Two of the top broker teams in Miami have joined forces to become The Jills Zeder Group with Coldwell Banker.
Judy Zeder’s team left EWM Realty International after about 16 years to join Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber’s group.
The merger aims to expand the combined group’s listings and geographic reach. The Jills have long dominated Miami Beach, while Zeder has done the same in Coral Gables.
Zeder joined EWM via an acquisition in 2005, and later became a senior vice president at the Coral Gables-based brokerage. Zeder’s team includes Judy and her two children, Nathan Zeder and Kara Zeder Rosen.
The Jills is composed of Hertzberg and her children Danny and Hillary Hertzberg, and Eber and her sister, Felise Eber.
The families have been friends for years and worked together on deals. “It’s a very unusual situation to have three families get along and like each other and a couple of generations that is a true think tank. We’re all working together for the benefit of the clients,” Zeder said.
Together, both groups have closed more than $5 billion of real estate sales since 2006 and are top-selling brokers for Coldwell Banker and EWM, respectively. In 2018, the Jills and the Zeder team were the top two-selling teams of single-family homes in Miami-Dade, according to The Real Deal’s ranking of sales. It was the same story the previous year, when the Jills closed on more than $195 million in single-family home sales and the Zeder group closed on $134.5 million in sales.
Their recent deals include the Jills’ $19.25 million sale of 4395 Pine Tree Drive in Miami Beach and Zeder’s $11.4 million sale of 3307 Devon Court in Coconut Grove.
Hertzberg is also the listing broker for 4567 Pine Tree Drive, a waterfront spec home under contract to Jamie LeFrak, vice chairman and managing director of New York-based LeFrak.
Hertzberg said the merger expands their collective black book. “When you get a listing, you call people,” she said. “Imagine all of us calling [our clients].” She said her team did not consider joining EWM.
In a statement, Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of EWM thanked the Zeder team for their time at EWM, and wished them success in their future endeavors.
In recent years, the Jills were wrapped up in a dramatic criminal case involving a former Miami Beach agent who attempted to extort them after he discovered in 2015 that their team had been manipulating listings on the MLS. The agent, Kevin Tomlinson, is now in jail.