Debuting amid heated debate over the Bay Area's sky-high real estate prices is "Million Dollar Listing San Francisco," the latest installment of the hit Bravo TV show. And among the new season's three stars is Andrew Greenwell , a gay man who owns his own firm based in the East Bay city of Pleasanton.
Before the first episode had even aired Wednesday night, the show had already generated a fair bit of controversy and media attention. Complaints focused on the lack of female agents in the cast and the show glorifying expensive housing being scooped up by newly minted tech millionaires as longtime residents are priced out of the city and region.
While a writer for San Francisco magazine said the three stars of the show - the other agents are Justin Fichelson and Roh Habibi - are plenty entertaining to watch and "easy on the eyes," they also described watching the series as having "a front row seat to your own wake" for anyone without deep enough pockets to purchase the multi-million dollar properties being featured.
In promos for the new season Greenwell, 31, boasts that he expects to sell $100 million worth of real estate this year. During a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Greenwell said real estate agents are not behind the high housing costs, nor is the TV show to blame.
"I definitely follow that a lot of people don't like how tech money has influenced housing values. But at the end of the day, the show doesn't have control over that. It is just telling a story," said Greenwell. "Cities change and we are not the catalyst for that change. We are a part of it. It is just the way things are; cities evolve and San Francisco is evolving again."
The benefits of participating in the show far outweighed any risks, said Greenwell, who relocated to the Bay Area from Seattle in 2011 after being recruited by real estate firm Keller Williams to be CEO of its East Bay office. Last fall he opened his own firm, Venture Sotheby's International Realty in Pleasanton, where he serves as CEO and principal.
"It was a really great opportunity that was too hard to pass up," said Greenwell, who in April married Paal Salvesen, a fellow East Bay Realtor he met four years ago who now works for Greenwell's firm. "It gives our clients great exposure for their property, that is the most important thing."
A native of the Sunshine State, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Florida State University, Greenwell founded his first brokerage at the age of 19 while a freshman in college. In 2007, Realtor magazine named him one of the "Top 30 Realtors in America Under 30."
Today he specializes in multi-million dollar properties, from historic Victorians in San Francisco to high-priced houses in Marin and the East Bay. Prior to signing on to the Bravo show, of which he has only seen the first episode, he was friends with fellow cast mate Fichelson.
He was pleased with how he was portrayed in the first episode and isn't concerned about being pigeonholed into a reality television trope of an effeminate gay man.
"When we decided to do this, we made the decision to be ourselves. The way we looked at it was to do what we do everyday. We just happened to have a camera crew follow us," said Greenwell, who hosted a premiere party for his friends Wednesday night. "The difference in our show than most reality shows is it is a business show. It is about the real estate. Other reality shows are great, but this is not about us going to dinner and throwing wine at each other."
He said the experience of taping season one was "really awesome" and is looking forward to having the show be picked up for a second season.
"Million Dollar Listing San Francisco" airs on Bravo Wednesday nights at 10 p.m.