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Luxury brokerage SERHANT. is expanding its footprint in Florida with a move into Naples, the firm has informed Inman.

Spearheading the expansion is the Naples Concierge Group, which has just joined the firm. Led by SERHANT. Naples founding members Matt and Megan Chionis, the team has closed more than $135 million in career sales volume, with more than $33 million of that amount closed in 2023 alone. The Chionis founded the team in 2018. They were previously affiliated with Gulf Coast International Properties.

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In addition to the husband-and-wife duo of the Chionis, the team also includes sister and brother Vanessa Beretta and Greg Beretta. Their market focus spans from Port Royal to Pelican Bay.

The news comes as SERHANT. makes a push for further growth across the country, led by Vice President of Strategic Growth Todd Sheridan, and within Florida itself, as led by Regional Director of Sales for South Florida Yasser Ponce. SERHANT. previously had existing operations in the state in Miami, Tampa and Delray Beach.

As the team name suggests, the Naples Concierge Group distinguishes itself with a number of concierge services for clients customized to the Naples lifestyle. Some of those a la carte services include HomeWatch and property management services, renovation project concierge services, vendor and furnishing discounts, preferred partnerships with private jet and yacht companies to facilitate high-level intros with owners, luxury car connections, and other curated events and experiences.

Naples Concierge Group decided to make the move to SERHANT. because the team felt that the brokerage’s commitment to client service and innovation was aligned with their own.

“SERHANT. was the only brokerage that offered the tools and technology to support our drive to provide an elevated level of experience that our buyers and sellers deserve,” the Chionis said in a statement. “The customer is all that matters.”

SERHANT. was founded in 2020 and expanded into Florida in 2023. The firm now operates in eight states across the U.S. In recent weeks, SERHANT. added 77 new agents to its ranks across all markets, a newsletter from the brokerage announced on Friday.

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Email Lillian Dickerson

This report was originally published on July 22, 2024, exclusively for subscribers of Intel, the data and research arm of Inman. Subscribe to Inman Intel for a deeper analysis of the business of real estate.

Today’s renters are still largely unaware of the National Association of Realtors settlement’s true implications for their homebuying prospects.

But the more they learn about the deal, the less they like it.

Meanwhile, homeowners are broadly intrigued by what the deal could mean for their position in negotiations when it’s their turn to list their current properties for sale, according to the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey of 3,000 working U.S. adults in early July.

The survey is conducted quarterly by Inman Intel in an effort to gain a representative idea of how potential real estate clients feel about a broad range of housing topics.

One major takeaway? The NAR settlement is being broadly received as consumer-friendly, and may be actually improving public perception of real estate professionals, not harming it.

But when certain groups of consumers dive into the details, they’re less likely to say they stand to benefit from the sweeping changes facing the industry.

Intel subscribers can read the complete breakdown in the full report.

In for a rude awakening?

For months now, 3 out of 4 consumers have said that they have not heard of a settlement involving the National Association of Realtors.

This won’t surprise many real estate professionals. 

In the Inman Intel Index, a separate survey of real estate professionals conducted each month, agents have consistently said that most of their clients are not yet bringing up the news or asking about how they might benefit from the deal.

But one thing that does stand out: consumers who have heard of the deal but not necessarily digested its full implications believe that it’s a win for them. 

• 64 percent of consumers in early July who had heard of the NAR deal said they believed it would be good for consumers or a win-win for both consumers and the real estate industry.

But the more renters in particular learned about the details, the less they liked the deal.

As part of the survey, Intel briefed non-homeowners — including renters and potential first-time buyers — on some of the details. 

Renter respondents were told that proponents believed the changes could bring down overall commissions that consumers pay. Respondents were also informed that, in some cases, buyers might have to pay their agent’s fee out of pocket if the seller chose not to cover it.

• Only 55 percent of renters who were briefed on these implications said the NAR settlement would be good for consumers or a win-win for both consumers and the industry. 
• 24 percent of renters who were briefed on the details said the NAR settlement would be bad for both the consumer and the real estate industry. That’s more than three times the share of adults who had simply heard of the NAR deal through the news or word of mouth prior to taking the survey and gave the same response. 

U.S. adults who say they’re likely to buy a home sometime in the next 12 months expressed a strong aversion to paying their buyer’s agent fee out of their own pocket if the seller declines to cover it. 

But if it were to happen, they wouldn’t give up on the home right away.

• Only 10 percent of likely buyers said they would be open to paying their agent’s fee out of their own pocket.
• 32 percent of likely buyers said they would be open to countering at a higher price, but insist that the seller cover the buyer’s agent fee.
• The largest group of likely buyers — 47 percent — said they would counter at the same price, but try to sweeten the deal with concessions such as waived contingencies or more earnest money in order to secure the seller’s coverage of their agent commission.
• Only 11 percent of likely buyers said they would remove themselves from consideration for the home if the seller initially did not want to pay the fee.

An opportunity — and a pitfall

U.S. homeowners are broadly intrigued by the idea of not covering the buyer’s commission. But if their agent advises that not covering the fee might make their listing less attractive to buyers — as most agents tell Intel they are likely to do — most consumers either give in to buyer expectations or take a more moderate approach.

• 36 percent of homeowners said that they would opt to offer the full 2%-3% buyer commission, if advised that declining to do so might hurt the listing.
• On the other hand, 24 percent of homeowners said they would decline to cover the buyer commission and list it for full price — a gambit to take full advantage of the policy change, at possible risk to the sale of the home.
• The remaining 40 percent of homeowners chose some in-between option — such as lowering the asking price below the listing’s comps while declining to pay the buyer agent’s commission, or offering to cover only part of the fee.

With seller clients in particular, the path forward is murky.

Real estate professionals clearly believe that sticking to a hardline refusal to cover the buyer-side fee will harm a listing. They tell Intel that they will advise their clients to consider the impact such a move could have on how long the property takes to sell, and the price it will end up going for.

And here, 3 in 4 consumers are saying that they would heed this advice — at least in part.

At the same time, nearly 2 in 3 consumers might be at least willing to push the boundaries and try to leverage this new option into a negotiating tool, or a hard line in the sand.

An unexpected boost

When asked by the Intel Index each month, brokerage owners and executives consistently say they believe the public has a negative opinion of real estate agents.

This concern is echoed by many agents who view NAR as responsible for maintaining a positive public image of real estate professionals — a task for which the trade group receives largely negative marks these days.

But so far, if anything, the NAR settlement appears to be improving public perception of real estate agents, not hurting it.

• 58 percent of consumers in July had a positive opinion of real estate agents, compared to only 7 percent who had a negative opinion, according to the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey.

What’s more, that’s not just a snapshot in time. Consumers were asked how their opinions have changed over the past year, a period which included a down market for transactions in which affordability was poor and commission practices dominated the headlines in real estate circles.

• 34 percent of employed adults said their opinion of agents had improved over the past 12 months, compared to 6 percent who said it had worsened.
• Consumers who had already heard of the NAR settlement before taking the survey were nearly twice as likely to say their opinion of real estate agents had improved over the past year, with 60 percent choosing this option.

About the Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Survey

The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted from July 5 through July 7 to gauge the opinions and behaviors of Americans related to homebuying. 

The survey sampled a diverse group of 3,000 American adults, ranging in age from 24 to 65 and employed either full-time or part-time. The participants were selected to produce a broadly representative breakdown by age, gender and region.

Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full- or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Beringer Capital.

Email Daniel Houston

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Name: Max Fitzgerald

Title: CEO, co-founder

Experience: 9 years

Location: California, Arizona

Brokerage name: Craft & Bauer Real Estate Co.

Team size: 55 agents 

Sales volume: $454,000,000

How did you get your start in real estate?

After graduating college, I had a general interest in pursuing real estate as a career, but I wasn’t interested in joining a big-box brokerage to be a traditional residential real estate agent. I had a greater passion for building businesses and learning the ins and outs of the real estate industry as a whole.

I knew this would only come from hands-on experience in a smaller brokerage environment. I was able to break into the real estate industry as an unpaid intern at an independent brokerage in Los Angeles, Manhattan Pacific Realty. 

During my time as an intern (and eventually as a licensed real estate agent), I learned everything from the inner workings of the financial operations of a brokerage to the pros and cons of different commission split structures, to how to be a good leader (kudos to my former broker, Richard Haynes), to scaling a business. This was the knowledge I needed to be able to take my next step as a real estate professional, which was starting my own brokerage.  

What’s something you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

The ability to say no to clients. As a newly licensed agent, it’s hard to be selective about the people you choose to work with. As a young real estate agent, I was hungry to build my business to its greatest scale. As a result, I ended up working with everyone I could, including people who didn’t have realistic expectations about buying or selling property.   

As I progressed in my career, I was able to narrow down my client list. Instead of working with everybody and anybody, I focused the majority of my day-to-day efforts on my closest clients who were actively buying and selling. This allowed me to not only strengthen my pre-existing relationships with these people but made my time that much more efficient. 

The biggest point to newer real estate agents is to go broad and wide at the beginning of your career, and then start to hone in your day-to-day efforts as your real estate practice matures.   

Tell us about a high point in your brokerage career

I’ve had many highs and lows in my real estate career, but there is one moment in time that sticks out as a highlight. I started my real estate career as an unpaid intern attempting to soak up all of the knowledge about the real estate industry. After a few months of being a licensed real estate agent (and many more months of being an unpaid intern) I ended up putting my first deal together. 

I was representing a buyer who wanted to purchase a single-family home in Manhattan Beach, California, for its development potential. While my buyer was working through due diligence, it was discovered that this particular home sat very close to the neighbor’s lot line. So much so that it was unclear if this home could be torn down and rebuilt by my buyer.

At this point in time, I was about 10 months into my career and had been living off of savings. If this deal didn’t close, I was out of money (and probably out of the real estate business). 

After an agonizing few weeks of due diligence with architects, contractors, and surveyors, this lot ended up clearing the neighbor’s lot by three inches, and my buyer was able to close on the property. That commission from my first sale allowed me to not only stay in the business but gave me incredibly valuable experience.

What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?

As with any sales position, the effort that someone puts into building their real estate practice is directly correlated to the results they get out of it. The freedom and day-to-day flexibility this career offers can be both a gift and a curse. If someone is a self-starter with great time management skills and a people person, that individual would have a great foundation of skills to work off of. 

However, building a sustainable business is all about consistency — especially through the ups, the downs and the uncontrollable. Having the ability to pivot your strategies with buyers and sellers based on current market conditions, interest rate fluctuations and macroeconomic factors are all characteristics of excellent real estate professionals. 

What makes a good leader?

A good leader has the ability to be empathetic with the people that they are leading. Whether those people are members of their team, their employees, or their peers within the industry. Having the ability to not only connect with people on an emotional level, but to understand their strengths, their weaknesses, and their overall “why” allows someone to lead at a much higher level. 

It’s also essential that good leaders are great communicators — especially to the people who are following them. If the vision and direction of an organization is understood and accepted by everyone within the organization, then it becomes much easier to lead. Disorganization and lack of communication leads to people feeling left in the dark with no sense of direction. 

As a leader, make sure that you are confident with your overall vision, you understand the “whys” of your agents, employees and staff, and the members of your organization have an overall sense of direction of the company. 

Email Christy Murdock