Sitting on a couch post-workout session in his office on the Sunset Strip, L.A. real estate broker Jason Oppenheim tells The Hollywood Reporter exclusively that his popular Netflix reality show Selling Sunset has been renewed for an eighth season and that production will begin soon on the latest installments of the series.
“For me, each season gets more and more fun,” says Oppenheim, who had originally hoped that the show — a bingeable mix of real estate, oft-combative personal dynamics, over-the-top fashion and L.A. nightlife — would run for at least three seasons. “When we were doing season one, we were like, ‘If we can get to season three, we had a real show. Anything above that would be icing.’ We’ve been running on icing for years now.”
From left, Mary Fitzgerald, Romain Bonnet, Emma Hernan, Bre Tiesi and Chrishell Stause in the ‘Selling Sunset’ season 7 reunion special
It’s a Friday evening, just five days ahead of the premiere of Selling Sunset’s season 7 reunion special, which airs Wednesday on Netflix at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT and is hosted by Queer Eye’s Tan France. The teaser video for the reunion includes what appears to be a confrontation between two of Oppenheim’s ex-girlfriends, real estate agent Chrishell Stause and model Marie-Lou Nurk, with the latter, a surprise guest, asserting cryptically, “Chrishell was just a topic on camera.” At another point, France asks Oppenheim, who is hooked up to a lie detector, “Are you still in love with Chrishell?”
It’s a lot of attention on Oppenheim, who says he has generally tried to stay above the fray on the show. “Jason always tries to pretend like there’s no drama going on,” said cast member Emma Hernan to THR earlier this year.
But Oppenheim — recently featured in People’s Sexiest Men issue as “sexiest 46-year-old” — admits that he’s become more relaxed about being on camera.
“I think I just put down my guard more every season and I think I’m less anxious. I’m more willing to share. My skin gets thicker and I’m really learning. I know it won’t go forever, so I’m really just trying to enjoy the process,” he says.
From left: Amanza Smith, Chelsea Lazkani, Jason Oppenheim, Nicole Young and Brett Oppenheim in the ‘Selling Sunset’ season 7 reunion special
“If you would have asked me in season one, will I share a relationship on camera or go on a date or fight with my brother or whatever it is, I was so concerned and careful and now I am just not that way anymore about the show. I’m just more willing to be open and share. It makes the show more fun the less you think about it. It makes me happier,” continues Oppenheim, who says that he is not currently dating anyone. “Happily single,” he underlines. “Who knows for how long, but I’m happy right now.”
Oppenheim has plenty to be happy about. Selling Sunset season 7 was ranked No. 2 on Netflix’s list of top English language shows for the week of Nov. 6-12. Season 2 of the spinoff show Selling the OC aired over the summer on Netflix. And the original Selling Sunset has been nominated three years in a row for an Emmy for outstanding unstructured reality program.
In the years since Selling Sunset debuted in 2019, the Oppenheim Group has grown from 10 agents to around 80 and has added real estate offices in Newport Beach, San Diego and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “More than 20 percent [of the growth] I would have to attribute to the show,” Oppenheim says.
TMZ reporters rarely lose sight of him. Just before his meeting with THR, a reporter for that outlet had come up to him in the parking lot of his office. “She wanted to ask me if Bre [Tiesi] was still at the company,” says Oppenheim, referring to the agent and cast member who stormed out of the opening party for the Oppenheim Group’s new offices in the finale of season 7. (Tiesi told THR she’s still not sure if she’ll stay with the brokerage.)
Not that he’s hurting for people looking to work at the Oppenheim Group. He notes that the brokerage receives “half a dozen to a dozen emails a day” from folks who are “ fans of the show” and want to be agents there. “I mean, I don’t want to hire a fan of the show. I want to hire a real estate agent. But we get a lot of inquiries. It’s flattering,” he says, adding of the stream of unsolicited emails that come in, “We get just all kinds of things. I get some marriage proposals once in a while — not anything I would accept.”
‘Selling Sunset’ cast
He also notes with pride that a TikTok video tour he recently gave of the offices — in which he shows off the whiskey bar, vapor fireplace, herringbone flooring, 11 Ravens pool table, vintage Paul Richardson studio lamp, furniture by Rove Concepts and even a DJ set-up — has racked up 3.7 million views. Given the interest in the show and large battery of windows facing Sunset Boulevard, signs say, “Please stay three feet from the glass.” Says Oppenheim (who at the end of the interview signs autographs for a family who accosts him in the parking lot behind the offices), “Fans are up here all day long.”
During the sit-down interview, Oppenheim is at his most animated and garrulous when discussing the business of selling homes.
As concerned as he is with how the city of Los Angeles’ controversial mansion tax is slowing down the luxury market (“I think the tax revenue in this city is going to go down the tubes,” he says), the broker is even more worried about the recent class-action lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) as well a select number of national brokerages accusing the real estate industry of colluding to inflate agent commissions. A jury ruled against NAR and its rule that a home seller must pay a commission to the agent who represents the buyer. NAR is expected to appeal the decision.
“It’s throwing a huge wrench in owning a real estate brokerage,” says Oppenheim. “There are countries that are structured similar to what I think the Department of Justice and these plaintiffs are looking for. And in those countries, Australia being a preeminent example, less than 10 percent of buyers use an agent, and when they do, they only pay one percent. So essentially the buyer agent commission is gone, and that is something that could happen in this country.”
If buyers aren’t required to have agents in the U.S. in the future, continues Oppenheim, “you’ll see a million jobs lost. You’ll see 500,000 to 750,000 agents leave the profession and you’ll see probably a quarter million people who work at large brokerages lose their jobs. This could be as bad as seeing every major brokerage in the United States going out of business, because very few brokerages would be able to survive losing 40 to 50 percent of their revenue. So it [will be] devastating to the economy. It’s devastating to the real estate profession. And I think it does a significant harm to buyers inasmuch as if they’re not represented on the purchase of maybe their most important financial asset … from a consumer protection perspective, I don’t see how that protects the consumer, the buyer.”
He’s hopeful though that currently high interest rates, which have also slowed the luxury market, will come down next year. “I think [they] will come down next year. I’d like to see interest rates in the fives on a 30 [year mortgage],” says Oppenheim, adding that he does not want to see rates drop much more than that. “I don’t think they should. I hope they don’t come back down to where they were. Those were too low, artificially low.”
And Oppenheim is well aware that the Selling Sunset phenomenon won’t go on forever. “In a few years,” he says, “I’ll be back to just being a real estate agent again.”
