How the real estate sales on Selling Sunset actually work | WATCH - Property News AU/NZ | propertynoise.co.nz & propertynoise.com.au

PHOTO: Selling Sunset

There is something endlessly enticing about watching real estate shows featuring multi-million dollar mansions. The imported marble countertops, the elevators, the infinity pools with a view of the city—it’s so unattainable for the average person that watching it feels more like a fantasy than reality show. Therein lies the appeal of Selling Sunset, the Netflix docusoap following a group of luxury realtors at the Oppenheim Group selling some of the ritziest homes in Los Angeles. Of course, there is interpersonal drama, too. With its fourth season premiering on Nov. 24, Selling Sunset will once again welcome us into the office of the Oppenheim Group and its tall, beautiful real estate agents selling huge, beautiful homes.

The show’s heavy focus on the drama between the realtors always prompts questions from viewers on how real Selling Sunset actually is: Are these women actually licensed realtors? Do they really work in that office? And who is actually buying these houses?

Whether you’re Team Chrishell, Team Christine, or just vibing with Romain, we have some answers for you about how the glitzy world of reality TV real estate actually works.

Mary Fitzgerald, Vanessa Villela, Chrishell Stause, Emma Hernan in season 4 of Selling Sunset

Patrick Wymore—Netflix

The Oppenheim Group actually sells every house sold on the show

According to Jason Oppenheim, president and founder of the Oppenheim Group, every house and property that is sold on Selling Sunset has been sold by the Oppenheim Group in real life. Viewers have questioned whether it’s possible for these sales to be real when the open house showings often feel staged for the drama.

“The Oppenheim Group has sold every house that is featured as a sale on the show,” Oppenheim tells TIME. “Sometimes agents work together on the sales.”

The Oppenheim Group lists more than 30 agents on their website, but only a handful of them appear on Selling Sunset, so it’s possible that when one agent is showing a listing on TV, they are sharing that listing with another agent who works off-screen.

In the finale of season one, for example, agent Mary Fitzgerald is holding her wedding at one of her listings. (What multi-million dollar house wouldn’t be suitable as a wedding venue?) Being the hard worker that she is, Mary shows the house to a client on her wedding day, while she’s in the middle of getting her hair done. The client, who’s not shown onscreen, is a “big music producer,” Mary says. She ultimately ends up making the sale, and gleefully shares that she sold her wedding venue on her wedding day.

While it’s unclear whether or not parts of that scene were exaggerated for the camera, Mary really did sell the house, a $9.2 million mansion in Los Angeles, to its current owner, the music producer Benny Blanco. The client selling the house was Sean Rad, one of the cofounders of Tinder. None of this client information was divulged on the show, but as celebrity home-buying news is its own beat in the Hollywood gossip world, the fact of this kind of sale is easy to find.