The ladies of Selling Tampa are selling shade/clapbacks. The Adam DiVello-created reality show franchise on Netflix has gained popularity since its 2019 premier. However, one of the franchise’s avid watchers, DJ Envy, recently criticized the show. Now, the star of Selling Tampa, Sharelle Rosado, has some words for Envy.
Selling Tampa was devised after reality show fans, real estate lovers, and those who wanted to acquire more knowledge of the trade gravitated towards its parent show. Television producer Adam DiVello, responsible for developing and executive producing Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and The Hills on MTV, created the show Selling Sunset for Netflix in 2019. The show centers around Los Angeles-based high-end real estate agents in their careers and personal lives. The success of Selling Sunset caused Netflix to order two spin-offs: Selling Tampa and Selling The OC. Tampa’s iteration of the reality series focuses on the women of real estate company Allure Realty, founded by Sharelle Rosado. It should be noted that all of the women employed by Allure Realty are women of color.
An army veteran who actively served for 13 years, Sharelle Rosado developed skills in financial management while in the military. Then, in 2017, Rosado officially began to dive into a real estate career with a part-time job as an agent. Finally, Allure Realty was born in 2019, not too long after she retired from the United States Army. According to Rosado’s LinkedIn profile, she also “serves as a Broker and Consultant to other real estate professionals on using technology to improve their customer care, general marketing, and office management.”
As per a profile by CNBC, Rosado soon set her sights on television with Allure. However, she had reservations that the women would not be depicted as anything but problematic by television producers. Fearful of being stereotyped aside, Sherelle Rosado followed her gut and shot her shot via a direct message on Twitter to Adam DiVello. “I thought it was time to turn the spotlight on us,” Rosado said in an interview with Glamour.
Selling Tampa includes a cast of ambitious and talented women in the field of real estate. Starring along with Rosado is Anne-Sophie Petit-Frere, who previously served as an accountant, Juawana Colbert-Williams, Colony Reeves, Alexis C. Williams, Tennille Moore, Karla Giorgio, and Rena Frazier. Although Rosado had dreams of the women leaning away from the stereotypical depictions, it appears to DJ Envy that seems to be happening anyway.
Recently, Envy expressed his support for the women but criticized production for focusing more on drama than selling property and compared it to that of Selling Sunset, which he says focused on selling shows. Immediately, several cast members from the show hopped into DJ Envy’s Instagram comments to defend the series. Juawana Colbert-Williams begged the question if others’ real estate agents resembled that of the cast members of Selling Tampa. Colony Reeves shed light on the process of filming the show, saying that homes were indeed sold. Rosado also commented that the show should not be compared to its parent show as there are four seasons where they could set their storylines up. She then proposed a potential Breakfast Club appearance.
Following DJ Envy’s comments, Rosado then appeared as a guest on Cocktails With Queens, where she stood up for the show and her cast. The Army veteran expressed that she felt a bit of shade in his comments. Rosado then stated the differences between the Sunset cast and the Oppenheim Brothers from Selling Sunset. “We are a minority-owned brokerage that’s getting into luxury,” said Rosado. Claiming that the ladies could sell multiple homes per day worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, they would like to focus more on luxury. Rosado states that DJ Envy would have understood had he “paid attention.”
DJ Envy responded to Rosado’s comments while on The Breakfast Club and shared that his remarks were misconstrued, and many other fans seemingly agreed. Envy expressed that he did not have a problem with any of the women on the show, but rather, the way Black women are depicted. Envy also stressed that Selling Sunset was more focused on selling real estate than its spin-off and that he would like to see more of that from the same production team that helms both shows. While he is not okay with how the women are depicted on the show, Envy stated that if his “Black sistas are fine with it,” then it is what it is.
