Netflix's 'Selling Sunset' realtor Emma Hernan reveals the unglamorous side of selling LA houses, including gardening and crawling in tiny spaces

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Netflix's 'Selling Sunset' realtor Emma Hernan reveals the unglamorous side of selling LA houses, including gardening and crawling in tiny spaces
Selling Sunset star Emma Hernan told Insider the unglamorous side of her job as a realtor.Jason Kent/Frank Lee
  • Celebrity realtor Emma Hernan told Insider her job isn't as glamorous as "Selling Sunset" portrays it, but she loves every minute.
  • Hernan said she has to crawl into tight spaces, create gardens, and run around for clients.
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Working as a realtor and selling properties in Los Angeles seems like the most glamorous job in the world in the popular Netflix series "Selling Sunset."

The show revolves around a dozen women working for The Oppenheim Group, a real estate brokerage founded in 1889 and currently headed by Jason Oppenheim. The chic realtors are filmed showing multi-million dollar houses to wealthy clients, driving around in flashy cars, and dining out throughout the day.

One of the realtors working at The Oppenheim Group, Emma Hernan, told Insider in an interview that the job isn't full of the glitz and glam that viewers might expect.

"What everyone doesn't see is that I'm crawling in a small space trying to see if the house is okay for inspections," Hernan said.

Despite being filmed wearing stylish outfits, Hernan said behind the scenes she has to wear a hard hat when attending house inspections in order to help out the construction team.

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"The last property that I listed, I created the garden because I needed it to look perfect for staging," Hernan said. "I was telling them where to put the succulents."

Selling Sunset doesn't show how many viewings the realtors actually fit into one day, Hernan said. The true amount of daily showings have to be cut down because only so much can fit into one episode, she added.

In reality, the Oppenheim Group realtors are running around LA, attending back-to-back house viewings, and meeting clients, Hernan said.

"Imagine trying to schedule to see 10 houses a day, scheduling them every 30 minutes, and then one of the agents changes the time," she said. "It's a lot of hard work."

Filming, which can last from three hours to 10 hours or more per day, means that Hernan can often work 15-hour days. Although it takes up a lot of time, Hernan, who is also the CEO of her own plant-based food company, said she's able to focus on other work during filming.

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"I worked my butt off to get where I am today," Hernan said. She added that her biggest real estate deals came in at $15 million and $19 million. "I would definitely be the star of the circus for my juggling skills."

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