The Real Deal’s annual list highlights the brokers, bosses and builders at the top of the residential sector
South Florida’s top residential players aren’t merely in the business of buying and selling homes.
A generational wealth migration is transforming the region, and real estate’s residential business leaders are rolling out the welcome mat while navigating a changing market. The Real Deal named its Top 100 South Florida real estate leaders in the region earlier this year, including an all-star cast of residential heavy hitters.
The top end of South Florida’s luxury markets are run by a small circle of elite brokers.
Among them is Jill Hertzberg, Jill Eber and Judy Zeder, the trio at the helm of the Jills Zeder Group. The team is Coldwell Banker Realty’s no.1 group in the nation, with $1.9 billion in sales in 2025.
They have a lock on their corner of Miami’s ultra luxury market. They had the listing for the record $170 million Indian Creek Island estate Mark Zuckerberg picked up in March, and the $101.5 million Coconut Grove compound Larry Page bought in December.
Another key figure in the region’s high end is Dina Goldentayer, Douglas Elliman’s top individual agent in the country. Goldentayer started her career in Miami as a waitress at a nightclub before pivoting to real estate in 2004. She closed $460.2 million in on-market deals last year. Her recent deals include buyer representation in a $52.6 million oceanfront assemblage in Golden Beach.
Compass’ Chad Carroll built his one-season run on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing Miami,” into a career as one of the tri-county region’s top brokers. He leads the 40-agent Chad Carroll Group, which closed $544.9 million in on-market sales last year and landed in second place on TRD’s broker ranking.
Also based in Miami is Dora Puig, who heads her brokerage Luxe Living Realty. She’s carved out a niche on Fisher Island, the private island off the coast of Miami Beach that is considered one of the most expensive zip codes in the country.
She had the listing for a waterfront Venetian Islands house that billionaire Palantir CEO Alex Karp bought this spring, and she represented New York developer Richard Cohen in his $20.5 million purchase of a condo at Four Seasons Residences at the Surf Club.
Farther north, David Roberts of Royal Palm Properties reigns as the top broker in Boca Raton’s most expensive neighborhood, Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. Roberts has been selling homes in Royal Palm since 1984, and prices have gone up since then. Earlier this month, his $80 million listing for a spec mansion went into contract, teeing him up to shatter Boca Raton’s single-family price record.
Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates is perhaps the most successful broker in all of South Florida. But his dealmaking in Palm Beach closes largely off-market, making his career sales difficult to track. The notoriously press-shy agent embodies the discretion his clients –– which include President Donald Trump, Ken Griffin, Steve Wynn, Larry Ellison –– expect in nine-digit trophy purchases.
Also playing Palm Beach’s elite circle of brokers is Christian Angle with Christian Angle Real Estate. Angle has closed more than $5 billion in sales since 2025. In November, he listed an oceanfront compound once owned by Aldo Gucci for $205 million.
If ever there were an elder statesman of the South Florida brokerage business, it would be Mike Pappas. He is the longtime CEO of the Keyes Company, the brokerage founded by Ken Keyes and later bought by Pappas’ late father, Ted Pappas.
Mike Pappas joined the business as a sales associate in 1980 and took the reins as the chief executive in 1993. He has grown the business to more than 50 offices and about 4,000 agents statewide, making it the largest independently owned brokerage firm in Florida. In 2023, Pappas named his daughter, Christina Pappas, president as part of Keyes’ succession planning.
Another two-generation duo leads luxury powerhouse One Sotheby’s International Realty. Mayi de la Vega founded the Coconut Grove-based firm in 2008, and earlier this year passed the baton to her son, Daniel de la Vega. Mayi now serves as executive chair and Daniel as CEO of the more than 1,300-agent brokerage.
In a world of brokerage mega mergers, boutique power players still dominate dealmaking, especially in niche luxury pockets throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Gerry and Joe Liguori are the identical twin brothers who, along with their business partner Carmen D’Angelo Jr., lead the Boca Raton-based Premier Estate Properties.
Founded in 1993 with a focus on sales of $1 million or more, the brokerage is a dominant force in the region’s high end market, particularly in Palm Beach County. Its roster of star agents includes Jim McCann and Top 100 honoree Margit Brandt. Brandt is a top agent in Palm Beach who frequently closes deals north of $50 million. She counts Trump, WeatherTech founder David MacNeil and Douglas Durst as clients. Brandt established her dominance on the island in 2024, when she represented Australian billionaire Michael Dorrell in his $150 million purchase of a private island. The seller in that instance was spec developer Todd Glaser, who, along with his investment partners, has built and sold some of the most ambitious luxury homes in South Florida in recent years. Last summer, he spent a record $105 million on a 2.3-acre North Bay Road estate where he is planning a $300 million mansion, a price that would set a record for not just Miami, but the entire U.S.
