‘Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim Reveals Season 8 Renewal for Netflix’s Hit Real-Estate Reality Show (Exclusive)

Sitting on a couch after the training session in his office on the Sunset Strip, says LA real estate agent Jason Oppenheim The Hollywood Reporter excluding that his hit Netflix reality show Selling sunset has been renewed for an eighth season and production on the latest installments of the series will begin soon.

“For me, every season gets more and more fun,” says Oppenheim, who had originally hoped the show — an edible mix of real estate, often combative personal dynamics, over-the-top fashion and L.A. nightlife — would run for at least three seasons. “When we did season one, we thought, ‘If we can get to season three, we had a real show. Anything above that would be icing.” We have been walking on ice for years.”

It’s a Friday evening, just five days before the premiere of Selling sunset‘s Season 7 reunion special, airing Wednesdays on Netflix at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT and hosted by Foreign Eye‘s Tan France. The teaser video for the reunion features 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, cryptically claiming, “Chrishell was just a subject.” on camera.” At another point, France asks Oppenheim, who is hooked up to a lie detector, “Are you still in love with Chrishell?”

There’s a lot of focus on Oppenheim, who says he has generally tried to stay above the fray on the show. “Jason always tries to act like there’s no drama going on,” says cast member Emma Hernan THR earlier this year.

But Oppenheim – recently featured in People’s Sexiest Men issue as “sexiest 46-year-old” – admits he’s become more relaxed when he’s in front of the camera.

“I think every season I’m just more alert and I think I’m less anxious. I am more willing to share. My skin is getting thicker and I’m really learning. I know it won’t last forever, so I’m really just trying to enjoy the process,” he says.

“If you had asked me in season one, should I share a relationship on camera or go on a date or fight with my brother or whatever it is? I was so worried and cautious and now I’m just not that way about the show anymore. 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 he is not currently dating anyone. “Happily single,” he underlines. “Who knows for how long, but I’m happy now.”

Oppenheim has plenty to be happy about. Selling sunset Season 7 ranked #2 on Netflix’s list of best English-language shows for the week of November 6-12. Season 2 of the spin-off show Sale of the OC aired on Netflix last summer. And the original Selling sunset has been nominated for an Emmy for outstanding unstructured reality program three years in a row.

In the years that followed Selling sunset debuted in 2019, the Oppenheim Group has grown from 10 agents to approximately 80 and 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 said.

TMZ reporters rarely lose sight of him. Just before his meeting with THR, a reporter from that outlet had come up to him in the parking lot of his office. “She wanted to ask me if Bre (Tiesi) was still with the company,” Oppenheim says, referring to the agent and cast member who stormed the opening party for the Oppenheim Group’s new offices in the season 7 finale. (Tiesi narrated THR she’s still not sure if she’ll stay in the real estate business.)

Not that he’s hurting people who want to work at the Oppenheim Group. He notes that the brokerage receives “half a dozen to a dozen emails a day” from people 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 questions. It’s flattering,” he says, adding to the stream of unsolicited emails coming in: “We get all kinds of things. I get a few marriage proposals every now and then, nothing I would accept.”

He also notes with pride that a TikTok video tour which he recently completed of the offices – in which he shows off the whiskey bar, steam fireplace, herringbone floor, 11 Ravens pool table, vintage Paul Richardson studio lamp, furniture from Rove Concepts and even a DJ setup – was viewed 3.7 million times. Given the interest in the show and the large number of windows facing Sunset Boulevard, signs read: “Please stay three feet away from the glass.” Oppenheim says (who at the end of the interview signs autographs to a family who approaches him in the parking lot behind the offices): “Fans are here all day.”

During the sit-down interview, Oppenheim is at his most animated and chatty when discussing the issue of selling homes.

As concerned as he is about 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 real estate agent is even more concerned. concerned about the recent class action lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and a select number of national brokers accusing the real estate industry of conspiring to inflate agent commissions. A jury ruled against NAR and its rule that a home seller must pay a commission to the agent representing the buyer. NAR is expected to appeal the decision.

“It’s a huge undertaking to have a real estate brokerage,” says Oppenheim. “There are countries that have a similar structure to what I think the Justice Department and these prosecutors are looking for. And in those countries, Australia being a prime example, less than 10 percent of buyers use a real estate agent, and when they do, they pay just one percent. So essentially the buyer’s agent commission is gone, and that’s something that could happen in this country.

If buyers no longer need to have agents in the US in the future, Oppenheim continues, “a million jobs will be lost. You’ll see 500,000 to 750,000 agents leave the profession and probably a quarter of a million people who work at major brokerages lose their jobs. This could be as bad as seeing all the major brokerage firms in the United States disappear, because very few brokers could survive losing 40 to 50 percent of their revenue. So it will be devastating for the economy. It’s devastating for the real estate industry. And I think it causes significant harm to buyers because they are not represented in the purchase of perhaps their most important financial asset… from a consumer protection perspective, I don’t see how that protects the consumer, the buyer.”

However, he is hopeful that currently high interest rates, which have also slowed the luxury market, will fall next year. “I think they will disappear next year. I would like to see a five-step interest rate on a 30-year mortgage,” Oppenheim said, adding that he doesn’t want to see rates drop much more than that. “I don’t think they should do that. I hope they don’t return to where they were. They were too low, artificially low.”

And Oppenheim is well aware that the Selling sunset phenomenon will not last forever. “In a few years,” he says, “I’ll be a real estate agent again.”