New York Real Estate Legend Laurie Cooper Blows Up Online—and IRL!
by David Hay
July 2025
Laurie Cooper is in the eye of viral storm—one very much of her own making.
Some 30 years after launching her real estate career in partnership with her late husband, Robert, this longtime agent for Douglas Elliman has emerged as a social media star thanks to her series of Instagram and TikTok videos on such topics as “Where to go in Soho?”; “Favorite Spots on the Upper East Side”; and “Why you have to get to New York and what to do when you get here,” which, at press time, has racked up more than 2.1 million views.
All this has happened in the last six months, during which time her Instagram account, @laurie_cooper_realty, has morphed from a fairly conventional feed of pictures with friends and clients into a full-on personality platform for dispensing advice and life experience via charming, slightly brash videos.
“People from all over the world are now starting to follow me,” Cooper rushes to tell me.
More than simply tuning in for her virtual pearls of wisdom, her many fans are turning out to meet her in-person at “Martini Meetup” gatherings that she’s promotes on Instagram. The most recent ones were held at Creatures Rooftop, a bar high up in the Hotel Alameda near the High Line, where fans paid $30 to hang out and hear Cooper’s latest philosophical drops in real time.
That advice ranges from tips on meeting people (“get out there…you never meet someone sitting in front of a computer” or “come to New York—you can’t help making new friends here”) to imparting urgent and enthusiastic pleas to enjoy life.
“People are scared,” she tells me. “I want them to remember what life can give you. Look at me: I don’t stop. Why would you?”
This highly energetic, well-appointed dynamo hardly needs to pose such a rhetorical question. She barely has time these days. Having started with some 6,000 fans just months ago, Cooper now boasts over 140,000 followers. She is now a steady presence on local TV news programs and fielding interview requests from international media outlets like The Daily Mail and Hello!.
In addition to hosting a new online series for Now This Media called "What's the Problem?", Cooper is working on an upcoming series of videos to be featured on Overheard New York in which she'll share stories of living and working in real estate in NYC.
Cooper credits her recent appearance on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York with laying the groundwork for this next act.
“I knew Dorinda Medley, and she asked me to come on,” she recalls. “Of course, I did, and I just talked. It was only for a few minutes, but everyone loved me. The producer called me afterwards wanting to work with me. I was flattered.”
But it was her son and partner in real estate, Michael, who first encouraged her to build on that moment by posting Reels on Instagram.
“She had lots of opinions and has a good spirit,” he tells me. “I thought this would be a great forum for her.”
What he clearly understood is that his mother’s entertaining observations are rooted in considerable experience and life wisdom. Whether it’s a restaurant that’s coming into its own or a neighborhood that’s about to pop, she knows what she’s talking about.
“She drew on her work as a realtor going all over the city,” he says. “It was second nature to her.”
Laurie Cooper knows how to draw a crowd, both on social media and in-person.
Michael began recording his mother and posting the mostly 90-second videos to Instagram and TikTok. The topics she touches on have expanded, but little is necessary for Cooper to create a hit. It’s her personal advice—from “How to land a guy” to “How to survive the holidays”—that accounts for her surging popularity. Unfiltered, optimistic, and ultimately very caring: an unbeatable combination that clearly resonates.
“I’ve lived it all, and I’m old enough to tell it straight,” she says, though she declines to reveal her age, batting away my question with a breezy retort: “You’re as old as you feel.”
For lots of people scrolling on their phones, many who perhaps feel a little stuck in their lives, Cooper’s energy—her vibe, if you will—is exciting. Intoxicating, even. It’s hardly a stretch to say that her years of selling real estate in NYC—and accumulating the crucial knowledge about neighborhoods, trends, and styles that enables her to intuit what clients want—have honed an ability to connect with strangers that is immediate and vital. She isn’terSheS out to get something from them or for herself. She has no hidden agenda—and that’s very refreshing.
Who wouldn’t want to have a martini with her?
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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