Teen obsession turns into career for two LA luxury home brokers

by Kari Hamanaka

As teenagers, The Beverly Hills Estates’ Jack Harris and Michael Fahimian argued over the best luxury residential streets, talked through negotiations and analyzed deals.

They were 13 when they met at a tennis tournament and later began practicing together. However, those meet-ups inevitably turned into real estate discussion and debate.

“We decided that we probably shouldn’t practice with each other anymore,” Fahimian said.

The early interest in real estate has served them well.

Today, they’re the brokerage’s youngest full-time agents (Harris is 25 and Fahimian is 26) and the top team after the firm’s founders, Rayni and Branden Williams.

Their sales to date are more than half a billion dollars in the three years they’ve been full-time agents. Last year they closed on $187.5 million in sales, receiving the accolade of top producers in their first year at The Beverly Hills Estates.

As a broader point of comparison, if their team was ranked in The Real Deal’s most recent list of top agents and teams, they would place 15th in Los Angeles County. The comparison isn’t an exact science with TRD’s research not counting off-market deals or those under $1 million, and the period analyzed was May 2023 to May 2024.

This year Harris and Fahimian have closed $150 million so far, tracking to once again be The Beverly Hills Estate’s top performers after the Williams & Williams team.

They swim in highly competitive markets with limited supply of luxury properties in Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, Bel-Air, Hollywood Hills, West Hollywood, Malibu and Brentwood. Names such as Westside Estate Agency’s Kurt Rappaport, Carolwood Estates’ Drew Fenton, Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California’s Aaron Kirman and their own bosses dominate rankings.

That doesn’t faze either of them.

Currently, Harris and Fahimian hold more than $300 million in listings. This includes a $150 million, off-market property in Holmby Hills. They’ve also got 271 South Mapleton Drive, which will be relisted and last had an asking of $62.5 million.

Among their larger closings is 1301 Collingwood Place in the Bird Streets neighborhood, where they represented the buyer. The property sold for $37.4 million in June 2023. There was also the $23 million Bel-Air home at 657 Perugia Way, which sold in June. The two represented the buyer along with Carolwood’s Alexis Perry.

Taught by TV

Growing up, both watched Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing,” noting how the negotiations played out on television. When Harris was given Jeff Hyland’s book “The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills” on his 15th birthday, he read it cover-to-cover several times, as did Fahimian.

When Fahimian got his driver’s license, they drove around the neighborhoods cited in the book: Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, the Bird Streets and Malibu.

“We became obsessed with these properties, and we would go and drive in front of them,” Fahimian said. “Most had big, tall gates where we couldn’t even see the house.”

The two attended University of Southern California’s real estate development school, which is where they made their connections. They also worked with some of the industry’s biggest names: Fahimian with Coldwell Banker Realty’s Jade Mills and Harris with Josh Flagg, who was with Rodeo Realty at the time.

Selling the Collingwood Place property marked a notable moment in their careers.

“We would drive by that street when they were breaking ground on that house and then we ended up coming full circle and sold it,” Harris recalled.

The property initially entered the market in the mid-$60 million range before it was reduced a few times and then pulled from the market entirely to become a rental. When Harris and Fahimian’s client fell out of escrow on another Bird Streets home, they searched for alternatives and stumbled upon Collingwood.

“We knew everything about it from the times that we had driven by it, thought about it and looked at it on Google Earth, comparing it to other properties,” Fahimian said.

They credit The Beverly Hills Estates’ corporate culture as a factor in their success.

“Lots of brokerages will instill a sense of competition between the agents, which then leads to animosity,” Harris said. “Here, it’s about collaborating. They really celebrate your deals. Every Tuesday they announce all the deals. Everyone gets to speak. Branden and Rayni ask, ‘How did you do this deal? How did it happen?’ And by hearing everyone else’s process, whether it’s a $1 million sale or a $50 million sale, there’s an art of the deal in each one. You can learn a lot from everyone.”

The two estimate they’ve done more than $75 million in business just from pitches at staff meetings. That includes representing the buyer on 1150 Shadow Hill Way in Beverly Hills, which sold for $12.2 million in June and closed 10 days after it was pitched during the weekly meeting. The Beverly Hills Estates’ Judy Feder was the listing agent.

Goal-driven focus

As for what’s next, Harris and Fahimian remain laser focused on the neighborhoods they currently do business in, with no plans to expand beyond that.

“We’re big believers in being 100 percent focused on the areas we know best,” Harris said. “Until we’ve conquered those areas — and we are already conquering and will conquer — we don’t want to distract ourselves or move away from our expertise.”

They also have no interest in building a mega team.

Currently, their group is Harris and Fahimian, along with a director of operations and assistant. They say they like the size because it allows them to be directly involved with clients, taking their calls instead of passing them off to another team member.

Meantime, the clock’s ticking on a milestone they hope to reach within the next four years.

“We have one goal and one goal only right now: to be number one, period, in California by the time we’re 30,” Harris said.

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