‘Owning Manhattan’: Ryan Serhant Says A Buyer Of A $22 Million Apartment Once Threatened To Murder Him

While Ryan Serhant makes selling real estate look like a walk in the park, even he has had his fair share of drama during his time in the industry. In the fifth episode of his new Netflix show Owning Manhattan , titled “Swimming with the Sharks,” Serhant reveals that one of his previous buyers once threatened to murder him.

Owning Manhattan chronicles Serhant’s fairly new yet extremely successful firm. But with real estate comes competition. And with competition comes drama. Especially among his high-earning agents.

In this episode, viewers get to see the fallout of Jonathan Normolle and Jessica Markowski’s shocking podcast episode, in which they put down up-and-coming Serhant agent Savannah Gowarty — a sweet, North Carolina native who simply wants to catch her bearings in the cut-throat New York housing market. Not only did they speak poorly about a fellow agent, but they used Serhant’s studio to record the episode.

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Agent Chloe Tucker Caine rightfully lays into Markowski for her bully behavior when she shows up to a party at Caine’s $20 million listing. But Serhant is the first one to get a hold of Normolle.

As the real estate mogul ascends to the upper floor of a construction site, he recalls one of his previous deals gone bad.

“When you’re just starting to build your business, any money is good money,” he narrates. “If there’s a deal to be made, you make it.”

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“I once sold a full-floor apartment in Manhattan for $22 million in a pre-construction building,” he continues. “And I didn’t really check to see what kind of guy my buyer was. All I cared about was that he could put down a hard deposit of $4.5 million in cash.”

When the building was finally finished two years later, the buyer couldn’t pay the rest — but, as Serhant notes, his contract was non-refundable and the seller had the right to retain his deposit.

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“So I met him alone for the walkthrough and he grabbed me by my shirt collar and he came right up to my ear and he whispered, ‘I’ve put people under the Brooklyn Bridge. And I’ll do the same to you if you don’t get me out of this contract,'” Serhant says.

He adds, “And that was the moment I realized, it’s when you first start tasting success that you get a little sloppy.”

All that’s to say Normolle is about to get an earful from Serhant. When the heavily tattooed agent then walks in to meet his boss, the episode ends on a brutal cliffhanger.

Owning Manhattan is currently streaming on Netflix.

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