Clayton Orrigo and Stephen Ferrara

Manhattan may be real estate’s most visible stage, but Orrigo and Ferrara built their empire by staying out of sight.

After founding their group in 2017, Orrigo and Ferrara have quickly shot up the city’s agent leaderboards to become the top resale team by sales volume in The Real Deal’s last two annual agent rankings.

Their formula runs counter to the industry’s bravado. For years, their West Village office address was a secret. Nearly all of their business comes from referrals, fueled by a network of young wealthy Downtown clients.

“Friends are clients and clients are friends and that’s how we built this business,” Orrigo told TRD.

Many of their largest deals are off-market, though public sales have included a $26 million Tribeca townhouse with a private skybridge in 2022. They have also recently gotten into the new development game, launching sales at Alf Naman’s seven-unit project in the West Village 125 Perry Street, where condos are asking as much as $85 million.

Nowadays, the mystique has a storefront. The team opened a ground-floor retail office at 160 Leroy Street — and Orrigo bought a three-bedroom condo in the building for $6.5 million.

“If I can’t control the workload, I can control the commute,” he said.

— Jake Indursky