Keller Williams’ Ilan Bracha picks rental specialist to lead NYC team

Adina Azarian

Ilan Bracha has nabbed a leader for the New York City division of Keller Williams he helped
launch last month: Adina Azarian. Azarian joins Keller Williams NYC from Adina Equities, a
boutique firm she founded in 2002 that specializes in Manhattan rentals. 
Azarian is set to join Bracha in his Trump Tower office on Monday, after she spends the
remainder of this week in California familiarizing herself with Keller Williams’ culture in one of
its longstanding markets.

With the move, she gets the opportunity to raise her own profile and lead more agents on a larger platform, without watching the company she built vanish under a larger firm.

Since moving from Prudential Douglas Elliman to Keller Williams, Bracha said today
that he has grown the firm from 20 to 48 agents. He previously told The Real Deal that his goal
is to reach 250 brokers within the first year.

Azarian, 37, has been “approached by every real estate firm you can name,” she said, but chose
Keller Williams for the opportunity to be a CEO, its unique profit-sharing model and its hands-
off approach to Adina Equities.

“Most other companies want you to morph into what they do,” Azarian said. “But the Keller
Williams model is completely different; you keep your identity, you keep the brand you build,
and you just use the tools and the business model they have to grow your business under their
umbrella.”

Azarian, who said no money changed hands in the deal, noted that she’s in the process of finding
a new president for Adina Equities who will grow her brand. And while it will gain access to the
resources of what Bracha said is the country’s second biggest real estate firm, Adina Equities’
listings will link to Keller Williams, and the firm’s four agents will cede some commission to
Keller Williams. Keller Williams allows agents to keep 70 percent of their commission up to
$50,000, and all earnings from that point forward.

Azarian has been in the industry for 15 years and her firm has gained a reputation for the
relationship it forges with Manhattan landlords.

Even though Azarian has specialized in the rental market, Bracha said she is exactly what Keller
Williams needs to achieve its goal of become the leading real estate firm in the New York City
market.

“She has the entrepreneurial spirit we want,” he said. “What she’s done is not as important as
how well she can inspire other agents to work harder and get better.”

To learn more about Azarian’s move, check out the April issue of The Real Deal.