Less than 200 of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services’ more than 15,000 agents were hired.
That’s the headline number behind Luxury Circle of Excellence, an invitation-only membership network the Pittsburgh-based brokerage launched this month during a two-day summit in New York City.
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To qualify for the first class, agents must have closed at least 10 deals in the past three years, with each deal valued at $1 million or more. This threshold acts as a floor rather than an upper limit, and the company says it intentionally set this threshold to keep the program ambitious.
Molly Hannah Lang (via LinkedIn)
“We wanted it to be something that would grow,” said Molly Hannah Lang, director of luxury marketing and marketplace operations at Howard Hanna, who is spearheading the effort. “It’s not unachievable, but it will set us apart.”
Connecting the footprint
Luxury Circle is not a marketing badge. According to Hannah Lang and Howard W. “Hobie” Hannah IV, CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the origins of the program came directly from the agent base, specifically from top producers looking to find counterparts in other markets.
“Who is Cleveland’s counterpart in Charlotte or New York City?” Hannah Lang said, explaining what she’s hearing from agents the company has in 15 states. The answer so far has been that there was no formal mechanism for knowing that.
Circle was designed to change that. Members have access to carefully selected programs, cross-market networking, and most specifically, a warm referral pipeline within companies that already dominate several legacy markets.
In 2025, the company completed $583 million in luxury sales in Charlotte, $494 million across Long Island, and $235 million in suburban New York. In Cleveland, Howard Hanna outsold its closest luxury competitor by more than 7 to 1.
Hobie Hanna cited a pattern the company has observed since acquiring Manhattan-based Elegran Real Estate last fall. That’s customers based in Indianapolis, Cleveland or Charlotte who are buying a New York City pied-a-terre or relocating for work.
“Even though they’re a publicly traded company based in Cleveland, they spend a lot of time in New York City,” Hanna said. “This gives our agents a visible way to expand their referral relationships across a variety of markets.”
Why New York and why now?
Luxury Summit NYC was no accident. Howard Hanna entered Manhattan in October 2025 through the acquisition of Elegran, and the launch event, held at a $56 million public offering at 111 West 57th Street on Billionaires Row, was part of the company’s declaration to the New York market that it intends to not only exist, but compete.
“We want to make a presence and make a statement to other agents in the city,” Hanna said. “We’re not just opening up to hope. We’re business owners. We’re going to grow and become one of the major businesses in the city, just like we do everywhere else.”
hobby hannah
Howard Hanna is already the largest brokerage in New York state by number of agents and homes sold, a fact that tends to surprise people, Hanna noted. Its entry into New York City combined its suburban advantages with Manhattan for the first time.
The summit itself was a two-day program led by internal as well as external voices. Speakers included the chief marketing officer of Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria brand and executives from Aston Martin. This framework was intentional. Luxury agents don’t just sell homes, they sell a lifestyle. And the company wanted to hear from people who were doing it at other price points.
“I just sat and listened to Aston Martin’s CMO talk about why that level of service is important to customers,” Hannah Lang said. “This connects our agents with high-net-worth clients.”
ambitious design
Howard Hanna has long resisted the urge to spin off its luxury division, but Hobie Hanna said other brokerages have seen the move, with mixed results.
The Luxury Circle is structured not as a new company or brand, but as one that recognizes that some of its agents operate in a different register and benefit from the resources built around it.
“We’re not just trying to be a luxury company,” Hanna said. “We’re trying to serve the entire housing ecosystem.”
That philosophy is manifested in the threshold criteria. Some Howard Hanna markets have 10 transactions over $1 million, accounting for a significant share of the market.
In other areas, such as parts of Manhattan and coastal Long Island, bars are more modest. Rather than designing the program only for the top 20 producers, the company intentionally set it up that way to build room for growth.
The program is centrally funded, which Hanna described as a structural advantage over the franchise’s competitors. “As a corporate-owned company, we said we were going to pay for it,” he said. “We’re going to make that investment in our agency.”
Although the location of the next summit has not been announced, Hanna hinted at second-home markets where Howard Hanna is present and where there are agents with stories to tell, such as North Carolina’s mountain communities and lakefront properties along Lake Erie.
The excitement surrounding the inaugural event is already working as intended, he said. Agents who couldn’t attend are asking when the next one will be. Agents who aren’t yet eligible are asking how to become eligible.
“Members have privileges,” Hanna says. “I think that’s where a lot of real estate companies don’t do well. They don’t network because they’re separate franchises. We said we’re going to make that investment.”
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