Native Realty acquires Fort Lauderdale brokerage

Two months after expanding into residential sales, Native Realty beefed up more by acquiring a full service brokerage in Fort Lauderdale.

Native, a Fort Lauderdale-based commercial brokerage led by Jaime Sturgis, purchased No Limit Real Estate, an 18-employee firm that produced $70 million in volume last year, a press release states. 

Founded by Kyle Sorel and Jordan Cohen in 2014, No Limit handles residential deals, commercial real estate leasing, investment sales and development-related services. Native and No Limit’s principals declined to comment about the purchase price. 

Adding No Limit will bolster Native’s commercial and residential real estate capabilities, Sturgis said in a statement. No Limit delivered strong results for its clients across all real estate sectors, despite broader market headwinds last year, Sturgis said. 

Native is actively expanding its reach in Broward County. In November, the firm hired Whitney Dutton, Chris Sedlack and Arber Balani — all of whom were previously with Re/Max First — to handle residential real estate. Dutton is among Broward’s top producing agents, generating more than $225 million in sales since 2018. 

Broward is becoming a more competitive market for large brokerages. This month, Compass reached an agreement to buy Attorneys Key Title, or AKT, a Fort Lauderdale-based title company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Compass plans to integrate AKT’s title and escrow services, but the title company will maintain its branding and its Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach offices. AKT will also continue to serve clients of other brokerages. Compass also expanded into Weston in April. 

In June, Edgardo Defortuna’s Fortune Christie’s International Real Estate announced a northward expansion that includes a Fort Lauderdale office that has not yet opened. Fortune opened an office in Boca Raton in November, while Douglas Elliman opened two offices in Weston in February. 

Broward’s residential market had a strong fourth quarter compared to flat and declining home sales in some submarkets of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, according to a Douglas Elliman report. In Fort Lauderdale, single-family home sales increased 10 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to the same period of 2022, and the median sale price rose by 6 percent to $570,000. Condo sales fell 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter, while the median sale price grew 21 percent to $485,000.