Mark your calendars for the ultimate real estate experiences with Inman’s upcoming events! Dive into the future at Connect Miami, immerse in luxury at Luxury Connect, and converge with industry leaders at Inman Connect Las Vegas. Discover more and join the industry’s best at inman.com/events.
The Watson Salari Group has bid adieu to Coldwell Banker and moved to Official, The Hollywood Reporter announced on Monday.
The team, which is made up of Brent Watson and Marco Salari, was founded in 2022. Prior to that, Watson and Salari had been collaborating since 2019. Watson is a seasoned agent of roughly three decades, while Salari only got his license in 2018, but has been making his mark in Beverly Hills real estate since then.
Tyrone McKillen
“I am looking forward to collaborating with the powerhouse Watson Salari team,” Tyrone McKillen, founding agent partner of Official California and principal of Plus Real Estate Group, said in a statement. “I’ve worked closely with Brent and Marco on significant transactions in the past and admire their impressive work ethic and career success, and now we’ll be joining forces at Official in the Los Angeles market to reach an even greater network of luxury buyers and sellers.”
McKillen launched Official’s LA office in January 2023 after leaving Compass. Watson and Salari will now become founding agents for the LA office.
In order to join Official, agents must have over $1 billion in career sales or qualify as what the brokerage calls a “prodigy,” an agent identified as a future $1 billion-producer and put on an accelerated growth path.
Brent Watson
The team is within the top 1 percent of agents across the U.S. and in the state of California, according to data from Official. Over the course of the team’s lifespan, it has closed more than $2.75 billion in sales.
Watson and Salari’s clients include high-profile individuals like actor Milla Jovovich, actor Katey Sagal, American tennis pro Pete Sampras, and designers Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent, among others.
“With over 30 years of industry experience, I’m looking forward to a new chapter with Official, a firm that values excellence and feels well-aligned with our own relationship-driven approach to real estate,” Watson said in a statement.
Marco Salari
Added Salari, “This career move is a perfect match for our network, expertise and what we’re hoping to achieve in the luxury marketplace. Official is building the most trustworthy real estate brand in the high-end market, and Brent and I are excited to be a part of this revolutionary firm.”
The dynamic duo has sold noteworthy properties such as a $16 million home in Windsor Square that had a record-breaking two-day escrow, Ronald Reagan’s former mansion, and an LA home owned by designer Brunello Cucinelli.
Nicole Oge
When the team was initially approached by Official about a year ago, Watson told The Hollywood Reporter that they weren’t really interested, given that everything had been going well at Coldwell Banker. (They had been the No. 1 small team at the firm’s Beverly Hills office for the last three years.) But meeting firm co-founders Oren Alexander, Nicole Oge and Richard Jordan, and knowing that Tyrone McKillen was newly on board to the brokerage, helped win them over.
“At Official, our growth model is centered on partnering with founding agents in each market who are among the best in the industry,” Nicole Oge, co-founder and chief growth officer at Official, said in a statement. “We reimagine industry standards by working with agents who go well beyond the transaction of selling a home, and Brent and Marco will do exactly that. We’re excited to watch them dominate the market and bring even more value to their business through this partnership with Official, the only brand that truly resonates with their high-end clientele.”
Get Inman’s Luxury Lens Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly deep dive into the biggest news in the world of high-end real estate delivered every Friday. Click here to subscribe.
