The Rise of the Sort-of-Famous Real-Estate Agent

Kelly Killoren Bensimon is no stranger to a career pivot.

In 2009, she joined the cast of the Real Housewives of New York after having worked as a model and jewelry designer.

Two years later, she left the show and did what many people with a bit of fame and a lot of marketing savvy do: She wrote books.

She launched a line of fragrances, then candles, then outerwear.

But by 2017, she’d realized that her skills were suited to what might have once seemed like a more quotidian job.

She could go into real estate.

The industry has always been a relationship-driven business, where agents are expected to bring in clients on their own.

And in theory, this might be easier for, say, a former TV star with a lot of social-media followers and a group of socialite friends to do than for an average person.

“I was like, Wait a minute; I have a massive social platform ,” Bensimon told me.

“I can get myself out there.” She had also recently completed an M.B.A. and knew how to negotiate, read a market, and brand a product.

So she took two weeks of intensive classes (“from, like, 8 a.m. in the morning until 10 o’clock at night”) and acquired her real-estate license.

In 2021, her third year at the brokerage Douglas Elliman, she said she sold $110 million worth of homes.

Lately, a whole new population of people has been getting into the real-estate business: sort-of-famous celebrities.

New converts include the Catfish host Nēv Schulman, the rapper Vanilla Ice , the Dancing With the Stars pro Emma Slater, and various retired NFL and NBA players in need of an alternative career .