Jay Bradley is no stranger to television. The Equinox Realty Group broker has been featured on two OWN Network series and contributed to real estate reports on CNBC and Fox.
Perhaps those appearances were what caught the attention of producers for NAR’s First-Time Buyer, available on Hulu and firsttimebuyer.realtor.
In the show’s first episode of this season, Bradley helps retired high school principal Dr. Regina Ellis buy a new home in Missouri City and sell the home she had shared with her late husband. Bradley was moved by Dr. Ellis’s story. He had recently lost his father, a commercial agent who inspired him to get into the business.
“When she had bought her last home, her husband was with her,” he says. “So it was emotional when they cleaned out the house. The whole reason for the move was because her husband had passed, and she wanted to be closer to her kids and grandkids.”
The market conditions were great for selling her house. “I think we had 25 people at the open house and 12 offers,” he says.
However, the deal fell apart at the last minute when the buyers backed out without saying why. While the obstacle is quickly resolved in the episode, it took Bradley a lot of legwork behind the scenes to fix.
“I called every other buyer who put in an offer. I talked with all the lenders as well,” he says. “You don’t want to deliver bad news without a solution or options. We REALTORS® are paid to find solutions. We ended up finding a great buyer and actually got $10,000 more with the second offer.”
Bradley had fun filming the episode, which was shot over three weeks last July. The production was much larger than he expected. “You don’t realize it when you are watching,” he says. “You only see the various angles, but they have three camera people filming everything—also hidden microphones and GoPro cameras. So much goes into it.”
The most memorable part for Bradley was seeing Dr. Ellis’s smile when she found out that everything worked out with the sale. He also appreciated being her guide through filming, explaining when she would ask why they would have to do a retake or shoot something a certain way.
He praised her patience with the long days of filming and walking around Missouri City in triple-digit temperatures. “She’s such an amazing client and first-time buyer,” he says.
Bradley doesn’t usually work with first-time buyers. Twenty-three years into his career, he focuses on luxury, new construction, and commercial real estate. “It’s all about finding your gift, doing what you love to do, and offering that gift of service to your client,” he says.
These days, Bradley is working on scaling Equinox Realty Group, the brokerage he founded in 2017. He is active in its charitable efforts, such as mentoring youth from underserved areas, helping domestic abuse survivors, and supporting art programs. He believes in the importance of leadership and volunteers in his local and state REALTOR® associations.
Bradley has received great feedback since the episode aired. REALTORS® across the country thanked him for representing the profession so well and complimented him for making it look easy.
He has kept in touch with Dr. Ellis. “Working in television takes a lot of trust. You sign these agreements with the networks for them to use the footage. You have to trust the process and the editing. I reassured her that it was going to be good. When she saw the episode, she said, ‘Thank you so much, Jay. I’m a TV star now!’ We’re close now, but I still call her Doctor.”