Yahoo Lifestyle Meet the Robb Report Real Estate Masters: 21 Specialists Who Can Help You Buy—or Sell—the Ultimate Home
Welcome to the first annual list of Robb Report’s Masters of Luxury: Real Estate.
Many in the real-estate world claimed to have know-how in luxury, touting their past sales or key clients. Few, though, truly understand what high-net-worth buyers need or want across the world. They’re an elite, networked niche that often overlaps—John Burger and Serena Boardman, for example, have had a co-exclusive listing at New York’s Pierre, while Miami’s the Jills often bounce referrals back and forth with Hamptons-based Susan Breitenbach. We’ve brought them together for the first time to help anyone keen to find or sell an ultra-prime property but unsure how to pick the best person to help. There are just over 20 of them—21, to be exact—and for good reason. Membership on this list isn’t earned easily, and our selection been ruthlessly culled to represent only those who understand how to represent. They come with our full-throated endorsement.
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We’ll be tapping them throughout the next year for stories and ideas, working together with the Masters as we do with those on another such list, Masters of Luxury: Travel. Their expertise will enrich Robb Report’s top-tier real-estate coverage both online and in print, and we’ll partner with them in other, exciting ways that we’ll be able to reveal very soon.
If you’re buying or selling a home this year, don’t consider doing so unless one of these 21 agents is somehow involved.
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Christian Angle
Where: Christian Angle Real Estate
Primed for: Palm Beach
Angle works with his wife, Ann-Britt, at his self-titled agency in South Florida; the pair established it almost 20 years ago after Angle dabbled in both development and sales for real estate. (Even his first job was house-related: cutting lawns in the neighborhood.) They’ve become the de facto doyens of Palm Beach, selling more than $800 million in real estate in last year alone. It was Angle who steered Sylvester Stallone to his $35.4 million new home on North Lake Way; the realtor was also instrumental in brokering the $150 million sale of Tarpon Isle earlier this year, the man-made rectangular island that dredging crews created in the 1930s and is connected by its own bridge to Palm Beach proper.
Serena Boardman
Where: Sotheby’s International Realty
Primed for: The most exclusive homes in N.Y.C.
Boardman went from the auction house side of Sotheby’s—she worked in the furniture department—to the namesake real-estate brokerage. She’s a born-and-bred New Yorker with impeccable credentials: Her psychiatrist sister Samantha is married to developer Aby Rosen, and they’re descended from Citibank founder George Baker. That’s helped her become the go-to broker for the trickiest, priciest deals in town, like the notoriously ferocious co-op board of 820 Fifth Avenue, which accepted her buyer for one of its dozen apartments. The Chapin- and Brown-educated broker is consistently one of the top producers at Sotheby’s for clients like Paul McCartney.
Susan Breitenbach
Where: Corcoran Group
Primed for: Hamptons estates
The first home Breitenbach enjoyed out east was the cottage her Queens firefighter father saved up enough to buy via a side hustle in construction, and it primed her to become the most trusted broker in this enclave. Billy Joel, Richard Gere, and Christie Brinkley have all worked with her on their deals everywhere from Sagaponack to Bridgehampton. She understands the minutiae of construction, too—her husband is luxury homebuilder Stephen Breitenbach—and the life of her clients, as the pair own a Azimut 65 yacht. She has five children, including her middle child, Matt, who’s also a broker.
John Burger
Where: Brown Harris Stevens
Primed for: Co-ops and townhouses in Manhattan
Burger’s a discreet, reliable presence in N.Y.C.—he hasn’t agency-hopped like many peers, sticking with BHS for more than three decades after starting there with just 30 or so colleagues (there are now more than 2,700), and has consistently been the firm’s No. 1 producer. Since then, he has brokered more than $10 billion dollars of Manhattan real estate. Burger has worked with everyone from Bette Midler, who sold her $45 million UES penthouse with his help, to Jeff Bezos, whom he has repped on several deals including, reportedly, his purchase of three homes at 212 Fifth Avenue, which the Amazon founder plans to turn into a townhouse in the sky.
Daniel Daggers
Where: DDRE
Primed for: PCL (Prime Central London)
The swaggering, charming Daggers took a swing at turning himself into the British answer to the Oppenheim Group via the recent Netflix series Buying London. It’s a typical move for the agent who’s shaken up the somewhat-staid U.K. market, focusing on American-style star power and new marketing channels, especially Instagram and YouTube. (He compares online recognition to the old-school clout of being recognized when walking down the street.) An ex-partner at Knight Frank, whose deals there included a £95 million ($124 million) sale to hedge-funder Ken Griffin, Dagger is nicknamed Mr. Super Prime, thanks to his focus on London’s most exclusive real estate.
Tim Davis
Where: Corcoran Group
Primed for: The Hamptons
This superbroker with more than 40 years of experience is an enduring fixture of the East End, where he grew up; he started in real estate aged 19, when he joined his future mother-in-law’s brokerage. Davis has tallied more than $5 billion in sales over his career ($379 million alone in 2022) and is renowned particularly for his marketing savvy. He’s so hands-on that he effectively acts as creative director for every photo shoot, and he’s picky about listings he accepts to ensure there’s consistency across his portfolio. Key transactions include the $16.95 million deal for 446 First Neck Lane in Southampton and the auction for La Dune, mogul Louise Blouin’s magnificent estate, which went for $79 million earlier this year.
Edward de Mallet Morgan
Where: Estate Prestige Knight Frank
Primed for: Côte d’Azur, Monaco, private islands, and the Caribbean
Call him Mr. Monaco. The British agent just relocated to the Côte d’Azur from London—better to be close to both his key clients and market. Suave and unflappable, he’s also an islands expert, having handled everything from Horse Island off Ireland’s West Coast to the $200 million listing of the Terraces on Mustique. Much of his work is off market as he wrangles transactions behind the scenes in the world’s most expensive places, though all typically have one thing in common: waterfront.
Fredrik Eklund
Where: Douglas Elliman
Primed for: Super-prime property across America
Don’t dismiss Eklund for his stint as a Bravolebrity, or for his larger than life, Insta-ready persona. He’s a canny operator who quickly recognized that both would drive his business—and they have. (One wealthy Swede included an unusual clause in the closing contract: a selfie with his fellow countryman.) Working with his co-team leader John Gomes (himself an unlikely agent, plucked from working as the maître d’ at Balthazar after a chance meeting with a developer), Eklund is running a team of 100 people across five states and 13 offices, which collectively sold $3.7 billion worth of real estate last year. Though he now lives in Beverly Hills, he’s active across the country.
Becky Fatemi
Where: Sotheby’s International Realty
Primed for: Central London and anywhere the creative class lives
Fatemi, who was born in Iran before the family fled the regime there, talked her way into her first real-estate job after working in everything from fast-food service to telemarketing, as well as the occasional styling gig (she dressed Rihanna in a vintage McQueen jumpsuit she found in a charity shop). Fatemi was hired when she tried to sell the agency owner ad space in the magazine where she worked. The multilingual agent, who speaks English, Persian, French, and Spanish, is now a go-to expert on all prime London property and has particular connections in the creative class thanks to pals like Edward Enninful, the onetime Vogue editor and client. She also spends six weeks every summer on Ibiza.
Vanessa Fukunaga
Where: Engel & Völkers Snell Real Estate
Primed for: Mexico
Fancy picking up a home in one of the ultra-high-end developments that are mushrooming along the coast of Baja California’s southern tip? There’s only one person to call: Fukunaga, who snapped up the longtime brokerage Snell here 12 years ago with a smart view of the potential for luxury real estate in the area. And no wonder—she was an exec with corporate travel agency Carlson Wagonlit (now CWT) for almost 20 years before then, all too aware of the clientele flocking to Baja. Since that acquisition, her firm has transacted more than $3.4 billion in sales to become the top luxury brokerage in Mexico year after year. She’s selling lifestyle as much as square footage, leveraging the magazine and events company Ocean Blue World she also owns as part of the deal.
Carl Gambino
Where: The Gambino Group
Primed for: New York, New Jersey, Miami, Los Angeles, and overseas
The New Jersey native has more than $1.5 billion in lifetime sales under his belt, after starting from the bottom—cold-calling landlords in New York City to try to snare their business. He worked with another Real Estate Master, Adam Modlin, before making his name as a celebrity whisperer: Joe Jonas is his son’s godfather, and he counts J.Lo, Harry Styles, and Travis Scott as clients. Gambino now lives in Los Angeles with his wife but works anywhere that UHNW families might live, from Miami to the Hamptons; he’s just expanded to work overseas as well as stateside. Deals he has struck include a record-breaking $21.25 million home on Miami’s Fisher Island and Mark Wahlberg’s Beverly Park estate for $55 million.
Nick Gavin
Where: Compass
Primed for: Downtown Manhattan
Nick Gavin’s client list bulges with boldfaced names: He repped Trevor Noah’s three-bedroom $12.95 million duplex and managed to oversee the $49.5 million sale of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton’s penthouse at 443 Greenwich by acting for both Hamilton and the ultimate buyer, heiress and equestrian Jennifer Gates. It was Gavin who sold a $4.6 million apartment in Gramercy Park to Eva Chen, a magazine editor turned Instagram exec. His connections stem in part from growing up in Soho and having worked for sceney hotel Andre Balazs in its celebrity-clogged heyday. Gavin lives between a townhouse in the historic district of MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens and a country place on Shelter Island; he’s married to Katrin Thormann, a former model, and they have two daughters.
Jill Hertzberg
Where: The Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker
Primed for: South Florida
The glamorous blonde duo has epitomized the SoFla lifestyle for decades. A Tarrytown, N.Y., native, Jill Eber was a professional singer who got nodules that prevented her from working, and so she segued into real estate. Jill Hertzberg, who grew up in Miami, studied food science at the University of Florida but worked in real estate because it better suited her schedule with three young children. Together, they’re a powerhouse force in Miami Beach; they recently linked up with Judy Zeder, the dominant agent in Coral Gables, to extend their reach. Signature deals over their $7 billion career include the all-time highest sale in Miami-Dade—the $132 million listing at 18 La Gorce Circle on La Gorce Island—and the $41.5 million sale of the Versace Mansion.
Aaron Kirman
Where: Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California
Primed for: The best of Los Angeles
Two years ago, Kirman was one of the star agents at Compass, with a client line-up including everyone from Ryan Murphy to Cher; he struck out on his own to focus on Beverly Hills and Bel Air with a team of more than 150 agents and juniors. The star of CNBC’s Listing Impossible, he grew up in L.A. as the son of a trucker father and teacher mother and says his fascination with real estate started in childhood, when he’d ride his bike into wealthy neighborhoods to check out the homes. It was Kirman who was tasked with selling the One, the largest single-family residence in Bel Air at 105,000 square feet—and he managed to set a record at auction of $141 million in March 2022.
Chris Klug
Where: Klug Properties, Sotheby’s International Realty
Primed for: Aspen Snowmass
Klug’s name is likely familiar for other reasons—after all, the liver-transplant survivor made history as the first organ-transplant recipient to medal at the Olympics, scoring a bronze in Salt Lake City’s 2002 games less than two years after his operation. He traveled the world on his snowboard but is now based full-time in Snowmass, selling some of the priciest properties there and Aspen proper, such as 401 Carroll Drive, a seven-bedroom, $69 million listing in the Starwood Community. He also helps run his namesake non-profit, a foundation that raises awareness of eye, tissue, and organ donations for transplants.
Chris Krolow
Where: Private Islands Inc.
Primed for: Private islands worldwide
Krolow started out as a tour guide in his native Canada and cottoned on to the fact that the premium folks will pay for private islands when he sold a group of tourists on a trip to one—they paid him $5,000 for an island that rented for $20. He quickly snapped up his own island and then began brokering similar deals for others, creating a marketplace for sales and rentals via his website; the priciest deal so far was $80 million. He has extensive connections in countries rich in islands, particularly Canada and Belize, where the coast is fringed with more than 400 cayes. Krolow also hosted HGTV’s Island Hunters for several years and operates the micro-hotel Gladden Private Island, with just two bedrooms on its own Belizean caye.
Chris Leavitt
Where: Douglas Elliman
Primed for: South Florida
The Boston native studied cinema and television at USC before joining the Corcoran group at just 21; he credits Barbara Corcoran with teaching him the fundamentals of real estate. He landed in South Florida as director of sales at Miami Beach’s outpost of the Edition hotel, selling the real-estate side, including a $34 million penthouse, which was the splashiest condo sale in Florida ever at the time. Another TV vet—he was cast in Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing Miami—he has cemented his status as a go-to across the area via deals like the North Palm Beach home sold by Jeffrey P. Jacobs, whose family owned the Cleveland Guardians, and the penthouse of the Tiffany Building on Worth Avenue.
Lisa Lippman
Where: Brown Harris Stevens
Primed for: Anything New York
Lippman’s nothing if not consistent: She has been the No. 1 highest-producing broker at her agency for the last eight years. Ivy League-educated Lippman switched from working as an attorney to real estate because of the flexibility it afforded her when her children were young, but she has retained the buttoned-up corporate savvy that stints at firms like Kriss and Feit conferred. After helping a friend sell an apartment to a family from her kid’s nursery class, she recognized her instincts mapped well on to that new career and quickly emerged as a notable broker. Lippman’s particularly networked in the Upper West Side, whether listing the $12.2 million Riverside Drive penthouse bought by Amy Schumer or the $24.5 million apartment on Central Park West of Susan Weber, ex-wife of George Soros.
Adam Modlin
Where: Modlin Group
Primed for: Manhattan townhouses
If you’re high-profile and have a highly sought-after property to sell in New York City, Modlin’s likely to be on speed dial; he has a particular aptitude for handling townhouses across the city. He founded his namesake group with his older brother Avery in 1999 after dabbling in fashion—the lifelong New Yorker worked at Bergdorf Goodman as a stylist, which helped bulk out his contact list, including future real-estate clients like A-Rod. A family friend recognized his sales savvy and suggested he get his real-estate license, and Modlin transitioned into buying and selling mansions instead of menswear, like art collector David Mugrabi’s $41 million, 12,000 square-foot home and Ivana Trump’s opulent townhouse, now offered at $19.5 million
Yannis Ploumis
Where: Christie’s
Primed for: Greek islands
This family firm, based in Athens, celebrated its centenary this year, and it’s long been the need-to-know name for locals and international buyers mulling an estate on the best islands around the country. Whether in glitzy Mykonos or art-heavy Hydra, perhaps even the Mustique of the Med, Antiparos, it’s the only brokerage with connections enough to wrangle the most exclusive homes; Ploumis is the current GM and has struck recent deals including a $27 million estate in Porto Heli, among the highest ever in the Athenian answer to the Hamptons.
Joshua Saslove
Where: Saslove & Warwick
Primed for: Aspen
The Harley-riding, cross-country skier, and former professional card player has been the dominant force in Colorado’s toniest mountain town for four decades since starting his initial firm in 1992; he has sold more than $3 billion worth of real estate in his long career. Saslove moved to Aspen after surviving a plane crash in 1976. It was fortuitous timing, as the mountain town was just beginning to attract A-list buyers. His first entertainment industry client was hairdresser-turned-producer and legendary lothario Jon Peters. Since then, some key deals include the $30 million home of chewing gum heir William Wrigley Jr and Hala Ranch, the $135 million, 95-acre estate of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the USA.
