Blair Brandt (born January 11, 1988) is an American real estate entrepreneur, former reality television personality, animal welfare advocate, and political advisor. He is the co-founder of Next Step Realty. Forbes listed Brandt in their annual 30 under 30 list, at the age of 23.
In August 2015, Brandt began his role in ABC Family's docu-series Next Step Realty: NYC. In 2020, Brandt founded his own political consulting firm, The Brandt Group.
Early life and education
Brandt was born in Manhattan, New York. He grew up in Palm Beach, Florida and attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Brandt completed his undergraduate education at the University of Richmond.
Political engagement
A prominent ally of the Trump Administration, Brandt was a leading Republican strategist as well as a top GOP fundraiser between 2017 and 2020. Brandt served as the Florida Co-Chair for the Trump Victory Finance Committee 2020. Brandt has also served as an advisor to Lara Trump. Brandt has routinely weighed in on US-China relations, specifically as an advocate for a fundamental re-alignment or decoupling of economic ties.
Real estate ventures
Brandt's first job was working for Budweiser in the breakage (broken bottle re-assembly) room and while he studied at University of Richmond he also ran a laundry business.
Brandt started working as a realtor after he was cut from a Wall Street internship at Lazard Ltd. He spent the summer working for an independent Florida realtor named Christian Angle. At the time he noticed a number of age related problems with the role. During his time with Angle servicing luxury sales clients, Brandt thought about providing the luxury service he observed to “kids right out of college who aren't there yet but might be in that category eventually”.
After speaking to a number of friends about their realtor experiences in New York City, he noticed there could be an opportunity to assist young professionals in finding their first home in New York City. "My friends were college graduates not getting good service," Brandt told Business Insider. In 2010, as a response to this deficit, Brandt co-founded The Next Step Realty. Brandt and co-founder Belton Baker came up with the idea to provide an urban apartment-finding service to new graduates and wrote 35-page business plan overnight that resulted in $19,000 in venture capital from friends and family. Some of the first few weeks of the company's operation were carried out from Brandt's University of Richmond dorm room.
In July 2011, shortly after the foundation of the company, it was listed by CNN as one of the most promising dorm room startups.
After the initial success of his company, Brandt acquired competitor Post Graduate Apartments in 2012. At 23, Brandt was included in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work in the real estate market.
With a seed infusion of $100,000 from Nantucket & Palm Beach based angel investor Jason Briggs, Brandt moved to New York City in 2012 to turn his idea, then a website matching graduates with various approved realtors, into a full-service brokerage in the city.
According to the Next Step Realty website, Brandt now serves as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and has many active projects in coastal West Palm Beach, FL as a local developer.
Next Step Realty: NYC
In April 2015, it was announced that Brandt would appear in a new show focused on his firm Next Step Realty that would premiere on ABC Family, titled Next Step Realty: NYC. The show premiered on August 11, 2015. The show followed him and his employees as they build their real estate brokerage firm in NYC. The idea for show started through an employee of Brandt's. "Truth be told, an intern of mine was at a family dinner which included some people from ABC Family", Brandt said in an interview. According to Brandt, the show is "a story about startups and entrepreneurs, but it’s also a story about young people graduating from college or people that are newcomers to New York City moving here, following their dreams, renting and what goes into that as well.". Executive Producer Danielle Rossen said of the show, "With this show, Blair and his team are renting apartments, but selling the lifestyle." In light of the show, New York Daily News called Brandt "The new face of real estate reality TV." Brandt said “You hear about all these young companies but you never actually get to see how it all goes down every day behind the scenes.”