Still haven’t gotten your fill of premium real estate with a side of premium drama? Don’t worry, Selling Sunset fans—Netflix’s new spin-off, Selling Tampa, has just as much chaos and a lazy river to spare.
Given how underwhelming our most recent visit with Oppenheim Real Estate turned out to be, Selling Tampa could not have arrived at a better time. The reality series, which debuts Wednesday with eight half-hour episodes, follows the comings and goings of Allure Realty, run by Sharelle Rosado. Her goal? To take over the luxury real estate market with her nascent firm, run entirely by women of color.
Sharelle, wife of former NFL wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, founded Allure in 2019. While her management style is certainly a departure from the socially awkward Oppenheim brothers, Sharelle’s emphasis on “tough love,” combined with some colleagues’ belief that she’s something of an absentee boss, is a recipe for frustration.
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As a native Floridian whose college roommate practices real estate in Tampa, I was curious what the selection of houses would look like. Would the series focus on the ritzy waterfront homes of South Tampa or the suburban ranches of North Tampa? Perhaps a historic mansion or two in St. Pete?
The answer, it seems, is all of the above. Selling Tampa casts a wide net, sampling a little of everything from the city and its surrounding areas, but the homes are often newer constructions. They’re huge, full of amenities, and often on large tracts of land, but not necessarily as striking as some of the midcentury homes in Los Angeles. As the Allure agents walk us through their listings, the vibe is often more HGTV than Selling Sunset.
But are any of us really watching any of these shows for the houses?
We all know that the personality clashes are what really sold Selling Sunset—and Selling Tampa is stacked with Christines.
Fans of Selling Sunset’s stiletto-loving villain will likely connect with several of Selling Tampa’s cast members—especially Anne-Sophie Petit-Frere and Colony Reeves, a mischievous and irreverent pair who revel in confounding their older, more reserved colleagues. There’s also Rena Upshaw Frazier, Allure’s first agent, who feels increasingly disrespected and sidelined and just might start her own firm. And then there’s Juawana Colbert, who some call “HR” because of how frequently she seems to stick her nose in others’ business.
In the past year or so, Netflix seems to have begun building its own stable of C-list reality stars, on a par with Real Housewives and Bachelor stars. Its reality properties are becoming institutions in their own right, and standouts like Chloe Veitch and Francesca Farago of Too Hot to Handle have begun crossing over from one franchise to another. Could our nation’s wealthy cities soon be as replete with Selling series as they are with Real Housewives shows? That might just be the future toward which we are all speeding.
Despite its spin-off status, however, Selling Tampa has a vibe all its own. Men are practically non-existent in this show’s universe, unlike in Selling Sunset where we must constantly watch the agents flirt with one Oppenheim or another. Here, men mostly show up to buy a house or parachute in for a quick video call.
Sharelle speaks with great sanctimony about her mission as the leader of an office staffed with women of color, but her embrace of “tough love” is the reason the term “girlboss” has become so synonymous with hypocrisy. Several of her agents seem annoyed with her, but the greatest joy of the series is watching them all get together anyway—for Colony’s blowout 30th birthday party, on a business trip to Miami in which they definitely were not all needed, and for Juawana’s “Single Ladies” party.
As with Selling Sunset, the agents’ personal lives largely fold off-screen; their professional rivalries provide most of the drama. (Juawana is definitely Allure’s Davina.) But the wildest moments are the ones you never see coming—like when we follow Juawana to a date with a man Sharelle set her up with, only to find out he’s very into sperm retention. (Look it up if you don’t know what it means; I haven’t the heart to tell you.)
No one will ever replace Christine Quinn and the gang, but if anyone’s ready to take this franchise to the next level, these women just might be it.
