Brokerage IS Luxury Opens in Newport Beach’s Fashion Island

In Los Angeles’ ultra-competitive high-end residential market, a new contender wants to be the next boutique upstart.

Nevada-based IS Luxury has opened the doors to a Newport Beach office in the coastal city’s tony Fashion Island shopping center owned by the Irvine Company.

The 11-agent roster is overseen by executive sales manager Christi Carrillo, who resigned from her role in Douglas Elliman’s Newport Beach office in October. Newport Beach marks IS Luxury’s first office outside of Nevada, where it has locations in Las Vegas and Henderson.

“So many of the people in Newport have second homes in Las Vegas and so many people in Las Vegas have second homes in Newport, so it’s a natural fit,” founder Ivan Sher said of his decision to expand.

The new office includes Trevor Stanaland, whose family counts over 100 years of selling real estate in Orange County’s coastal markets. He spent the past five years working with his father, long-time luxury OC agent John Stanaland. John helms the John Stanaland Group at Douglas Elliman.

Meanwhile, Tyler Van Twist brings a social media savvy to IS Luxury as founder of the @Luxury_Homes Instagram page, which he launched in 2013 and has grown to 1.3 million followers. Last October, Van Twist sold a condo at 2320 Pacific Drive for $9.2 million while at Douglas Elliman, marking Corona del Mar’s priciest condo on a per-square-foot basis.

The rest of the office includes Marie Lee, Andrew Ly, Brenda Miller, Sydney Nguyen, Eitan Beznos, Nancy Arrache, Holly Wiemann, Michele Howorth and Brodie Dizgun. All, except for Ly, were previously with Elliman.

Sher, who was a long-time agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services of Nevada, launched IS Luxury in 2022, generating $1.8 billion in sales volume from the brokerage’s start through 2024. So far this year, IS Luxury has generated $220 million, with 2025 tracking to meet or exceed $700 million, according to Sher.. The founder’s projection takes into account activity picking up after the presidential election and Newport Beach’s production.

The new office aims to make a name for itself in coastal Orange County, focusing on markets such as Newport Beach and its Corona del Mar neighborhood, in price points ranging from $10 million to $30 million, according to Sher.

The founder, when posed the question of whether his plans will eventually include expansion into the much larger market of Los Angeles, said it’s a goal, but the focus will remain on coastal properties.

“We really don’t want to give up our boutique model, where my goal has never been to be the biggest, but to be the best,” he said.