Stephen Shapiro

Chair, Co-Founder, Westside Estate Agency

After more than 40 years in L.A. real estate, Stephen Shapiro has status as an OG of the luxury residential industry, where he regularly holds a spot among the top 20 brokerages in the market. 

Shapiro moved to L.A. from Philadelphia in 1969 and the serial entrepreneur took off from there. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial,” Shapiro told The Real Deal last year. In the 1970s, he started a business that provided video tours of properties. To entice agents to the service, the company only required payment after a home was sold. 

In the late 80s he co-founded Stan Herman, Stephen Shapiro and Associates, but when the industry went from a paper to electronic business, he shifted his focus. First, Shapiro conceived of an idea to start a brokerage modeled after a law firm, where the market’s top agents were akin to partners and had equity in the firm. “You have to have an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “The agents were afraid to leave the belly of that big company that was protecting them.” So, after speaking with his top agent at the time, Kurt Rappaport, the two each put up $100,000 to start Westside Estate Agency, where he works alongside his son, Max Shapiro. 

From July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025, the brokerage sold $809.1 million across 66 transactions. WEA remains fiercely independent, with leadership that keeps an open-door policy and a “no teams” philosophy.

– Kari Hamanaka.