‘Owning Manhattan’s Tricia Lee Explains Her Problem With Jessica Markowski: “You’re Selling This Image That Hurts Us”

Behind all of the glitz and glam of the New York City real estate market is a team of SERHANT agents working to get it done—and while there’s certainly some drama when it comes to securing multimillion-dollar deals, there’s even more among the realtors featured in Owning Manhattan.

Most of Season 2’s “drama” is centered around Jessica Taylor, Nile Lundgren, and Genesis Suero’s feud, but there’s also an element of unaddressed conflict. With Tricia Lee airing her frustrations with Jessica Markowski—both to other SERHANT agents and in her confessionals—we can’t help but wonder where the two currently stand.

In the show, Lee complains that it’s “irresponsible” of Markowski to make real estate look easy, and claims that the Polish agent is able to secure most of her business through her well-connected husband.

Lee—who stopped by DECIDER’s studio ahead of Season 2 dropping on Netflix—said she has never vocalized any of these issues directly to Markowski, and doubled down on her “observations.”

“We all have a cheat in real estate,” Lee explained. “I had a business that was very successful in my borough and introduced me to a lot of really dynamic women in Brooklyn. That is my cheat. That gets me into rooms that other people won’t get into – even today. And that was 10 years ago. Opportunities come to me because of that.”

“We all have a cheat and her husband is a cheat,” she continued. “I’m not dissing it. That’s the reality. You’re not getting those opportunities on your own. That’s your cheat. It’s just the same with my former business. I’m not always getting those opportunities on my own. It’s the relationship and reputation I built from that world that benefits me in this world. So it’s a workaround to be more successful in real estate.”

Lee’s problem is that she feels like Markowski “takes that and layers it with this, ‘Oh, well-ah, I just sold a $1 million property, or well-ah, I just sold a $10 million property.’”

“When people are out here having to build a business from scratch, like 99.9% of agents, you’re selling this image that hurts us, which is we get overpaid for little work and we have no true value,” Lee said. “I don’t agree with anyone that puts that out there.”

The SERHANT agent added,  “We’re out here trying to work and be respected. We don’t need anyone on TV or otherwise promoting the fact that we show up with great hair and great heels, and that’s how we get listings. That’s just not the truth. If it was, we wouldn’t be working anymore.”

Markowski, for her part, was unaware that Lee felt this way until we spoke to her ahead of Season 2 (side note: none of the cast had seen the episodes before they dropped on Netflix).

“It saddens me that she feels any type of way about me, because one thing I know about myself is I work harder than anybody knows,” Markowski said. “Coming from an immigrant family, we came to America with nothing in our pockets and I work so hard.”

Markowski explained that she only posts the “highs” of her successes on social media for “optics,” noting that she doesn’t show off the “hard work” that goes into deals behind the scenes.

“I do work hard,” Markowski reiterated. “I have a $30 million listing in Greenwich Village. I have a $17 million apartment in One High Line. I have new developments I’m working on. I’m on the top No. 1 team at our company, and for her to feel as though I am not promoting well or doing well, it just saddens me that she feels this way.”

“But you know, jealousy gets the best of people sometimes,” Markowski concluded.

Owning Manhattan Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.