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The No. 1 team in Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ global network has broken off into its own independent brokerage led by one of its former top agents, Ivan Sher, the company announced on Thursday.
The 15-agent Ivan Sher Group is now known as IS LUXURY and has become a member of the Forbes Global Properties network, meaning that the company will gain the eyes of the network’s 140 million affluent audience members and have its properties featured across Forbes and Forbes Global Properties’ print, digital and social channels.
Forbes Global Properties expressed enthusiasm for Sher and his team.
Michael Jalbert | Forbes Global Properties
“Forbes Global Properties is proud to congratulate Ivan and the IS LUXURY team on the exciting evolution of their well-respected brand,” Michael Jalbert, CEO of Forbes Global Properties, said in a statement. “The Ivan Sher name is synonymous with luxury homes in Las Vegas and the firm is widely recognized for its deployment of creative marketing strategies and five-star client service. We look forward to being an active partner in IS LUXURY’s future success.”
IS LUXURY has been the top-selling team in Nevada for about the last 15 years and closed $760 million in Southern Nevada luxury home sales in 2021. The move to go independent came on the heels of a national trend in luxury real estate toward independent brokerages (top luxury agents Branden and Rayni Williams and Ryan Serhant all recently formed their own brokerages), a press statement said. But Sher told Inman that the idea may have been floating around in his subconscious for quite some time.
Ivan Sher | IS LUXURY
“I’ve always been entrepreneurial,” Sher said. “I’ve always, as much as I enjoy the sales side of real estate, I enjoy the business as much. So this has been something where it hasn’t made sense before. I’ve had great relationships in the past with the CEO Of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties, Mark Stark, and he’s been phenomenal in my growth and teaching me the business of real estate. It just became time [to go independent].”
In forming the new brokerage, IS LUXURY will also be launching a new, 6,200-square-foot office space located in Downtown Summerlin. The location was formerly a retail space, but the property’s demolition, which began in 2021 included adding a 2,000-square-foot mezzanine level. The space, constructed by Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects and designed by Elle Concepts, also features a luxury hotel-inspired lobby, a living room and bar area, 19 office spaces, two conference rooms, a green room for recording videos and podcasts, lounge areas, a business center and administrative coworking spaces.
IS LUXURY agents and staff | IS LUXURY
Sher said the space will serve as a location for community gatherings, in addition to a business hub for agents and staff.
“We are refreshing our brand with a real estate office that also operates as a community hub for our agents and clients,” Sher said in a statement. “Our dedicated event space is not a typical feature of the average real estate office and it offers us a stunning venue to host community gatherings, events for our clients, our fundraising events for local charities and more.”
Given the demand his clients have expressed to him in the past for his assistance in other markets, Sher said he also plans to launch offices in other locations throughout the West, while remaining selective about what agents he brings on to the brokerage.
“The goal is really not to add too many additional agents,” Sher told Inman, “but to take this model and to repeat it in our feeder markets. We have so many clients in Newport, we have so many clients in Park City, so many of our clients go to Scottsdale … These are places where either they have second homes and Vegas as their primary [home] or vice versa. I vacation in Newport and Park City and oftentimes am bumping into clients there. They’re asking and wanting us to come in and expand out in those areas. We’re happy to oblige.”
Mark Stark | LinkedIn
Stark, who worked with Sher at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices since 2000, expressed his support for Sher’s growth.
“For more than 20 years, our company has operated within a business-service model in which our sales executives can build a brokerage within our brokerage and take on the additional risks and rewards that come with owning your own company,” Stark said in a statement. “Ivan Sher is clearly in a category of his own. He has built an incredible business and we are so very proud to have been part of IS LUXURY’s evolution into forming their own brokerage and expanding their reach to other states.”
While affiliated with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties, IS LUXURY brought in over $4 billion in sales. Sher also represents the largest listing in Las Vegas in a decade, a 14,207-square-foot, three-story property offered at $32.5 million.
