It’s been a tough stretch for Los Angeles’ residential brokers, but that hasn’t stopped its top dealmakers from closing.
Brokers have faced high interest rates, uncertainty around the National Association of Realtors’ new rules, insurers fleeing the state and the city’s Measure ULA transfer tax.
“Because of ULA, Beverly Hills and Malibu have commanded the most sales and the highest prices,” The Beverly Hills Estates CEO Rayni Williams said.
She, along with husband Branden, ranked No. 2 on The Real Deal’s annual list of L.A.’s top brokers. Their team generated a little more than $1 billion in volume across 179 transactions between May 2023 to May 2024, according to deals listed on the Multiple Listing Service for more than $1 million.
Homes in the $10 million-to-$20 million range have seen the most activity this year overall, according to Williams.
But despite her claim that “Beverly Hills has always reigned king,” Malibu has been on a tear of its own.
Malibu’s most wanted
Compass’ Chris Cortazzo, whose name is synonymous with Malibu’s luxury market, said properties in its Point Dume area have been especially in demand this year. However, deals have occurred throughout the city.
Malibu has been home to some of L.A. County’s most eye-watering price tags. That includes Laurene Powell Jobs paying $94 million to scoop up her fourth Malibu property. Spec mansions are also moving, with one perched above Billionaire’s Beach named Villa Splendido closing at $32 million and a home developed by Scott Gillen, called The Edge, that went for $61 million.
“The fact that we don’t have the ULA tax is hugely beneficial, and less crime is very conducive for a lot of these buyers,” said Cortazzo, who ranked sixth with $319.9 million in volume across 34 deals.
Measure ULA, which went into effect last year, applies a 4 percent tax on residential and commercial deals starting at $5.15 million within the city of Los Angeles and 5.5 percent for transactions of $10.3 million or more. Brokers say the measure, also referred to as a mansion tax, has chilled sales within L.A. as cities free from ULA reap the benefits.
New math
While the ranking reflects a mix of teams and individual agents, some say measuring the average transaction size per deal levels the playing field.
In such a case, Westside Estate Agency co-founder Kurt Rappaport, who ranked third with $691.2 million in volume across 15 deals, would take the lead.
The superbroker, a team of one, had an average deal size for the May-to-May period of $46.1 million. Carolwood Estates’ Linda May Properties would follow with an average deal size penciling out to $15.5 million. Compass’ Ginger Glass Team would place third with an average of $13.6 million per deal.
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The lack of off-market transactions reflected in the ranking is a miss when evaluating teams’ and agents’ overall business, said Douglas Elliman’s Josh Altman.
The Altman Brothers Team, which ranked No. 4 on TRD’s list with $467.5 million in volume and 74 deals, closes a sizable number of pocket listings annually, according to Altman.
“I spend half of my day calling people up with opportunities that don’t exist for everybody else,” he said.
The team’s growing Orange County office is also not counted, the “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” star pointed out.
The Altman Brothers’ 10-person OC team currently has over $352.4 million in active listings, with OC deals generating $148 million in volume so far this year, according to Altman.
“Whatever we’ve lost this year in the Los Angeles market due to the mansion tax, due to politics, we’ve gained plus more, in Orange County,”he said.
Game changer
Another broker looking at growth in 2024 and 2025 is Tami Pardee, who ranked fifth and is the founder and CEO of Pardee Properties.
Pardee, which had just under $356 million in volume across 158 deals, said deal flow is up 22 percent so far this year compared to 2023. She added that 2025 deal flow could be up another 20 percent to 25 percent.
“People get confused and think the market’s down, you must be suffering,” Pardee said. “When the market was down and there were short sales, I was flying. This year I did a ton of trust sales.”
Finding opportunities in a challenging market is one way of keeping busy.
Pardee also restructured her ranks last year, converting many salaried positions to independent contractors. She attributes part of the business’ success to that retooled model.
Pardee and others also view the new National Association of Realtors rules that went into effect Aug. 17 as a boon for experienced agents. The changes, which stem from the Sitzer/Burnett class action in Missouri federal court, require a signed agreement before buyers tour a home and prohibits mention of buyer broker compensation on the Multiple Listing Service.
“The cream will rise to the top for sure,” Pardee said of the new rules’ impact on the profession.
Agents who are more “laissez faire” in their approach to clients, she added, will be challenged by how the new rules change the game.
Altman sees it as a chance to scale his team’s business.
“We’re looking forward to 2025,” he said. “We think half the people in this business are going to get out due to the new rules.”
This ranking has been updated to add The Agency’s Grauman Rosenfeld Group to No. 13. The team was not originally included when this list was first published.
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