Trending

Longtime BHS agent launches Side-backed brokerage

Scott Harris’ eight-agent team opens firm called Magnetic

<p>A photo illustration of Side&#8217;s Guy Gal and longtime BHS agent Scott Harris (Getty, Side, BHS)</p>

A photo illustration of Side’s Guy Gal and longtime BHS agent Scott Harris (Getty, Side, BHS)

Longtime Brown Harris Stevens agent Scott Harris is branching out on his own. 

Harris is leaving the 150-year-old firm after nearly two decades under its banner to launch his own shop backed by the white-label firm Side, according to a press release. Harris’ eight-person team is joining him at the new brokerage, called Magnetic. 

Most of the team’s business is in Manhattan, particularly on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, though they have closed sales in Brooklyn, Harris said. He added that his team ranked third among BHS’ top producers last year. 

The cohort last year notched $150 million in sales, including bringing the buyer for a $10 million condo at Witkoff Group and Access Industries’ One High Line. The cohort also closed two transactions at the Belnord on the Upper West Side for a combined $15 million. 

Under the new company, Harris said he plans to add more agents, double down on mentorship and turn back to new development, a segment of the market he focused on when he initially joined BHS in 2007. 

Among the reasons for his departure, Harris said he’d outgrown the brokerage and noted that over the last few years, the upside of a traditional firm “became less clear.”

Harris is also publishing a book about homebuying in October. 

“[Harris] has always had a company-building and entrepreneurial focus,” said John Wolberg, Side’s managing broker in New York. “He knew that he wanted to build a brokerage without having to run a brokerage, which makes Side the perfect partner for Magnetic.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Magnetic’s launch comes as brokerages across the country are contending with the fallout from two years of slow home sales and antitrust lawsuits over broker commissions. The turmoil has raised questions about the industry’s future and the role individual companies play in preserving or disrupting the status quo. 

“The brokerage industry, from a company standpoint, has lost its way,” Harris said. “They’ve forgotten that all the income is going up and down the elevator.”

When asked about whether the firm would institute clawbacks or other penalties for departing agents, Harris said he and his business partner, Karen Leonardi, “would adhere to standards of reasonableness.” 

“You can operate at the highest level of real estate and still be able to show your face in every room,” Harris said. He added that “doing good business and being a good person” aren’t mutually exclusive. 

A spokesperson for Brown Harris Stevens said the firm was “proud of the agent Scott became” under its umbrella. “We wish him the best in his new endeavor.”

Harris’ exit comes months after BHS nabbed a few notable agents of its own, including Lisa Simonsen, who joined the brokerage in September after almost 18 years with Douglas Elliman. Brett Miles also jumped to the firm following the collapse of Official Partners, the Side-backed firm founded by disgraced brokers Tal and Oren Alexander. 

Side, which was founded by CEO Guy Gal in 2017, has 20 partners in the New York City metropolitan area, according to the company’s spokesperson. On the West Coast, the firm picked up Plus Real Estate Group, headed by top Los Angeles broker Tyrone McKillen, after the cohort left Official in the wake of sexual assault allegations against the Alexanders. 

Read more

Residential
Tri-State
Brown Harris Stevens boosts Connecticut footprint with new office, agents
Residential
New York
Matthew Cohen returns to BHS after less than a year at Elliman
Residential
National
Side claims Alexanders, Official breached contract, defaulted on loan
Recommended For You