Official, the boutique brokerage co-founded by Oren and Tal Alexander, recently unveiled the acquisition of a mentoring program called Prodigy. A statement from West Hollywood-based Official describes Prodigy as an artificial intelligence-driven program that evaluates an agent’s potential to be a future top producer.
Brendan Brown is the first West Coast-based agent who was selected to participate in Prodigy. The program includes mentoring from the Alexander brothers.
At Official, Brown will focus on a wide array of neighborhoods, ranging from his native Newport Beach to Beverly Hills as well as Manhattan and Miami. While Brown has worked for a number of real estate ventures for the past decade, his practice took on a jet-set flavor when in 2016, he launched a blog for men’s fashion and lifestyle brands called Mr. BGB. When blogging, he filed pictures and musings on brands such as Amiri and Saint Laurent. He also frequently flew to fashion events in Europe.
While Mr. BGB is currently on hiatus, Brown found production of the blog gave a big support to his real estate business.
“There are similar and like-minded people in fashion, art and high-end real estate. I created a network around them,” he said.
➤Carolwood Estates recently unveiled Carolwood Commercial. The three-person team of Mara Commercial has affiliated with Carolwood Commercial. Team founder Chris Mara, a veteran commercial real estate broker, recently served as a vice president for commercial real estate at Hilton & Hyland.
➤Serena Gibb recently joined Watson Salari Group at Coldwell Banker Realty, where she will serve as the Beverly Hills firm’s first managing director. The team’s co-founder Brent Watson said Gibb will handle operational and marketing responsibilities, and also work to increase listings.
Gibb most recently worked as an agent and vice president of client operations for DPG Estates Christie’s International Real Estate. Before entering real estate, Gibb worked in fashion. From 2012 to 2019, she was a vice president of design development and operations at the Theory apparel brand.
➤Kevin Dees & Associates recently affiliated with Carolwood & Associates. The group, which includes Dees and Sebastian Spader, was most recently affiliated with The Agency. A third Dees team member, Benjamin Ballarin, most recently was affiliated with Compass.
One of the group’s significant deals was the $26 million trade for the Bob Hope Estate, located at 10346 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake. Dees represented buyer and seller for the May 2022 deal. Spader co-represented the buyer. Spader is a son of actor James Spader.
➤Douglas Elliman announced two new agents have joined the agency. Aneela Zaman will work from Elliman’s Beverly Hills office and focus on neighborhoods such as West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Mar Vista and Century City. Zaman most recently was affiliated with a Keller Williams team.
Brianna Korn recently affiliated with Elliman’s Malibu office. She will focus on markets such as Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Hidden Hills and Calabasas. Korn formerly worked as an ER nurse at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.