Kriti Mehrotra
From the moment Peter Zaitzeff first came across our screens in Netflix’s ‘Owning Manhattan’ season 2, it was evident that he is a force to be reckoned with in the world of luxury real estate. In fact, even author, broker, entrepreneur, investor, and tech CEO Ryan Serhant referred to him as the “new development king” in New York City because no one “does it better than” him. The way he subsequently proved it to be true throughout the series is another aspect altogether, undoubtedly making fans wonder more about his overall career trajectory and current wealth.
How Did Peter Zaitzeff Earn His Money?
Although a proud native of New York in every sense of the term, Peter Zaitzeff chose to try something different after graduating from Horace Greeley High School around the early 2000s. He actually enrolled at the University of South Carolina to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management before kickstarting his career in the corporate world. However, by the time the early 2010s rolled around, he had realized his place was in his hometown, and his calling was to spotlight its chaotic beauty as well as its unwavering grace in the best way.
Peter thus returned to New York, earned his real estate license, and secured a position at Douglas Elliman as a Luxury Market Agent in December 2011 – he served there for a total of 6 years. The experience he garnered, combined with his innate marketing and people skills, set him up really well for his ensuing stint at the Luxury & Tribeca Sales Department at The Corcoran Group. From December 2017 until December 2023, he remained loyal to the organization as he believed they shared a mutually profitable relationship, but then SERHANT came into the picture.
The brokerage’s Founder-CEO, Ryan Serhant, had been recruiting Peter for a while, so his persistence gradually broke him down even though he was genuinely happy at the Corcoran Group. “I was really happy at Corcoran, and I was doing my thing there,” he recently stated in an interview. “I could have stayed there.” Yet, the former eventually made a “good argument” regarding how opportunities with him “would be greater in the long term.” Therefore, conflicted, the agent literally flipped a coin to make a decision, resulting in him joining SERHANT in January 2024.
Peter Zaitzeff’s Net Worth
Since Peter has great ambitions and has been tirelessly dedicated to his career over the past 15 years, it goes without saying that he has managed to accumulate significant wealth for himself. In fact, while he currently holds the positions of Real Estate Agent as well as Sales Director in the New Development Department at SERHANT, he has been conquering the city for almost the entirety of his career. That’s how he has closed more than $6.5 billion in sales across 750+ transactions as of writing, with over $300 million of the same having been sold in 2024-2025 alone. Thus, with the average commission being 3%, which is split equally between the agents before being further divided into an 85-15 ratio with their respective brokerages, his income is astounding.
It appears as if over the course of his time in the real estate industry, Peter has walked away with at least $14.6 million in commissions. After all, 3% of $6.5 billion is $1.95 billion, and then, assuming a different agent on the other end of each deal, his share comes out to be 15 % of $1.95 billion divided by 2. Taking all this into account, along with his business background, potential assets, likely investments, lifestyle as a single father of 2 in Tribeca, and standing as the co-founder of The Kabuki Syndrome Foundation, we estimate his net worth to be in the range of $20 million. We should mention that the adventure enthusiast, award-winning agent, as well as public personality established the latter non-profit in 2015 on behalf of one of his sons, who has the titular rare genetic disorder. Through it, in the past decade alone, he has helped raise over $5 million for medical research.
Read More: Owning Manhattan Net Worths, Ranked: Who is the Richest Agent?
