Longtime Fortune International Realty duo Allan Kleer and Fabian Garcia-Diaz left the firm to join One Sotheby’s International Realty, The Real Deal has learned.
“We’re making the switch now [because] we’re in a buyers’ market and that makes the global reach more important,” Kleer said. Kleer and Garcia-Diaz were with Fortune for about 15 years, and are bringing two of their three team members with them, Maxim Venjik and Enrique Metauten, and about $140 million worth of listings, which include the property at 44 Bal Bay Drive in Bal Harbour and at 1374 Venetian Way in Miami Beach.
“We thought it was appropriate to change houses in order to provide clients with the latest technology,” Garcia-Diaz added.
Over the course of their 25-year careers, they said they’ve closed more than $900 million in real estate deals in Miami-Dade. In 2016, their team closed $67 million in sales, according to a press release. Previous clients include Shakira, singer Luis Miguel and Ozzie Osbourne.
Kleer and Garcia-Diaz called the decision to leave Fortune “very difficult” and said they had been approached by other large brokerages, which they declined to name. “We were impressed with Sotheby’s global reach. It’s a universally recognized brand that we don’t have to explain who they are,” Kleer said.
Fortune had the Sotheby’s affiliate in 2005, and before that it was with Wimbish. “Back then, Sotheby’s had a very fractured approach to marketing where the auction house was separate,” Kleer added.
Fortune declined to comment.
Earlier this year, Ben Moss left One Sotheby’s International Realty to join Compass.