Douglas Elliman’s Sarkis Team Brothers George and Manny Sarkis see their new offices in Boston’s Financial District as For a preview.
The duo say they’ve always wanted to have their own separate office (which just opened at 44 Buttermarch Street), and hope that once they’ve honed best practices, they can expand to other parts of the state and even the country.
“We want to continue to grow,” said Manny Sarkis, noting that Elliman has offices in the Back Bay and Nantucket. “We want to master that — run an office and manage a team in our own office. … The goal might be to go to another place in Massachusetts or Cape Town and the islands. … But we’re going to start here and get this thing right.”
Currently, their team consists of 15 people, including themselves, as they claim this is the only real estate office in the area. It’s a prime location, the brothers said, because of the high traffic in the area and the opening of offices, notably Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. It is also close to the north shore, south shore and western suburbs.
The 4,000-square-foot office was designed by Linda Zarifi and has been completely renovated; it seats 30 desks. There’s also a rooftop space that the Sarkis brothers, members of Douglas Elliman’s sports and entertainment division, plan to equip in the future.
“It allows George and I to do things the way the Sarkis team does, and with the support of Douglas Elliman, we can run our team as a company similar to our center … get creative, have team meetings and events there, ’ said Manny Sarkis.
Prior to this, the Sarkis team was ranked in the 2023 RealTrends as the No. 1 largest team in Boston (by volume and sales) and the No. 26 largest team in the country by volume.
The Sarkis brothers, who have worked at Elliman since 2017, said the Boston residential market, which includes neighboring suburbs like Charlestown, Wellesley and Brookline, is strong because of the city’s technology, research, medical and higher education sectors .
“There are a lot of outsiders from other states and other countries,” George Sarkis said. “Inventory is low and average prices are rising year over year. Summer slowed down significantly, but the overall market is strong.”
In fact, according to Redfin, the median sales price in Boston alone will be $810,000 in 2023, up more than 1.3% from 2022, even as the number of homes sold is down more than 25% year-over-year.
