The top broker in Palm Beach County isn’t with Douglas Elliman, Corcoran Group or Compass.
It’s David Roberts, owner of Royal Palm Properties, a one-broker firm that focuses on the gated community for which it is named: Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club.
Roberts closed more than $636 million in on-market sales in 2024, making him the highest-ranked broker in the county, according to The Real Deal’s analysis. He’s in the company of other top independent brokers like Christian Angle and Lawrence Moens. The three of them are among the thousands of boutique brokerage owners in South Florida.
While smaller firms are lesser known than national brands like Elliman, Corcoran or Compass, industry experts say this model can be just as successful with effective leadership and a market niche. They don’t have access to public market capital, but that also means they aren’t allowed the excesses that can plague the bottomlines of larger firms. Owners run a tight ship, or it sinks.
“There’s some great stories of men and women who have built some very large fortunes out of this brokerage industry,” said Steve Murray, president of RealTrends Consulting and an oracle of the business, referring to small firms.
There are nearly 13,000 brokerages with 100 agents or fewer in the tri-county region, according to TRD’s research, making it the predominant brokerage model in South Florida. Of those, almost 11,000 firms in the tri-county region have five agents or fewer. Twelve brokerages have more than 1,000 agents, and 136 are in the 101-agent to 1,000-agent range.
Not every uber-boutique team is doing major business, but some of them control the submarkets they operate in. These are big-time agents, the kind national firms try to woo.
Remaining independent comes with its risks. These agents must navigate the challenges of running a business in addition to closing deals. For some, sharing commissions is worth avoiding the headache of running your own shop.
“A lot of people like having the backstop of a big brand, they see an identity in that,” said Erin Sykes, a broker and owner of boutique, Side-backed firm Sykes Properties. “Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.”
Business of the business
It’s never been easy to be in the brokerage business. Firms strive toward profitability while balancing ever-thinning margins. Murray estimates only two-thirds of brokerages in the U.S. are profitable.
This has been a particularly turbulent time for the industry. Last year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) coughed up $418 million to settle antitrust lawsuits that resulted in new rules around who pays an agent’s commission. And Compass and Zillow’s battle over NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy has been ramping up.
Meanwhile, major players are still trying to get their balance sheets in the black. Compass marked its first full year as cash-flow positive since it was founded in 2012. In May, Anywhere Real Estate floated a takeover of Douglas Elliman, whose stock price has struggled in recent years.
All of this is clouded by the effects of high interest rates and economic uncertainty. Nationally, pending home sales for the spring quarter hit a 13-year low.
But it’s a more complicated story in South Florida, where an unprecedented, years-long wealth migration has fueled luxury sales. According to a report from Knight Frank, the Palm Beach and Miami markets closed a combined $2.7 billion in sales of $10 million and up in the first quarter of the year. That’s up 50 percent from $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
“The main boutiques that seem to do really well, they tend to specialize in luxury homes,” Murray said, adding that affluent clients prioritize personal relationships.
“What people from outside the industry — Wall Street types — don’t understand, is about 7 out of 10 housing buyers and sellers choose an agent because someone they know referred them,” he said. Top independent agents, especially in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, “have developed a reputation among a select clientele for being the go-to person. It doesn’t matter what brokerage they’re with, or even if they’re with some big brokerage.”
Case studies
Each boutique broker is defined by their specialization, industry experts say. Alex Pirez, the head of Mocca Group and its brokerage arm, Mocca Realty, focuses on selling his spec homes. In April, he sold the over 9,000-square-foot home at 4820 Southwest 86th Terrace in Miami’s Ponce-Davis neighborhood for $14.5 million.
Jordan Karp, the son of architect Kobi Karp and head of his own namesake brokerage, focuses on off-market residential and commercial deals. He started his business brokering investment sales for his family, and now plays in Miami Beach’s ultra-luxury sandbox. In March, he brokered the $60 million off-market sale of developer James Curnin’s waterfront La Gorce Island mansion.
He said he’s gotten offers from large brokerages, but isn’t interested.
“I’m like a Swiss army knife, I kind of don’t fit into a box,” he said. “It’s not about the money for me, it’s more about the independence and the freedom.”
But earning potential is certainly a factor in many agents’ decisions to go solo.
After eight years with Nest Seekers International, Sykes left to partner with Side, a San Francisco-based venture-backed startup that provides back-end services for independent brokerages. She focuses on Palm Beach, the Hamptons, New York City and the Jersey Shore.
“My take home at the end of the day is higher,” said Sykes. “Which is of course a motivator.”
Being able to work across luxury markets has prompted other broker moves. Brett Harris, a top agent with Elliman, recently left the brokerage to join Bespoke, citing the ability to sell in the Hamptons and Aspen in addition to South Florida.
Marco Tiné, an agent in Miami, was with Coldwell Banker for nine years when he left to start his boutique firm, Casa Collection Realty, with Side in 2022. He was unhappy with the technology the firm offered, and felt he was sharing too much of his commission.
When asked if he made more money after launching Casa, Tiné responded, “big time.”
But while the back-end technology offered was much better than before, Tiné found the execution of the services Side was supposed to provide was “very poor.” He also saw other agents launch with Side and struggle to run their businesses.
Tiné, a longtime fan of Serhant, jumped at the first opportunity to work with him in Miami, moving his team when the Brickell office opened in 2023. His split now is comparable to what he was making with Side, he said, declining to share specifics. Returning to the fold of a larger brand means more visibility for his team, he said. But at the end of the day, it’s still about relationships.
“Clients will do business with you because they like you. It doesn’t matter what brand you’re working with,” he said. “You like the person and you trust the person, it’s that simple.”
