WGM Weekender: The Best Brokers in Miami, the Heat Index Residential Brokers Is Here.
The only broker ranking in Miami where the listing can’t buy the ranking.
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Let’s be honest about what every other “Top Broker” list in Miami actually is: a press release wearing a ranking’s clothes.
You know the ones. The lists where placement is determined by ad spend. Where the #1 spot goes to whoever bought the back cover of the magazine. Where the criteria, if they exist at all, are carefully calibrated to avoid offending anyone who might pull a media buy. Those lists aren’t rankings. They’re invoices.
The Broker Heat Index is different. Placement is never for sale. Period.
We started The Heat Index with restaurants because a city’s dining scene is its biography. Then hotels, because hospitality is the first impression a world-class city makes. Now we go where the real money moves, into the brokerage relationships, the closing tables, and the handshake deals that are reshaping the most scrutinized real estate market on earth.
Why Now
Miami isn’t slowing down. It’s maturing. And the difference matters.
Average sold prices in the luxury segment are up double digits year over year. More than half of all condo transactions are closing in cash, nearly double the national average. International capital from 73 countries is flowing into new construction, with Latin American buyers accounting for 86% of foreign purchases. The median single-family home in Miami-Dade is pressing $700K, and that number has gone up in 168 of the last 170 months.
This is not a market that tolerates amateurs. The brokers who command it are moving billions, advising the wealthiest families on earth, and operating in a city where a bad recommendation doesn’t just cost a commission, it costs a relationship. They deserve to be evaluated the way we evaluate everything else at What’s Good Miami: with standards, with specificity, and without a rate card.
How We Built It
Same framework as the restaurant and hotel rankings. Two axes — qualitative and quantitative. Good taste demands both. You can feel whether a broker is the real thing. You can also prove it.
We looked at closed volume and transaction data. We looked at market position and longevity, who has survived multiple cycles and still commands the room. We looked at institutional influence: who is building firms, who is shaping policy, who is defining how luxury is sold in this city. We looked at access, to inventory, to capital, to the rooms where decisions are made before they ever hit the MLS.
And we looked at something harder to measure but impossible to fake: reputation among peers. The people who actually work this market every day know who belongs on this list. We listened to them.
5 Tiers. 25 Names. Each One Earned.
Elite Tier: The undeniable. Volume, access, and reputation at a level no one can seriously dispute.
Power Broker: Market-movers with deep specialization, dominant in their corridors, trusted at the highest levels.
Institution Builder: The executives, founders, and firm leaders who are shaping the infrastructure of Miami real estate itself.
Specialist: Operators with commanding expertise in specific segments — pre-construction, celebrity transactions, neighborhood dominance — that gives them an edge no generalist can replicate.
Networker: The connectors. Brokers whose relationships, access, and momentum put them in rooms most agents never see.
A Few Names Worth Knowing Right Now
Twenty-five brokers made the list. Here are seven that tell the story of where Miami’s market is and where it’s going.
Danny Hertzberg | The Jills Zeder Group · Coldwell Banker Elite Tier
The Jills Zeder Group closes nearly $1.4 billion and has held the #1 position in Miami-Dade longer than most teams have existed. That’s the dynasty. Danny is the future of it. What separates him is digital command, he’s extending a legacy brand’s reach into channels and audiences the previous generation never had to think about. That’s not inheritance. That’s evolution. And the market is responding to it.
Dina Goldentayer | Douglas Elliman Elite Tier
$600 million in sales and a reputation built on something most brokers at this level can’t pull off: silence. Dina’s client list rarely makes the papers, and that’s the point. In a market that rewards noise, she’s proof that discretion is its own currency. Third overall in Miami. The people who know, know.
Ruthie & Ethan Assouline | Douglas Elliman Power Broker
The most important money highway in American real estate right now runs from New York to Miami. The Assoulines own the toll booth. They are the only true Miami–New York team in the market, managing the migration of capital from the Northeast to South Florida at a level no other brokerage can match. Multiple price records. Hundreds of millions in luxury inventory. A dominant presence in Bal Harbour. But the real edge is the pipeline — and right now, that pipeline is the game.
Nancy Batchelor | Compass Power Broker
There’s a reason Nancy is one of the most quoted voices in Miami real estate, she’s been right more often than she’s been wrong, and she’s been doing it longer than most. Commanding presence in Miami Beach and Morningside. A marketing force who helped define how luxury is sold in this city. Veteran is an understatement. Institution is closer.
Lourdes Alatriste | Douglas Elliman Power Broker
If you’re an international buyer entering Miami, there’s a very short list of people who can move you through the process at the highest level. Lourdes is at the top of it. Deep pipelines into Latin American capital, commanding presence in Coconut Grove and Coral Gables, and a cross-border fluency that is becoming more valuable by the quarter — not less. In a market where 86% of foreign buyers are coming from Latin America, she’s not just relevant. She’s essential.
Todd Lewin | Compass · Lewin Rubin Team Networker
Bi-coastal is a word that gets thrown around loosely. Todd actually lives it — offices in Miami Beach, Manhattan, and Brooklyn, with over $215M closed in 2026. His client network moves New York money directly into Miami real estate, and that migration isn’t slowing down. The connector between the two most important luxury markets in the country.
Jordan Karp | Jordan Karp LLC Networker
Son of legendary Miami architect Kobi Karp and socialite Nancy Karp. That sentence alone tells you the access is real. But what earns Jordan his spot isn’t the last name — it’s what he’s doing with it. He’s turned extraordinary Miami roots and a network most brokers spend a career building into one of the most talked-about young careers in the city. The rooms he’s in, most agents will never see. Watch this one.
These are seven of the twenty-five. The full list — every name, every tier, every write-up — is on The Heat Index.
See the Full List
The Broker Heat Index — all 25 names, the tiers, the write-ups, and why each one earned their spot — is live now on The Heat Index.
View the Broker Heat Index Vol. 01
Explore the full interactive rankings alongside our restaurant and hotel lists. Everything in one place. No ads. No sponsors. No paid placements. Just standards.
What This Means
This list will make some people uncomfortable. Good.
If your name isn’t on it, that doesn’t mean you’re not talented. It means we haven’t seen enough yet, or you’re operating in a segment we haven’t indexed. The Heat Index evolves. Vol. 02 will come. If you think someone belongs, tell us. We’re listening. We’re always listening.
If your name is on it, understand what that means. This isn’t a trophy. It’s a standard. We’ll be watching to see if you hold it.
Keep your SPF high and your standards higher.
See you at the beach.
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