The Biggest Hamptons Brokerages

The Real Deal

TRD's annual ranking of East End firms
Aug. 1, 2012

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New strategies

Several firms have recently made aggressive moves to expand their presence in the Hamptons — notably Saunders & Associates, Nest Seekers International at No. 7 and Devlin McNiff Halstead Property at No. 10.

Saunders continued to increase its ranks in 2012, overtaking Sotheby’s International Realty, where Saunders was once a broker. Sotheby’s dropped to No. 6 with 87 agents.

And Saunders said he added several brokers in the weeks since TRD gathered its data. Additionally, he said, a number of agents have committed to joining Saunders in his new East Hampton office, set to open in 2013.

He also noted that his agents had found the buyers for three properties — 171 Great Plains Road, 329 Highland Terrace and 95 Surfside Drive — that appear on TRD’s list of the biggest East End sales so far this year (see page 52).

Meanwhile, the Manhattan-based Nest Seekers swelled in May 2011 when it took over the floundering local franchise of Germany’s Engel & Völkers, a global luxury brokerage that had offices in Southampton and East Hampton.

Along with the firm’s facilities, Nest Seekers — which was founded by Eddie Shapiro in 2002, and has operated in the Hamptons for several years — scooped up many of its agents. Nest Seekers now has 26 agents in Southampton, 17 in East Hampton, two in Water Mill and one in Bridgehampton, according to TRD’s data.

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