SERHANT. has officially planted its flag in Chicago, opening two Illinois offices serving the city and the North Shore suburbs with an initial roster of more than 40 agents. The roster includes recruits from some of the city's biggest residential brokerages. The launch marks the firm's first footprint in the Midwest, following a run of 2026 expansions into Massachusetts, California, Texas, and Colorado.
According to The Real Deal, SERHANT. recruited 15 agents from Sotheby's International Realty, 10 from @properties Christie's International Real Estate, five from Baird & Warner, three from Compass, and one each from Keller Williams and Real. Collectively, the new Illinois team is said to have represented more than $600 million in sales volume across the Chicagoland region over the past year, per the outlet's reporting.
Leading the new practice is Dina Lissner, who joins SERHANT. Illinois from Baird & Warner, where she served at the firm's Highland Park office for five years, according to Chicago Agent Magazine. Lissner had returned to Baird & Warner in July 2021 following a three-year stint at Compass, the outlet noted at the time, and she now leads the firm's Illinois practice. “SERHANT. represents the next generation in brokerage,” Lissner said, per The Real Deal's report.
Founding Agents Arrive From Rival Firms
Among the founding agents joining the Illinois launch are Melissa Siegal from @properties Christie's International Real Estate, Jennifer Mills Klatt from Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, and Bobby Grilli and Brendan Murphy, both arriving from Sotheby's International Realty. Their teams came with them: Siegal's group includes Julia Elsmo, Kristin Lent, Quincy Powers, Ruari Cahill, and Rachel Siegal, while Mills Klatt's Home Discovery Team brought on Katie Bloom, Luke Jorwic, and Mary Higley. The Grilli Murphy Group added Michael Byrne, Nicole Shannon, and John Kosmopoulos.
Founder Ryan Serhant framed the Chicago launch as overdue, telling The Real Deal that he had actually considered the city as a potential launch location back in 2020. “Real estate in Chicago has run the same way for a long time,” Serhant said, adding that people were “yearning for a new direction, choices and something fresh.” He also argued that a crowded marketplace is a healthy sign, saying consumers deserve options and that competition signals strong business and talent, according to the same report.
A Market Dominated by Four Firms
SERHANT.'s entry lands in a Chicago market where concentration at the top has only intensified. @properties Christie's, Compass, Coldwell Banker Realty, and Jameson Sotheby's International Realty generated nearly $18 billion in combined sales volume in 2025, accounting for 63 percent of sales among the city's top 20 firms, according to The Real Deal. @properties Christie's alone ranked as the top Chicago brokerage with $7.85 billion in sales that year, the outlet reported, after Compass acquired the firm.
That consolidation has accelerated nationally, too. Compass acquired Anywhere Real Estate for $1.6 billion in 2026, a deal that brought Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, Corcoran, Coldwell Banker, and Century 21 under its umbrella, per The Real Deal's reporting. SERHANT. is positioning its Illinois launch as a direct counter to that scale, having recruited its founding leadership straight out of @properties, Jameson Sotheby's, Baird & Warner, and Compass.
Tech and Celebrity as the Pitch
SERHANT. is leaning on more than star power to win over agents. In September, the firm unveiled S.MPLE 2.0, featuring an AI “chief of staff” copilot called Dot that proactively manages workflows across an agent's email, calendar, and CRM without needing direct prompts, according to Inman. Inman reported that agents who joined SERHANT. and adopted S.MPLE over the past 24 months saw an average 144 percent year-over-year increase in gross commission income compared with their prior firms.
Founded in September 2020, SERHANT. operates as what it calls a content-to-commerce ecosystem, pairing brokerage services with an in-house production studio and an education platform, and has amassed more than 9.5 million social media followers, according to RyanSerhant.com. Founder Ryan Serhant stars in and produces Netflix's “Owning Manhattan” and stars in Bravo's “Million Dollar Listing New York,” per Wikipedia. The company runs its headquarters out of a 15,000-square-foot SoHo facility in Manhattan that serves as an office, creative studio, and clubhouse, and now employs nearly 1,500 agents and 200 staff across 17 state markets, with 38 offices total, The Real Deal reported.
Part of a Fast-Moving National Rollout
Chicago is only the latest stop on a breakneck 2026 expansion tour. SERHANT. expanded into Massachusetts, California, Texas, and Colorado earlier in 2026; California's launch was associated with $2 billion in agent sales volume and Colorado's with $1 billion, according to HousingWire. Hoodline previously covered the firm's San Francisco luxury push as well as its 2025 Arizona debut, when a 58-agent team generated over $500 million in sales.
The Illinois debut also arrives amid broader upheaval in how real estate commissions work nationally. NAR rules, instituted in August 2024, now require written representation agreements before home tours — a shift reshaping how brokerages like SERHANT. position themselves to both agents and buyers.
The Real Deal noted that SERHANT. has already climbed into the top ranks of brokerages in New York City within four years of its 2020 launch, ranking sixth in Manhattan and fourth in Brooklyn by the outlet's count. Whether that same trajectory plays out in a Midwest market long dominated by legacy names remains to be seen, but the roster of agents now wearing the SERHANT. badge in Chicago and the North Shore gives the firm its first real test case outside the coasts.
