Mark Zilbert launches new team at Brown Harris Stevens

Mark Zilbert is launching a new team at Brown Harris Stevens Miami, centered on using technology to sell luxury properties.

Headed by Zilbert, the Zilbert Team’s members include Lisa Van Wagenen, Juan Alvarez, David Vazquez and Lorna Acuna. Based at Brown Harris Stevens’ office in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood, the team will focus on homes and condos from Bal Harbour to South Beach, Zilbert said.

The move marks Zilbert’s latest shift within Brown Harris Stevens Miami. He sold his brokerage, Zilbert Realty Group, to the New York-based firm in 2015 to found Brown Harris Stevens Miami. He then remained a manager at the firm until this summer, when he transitioned to an agent.

Zilbert, who was a technology consultant before entering real estate 16 years ago, said his team will use the latest rendition of his website, Zilbert.com, which attracts 600,000 visitors a year. It has a platform designed to connect agents with customers in real time and prospect across a broad base of buyers and sellers.

He said the technology will save agents time, and will play as important a role in qualifying customers and selling as the agents themselves.

For example, the website will reconfigure itself when any Zilbert Team agent uses it with a client. It can track a website visitor’s most clicked-on neighborhoods or condos, so the home page is then more focused on those areas. The aim, he said, is to predict each visitor’s needs and wants, and then connect those to an agent in real time. It can also determine who is likely to buy a property, Zilbert said.

“It’s not enough to have a website that shows properties. You need a website that interacts with people,” he said. “The goal is to be on everyone’s mobile device every day.”

Brown Harris Stevens Miami, led by Phil Gutman, has grown to nearly 200 agents, with offices in South-of-Fifth, Sunset Harbour, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove and South Miami.

Zilbert said he expects his team to reach $50 million in sales the first year, and later expand to more than $100 million a year.

And despite the ongoing sales slowdown in the luxury condo market, he doesn’t view this as a difficult time to launch a new team.

“We are going to see a solid and increasing flow of New York buyers,” he said. “I really see that growing dramatically. Prices are coming down and there is new inventory. We’re really positioning ourselves to handle that.”