Another major real estate brand has arrived in Vero Beach, further highlighting the growing power and appeal of the island market, which has attracted numerous top nameplates in recent years, including Douglas Elliman and Compass. Ceci and Gary Sutcliffe became the first SERHANT agents in Vero Beach in June, after several months of meetings and training. “They recruited us as their founding agents in Vero based on my social media,” says Ceci Sutcliffe, a St. Ed’s and University of Florida graduate who grew up on the island and has more than 10,000 followers on Instagram. Brand creator Ryan Serhant, 41, became a real estate celebrity during his nine-year stint on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listings New York,” where he charmed viewers with his exuberant passion for success. He launched his own brokerage in 2020, during the dark days of COVID-19 – and just before the biggest real estate boom in history. The company rode the pandemic wave to instant success and has since grown to include dozens of offices in the Northeast and Sunbelt that sold more than $7 billion worth of property in 2025. Serhant returned to TV in 2024 with the Netflix show “Owning Manhattan,” which was “an instant rating success,” according to Realtor.com. Filmed by Serhant’s New York media production studio, the streaming series about his brokerage became a Top 3 Netflix show in the U.S. and Top 10 show internationally, supercharging the growth of the brand. “Traffic to our website increased by a couple hundred percent [during the first season],” Serhant told Realtor.com when the show was renewed for a second season. “We now get somewhere between 200 and 300 resumes a day from real estate agents who are asking to work here and owners of independent brokerages who would like to open up SERHANT offices in their territories.” The brokerage came to Florida in April 2023, when Christian Prakas opened the first SERHANT office in the state in Del Rey. He previously helmed Prakas Real Estate, an independent brokerage with 20 agents. “I was tired of missing out on big deals and new development and I sent Ryan an email suggesting we open an office here,” Prakas told Vero Beach 32963 last week. “He emailed me back the same day.” As regional managing broker, Prakas has since opened SERHANT offices in Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Jupiter that have made headlines with record-breaking deals, including the sale of 2.25 acres on South Ocean Boulevard owned by Estee Lauder cosmetics heir and billionaire William P. Lauder for $165 million, the richest residential land sale ever in Palm Beach. After the initial outreach, the Sutcliffes met with Prakas in Stuart – where he is preparing to launch a new SERHANT office – to explore the idea of moving their business to the brokerage. Both were with ONE Sotheby’s International Realty’s island office at the time. “We had a three-hour lunch, and that was basically it,” says Gary Sutcliffe. “I stood up and looked at her and she looked at me, and we both knew.” “I knew going into the meeting that this was what I wanted, but I thought I'd have to convince him,” says Ceci Sutcliffe. “We make decisions as a team and I had a sales pitch prepared, but it turned out I didn’t need it. By the time we got to the car, we had decided.” An hour-long video meeting with decisionmakers at SERHANT’S New York headquarters went equally well and the husband-and-wife team plunged into what they call “a very regimented” online training program in April. Along with brand training, the onboarding process included business analysis and coaching. “We met with one of their onboarding specialists, Lauren, who’s based out of California, and she was fantastic,” says Ceci. “She asked us a bunch of questions about where our business is now and where we want to take it, and they’re coming back to us with a six-month and a 12-month business plan detailing how they can support us based on our vision and our goals. “They have teams of specialists in numerous different areas, including social media. They did a complete review of our personal social media brand, dissecting it significantly and telling us where they think we can fill gaps and speak to a broader audience.” “It’s huge what they’ve done for us,” says Gary. During the training period, the Sutcliffes conducted informal focus groups with clients to gauge reaction to their planned transition. “We went to some clients that we know are going to list next season and some past clients, and also to some friends, and asked them what they thought about us moving to SERHANT,” says Ceci. “Universally, the response was, ‘My gosh, that's amazing. You'd be stupid not to do that.’” The Sutcliffes sold their first property as SERHANT agents in mid-June, two weeks after officially joining the brokerage, closing a $2,175,000 deal for the luxury condo at 3 Royal Palm Point 2E in Vero Beach. They say the move has injected energy and brought interest to their business, with numerous inquiries and several new listings. “We put 1810 Sand Dollar Way in Seagrove East under contract last week after only three days on the market,” Ceci says. “The summer is turning out to be busier than we expected,” says Gary, who owned a boutique advertising agency in the Northeast before retiring to Vero Beach. He has a background in real estate as a substantial side-gig, flipping buildings in the Northeast during his ad career. He says he got back into real estate in Vero because “I could only play so much golf and take so many walks on the beach!” Ceci had a successful career in corporate and start-up marketing in New York, Shanghai and Washington, D.C., before returning to Vero Beach after the pandemic. The couple met online during COVID-19, married in 2022 and formed The Sutcliffe Group at ONE Sotheby’s shortly thereafter. Both have expertise in marketing and media and were drawn to SERHANT for that reason. They attended a team-building event in Jupiter this spring and are enthusiastic about the brokerage’s collaborative culture and camaraderie, but its coverage is what sold them on the brand. Besides his production division, Ryan Serhant has large technology and marketing divisions that have made the company the most followed real estate brokerage in the country, with more than 10 million followers across Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, according to numerous third-party sources. “That translates into greater exposure for our clients’ properties,” says Ceci. “One of SERHANT’s mottos is ‘content to commerce,’” Gary says. “We believe in that.” The couple held a small brand debut party at their listing at 906 Jasmine Lane in Riomar but plan a larger kickoff event toward the end of summer. Prakas says he expects to open a brick-and-mortar office in Vero within six to 18 months. “We prefer to grow organically, bringing in only the best, full-time, high-performing professionals, and we need to find just the right space that suits our brand, with good visibility and signage.”