Why Did Maggie Wu Leave Serhant? The 'Owning Manhattan' Star Speaks Out

Maggie Wu is owning her decision to leave Serhant, a prominent real estate agency in the United States. The NYC-based firm, owned by Ryan Serhant, is featured on Netflix’s reality TV show, Owning Manhattan. Season 1 premiered on Netflix on June 28.

While working at SERHANT., she started her own team of real estate agents and reached levels of success that agents at Selling Sunset would be jealous of.

But Maggie’s time on Owning Manhattan was cut short as the self-described “real estate agent, investor, and founder” has left the agency.

Why did Maggie Wu leave SERHANT. at the peak of its success? Read on for the details surrounding the difficult decision.

Maggie first joined forces with Ryan in 2021. This was a smart move to make, as Ryan has years of experience as both a real estate agent and broker. Most of this was shown during his nine seasons on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York.

In an Instagram post, Maggie shared that she joined SERHANT. to unload some of the burden of being a solo brokerage founder.

“When Ryan and I first met in 2021, I was already starting to feel burnt out— COVID was hard on everyone, and I was working overtime even in those circumstances,” she explained.

“Even though at that point I had already achieved $300M in sales (and did $90M of that in 2021 alone), I hadn’t realized how much being a solo founder had worn on me,” she added.

She went on to say that it was Ryan who encouraged her to build her team at SERHANT. This is called the W Team. “He gave me the confidence I didn’t know I needed and I will always be grateful for that.”

Ultimately, a startup environment wasn’t conducive to Maggie’s professional goals. “Building a startup within a startup was not easy, and I realized eventually that I needed to be at a larger brokerage to support the needs of my team,” she explained on Instagram.

In 2023, she left SERHANT. and rejoined her previous brokerage, Compass. The company provided her with the resources she and her team needed to succeed.

“I (re)joined @compass where billions of dollars were invested in the back-end systems, technology, and data infrastructure,” she explained.

She didn’t return alone. In the transition, she brought along the W Team that she had formed at Serhant. “Extra shoutout to all my team members who have taken the leap of faith with me!” she said.

The move paid off as she shared that her team at Compass is ranked in the top 0.1 percent of all teams in the United States.

“We are beyond grateful for every single friend and client who have been here for us for each step of the way,” she wrote.

Maggie Wu described leaving SERHANT. as “one of the hardest professional decisions” she has ever made.

“The year I spent at SERHANT was one of my most transformative years: hitting over 100m in sales that year,” she explained on Instagram. She saw many successes, such as solidifying her team and brand.

“Most of all, I loved the people there. But ultimately, I needed to put my team of superstars and clientele first,” she said.

Maggie Wu is cheering on Owning Manhattan and Serhant from the sidelines.

In the competitive world of real estate, where shows like Selling Sunset have the share of ratings, Maggie shared what makes Owning Manhattan different.

“I love that Owning Manhattan differentiates itself from the other reality TV shows by showing the ups and downs in our industry and life — it is not easy being a real estate agent," she wrote. "Every single agent has the same ambitions of being the best, but 92% of agents are forced to leave the industry within two years as it is a commission-only career path (shoutout to the producers @worldofwonder for capturing this!!)"

Owning Manhattan is available to stream on Netflix.