EXCLUSIVE: ‘Owning Manhattan’ Star Peter Zaitzeff Reveals Surprising Reason He Joined Ryan Serhant—and the Truth About His Boss’s On-Air Meltdown

Netflix’s "Owning Manhattan" introduced a new face this season: former Corcoran broker Peter Zaitzeff—who has now admitted that he left the fate of his real estate career up to a chance coin flip that decided whether he should quit his longtime job to join Ryan Serhant's eponymous agency.

Peter, 41, not only joined the team at Serhant but also the cast of the Netflix series, which debuted in June 2024 and quickly won over fans by showcasing the agents' glossy listings, high-stakes deals, and the multitude of dramas that unfold behind the scenes.

Now, as Season 2 of the series premieres on the streaming giant, viewers will get the chance to indulge in even more office intrigue—including Peter's entry into the highly competitive team, who regularly go head to head in a bid to bring in the best listings and earn the top commissions.

To some within the industry, Peter's decision to jump ship from Corcoran, where he worked for seven years, and enlist with Serhant was surprising.

But he has now admitted that, while he did not make the move lightly, in the end, it came down to one surprising factor: which side up a quarter landed.

"I don't know if Ryan knows this and I don't know if I've told anybody, but I was in my apartment and I flipped a coin and I was like, 'All right, I'm going,'" he admitted to Realtor.com®.

The star broker, who focuses his efforts largely on the tony West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, confessed that when the quarter landed on tails, it solidified his decision to make the jump to Serhant.

But while the coin toss may have been the final push that Peter needed to take a leap of faith, he revealed that his move had been a long time in the making, admitting that Ryan had been trying to recruit him for several years.

He was ultimately swayed when the real estate mogul convinced him that he would get bigger and better opportunities at Serhant than he had access to in his former role.

"Ryan was very persistent in the way that he recruited me," he explained. "So that was the first part of it because I was really happy at Corcoran and, I was doing my thing there. I could have stayed there.

"I think that Ryan made a good argument in convincing me to come over, that the opportunity here would be greater in the long term."

Still, even though the allure of climbing the corporate ladder was intriguing to him, Peter said he still took time to think long and hard about the decision—admitting that the idea of trying to find his footing and establish himself with a new team made him think twice about the move.

"I knew what it took because I started my career at Douglas Elliman, then went to Corcoran. So I knew what a transition takes. Transitions can be very tough because you don't hit the ground running so that gave me pause," he shared.

"Ryan did a really good job of convincing me that the opportunity at Serhant was going to be bigger than any opportunity that I could get at Corcoran. It took a lot of hard work, but we got there."

After deciding to leave Corcoran, Peter admits he clashed with his former colleagues who advised him to decline the opportunity because "Ryan was a one hit wonder who was on TV."

Although Peter admits that those comments initially gave him pause, he ultimately made the decision in "two to three months."

While Peter had come around to the idea of joining the brokerage, the other agents didn't welcome him with open arms—and didn't keep their disdain for their new colleague a secret.

"I certainly saw it when we were filming the first episode or when we were filming. I certainly felt it when I was in the room with them and everything was going on that you see that airs on the show. It was very uncomfortable," he said, noting that it took them "eight to 12 months" to warm up to him.

Despite the tension unfolded during filming, Peter kept his head down and focused on the work, reminding himself that "nobody in the cast has the same experience that [he] does."

Along with stepping into his new role as sales director for 200 Amsterdam, an incredibly luxurious condo building on the Upper West Side, Peter also notched a headline-making win, selling a $60 million residence at 150 Charles St., another exclusive condo building in the West Village.

In the series, Peter's blockbuster deal is widely praised by his colleagues, however, behind closed doors, viewers see Ryan frustrated with his new hire's quick success, insisting that he should be the one making the record-breaking deals, before storming off and smashing a vase on his way out.

Still, Peter insists that there is no bad blood between them, adding, "Healthy competition is good. Ryan did the biggest deal in Florida. I'm not doing those deals in Florida, but I have done a lot of deals at the high level in the West Village for a while. So I think Ryan understands that, and we eventually move past it in a really substantive and healthy way."

Ryan solidified Peter's statements, telling Realtor.com that it "just made sense" to bring the former Corcoran broker in.

"We are putting together a Super Bowl winning team," Ryan said.

Now, Peter notes that he is "100%" happy with the decision he has made to jump ship and bring his talents to Serhant, noting that even his colleagues have embraced him and branding him a "force to be reckoned with" in the new season of "Owning Manhattan."

"Owning Manhattan" Season 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.