Fredrik Eklund’s Net Worth in 2018 Is Estimated at $30.0 Million: The “Million Dollar Listing” Star’s Story of Rags to Riches!

We’ve seen realtor Fredrik Eklund wade through the cutthroat real estate industry on Million Dollar Listing New York. It’s easy to forget that his beginnings weren’t as glamorous before he became a charismatic reality star selling million dollar homes. Eklund is now one of the top real estate brokers in The Big Apple, with an estimated net worth of $30.0 million in 2018!

The Fredrik Eklund we’ve seen on TV is a far cry from the one growing up, but he has an inspiring background. Born in Sweden, he demonstrated a penchant for money-making at an early age.

As a child, Eklund put on one-man shows for friends and family, and charged them a small fee per seat. He sold Christmas calendars at the age of seven, devising sales strategies that would help him outsell other kids.

An NYC Success Story

His first American experience came as a high school exchange student in Minnesota. After graduating, Eklund returned to his home country to study business at the Stockholm School of Economics but dropped out before he graduated.

Eklund jumped from job to job before arriving in New York. He had a brief stint at the financial newspaper, Finanstidningen.

At the age of 23, he founded Humany, an Internet company in Stockholm that made customer-relations software and employed around 45 people. He later started a music label called Cave Entertainment to limited success in Latin America and Japan.

Eklund also worked in different countries while employed with SEB, an investment bank where his father was a senior economist.

At one time, he was also an actor in gay adult films after his toned physique caught the eye of a casting agent. He did around half a dozen films, including a less-terrifying parody of The Ring, under the pseudonyms Tag Eriksson or Tag Ericsson. He’s not ashamed of his past and said that it has never affected his real estate career.

But his rise to riches wasn’t easy. When Eklund arrived in New York, the most valuable thing he had on him was a pair of worn-out sneakers! He shared a one-bedroom apartment with three other Swedes. He sold paninis to tourists, scraping together $40.00 a day to get by.

He didn’t have any real estate expertise or a network of clients. But when a friend said he had the charisma required for the business, he enrolled in a real estate licensing class at NYU.

Eklund’s first job was in 2005 at JC DeNiro & Associates, a firm owned by Robert De Niro’s uncle. His first impression of the job was that it yielded “an obscene amount of money for something this fun.” He wasn’t wrong; in fact, he earned $50.0 million in the first year of business!

Now, his current circle of influencers includes sme of the biggest names in Sweden, including Princess Madeleine and former Swedish prime ministers.

Million-Dollar Listings

Fredrik Eklund has been named among the top real estate brokers in New York City. He came that far by closing over $6.0 billion in residential sales in his career! He and his team take a 2.5 percent commission from every deal, which makes for a lot of money.

In 2010, he became the managing director of real estate firm, CORE Group Marketing. His portfolio there boasted a staggering $58.0 million!

Back then, CORE had an exclusive deal with the HGTV show, Selling New York. Eklund was negotiating a deal with Bravo at that time, but it wouldn’t be possible to do it while at CORE. So, Eklund left CORE to pursue his reality TV career.

Currently, he’s the best broker at Douglas Elliman, the largest firm on the East Coast. In 2017, his team closed sales worth $1.0 billion. And his sales exceeded more than $200.0 million in January 2016 alone.

His claim-to-fame of the non-reality TV kind came when he began selling houses to a list of high-profile celebrities. He sold an apartment to Cameron Diaz in 2008, which was among the first of his famous sales. The following year, he sold a house to John Legend, and then another to Daniel Craig a year after that.

Eklund’s current celebrity clientele boasts big names like Alec Baldwin, Chrissy Teigen, Gigi Hadid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

The active listings in his portfolio are well worth over $2.0 billion, and we’re sure they all fit his celebrity clients’ tastes.

A “High Kick” Empire

Then, Eklund started his own firm in his home country. Eklund Stockholm New York in Sweden is Scandinavia’s most high-end real-estate firm, with over 50 employees and $1.0 billion in annual sales.

And he has even released his own book! If you want to learn how to sell like Eklund, his book, The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone (2015) is the way to go. The book was a New York Times bestseller.

Before he became known as a real estate mogul, he was famous for his 2005 autobiography, Lord of the Fruit Flies, which is a diary from his adult film days.

He also engages in speaking tours all over the world. And it doesn’t end there!

Eklund’s success in the business led him to star on Million Dollar Listing New York. He also joined up with The Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel for a new show called Bethenny and Fredrik. The show focuses on this power duo on the hunt for great properties to flip and turn a profit. The chemistry between them is both dramatic and hysterical, and the show was a hit with fans!

He also hosts Bravo’s original digital series, Million Dollar Listing Ka-Ching! In the series, he breaks down the outrageous manifestations of wealth like 24K gold donuts, diamond-encrusted sneakers worth $4.0 million, or the world’s most expensive grilled cheese sandwich.

After conquering the New York real estate scene, Eklund turned his sights onto another business.

In 2017, Eklund launched his own brand of rosé wine called High Kick Rosé. It’s named after his signature kicking move.

I think: this is life. This very moment is what it’s all about. This is what I’ve worked so hard for. I’m finally here, in Florence with my family, on my way to Paris for my 40th birthday! ?? – The High-Kick wine started with a dream over a year ago. A dream to enjoy my own premium Venetian rosé, a gorgeous bottle that symbolizes everything that I love about this life. The bottle-design itself was a real pain, endless discussions with the glass specialists about its unusual shape – it had to be this exact shape I told them and pointed at my detailed drawings! They told me it would cost too much, I told them to continue trying, that I refuse everything but perfection. I look at it now, with the bridge of Ponte Vecchio behind it in the sunset, the reflection in it, and I hope you can agree with me it’s pretty darn good looking? ? – It’s no secret I’ve always been obsessed with rosé wine, so when creating my own it had to be absolutely perfect. Everything about it. It had to be light, almost weightless, fresh and elegant with a hint of strawberries and citrus. The fruit was so important, and so difficult to achieve, the perfect balance between dry and sweet, the grapes coming together like magic. I wanted something from celebrations up in mega-penthouses in New York, to grilling by the pond with the dogs running freely in Connecticut, to be able to share it served cold with the best of friends in exotic locations all over the world. ? – I’m so incredibly happy with the final result, the color, the gold leaf packaging, the heavy bottle, a liquid piece of me and my dreams. The first limited batch of 12,000 bottles went online yesterday and most likely won’t last beyond the weekend unfortunately. We are now producing more, a lot more, which will be available in more countries soon, I promise. I apologize in advance that not everyone will be able to order at this moment in time. But remember, these first bottles were made with a lot of high-kicking love, really and truly. I made them for myself, and it’s feels beyond amazing to finally be able to share them with you on my birthday weekend. High-kick! Link in bio. ❤️ – XO /Fredrik

A post shared by Fredrik Eklund (@fredrikeklundny) on Apr 22, 2017 at 9:31am PDT

Fredrik Eklund’s Properties

The real estate mogul and his husband, Derek Kaplan, moved to a mansion in Connecticut in 2016, and welcomed a boy and girl (twins) via surrogate earlier this year.

Fredrik Eklund’s mansion reportedly cost him a cool $3.5 million, and the couple lives in the 5,100-square-foot country abode with their twins.

With his talent for buying gorgeous real estate, Eklund has secured some incredible cribs but none finer than the gorgeous Connecticut mansion they call home.

Before moving to their new home, Eklund listed his ultra-luxe New York City condo for $3.25 million. He had also listed another apartment for sale at $3.0 million.

Eklund listed a condo in Tribeca this past April for a selling price of $6.5 million, which was on the rental market for $22,500. He once owned a bachelor pad in Astor Place before his reality TV debut.

He added another luxurious home at 1 Seaport to his real estate holdings. The high-rise duplex he was tasked to sell came with a price tag of $4.6 million!

In the past, he has purchased several properties he was enlisted to broker. He swooped up a three-bedroom apartment in Tribeca with a view of the Hudson River for $5.3 million as soon as it hit the market.

When he has to drive from one estate to another with clients, he relies on his chauffeur-driven Range Rover.

“It is luxury but it’s also a necessity,” said Eklund.

According to Eklund, part of his selling charm is a tailored suit! And he loves to rock a good sense of fashion!

“I think 10 percent of your income should to go clothing,” said Eklund while wearing a $3,000 suit. His style is completed with a $275.00 haircut every three weeks.

The season 7 premiere of Million Dollar Listing New York tonight (June 12) features Fredrik Eklund house-hunting with Rebel Wilson. The premiere will also mark his twin children’s TV debut. So tune in to get the first peak at little Milla and Fredrik Jr.!

Here’s how Fredrik Eklund’s net worth compares to fellow Million Dollar Listing stars:

Reality Star Realtor	Estimated Net Worth
Fredrik Eklund	$30.0 million
Josh Flagg	$25.0 million
Madison Hildebrand	$25.0 million
Josh Altman	$20.0 million
Ryan Serhant	$20.0 million
Luis D. Ortiz	$15.0 million
Steve Gold	$10.0 million
Michael Lorber	$10.0 million