand her — but nobody can deny she’s a self-made woman. After all, she has been building an empire ever since she was merely a teen, only to actually begin dabbling in real estate at a much older age and following a whole career in entertainment. And as if that’s not enough, she has since even evolved into a full-fledged entrepreneur — she has launched a brand so successful it has undeniably earned her a significant fortune.
How Did Emma Hernan Earn Her Money?
Although not much regarding Emma’s early years is publicly available as of writing, we do know she has had an interest in the world of glitz and glamor from an early age. That’s how she ended up pursuing a career in modeling at the tender age of 12, just to soon relocate to Los Angeles from her hometown outside of Boston and learn the true meaning of hustle. That’s why she even worked at an ice cream shop and often babysat to earn extra money, that is, until she discovered the financial world of investment at age 14 and eventually evolved into a financier.
“I took all my modeling money, all my babysitting money, all my ice cream money – I worked at every store, I loved working – and I started investing in the stock market and health care,” Emma once candidly told Nylon. “I self-taught myself just by reading and learning, and that’s how I got into investing.” In fact, she was so successful in this endeavor that she was even backing her family’s business by 17, which then led her to start investing in startups, crypto, and real estate too, all the while continuing modeling. Whether it be national or international, she took up all kinds of gigs.
According to Emma’s own accounts, her professional shift into real estate was pretty natural because “with any successful run in the stock market, you tend to kind of fall into [it].” The fact that she subsequently developed a passion for the other side of this business was unexpected, but she was glad she had friends like Jason Oppenheim, from whom she’d bought her first property, pushing her to try her hand at it. She thus obtained her license in 2018, only to join the Oppenheim Group as a part-time employee in 2021 until she realized she could do it full-time, all the while also owning -operating her plant-based frozen food brand Emma Leigh & Co.
Emma Hernan’s Net Worth
If we’re being honest, given the way Emma has navigated her career over the past few years, it’s evident that she has managed to accumulate significant wealth for herself and is, in fact, a self-made millionaire. Starting with her modeling career, since an average model in Los Angeles makes between $50,000 and $150,000 per year, we can only assume her experience, natural beauty, as well as personality landed her in the higher range. In other words, we believe she has likely made around $100,000 to $120,000 per year through modeling alone, which, combined with her two decades of experience, makes her gross income a maximum of $2 million.
Then comes Emma’s endeavors as an investor and an entrepreneur, but unfortunately, calculating her exact revenues through these avenues is really difficult since there’s no clear information available. The number of businesses she has invested in over the years, or how each of them is faring today, is unclear as of writing, and so are the details of the profits, losses, and assets of her own business venture. All we know for certain is that her frozen food brand has been growing and expanding each year. As for the CEO and angel investor’s income as a real estate agent, that is likely in the range of low millions, considering the average houses in her listings are $9-$15 million, and the commission is 3%. This commission actually gets split equally between the listing agents, and then in an 85-15 ratio between their respective brokerages. So, Emma likely makes $1 million per year in pure commissions as a Realtor at the Oppenheim Group. Therefore, considering all these aspects, her expenses, investments, private jet, other assets, lifestyle, and empanada business, we believe her net worth is close to $10 million.
Read More: Amanza Smith Net Worth: How Rich is the Selling Sunset Star?
