Kriti Mehrotra
As a reality docudrama that lives up to its parent productions in every way conceivable, Netflix’s ‘Selling the City’ blends real estate, luxury, and chaos to give us the best of New York in one place. That’s because it revolves around the ambitious, no-nonsense agents from the Douglas Elliman brokerage as they deal in multi-million dollar properties while also navigating personal experiences. Therefore, of course, we get an insight into every aspect of the cast members’ lives, making us wonder whether and how they are compensated for essentially allowing the world into their space.
Selling the City Cast Members Do Get Paid For Filming
While many believe the exposure one gets from being a part of a Netflix original series is more than enough, the production team behind the ‘Selling…’ franchise and the platform in itself disagree. They reportedly don’t necessarily pay for all the core cast’s glam teams, wardrobes, or outings during the actual shooting process, but they do give them a lump sum salary, as specified in their contracts. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact numbers involved in this for ‘Selling the City’ as of writing, yet we assume it is most probably between $20,000 to $50,000 per episode, based on screen time.
We say this because it has been reported that the cast of ‘Selling Sunset‘ was compensated similarly when the show first premiered back in 2020, only for its success to now greatly affect the pay. In fact, according to some records, while some non-prominent characters in this long-standing production still make around $50,000 per episode, those like Chrishell Stause, Emma Hernan, and Mary Fitzgerald get to walk away with $500,000 to $1 million per season. Therefore, since ‘Selling the City’ only just premiered across the world — on January 3, 2025 — the salary for those who actually make it what it is falls on the lower side of Netflix’s wage range.
Selling the City Cast Members Earn Significantly Through Commissions
Since the entirety of the ‘Selling the City’ cast comprises professional real estate agents working in wondrous New York, it’s actually imperative to note that their prime source of income is commissions. They do not get any fixed salary from the brokerage they hang their license with, but they do get a myriad of opportunities through which they can close deals and bag significant wealth at once. In other words, no matter how many resources and listings the real estate firm equips an agent with, if they do not hustle to sell/rent homes every single month, they do not make anything.
However, this is not entirely the case for Jade Chan and Justin Tuinstra because their hard work has led them to be not just realtors but also directors of sales for particular projects. While the former is currently handling everything related to the sales of units at the Mandarin Oriental Residences on 5th Avenue, the latter is doing the same for Madison House on 15 East 30th Street. For this, they are compensated via a salary while also earning commissions, as usual, for every apartment sold.
The typical commission fee for an agent in the luxurious market in New York is 3% these days, so that’s what those at Douglas Elliman Real Estate Brokerage consistently get to earn too. Yet, it’s imperative to note that not the entirety of this 3% goes to just one individual. In fact, it is split equally between the buying and the listing agents before they then have to share it with their brokerage at a set ratio. This ratio is reportedly 75-25 at Douglas Elliman, so on every $10 million house sold, an agent gets to keep approximately $112,500.
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