SERHANT., the New York-based luxury brokerage built around media-savvy founder Ryan Serhant, has officially launched in California. The move opens operations across Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco, and Lake Tahoe, with the company’s California headquarters based in Beverly Hills. According to the firm, it is the largest market launch by sales volume the brokerage has ever done.
The numbers behind the launch are aggressive. The agents recruited for the California operation collectively closed more than 2 billion dollars in sales over the past 12 months. With this entry, SERHANT.’s national footprint expands to 16 states plus Washington, D.C.
Why California, and Why Now
California’s luxury real estate market is one of the most concentrated in the country. The state contains a disproportionate share of the nation’s homes valued above 5 million dollars, and the buyer pool is a unique mix of tech wealth, entertainment industry capital, and international money. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Malibu, and the Bay Area peninsula together produce more high-end transactions per year than most countries.
For a brokerage like SERHANT., which has built its brand around very-high-end residential sales and a strong digital media presence, missing California for this long was always going to be temporary. The launch follows the firm’s January 2026 entry into Massachusetts, and it caps a multi-year expansion push that began with New York and slowly worked west.
The Beverly Hills HQ and the Leadership Team
The California operation is being led by Ezra Leyton, who joins as managing director and principal broker. Leyton is a 23-year industry veteran with a background that goes well beyond standard residential brokerage. He has worked in luxury residential and commercial real estate, capital markets, and alternative investments.
Before SERHANT., Leyton served as executive director and chief operating officer of MARQUIS Commercial Properties, and as head of North America operations for MARQUIS Capital Management, where he oversaw multi-billion-dollar portfolios. Across his career, he has sold more than 2.5 billion dollars in residential and commercial properties, recruited and trained more than 300 agents and brokers, and advised institutional clients including Credit Suisse, Pretium Partners, Angelo Gordon, RBS, UBS, and Goldman Sachs.
That kind of resume signals what SERHANT. is actually building in California. This is not just a residential brokerage outpost. It is a luxury platform with a leader who has run institutional capital relationships, which means the firm intends to compete for the kind of clients who buy multiple homes, hold property through corporate entities, and sometimes treat real estate as a portfolio diversifier rather than a personal residence.
The Founding Agents
SERHANT.’s California roster includes a number of high-profile founding members across regions. In the San Francisco Bay area, the firm has welcomed Lisa Smith, the leader of Smith and Co., who joins from Engel and Voelkers. Milana Ostroy, who serves as president of the Women’s Council of Realtors and brings more than 25 years of experience, has joined as well. Viviana Cherman is coming on as a Pleasanton-based agent specializing in the Tri-Valley area. Amie Quirarte, formerly with Chase International Real Estate, joins as a founding member and is the founder of Q Group Tahoe, a boutique team focused on luxury lakefront and high-value residential sales across North Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada.
That regional spread matters. The firm is not just planting a flag in Beverly Hills. It is establishing real coverage across the markets where California luxury actually trades, including the Bay Area, the Tri-Valley, and Lake Tahoe.
The Competitive Landscape
California luxury brokerage is already crowded. The Agency, Compass, Hilton and Hyland, Sotheby’s International Realty, and Coldwell Banker Global Luxury all run mature operations in the state. SERHANT. is entering against established teams with deep local relationships, and it is doing so without the comfort of an existing branch network.
The bet is that media presence translates to lead generation. SERHANT. has built an unusually strong content engine across YouTube, Netflix, and short-form social platforms. For listings priced above 10 million dollars, where a single sale can generate millions of dollars in commission, that kind of media reach is a real asset. Sellers want exposure, and a brokerage that can credibly promise eight-figure view counts on a single listing video has a clear pitch.
SERHANT. closed 7.13 billion dollars in sales volume in 2025, which placed it 22nd in the nation in the 2026 RealTrends Verified Rankings. With California now on the map, that ranking is likely to climb in the next reporting cycle.
What This Means for California Buyers and Sellers
For California sellers, more brokerage competition is generally good news. It tends to drive better marketing, more aggressive pricing strategies, and more agent attention per listing. Sellers in the 5 to 50 million dollar range will probably see SERHANT. agents pitching for their business almost immediately, and the firm’s media-first approach will likely be the central pitch.
For buyers, the change is subtler. The same listings will be available, but the way they are presented may shift. Expect more cinematic video, more drone footage, and more cross-promotion between SERHANT.’s national reality television presence and individual California listings.
For brokerage industry watchers, the launch is also a useful data point. It shows that media-driven brokerages can scale into traditional luxury markets, even those with established incumbents. If SERHANT.’s California numbers come in strong over the next 12 months, expect imitators.
For more on how California real estate is reshaping in 2026, including market data and major firm moves, follow our coverage in the California Business News section.
The Bottom Line
SERHANT.’s California launch is the firm’s biggest market entry by volume to date, and it lands at a moment when the state’s luxury real estate market is shifting in important ways. With the Olympics, the World Cup, and the return of LA production all scheduled to drive demand for premium housing, the timing is well chosen.
The next 12 months will tell us whether SERHANT.’s media-led playbook translates as cleanly to California as it did to New York. Watch our Business News page for ongoing coverage of the launch and the response from competing brokerages.
