It’s been another 12 months of rough sailing in L.A.’s luxury real estate sector. Confronted with market-chilling headwinds — from the year-old “mansion tax” to stubbornly high interest rates and scarce inventory — many of the area’s top agents saw their numbers dip.
But the 35 brokers below (selected according to metrics that include total sales volume from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024; media visibility; and the wattage of their celebrity clientele) have found a way to power through the storm. “2024 was an incredible year for the people that chose to be in the market,” Carolwood’s Cooper Mount says. “There were struggles across the board. However, buyers that had patience and perseverance were able to secure some of the great deals that exist in the city. On the flip side, sellers that had A+ houses, in prime locations, as long as they were positioned correctly, were able to enjoy record-setting sales prices.”
For all the projected confidence, agents agree the best part of 2024 is that it’s coming to a close. “As interest rates continue the downward trajectory into 2025,” predicts Sandro Dazzan of The Agency, “we will see more buyers that have been on the fence the past two years start to enter the market and make offers.”
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The Altman Brothers Team
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Douglas Elliman
“Work harder than everyone else.” That is the motto of Josh, Matt and Heather Altman, stars of the reality series Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, who had another banner year with more than $1.1 billion in sales, setting records for Hancock Park and trendy Encino. Current notable listings include Oakley founder James Jannard’s $68 million Stonehenge-inspired concrete manse in Beverly Hills. The trick to working with high-net-worth clients like Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, Tyler Perry and James Cameron? “Treat them,” says Josh Altman, “like you treat everyone else.”
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Cindy Ambuehl
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Christie’s
With $257 million in sales, Ambuehl continues to be a favorite of Hollywood insiders. The former actress and model’s notable recent transactions include Kendrick Lamar’s purchase of a $40 million Brentwood estate and the $8.8 million sale of Mischa Barton’s home. Beyond her sales achievements, Ambuehl also is deeply committed to philanthropy, actively supporting organizations like Give Back Homes and P.S. Arts. Current listings include Sugarfina’s Paul Kessler and Diana Derycz-Kessler’s $115 million European-inspired “Villa Del Amor” in Bel-Air.
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Santiago Arana
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Agency
A mainstay on this list, Arana clocked in at $39.8 million this past year. He recently made tabloid news since he holds the listing for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s former marital home in Beverly Hills, now listed for $68 million. (He had previously sold Affleck’s Pacific Palisades home for $28.5 million.) Arana’s philanthropic endeavors include working with Habitat for Humanity and Give Back Homes.
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Blair Chang
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Agency
A second-generation agent, Chang has notched $100 million in sales this year. He repped the seller of the Brentwood home snapped up by Formula 1 heiress Petra Ecclestone for $30.5 million. He also held the listing on the $22.5 million Hollywood Hills home purchased by Powerball winner Edwin Castro and the post-split Brentwood property Ben Affleck purchased for $20.5 million. Chang now holds the listing for Jonny Cat Litter heiress Joi Stephens’ $88 million Santa Barbara estate. “I do things that others won’t do and try to bring out the best in everyone that I work with,” he says.
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Jordan Cohen
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Re/Max
Cohen is now the No. 1 RE/Max agent worldwide and the top agent in all of Ventura County. With $300 million in sales last year, he has represented numerous off-market clients and bold-faced names including Kaley Cuoco and Poison frontman Bret Michaels. Thirty-two years since he entered the profession, Cohen continues to be hands on, no matter how heady his work becomes. “I employ two full-time assistants,” he says, “but I am the only salesperson, so I handle all showings, negotiations and closings.”
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Chris Cortazzo
Image Credit: SERGIO GARCIA/Courtesy of Subject Compass
“I was born and raised in Malibu, so my connection to this community runs deep,” says the veteran agent, who has kept his hometown’s home values soaring, racking up more than $501.3 million in sales there from summer 2023 to summer 2024. In March, he repped investors Mark Cirlin and Man Li-Yeh in the $38.45 million sale of their Doug Burdge-designed ocean-front estate.
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Sandro Dazzan
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Agency
Among Dazzan’s $150 million worth of sales last year was the $61 million deal for The Edge, the first offering at The Case, a still incomplete midcentury modern-inspired community high above the Malibu Colony Beach. For 2025, Dazzan expects the market will only get better: “I anticipate a strong market next year with increasing prices as rates drop and more buyers enter the market.”
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Drew Fenton
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Carolwood
Despite racking up nearly half a billion dollars in sales in the past year, Carolwood CEO and co-founder Fenton is looking forward to a more prosperous 2025. “We are optimistic the market will improve as rates go down,” he says. “Quality inventory is very scarce.” This from a man who just repped the seller in a record-breaking $75 million deal at Point Dume and a $65 million sale in Beverly Hills. His current offerings include the $137.5 million Aaron and Candy Spelling estate, Cher’s $75 million Malibu estate and the legendary Conrad Hilton estate, co-listed with several other top agents on this list and priced at a cool $195 million.
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Josh Flagg
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Compass
“2024 has been a great year for me,” says the Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles star. And he’s got receipts: $300 million in sales, including the largest single-family home in Pasadena, 2 Oak Knoll Terrace, and Judy Garland’s former home in Bel-Air. Next year is shaping up nicely, too: He’s co-listing the most expensive house on the market in L.A. County — Conrad Hilton’s former estate in the heart of Bel-Air.
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Sally Forster Jones
Image Credit: Lauren Hurt Photography/Courtesy of Subject Compass
“After purchasing my first home and doing some cosmetic upgrades, I sold it for substantially more money, which piqued my interest in real estate,” L.A. luxury homes icon Forster Jones recalls of her start in the business. “I then began investing and doing flips of several single-family residences. That was a great inroad to getting my real estate license and sparked the start of my real estate career.” Years later, Forster Jones’ client roster includes Markus Persson of Minecraft, Candy Spelling and Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. She made $132 million in sales last year and co-repped the seller of Odin, the Encino estate purchased by DJ Zedd for $18.4 million. Forster Jones also made waves in April when she teamed with fellow Compass mega-agent Tomer Fridman to form Jones Fridman International.
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Tomer Fridman and Isidora Fridman
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Compass
Tomer Fridman and his mother, Isidora, may have raked in more than $145 million in sales this year, but Tomer says luxury real estate is about more than just making deals. “I don’t feel I do sales,” he says. “I’m more of an adviser/consultant.” In addition to his work for blue-chip clients —he is the Kardashians’ go-to guy and brokered the sale of Leah Remini’s Fryman Canyon Estates home, for example — Fridman is an exclusive agent for the Rosewood Residences Beverly Hills, the hotel brand’s first residential project with penthouses selling at $45 million and up.
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Carl Gambino
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Gambino Group/Compass
Gambino’s origin story is worthy of its own movie. After moving to L.A., he became a dog walker to make ends meet before getting his real estate license. “I convinced one of my dog-walking clients to let me show him properties, and I ended up selling him a 3-acre estate in Bel-Air,” he recalls. Now, his roster includes Mark Wahlberg, Renée Zellweger, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, Mindy Kaling, Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, and last year he amassed more than $355 million in sales. A long-ago client recently called him to sell her property. “She came up in my phone as her dog’s name,” he says.
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Ginger Glass
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Compass
“My father told me at a very young age that the smartest thing a person could do is to get a real estate license, which I did first in Nevada at 18 years old,” recalls Glass, who is also a licensed attorney. Twenty years later, she is an L.A. real estate legend, boasting clients including Cameron Diaz and Kourtney Kardashian and $593 million in sales last year. Her standout deals over the past 12 months include the sale of Alfred Hitchcock’s former Bel-Air home and a record-breaking $21.5 million sale of a contemporary estate in the exclusive Madison Club in La Quinta.
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Eric Haskell
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Agency
Originally an art dealer and furniture designer, Haskell decided to dabble in real estate and ventured to ask a celebrity client if he could sell one of their properties. “They agreed, and two weeks later, I had it under contract,” Haskell recalls. Last year, he struck deals totaling $138.5 million, with clients including Matt Damon, assorted Hemsworth brothers, Kristen Wiig and Cody Ko. “2024 was a good opportunity for a bit of a reset,” Haskell notes. “As agents, we had to work harder as demand declined.”
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Juliette Hohnen
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Douglas Elliman
“I treat every sale as if it were my own house,” says Hohnen, who sold $60 million in property last year, including the late Paul Reubens’ Pacific Palisades estate for $3.8 million. Hohnen sums up her selling philosophy: “I try to work with only realistic buyers and sellers. We realtors live and breathe the job seven days a week, and our quality of life is determined by the quality of the people we work with. Life is too short for toxic time wasters.”
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Justin Paul Huchel
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Carolwood
For Huchel, the road to dominance in the luxury market was paved with grit and cheap Mexican food. “When I came out to L.A., I got a position working for one of the most successful agents in Beverly Hills at that time,” he recalls. “I was so broke that I used to order one taco and extra chips from Baja Fresh every day for lunch. When I finally sold my first house for $1.1 million behind the Chateau Marmont, I felt like I had hit the lottery.” Huchel has come a long way since, with sales of $112 million last year, and clients including Meghan Trainor, Harry Styles, Lea Michele, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis and Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford.
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Aaron Kirman (Team of the Year)
Image Credit: John Russo/Courtesy of Subject Christie’s International Real Estate | Southern California
Nobody has more agents (230), more architecturally inspired properties (masterpieces by the likes of Craig Ellwood, Richard Neutra and Kelly Slater), more famous clients (Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj, to name a reported few) or makes bigger sales ($2.08 billion last year alone). But there’s more to Christie’s International than peddling megamansions to ultra-rich celebrities. They represent unfamous one-percenters, too. “We treat all clients equally, whether bold-faced names or not,” says president and CEO Kirman, who leads THR’s Team of the Year. “We do it with perseverance, respect and determination.”
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David Kramer
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Hilton & Hyland
“I was an econ major at Cal State Northridge without direction,” broker Kramer recalls of his early years. “Then someone suggested I consider real estate, and it just clicked. In my final year of college, I started selling real estate and sold six houses in my first six months! I still keep a Polaroid of the first home I sold — a $120,000 single-family in the Valley — to a close friend.” Kramer has been racking up boffo sales ever since; $79 million during the past 12 months alone.
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Linda May
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Carolwood
The queen of pedigree properties, May boasts $152 million in sales between June 2023 and July 2024. Notable deals include the sale of Larry and Joan Flax’s Hollywood Deco Estate in Beverly Park for $42.5 million (May repped both sides). Current listings include Villa dei Fiori, on the market for $150 million, and she counts James Burrows and Mel and Susan Geliebter among her high-profile clients. “Los Angeles is filled with exciting homes that have such rich architectural history,” she says. “The thing I love the most is discovering a house that I’ve never seen before and finding its perfect match.”
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Jade Mills
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Coldwell Banker
“I started in real estate when my husband left me,” Mills recalls. “I worked at the Century Plaza Hotel in the lobby until I got my real estate license, and then I worked day and night until I started closing escrows. I am still working from 6 a.m. to midnight!” It has definitely paid off. With $264 million in sales this year and clients that have included Jennifer Aniston and Sylvester Stallone, Mills is among the most industrious agents in town. She also finds time for philanthropy, serving on the board of governors at Cedars-Sinai.
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Cooper Mount
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Carolwood
The Malibu native can’t imagine selling real estate anywhere else. “The cast of characters in this city is second to none, the culture is incredible, the history deep and the weather immaculate,” Mount says. “I can start a morning by showing beach houses in Malibu steeped in Hollywood history, head to Bel-Air to show historical estates with tycoon pedigrees and end in Los Feliz showing editorial grade, world-renowned architectural homes. Where else can you do that?” During the past 12 months, he’s made $235 million in sales, boosting his career total to $800 million.
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Marc Noah
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Sotheby’s
If you’re looking for something in, say, a hollowed-out volcano, Noah is probably your guy. He’s listing La Fin, a $130 million marquee property in Bel-Air commonly described as a “Bond villain lair” (though the infinity pool contains no sharks; at least none are mentioned in its Zillow listing). Last year, Noah, who has been brokering in L.A. for about two decades, sold Kimora Lee Simmons’ Coldwater Canyon estate for $16.5 million along with other big listings for a 12-month total of $71.5 million.
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Michael Nourmand + Rochelle Atlas Maize
Image Credit: Beth Coller/Courtesy of Subject; Courtesy of Subject Nourmand & Associates
Nourmand and Maize are known for their roster of celebrity clients, which includes Christina Ricci, Cheryl Hines, Forest Whitaker, January Jones and Joe Manganiello. With sales this year of $129 million and decades of experience between them, they remain cautiously optimistic about the future of their business, despite all of today’s challenges. “The market’s resilience and adaptability are remarkable,” notes Maize. Adds Nourmand, “I like Thomas Edison’s quote: ‘Genius is one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.’ ”
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David Offer
Image Credit: Lee Manning Photography/Courtesy of Subject Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
With $131 million in sales in the past year and 30-year career sales of more than $4.58 billion, Offer is one of Berkshire Hathaway’s top agents (No. 3 in the country, in fact). Noted for his lifelong professional relationships, he’s built his business primarily on repeat clients and referrals.
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Jason Oppenheim
Image Credit: Mark Seliger/Netflix The Oppenheim Group
With the success of Selling Sunset, Oppenheim has become one of the most recognizable names in Los Angeles real estate. This year, he made the news — and found himself being quoted in The New Yorker — for listing Kanye West’s ocean-front home in Malibu. That’d be the one designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando that West stripped of its interior finishes. Tough sale — it’s currently on the market for $39 million — but if anybody can do it, it’s Oppenheim.
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David Parnes and James Harris
Bond Street Partners/Carolwood
It’s been a big year, with the Bond Street Partners joining Carolwood in February. Recent standout deals include repping both sides of the off-market sale of Robbie Williams’ estate in Holmby Hills to Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar for $67.5 million. Other clients include Kevin Durant and Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford. Says Parnes, “We get to meet such a diverse range of people, and that definitely always keeps it fun.”
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Lea Porter
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Beverly Hills Estates
Her biggest deal this year — or at least the one that got the most attention — was the sale (to an anonymous buyer) of Jennifer Lopez’s Bel-Air estate for $33.9 million. “The deal was intense,” she says. “The property had a lot of deferred maintenance and had been on the market for a long time, [so] there was a lot of back and forth on credits and concessions. But my clients love the property. It is magical, all 8 acres of it.”
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Kurt Rappaport
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Westside Estate Agency
The king of off-market sales, Rappaport now holds more than $1 billion in listings, including the legendary Casa Encantada with its staggering $195 million price tag. That’s almost as much as he sold James Jannard’s Malibu compound for in June ($210 million, a California real estate record). Clients include Madonna, Ryan Seacrest, Tom Brady, Ellen DeGeneres and Brad Pitt. Total sales the past year: $726 million.
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Joyce Rey
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Coldwell Banker
With yearly sales of $115 million and clients including Lionel Richie, Taylor Hackford and Helen Mirren, Kendall Jenner, Taylor Swift and the Schwarzenegger family, Rey knows how to keep celebrity clients happy. “My reputation for discretion, devotion to my clients’ best interests, plus decades of knowledge and experience have been the only secrets to earning the trust of ‘bold-faced’ clients!” she says.
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Marcy Roth
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Douglas Elliman
Although she did an impressive $124 million in sales this year, it was a mere $3.2 million purchase that made her the most headlines: the iconic Brady Bunch house in Studio City, bought by art collector Tina Trahan. “This wasn’t a typical house transaction,” Roth says. “It was more like buying a museum. The inside of the house was renovated to mirror the TV set, but it doesn’t have most of the modern conveniences.”
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Heather T. Roy and Learka Bosnak
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Douglas Elliman
Self-proclaimed “cool nerds,” the low-key, fun-loving and discreet Roy and Bosnak are a favorite of young Hollywood, with $68 million in sales for the year. Consistently quirky, they love to tell the story of the time they sold the house used in the film Nightmare on Elm Street and decided to lean into its legend. “Someone from our team dressed up like Freddy Krueger and popped into the shots during photos,” they recall. “We made the offer deadline midnight on Halloween, we gave out candy, and we let people take photos in front of the house during trick-or-treating.”
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F. Ron Smith and David Berg
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Compass
Smith & Berg Partners boast the highest sale price YTD in Pacific Palisades this year: a $32.3 million spec mansion. That helped bring the year’s total to $390 million and lifetime sales to $6.8 billion. “We approach our work with the same commitment as we do our personal relationships,” is how the partners describe their style. “We invest time, forge connections and embrace the joy in our work, even when faced with challenges.”
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Tracy Tutor
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject Douglas Elliman
This year, Tutor and her team represented multiple celebrity clients — actress Rebel Wilson, hotelier Grant King — and sold some of L.A.’s most noteworthy penthouses (at the West Hollywood Edition), as well as handled some significant out-of-state deals (like two ranch estates in the prominent Texas neighborhood that houses Taylor Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch). “L.A. is unlike any other market in the world,” says Tutor. “The personalities I work with are larger than life — just like me.”
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The Umansky Team
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Agency
They don’t just play super agents on TV (or at least they did, until Netflix canceled Buying Beverly Hills in August); they play them in real life, too. The Umansky Team — founder and CEO Mauricio Umansky, Farrah Brittany, Eduardo Umansky and Sharon Umansky Benton — boasts a career $5 billion in sales and $225 million just this past year. “[The] blend of high-end living and architectural innovation makes Los Angeles truly special,” says Mauricio.
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Branden and Rayni Williams
Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject The Beverly Hills Estates
With $2 billion in sales in the past year, these partners in life and business had another great year, with marquee deals including the sale of 1312 Ridgecrest Drive for $75 million and the Olson Kundig-designed 1301 Collingwood Place for $37.4 million. “I hope that the city of Los Angeles experiences a comprehensive revitalization that addresses both its systemic challenges and enhances its unique strengths,” Branden says. “My goal is to see L.A. return to its vibrant, thriving self.”
This story first appeared in the Sept. 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
