Real estate entrepreneur, television personality and bestselling author Fredrik Eklund is known for his signature high kicks and unstoppable energy on the Emmy-nominated hit television series Million Dollar Listing: New York and is a producer and star of Bravo’s new real estate show Bethenny and Fredrik. Founder of the top sales team at prestigious real estate firm Douglas Elliman, Fredrik regularly breaks sales records and was named the number one real estate team in New York City by REAL Trends and The Wall Street Journal in 2017 with close to $1 billion in closed sales this year alone.
Often working on a building for years before it hits the market, Fredrik vets locations, interviews architects, and works with designers to customize each space to appeal to target buyers. Redefining what it means to be a real estate broker in today’s market, Fredrik is changing the New York skyline, one luxury high-rise at a time.
Born and raised outside of Stockholm, Sweden, Fredrik understood the nuances of negotiation from a young age. At four years old, he performed a one-man show on a makeshift stage in his living room, inviting his family and neighbors to attend and charging five kroners per seat. At seven, he signed up to sell Christmas calendars and was obsessed with being the number-one seller out of thousands of kids. He crafted a sales strategy and went door to door, sometimes spending hours with his customers. That winter, he broke all sales records for the calendar company and learned his first of many lessons in the art of the sell: authenticity and earned trust are the cornerstones of a successful transaction.
At 10 years old, Fredrik visited New York City for the first time and was instantly hooked, captivated by the vertical landscape of gleaming towers. He vowed to return one day to make his mark. Fredrik went on to study at the Stockholm School of Economics and subsequently co-founded an Internet company and worked for the investment bank SEB in Stockholm, London, Singapore and Tokyo.
At 25, Fredrik returned to Manhattan armed mostly with a pair of well-worn sneakers and resolute determination to achieve success in an as yet unknown field of endeavor. During his first year in real estate, Fredrik sold $50 million worth of property and was nominated for Rookie of the Year by the Real Estate Board of New York. To date, he has closed more than $5 billion in residential sales, is consistently setting records, and has a client list that includes major celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Gigi Hadid, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Daniel Craig, Alec Baldwin, and Jennifer Lopez. His active listings currently exceed $2 billion and includes his new development portfolio. In addition, he is the founder of Scandinavia's most high-end residential real estate brokerage with 50 employees, two offices, and $1 billion in closed sales this year. Despite his success, Fredrik remembers to not take himself too seriously.
Fredrik is married to abstract painter Derek Kaplan, and this year they welcomed their twins, Milla and Freddy. He spends weekends with his husband, dogs, and kids in their Georgian mini-mansion in Connecticut. Known for being part "shark" in business, Fredrik is a softy at home, where he enjoys cooking, photography, and taking care of his puppies and family. This year he also launched his own wine, High-Kick, now sold in six countries and counting, and his rosé wine officially is the number-one new rosé in Sweden.
