Interview: ABC Family’s ‘Next Step Realty: NYC’ Matt Bauman

The one thing that sets ABC Family’s Next Step Realty: NYC apart from other real estate shows like Million Dollar Listing is the affordability of these apartments and living spaces. Seriously, how many people can afford a multi-million dollar apartment or penthouse in NYC? However, the show isn’t just about closing deals and giving clients a tour of all the best and affordable places to live in NYC. It also gives the audience a closer look into the office and personal life of these young and hard working professionals at Next Step Realty.

Recently we got a chance to sit down with Matt Bauman, a real estate and managing broker of Next Step Realty, to talk about his role in the company and the show itself. Life as a real estate broker in one of the most competitive markets in the country isn’t all fun and games!

Tell us about your role on Next Step Realty: NYC.

“In the first episode, I was promoted to Managing Broker, which means I have to manage, train, oversee a lot of the broker relations with corporate. That’s been my new role. It has been a herculean task to make sure that the brokers are doing their jobs and doing them well and also my relationship to the people who have hired me in this role. Certainly there are a lot of growing pains with creating this role and trying to manage my expectations and their expectations with what I can and cannot do.”

Did you find that you were treated differently when you received the promotion?

“Absolutely. It was kind of neck and neck between me and Bri (Brianna Coughlan) and she happens to be one of my best friends in the company and to say that there were no hard feelings would be a complete lie. It got a little intense between the two of us and it also really hurt her feelings knowing that she was one of the ones who had recommended to Blair (Brandt) that there should be a management position. For her to get completely passed over, hurt her feelings. Not to mention seeing her best friend who helped start the company in 2013 when we were pulled over from our real estate firms, it got a little intense. But in terms of the aftermath, I think we’ve kind of gotten over it. But certainly other people in the company have had difficulty putting me in this new role.”

Since you received your promotion in 2014 and the show aired in 2015, did the show have to recreate that moment?

“That was all in real time. Everyone’s reactions was very much real. No one knew that I got the Managing Broker role. Even I was not clear that I had gotten it. I knew it was between myself and Bri, but when the announcement was made that was very true to everyone’s true reactions. Bri was pissed, Margit (Weinberg) was nervous, Victoria (Scott) was happy, David (Ghysels) was probably thinking about what he was going to eat for breakfast the next morning.

I stand by what I said in my acceptance speech. When the company was founded in 2013, we went through a whole year of not having any management and not knowing what we were doing. We were like chickens with our heads cut off, running around and it didn’t look much like a real estate firm. It looked more like a frat house and you can’t manage a professional real estate firm in New York City like you do a frat or a sorority house. It needed that really tough hand and I think I was hopefully the one to do that. We’ll see if that continues to be the case.”

 

Have there been any changes in the office dynamic ever since you’ve all started filming?

“We’ve never done reality TV before and we’ve never gotten the opportunity to see how people think of each other. The confessional booth interviews have been very interesting. No one has flat out said, ‘I can’t believe you said that about me’ or ‘I can’t believe you made that comment.’ You can tell that people are a little like, ‘yeah, you said that about me. I’m not going to forget that.’

I think at the end of the day, we all know what we’re doing in terms of being here, doing our jobs, being young, being competitive with each other, it’s bound to happen. We’re all going to say something that won’t be in everyone’s best interest. But, at the end of the day, we signed up for this. So, bring it on.”

Blair and Margit are dating, but they keep their relationship on the down low. Has that been difficult for you and your coworkers to deal with?

“It has been incredibly difficult. First of all, it’s one of those things where if you’re dating someone in the company, just embrace it. We all know, we’re all going to talk about it. It’s awkward to begin with, but it would be less awkward if you didn’t try to hide it. That has been a difficult thing. Especially during filming. We all know what’s going on, you don’t have to play coy with us. We’ll talk about it less if you guys talk about it more.

It really affects my job. Blair is my boss, but I’m Margit’s boss. That dynamic has been incredibly challenging to manage because she doesn’t really take any direction from me. If I ever say anything to her, I’ll get a response from Blair, I won’t get a response from her. It’s just one of those things where I didn’t sign up for that. I didn’t sign up to manage this relationship. I signed up to help brokers achieve greatness.”

New York is one of the most competitive markets in the world. Is it difficult to compete with more experienced, established agents just because you and your team are younger than they are?

“Yeah. In my old company, I sat next to someone who has been doing it for 35 years to my left and someone who has been doing it for 45 years to my right. So, to try and enter this competitive market with 30,000 licensed real estate agents in New York trying to make a buck and there’s only so much real estate to go around. I think what we’ve done very successfully at Next Step is we’ve made looking for apartments, buying apartments, and selling apartments fun again. No longer is real estate brokerage just made for bored housewives. This is a new form of real estate brokerage where you need that energy, you need that competitive nature that millennial have. I think we’re the poster child for a new age in real estate brokerage.”

Will we be able to see any challenging or difficult clients you come in contact with during the show? Or situations where you can’t close a deal with a client?

“There have been some instances. It may not necessarily be me personally, but there have definitely been some difficult clients. For example, I couldn’t close Renee and Danielle. They were given to me by Erin (Wilson) and Michaela (Lalanne) and they had said that they (Renee and Danielle) were qualified, when in reality, they had no idea what the New York City market looked like. I’m trying to sell them a $2,000 studio when really they want a two bedroom for $4,000. So, those are the instances where, no, I couldn’t close it and they were difficult because they were completely unprepared for what the New York City market actually looked like.

It happens a lot where people walk into an apartment or they come from Nebraska, they’re paying $400 a month for a house. They come to New York and they say, ‘Okay, I should be able to get a mansion for $2,000, right?’ Then they look at a broom closet and they’re saying, ‘you want me to live in that? And you want me to pay what?!’ Those are the instances that happen to all of us because we deal with a lot of people relocating to New York for the first time and it’s about managing their expectations and hopefully being able to convince them that you have to pay this in order to get your little piece of NYC.”