Bay Area brokerage buys back independence to ‘make meaning, not money’

The moment felt surreal and inspiring for Chris Trapani and Ryan Iwanaga, co-founders of the Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno brokerage, as they repurchased their independence from @properties. After inking the deal, the leaders say they have one mission in mind for Sereno’s future — make meaning, not money.

The move came after @properties finalized a merger with Compass, which Northern California-based Sereno won’t be a part of. Sereno formally finalized the deal on Jan. 13.

Sereno operated independently for 16 years, starting in 2006 after the co-founders left Coldwell Banker Realty. Trapani was Coldwell Banker’s first and youngest president in Silicon Valley at the time. Iwanaga was a former manager of the company’s office in Los Gatos — its largest in the country. But the duo has known each other since the age of 10, sharing their passion and drive for real estate.

We had this huge history of being kids and being a little rebellious. He was a skateboarder and I was a surfer. So, it wasn’t always the most constructive when we were kids, but [we] channeled that sort of creative discontent into building Sereno,” Trapani said in a recent interview with HousingWire.

Chris Trapani

Sereno’s path led to a partnership with @properties. Trapani and Iwanaga praised the company for giving them valuable knowledge over the years. But for both founders, the time to return Sereno to its roots came when Compass moved to acquire Christie’s and @properties for $150 million and 44.13 million shares of Class A stock.

Trapani and Iwanaga saw an opening, seizing the opportunity to return Sereno to its hyperlocal, community-focused mission.

“We learned so much from those guys. Now, we can go back to those hyperlocal inspirations for starting the company in the first place. The challenge and opportunity for us now is to see what we can achieve with all that knowledge and experience,” Trapani said.

Ryan Iwanaga

“We couldn’t have had a better relationship and experience with [@properties]. They taught us a tremendous amount on just their overall business acumen and how they operated a culturally based organization,” Iwanaga added. “But then having the opportunity to incorporate what we’ve learned and gained so far from them was just something that we’ve always done best when we’ve worked together and been independent of things.”

Sereno’s staff members were also excited about regaining their independence. According to the co-founders, most employees were concerned when the Compass merger arose, as they feared a loss of soul and purpose at Sereno.

But the move to return Sereno to independence quelled these worries and reignited the company’s spark, they said. Sereno even recruited a new team of agents soon after the deal was completed.

Competition isn’t a concern for Sereno either, as the brand has a history of competing with household names, according to Trapani. The founders have always focused on recruiting a select number of productive agents rather than mass hiring. Beyond that, the brokerage will now be the exclusive representative of Christie’s International Real Estate in the Bay Area.

“The distinction we offer is you can get both a hyperlocal, soulful organization that’s deep in the community, locally. Additionally, we have a tier-one global luxury brand and network that has been around for 265 years,” Trapani said. “No one else really has that kind of offering at that level.”

But competing has never been the main focus for Sereno. Trapani and Iwanaga intend to appeal to agents who want a connected, quality experience rather than the corporatized feel of a larger brokerage brand.

“You can provide exceptional customer service and take care of each client along the way, which results in this compounding effect of referrals,” Trapani said. “We’ve really kind of taken that approach as a broker. The term we’d like to use is, ‘We set out to make meaning not just money.’”

Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno is now the brand’s most productive global affiliate. The brokerage has also given back with its Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation, which has generated $6.5 million for more than 550 organizations.