11 All-Star Real Estate Agents in Los Angeles Selling Homes of the Rich and Famous

The sun drenched city of Los Angeles is home to some of the most glamorous real estate in the nation owned by Hollywoods’ famous. That makes the work of the top real estate agents in Los Angeles all the more intriguing.

Whether you’re looking for an A-Lister agent who you can trust with your own luxury property or crave details on celebrity listings, we curated a list of 11 top real estate agents in Los Angeles known for having “For Sale” signs in star-studded neighborhoods to give you the inside scoop.

These agents sell some of L.A. metro’s most drool-worthy homes and, in true L.A. fashion, even have experience listing property for celebrity clientele like Lady Gaga and Adam Levine. For added insight, we quizzed seven of these agents on exactly what sells a house in the LA market. We’ll share their insider tips with you — no Oscar statue or membership to the three-comma club required.

Agents with celebs on speed dial

When Hollywood’s A-list celebrities are ready to part with their current home, they call on expert agents whose multi-million dollar deals are just another day at the office.

Santiago Arana

Years of experience: 16
Top agent stat: With an average sales transaction of $6 million, Arana sold a record-breaking $23 million Malibu Park estate to Lady Gaga in 2014.
Specialties: Luxury homes
Celebrity home sales: Lady Gaga, Lebron James, Larry David, “Bond King ” Jeffrey Gundlach, and Alessandra Ambrosio

Social media ace: Arana’s 25,000+ Instagram followers double-tap the agent’s snaps of L.A.’s most dream-worthy digs. And his account features more than swoon-worthy estates. Arana’s Instagram ‘Driveways’ stories show off the coveted cars that reside at his listings.

Top agent takeaway: 
Success in the real estate market relies on relationships and personalized service. “Every individual, every house, every showing — everything needs to be unique. Nothing about it is the same,” Arana says in an interview with the International Association of Real Estate Professionals. “You don’t show a house the same way to a single 23-year-old tech guy as you would to a couple in their late forties with kids,” he adds.

Ernie Carswell

Years of experience: 25
Top agent stat: Carswell works with 83% more single-family homes than the average L.A. agent, with an average price point of $3 million.
Specialties: Luxury homes, exclusive neighborhoods
Celebrity home sales: Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott, Yolanda Hadid, and the Brady Bunch house

Westside listing expert: Carswell works in the swankiest L.A. zip codes: Beverly Hills, Hancock Park, Beverly Hills Post Office, and Hollywood Hills.

Top agent tip: First impressions are key. Don’t forget to spruce up the entryway, Carswell advises. “The buyers will come to your front door, and they will pause and wait for it to be opened,” he says on his YouTube channel. “They’re looking at everything, and if it’s not clean — if the hardware is kind of broken, or not at its best — they’re making assessments before they step in the front door.”

Christopher Cortazzo

Years of experience: 27
Top agent stat: During the course of his career, Cortazzo has sold over $5 billion in real estate. He had a running start — his first sale was a $5 million home to Richard Gere in 1994.
Specialties: Malibu estates, ocean view homes
Celebrity home sales: Ellen DeGeneres, Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock, and Josh Groban

Ultimate Malibu insider: Born and raised in Malibu, Cortazzo has the pulse of the exclusive Malibu market. “Malibu is the greatest place to live and work in the world,” his website quotes. “My clients trust me because I know the market better than anyone.”

Cortazzo’s Malibu listings epitomize luxury. His portfolio includes the sale of a $48 million compound off the Pacific Coast Highway.

Top agent takeaway: You don’t need to wait until spring to sell your home, Cortazzo notes on his blog. Competition isn’t as fierce in winter months with fewer homes on the market, and buyers are more serious about moving, he says. It doesn’t hurt that L.A.’s cool season has an average daily high of 70 degrees.

Josh Flagg

Years of experience: 16
Top agent stat: Flagg sold the late Betsy Bloomingdale’s Holmby Hills estate to Tom Ford for a cool $39 million.
Specialty: Beverly Hills historical homes
Celebrity home sales: Shonda Rhimes, Adam Levine, Steve Aoki, Stan Lee, the Getty family

On-air agent: Follow Flagg’s behind-the-scenes real estate exploits on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.” Flagg has been a series regular since 2008.

Social media flair: Flagg’s on-air chronicles extend beyond the Bravo network. More than 23,000 viewers subscribe to his YouTube channel, and the TV personality boasts more than 500,000 Instagram followers.

Top agent takeaway: Mind the details when staging your home. “Plant yellow flowers,” says Josh in an interview with 9Honey Homes. “People always like yellow flowers at the front of a home. It just makes people happy. People always like yellow. I don’t know why, but it works.”

Tami Pardee

Years of experience: 17
Top Agent Stat: In 2017, Pardee sold the Venice home featured in David Duchovny’s “Californication” TV series for a record-breaking $14.6 million.
Specialties: Oceanside homes, luxury estates
Celebrity home sales: Anjelica Huston, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew Modine

Queen of Venice: Despite the royal nickname, Pardee’s prowess extends beyond funky Venice beach bungalows and oceanfront Marina del Rey villas. Her listing portfolio includes a Los Feliz art-deco estate reminiscent of Hollywood’s golden age (think Clark Gable and Bette Davis) and a Silver Lake craftsman built in 1911.

All eyes on you(r home): According to Pardee, each of her listings averages 67,000 page views per month — she spends more than $200,000 each month on marketing and social media to get buyers looking for houses for sale in Los Angeles in the door. “You want to make sure that your house is viewed by every single person out there, and in the right light,” says Pardee, “so that you have 100% exposure and [buyers are] seeing the best side of your house.”

Top agent tip: Whether it’s to escape a quarrelsome neighbor or satisfy a curiosity (Just how much is my house worth?), some homeowners think they want to sell. But in reality, some aren’t ready to let go, Pardee notes. She advises would-be sellers to first think about what’s next — where you’ll settle and what you want your life to look like.

Pardee asks clients, “Why are they selling? Where do they want to go, and how can we help them get there?”

Agents selling in star-studded neighborhoods

Our list of top L.A. agents broker deals in the notable neighborhoods where celebs live and loaf, from Christian Bale’s Santa Monica jogging path to Selena Gomez’s San Fernando Valley hideaway.

Karen Anderson

Years of experience: 24
Top agent stat: Anderson’s listings sell 58% quicker than the average L.A. agent.
Specialties: Beach dwellings in San Pedro, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Santa Monica

Standout sale: Anderson sold a 1930s Spanish-style home with a red tile roof and views of the L.A. harbor for $1.785 million.

Top agent tip: In a bullish real estate market, Anderson warns sellers not to take the buyer frenzy for granted. When listing your home, price it right.

“If you start with [pricing] high, you don’t really have anywhere to go, but … if you start it at the market, you’ve got more people that are going to look at it,” says Anderson. You’ll end up with a higher price in the end, she adds.

Brad Korb

Years of experience: 42
Top agent stat: Korb has sold over 1,100 single-family homes — 67% more than the average L.A. agent.
Celebrity endorsements: Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran and Rascal Flatts’ singer Gary LeVox
Regional specialties: San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley

Staging to sell: Korb understands the value of staging a home to get a buyer’s attention.  In addition to hiring a professional stager, he keeps a warehouse filled with furniture and a moving truck at the ready — for no additional cost to his clients. “If a house is vacant, I can move furniture in and drive a higher price to the sellers,” Korb says.

Standout listing: Korb recalls listing a 1920s English Tudor-style home, its gabled roofline and decorative half-timbering plucked from the pages of a children’s fairy tale. After receiving 10 offers, Korb secured a $1.125 million contract for the Burbank abode in 11 days.

Top agent tip: Korb advises homeowners to interview three or four different agents before listing their home. Partner with the agent most committed to getting your home ready to sell and who has the best marketing plan, he says. Korb, who spends more than $40,000 each month marketing his listings, stresses the importance of visibility. “It’s highly critical that you get the property out there.”

Grace Miranda

Years of experience: 21
Top agent stat: Miranda keeps sellers on track for a fast closing — her listings close 53% quicker than the average L.A. agent.
Specialties: Equestrian homes, residential investment properties, and single-family homes in northern L.A.

Equine expert: Her riding days are behind her, but Miranda’s experience in the niche market of hard-to-find horse properties makes her an ideal partner for horse lovers on the move to greener pastures.

Miranda recently listed and sold a Shadow Hills equine boarding facility that accommodates up to 100 horses. Just shy of 10 acres, the horse heaven includes lodging for human caretakers: a 4,691 square foot ranch home and detached guest house.

Top agent tip: Miranda cautions sellers not to rush into fixing up their home without talking to their agent first. “There are very specific things the buyers are looking for, and not every seller is in tune with that,” explains Miranda. “But we work with clients and buyers every day, so we know what they want.”

Miranda adds that prepping a home to sell doesn’t equate to a design overhaul. “I’m big on doing the house prep on a budget,” says Miranda. “I don’t want my clients remodeling … for a buyer. And many of them think they need to.”

Richard Schulman

Years of experience: 17
Top agent stat: Schulman and his team have closed over $1 billion in sales.
Regional specialties: Condominiums, single-family homes, and investment properties

Investor’s agent : As someone who owns several rental properties, Schulman says he specializes in working with investors. His clients include all experience levels, from first-time apartment owners to institutional investors.

Condo expert: According to HomeLight’s data, Schulman has sold 609 more condos than the average L.A. agent — making him a pro when it comes to navigating a nuanced condo sale, particularly when it comes to homeowner association (HOA) disclosures. “With condos, you have to understand the workings of an HOA and assessments,” says Schulman.

Top agent tip: Schulman’s advice to sellers? Listen to your real estate agent and act on their advice. When it comes to pricing and getting your home ready to sell, what worked three or four months ago may not be the case by the time you’re ready to market.

James Suarez

Years of experience: 17
Top agent stat: HomeLight’s data shows Suarez sold 285 single-family homes in the past four years. That’s 85% more than the average L.A. agent.
Regional specialties: Suarez leads a team of agents that spans the Greater L.A. Area. The majority of his recent transactions closed west of Interstate 405 and north of the Los Angeles International Airport, an area that includes Playa del Rey and Westchester.

Standout listing: According to the Los Angeles Times, “Jane the Virgin” star Gina Rodriguez snapped up one of Suarez’s Westchester listings in 2019. The two-story Tudor home sold for $2.42 million.

Top agent tip: Suarez urges homeowners to research different listing agents and teams before signing on the dotted line. He says it’s a decision that directly impacts a home’s final sale price.

“Depending on the team or agent they choose, the value of their house can vary, probably up to 10%,” Suarez explains. And he advises against hiring an agent based solely on friendship. “Make the best decision based off of [the agent’s] performance and results,” says Suarez.

Melissa Urena

Years of experience: 10
Top agent stat: Urena completed more listing transactions than the average L.A. agent by 17%.
Neighborhoods: Urena and her team cover a wide swath of L.A. county, with a territory encompassing communities south of I-10 and west of the 605 Freeway.

Proven dealmaker: According to a client review, one seller’s Alamitos Beach home lingered on the market for months before the owner brought Urena on board. Urena sold it within weeks. The agent credits her intimate knowledge of the Long Beach community for her success, noting that the community’s landscape varies block by block. “It does really require someone who has a heartbeat of the community to understand how to position [the home] to the right customer,” she explains.

Urena tweaked the marketing plan to target a millennial buyer, the demographic that fit the surrounding neighborhood. She suggested budget-friendly cosmetic changes, such as swapping out dated wallpaper, and zeroed in on an online marketing campaign to attract the perfect buyer.

Top agent takeaway: Complications arise with any home sale, even in a seller’s market. “Area expertise is key,” says Urena, who references a tricky south L.A. listing hindered by inconsistent zoning (the residential home sat on a commercial lot). Urena’s experience working with area investors helped her secure an experienced buyer willing to take on the zoning disparity.

Find a local A-list real estate agent in Los Angeles

HomeLight crunched the numbers and discovered that L.A. sellers who partner with a top agent add $58,168 to their bottom line, on average. Thankfully, you don’t need an exclusive Beverly Hills address or red carpet invitation to work with an A-list real estate agent. HomeLight’s Agent Finder has your back.

A few keystrokes from you (your property address), and we’ll match you with a shortlist of top agents in your neighborhood using sales data and agent stats.

Header Image Source: (Joseph Ngabo / Unsplash)