Well before shows like Selling Sunset or Buying Beverly Hills brought all the drama to streaming, Million Dollar Listing was the go-to series to quench our appetites for ultra-luxurious properties that we couldn’t imagine ever affording.
But despite its prolific two dozen seasons, spanning from the East Coast to the West, with short-lived spin-offs like San Francisco and Miami that didn’t go past their first season, Bravo is slowly but surely sunsetting the Million Dollar Listing franchise.
The Los Angeles-based show is the last of the franchises to survive (though Heather and Josh Altmans’ recent exit might change that) after Million Dollar Listing New York ended in 2021 after a successful 9-season run.
And while we won’t necessarily miss the petty drama, MDLNY gave us a peek at the rarefied world of Manhattan’s luxury real estate market, and we stood witness to the relentless work of its star agents, with names like Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant shooting to stardom during their 9-year run on the show.
It wasn’t until its ninth — and final — season that a female broker joined the cast, but it was well worth the wait.
The no-nonsense Kirsten Jordan, a top-producing agent who has brokered over half a billion dollars in sales, and is now leading a powerhouse team at Douglas Elliman joined the series in 2021 — with both fans and fellow cast members welcoming her aboard. And just as we were getting excited to see more of her on our screens, Bravo decided to pull the plug on the long-running series.
Luckily, we got to catch up with her, and we’re here to bring you up to speed on what life looks like post-MDLNY.
Kirsten Jordan opens up about her time on the show, MDLNY’s cancellation & what’s next for her
In an exclusive sit-down with Fancy Pants Homes, Kirsten Jordan — the first and only Million Dollar Listing New York female star — opens up about her life on and off the screen, MDLNY’s cancellation, what it was like working with powerhouse personalities and navigating the highs and lows of reality TV.
With an impressive roster of celebrity clients and high-stakes deals, Kirsten reveals what’s next in her career and how she’s building a legacy beyond reality television.
Q: Despite the city’s size, I know the luxury real estate scene is fairly close-knit. Did you already know the agents on the show before joining the cast of MDLNY?
Kirsten Jordan: There are a lot of agents in New York City but luxury real estate is a small world. Everyone knows everyone.
Q: Technically, the series wasn’t necessarily “canceled” by Bravo (they often briefly discontinue shows only to pick them back up later). How did you get the news that there won’t be a new season? How was it framed?
Kirsten Jordan: The writing was on the wall. Bravo wasn’t putting the right marketing behind the show and the reality TV audience was shifting to streaming.
Season 9 was also impossible to film. It was the height of COVID in New York. It was a struggle for us to create content for the season. Sellers didn’t want strangers in their apartments and they didn’t want to flaunt their wealth with everything that was going on. We also had to deal with masking and let me tell you now that wearing a mask on reality TV just doesn’t work.
I now realize I wasn’t a culture fit for the show and the future of conflict-based reality television. I’m too serious of a business person. I’m a no-drama person. And if you look at the new generation of real estate reality shows, like Selling Sunset, it’s all drama with a luxury real estate Zoom background. The Million Dollar Listing format isn’t relevant anymore.
Q: If the series were to resume later on, would you return to the show?
Kirsten Jordan: Being on Million Dollar Listing was an amazing experience. I gained immense focus in my work and leveraged the show as a platform to grow my business and my team. It was also a lot of work. And being a serious real estate agent and the CEO of a top sales team is already a 24/7 kind of job.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love being on TV! I interview a lot on the national news about the housing market. Being on live TV is a whole other level of thrilling. I’m leaning into that right now. I’m so passionate about creating real estate literacy for millennials and first-time buyers. Million Dollar Listing was a springboard for that.
Q: What was it like working alongside strong personalities like Fredrik and Ryan?
Kirsten Jordan: It felt like a typical day in the life of a real estate agent, co-brokering with other agents to get deals done. New York along with Miami and LA are the most competitive real estate markets in the country. The commissions are huge so the stakes are high for every single deal. That’s why New York attracts the best agents.
Q: Lessons learned from your stint on MDLNY: What will you take away?
Kirsten Jordan: I learned to be completely unapologetically myself. I learned to own my narrative, to be the producer of my story, to be strategic about what I put out into the world. I learned that social media is your own reality TV show – and the smartest business people use that tool to their advantage.
Q: Life post-MDLNY: Do you feel like your run on the show has helped business? If so, in what ways?
Kirsten Jordan: Getting cast on the show was the career validation I didn’t know I needed. I was working so hard at the time, juggling my real estate business with being a mom of three, and never felt like I was 100% on my A game. But I was! It was a true ah-ha moment for me, realizing that I was actually thriving is what empowered me to build momentum.
The Kirsten Jordan Team is one of the top NYC teams at Douglas Elliman based on transactions. We are outperforming the market and our peers. We are going above and beyond to service our clients – our buyers, sellers, renters, developers. Now it’s not just about me thriving, it’s about the team and our incredible growth together.
And, yes, there are people who still call me because they see me on TV. It’s still a source of new business but a small piece of the pie. The bulk of my revenue is from the network and sphere of influence I’ve nurtured and built over the past 20 years.
Q: Show aside, you’re a star agent in your own right — and working with some of the biggest A-listers in NYC. Tell us a little bit about some of your most exciting listings or closed deals.
Kirsten Jordan: Most of my clients are pretty private but I do tend to attract reality TV personalities and they’re always fun to work with. I’m selling Jackie Siegel’s penthouse at 49 Chambers in Tribeca, one of the neighborhood’s most treasured landmark buildings. It’s a former bank building from the early 1900s so the interior architecture is incredible, with massive windows and tall ceilings, and yet Jackie has created this amazing contemporary palace within it.
I also recently sold Ty Pennington’s condo in West Chelsea. That was a really fun listing. He had just finished renovating the home and that’s kind of his thing with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
I’m still super passionate about Downtown and have sold the most apartments in Taylor Swift’s building, 155 Franklin at record prices per square foot for a non-doorman building of that type in Tribeca.
I also love a good Uptown prewar coop – there’s nothing more classic in New York. My latest listing at 580 Park Avenue is the ultimate. It’s a storied building on Park Avenue. The sellers just completed a meticulous two-year renovation with Christian Ricci and Studio Todd Raymond to create this sophisticated, contemporary home with prewar bones. It’s stunning.
How do you balance that with what I’m guessing is a highly active family life? I know you have three little ones at home.
Kirsten Jordan: I get up at 5 am every single day to exercise and meditate. Being the CEO of my business is easy, being the CEO of my household at the same time is the harder job.
I build systems to keep us organized and then something will inevitably break the system and I have to rebuild – whether it’s something big like having to find a new nanny or a little thing like finding a better lunchbox. I also believe in delegating everything I don’t have time for. I’ll never clean a toilet again and that’s okay.
Q: We’d love to learn more about your life outside of real estate. I know you’re also a FoxBusiness contributor, so what else is Kirsten Jordan doing these days?
Kirsten Jordan: I’m a total nerd about the housing market. I’m obsessed. And after 20 years working in one of the world’s most competitive, cut-throat markets, I’ve pretty much seen it all. It feels incredible to pass on that knowledge, to empower buyers and sellers everywhere.
I feel so much more in my element talking about the housing market on the news than I ever did on reality TV. My television future is on broadcast and is in real estate literacy.
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