What Is Fredrik Eklund's Net Worth?
Fredrik Eklund is a Swedish-born New York City real estate broker and novelist who has a net worth of $40 million. A former adult film star and IT businessman, Fredrik Eklund has enjoyed a very successful career in New York real estate since the mid-2000s. Though he never completed his degree at the Stockholm School of Economics, something of what he learned clearly stuck with him, as he went on to helm his own company in Sweden before relocating to the US.
Fredrik has sold property to multiple stars, including Cameron Diaz, John Legend, and Daniel Craig. He is currently the Managing Director of CORE Group Marketing and the Managing Director of Prudential Douglas Elliman, which, if you are on the East Coast, is the real estate firm with their sign in front of the best houses and office buildings in every community. He has been featured in "The New York Times" and has been co-starring on "Million Dollar Listing New York" on Bravo since it premiered in March of 2012.
Early Life
Fredrik Eklund was born on April 26, 1977, in Stockholm, Sweden. His brother is Sigge Eklund, an author, and his father, Klas Eklund, was a senior economist at the Swedish bank SEB. Fredrik's grandparents were actors Bengt Eklund and Fylgia Zadig. Fredrik was an entrepreneur from the start: at four years old, he performed a one-man show in his living room and invited his family and neighbors to attend, charging five kroner (about 50 cents, USD) per person. When Eklund was seven, he sold Christmas calendars and became obsessed with becoming the number-one seller amongst the other neighborhood kids. He created his own sales strategy and went door to door, reportedly sometimes spending hours with his potential customers. Eklund broke epic sales records for the company that winter. He learned early on the importance of building up trust and transparency with potential customers.
Eklund was an American high school exchange student at Edina High School in Edina, Minnesota. The first time he visited New York City, he was blown away and vowed to return there to work later in life. He later returned to Sweden and studied at the Stockholm School of Economics; however, he did not graduate. He worked at a financial newspaper known as the "Finanstidningen" for a time before starting a club called Billy with a number of his friends.
Early Career
In 1999, Eklund founded an internet company called Humany with his father, Klas Eklund, and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. He was the CEO of a company of 45 employees at the young age of 23. He worked in Stockholm, London, Singapore, and Tokyo before he moved to New York City. During the dot-com bubble, he started a music production company called Cave Entertainment.
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Real Estate Career
Eklund is the Managing Director of CORE Group Marketing, a New York City-based real estate firm. His business partner is John Gomes of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Eklund was also the 2010 Managing Director at Prudential Douglas Elliman. He has closed over $5 billion in residential real estate. By age 25, he had been named Rookie of the Year by the New York Real Estate board. Fredrik runs the largest real estate brokerage firm on the East Coast. He is also the founder of Eklund Stockholm New York, which is the most high-end residential real estate brokerage in Scandinavia, consisting of 50 employees. Eklund Stockholm New York closed $1 billion worth of sales in 2014.
Fredrik is an active member of the Real Estate Board of New York. In November 2010, Eklund was featured on the front page of the "New York Times'" Sunday Style section. In 2017, Fredrik and his team were named the number one real estate team in New York City by "REAL Trends" and the "Wall Street Journal." His high-profile clients include Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Daniel Craig, and plenty of other names you'd recognize.
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Adult Film Career
In 2003, before he moved to New York City, Eklund had a brief stint in gay pornographic films under the pseudonym Tag Eriksson (aka Tag Ericsson). He has said of this period of time that his adult film career only amounted to about a week in total, spread out over a few months. In an interview with "Out Magazine," he said it was something he tried and "quickly decided" he was done with but that he has no regrets. Eklund, good-humoredly, starred in the 2003 parody of "The Ring," a porn comedy movie named "The Hole."
Reality TV
Eklund is currently one of the three New York City brokers starring in the Bravo reality television show "Million Dollar Listing New York." The show debuted in 2012.
Personal Life
Eklund married artist Derek Kaplan on February 9, 2013, on Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys. Until 2016, they lived in New York with their two dogs. The four of them relocated to Roxbury, Connecticut, to live in a mansion that Eklund purchased. The couple had twins via surrogate in November 2017 after a failed attempt in which a previous surrogate sadly suffered a miscarriage. Eklund and Kaplan are now parents to twins: daughter Milla and son Fredrik Jr. The couple is said to enjoy cooking, photography, and wine. Eklund even launched his own wine, High-Kick. It's sold in six countries and his rosé is the number one new rosé in Sweden.
Personal Real Estate
Eklund and Kaplan own homes in Beverly Hills, Miami, Manhattan, and Connecticut. They paid $3 million for their Connecticut home in 2016.
In February 2021, Fredrik paid $7 million for a home in Beverly Hills, California. He listed this home for sale in December 2023 for $11 million. He has also made this home available to rent for $50,000 per month.
