The nation’s leading ultra-luxury real estate group The Alexander Team, led by Oren and Tal Alexander, has left Douglas Elliman to launch their own firm, Official. Official is the first real estate advisory firm to specialize in the ultra-luxury segment of the market and is backed by the San Francisco-based real estate firm Side, which partners with top-producing agents and teams who own their own brands. The Alexander team will also expand to the West Coast.

The Alexander Team was ranked by Douglas Elliman as the leading team by gross commission income and sales volume in both Florida and New York in 2021 with $1.8 billion in sales, accounting for 3.5% of the brokerages $51.2 billion in total sales volume. They were also ranked the #1 Team in the USA by Wall Street Journal in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Side is a real estate brokerage founded in 2017 by Guy Gal to partner with leading real estate agents. The agents own 100% of their own brand and business and Side powers the back-end and acts as the broker. Side typically takes 10% of commissions and Side keeps the brand if the partners leave within the first two years of the partnership. Side expanded to Florida in 2019 and reached a $2.5 billion valuation in 2021. Side is backed by Tiger Global Management, ICONIQ Capital and Trinity Ventures.