Over the past 25 years, Aaron Carman has become a juggernaut in the Southern California luxury market.
The broker led one of the country’s most profitable teams at Compass for several years before launching his own firm at Christie’s International Real Estate in 2022. At the height of his team at Compass, Mr. Carman had about 160 agents; now Mr. Carman has about 350 agents, more than double the number of agents at Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California.
Even as a private agent, Carman continues to impress. Over the course of his career, he has sold approximately $19 billion in real estate, including $2 billion in 2023 alone, according to his website. Among other high-profile sales, Carman worked with Concierge Auctions to help sell the struggling mansion The One in 2022 for $141 million. In 2020, she appeared on CNBC’s “List Impossible” and became even more widely known.
So while Carman has been busy building his business over the past few years, he took some time this week to catch up with Inman on the latest market events and headlines. The following is his statement, edited for brevity and clarity.
Inman News: I learned that you launched a crypto division a few months ago and was interested to hear more about your progress. How much demand is there in LA?
Aaron Carman
Aaron Carman: It’s going very well. As you know, we launched this cryptocurrency division and not only have we had a lot of transactions from cryptocurrencies, but we have also received inquiries from people all over the world who are interested in buying a home with cryptocurrencies. And it became an amazing and great division for the company.
We’ve done some $100 million trades and trades in cryptocurrencies, which was unusual. We have represented everyone from local high-net-worth individuals to high-tech families in San Francisco to billionaires from the Middle East and China. It was a great ride. And having one of the only crypto divisions in the country is so much fun.
As you think more about technology, we’d love to hear how you’re currently adapting and leveraging AI in your business, and if you have any concerns about it.
So I think the term “AI” in the real estate industry is certainly overused. Everyone uses the word “AI” a lot, but there are so many variations of AI, including backend, frontend, and sales structures.
I was probably one of the first to adopt AI, before the word “AI” was used as much as it is today. Five or six years ago, I created a program to help us understand patterns and identify buyers and sellers through technology plays so we could retarget them. So I’ve always used AI as a tool to get information and access information. And I embrace AI 100%.
I don’t think AI is a threat. That’s because real estate is a business that involves people, and ultimately people are needed. So there’s always value that we as agents bring to the table, and that’s the personal touch, the personal experience, the knowledge that AI can’t necessarily deliver… But I’m not one of those who think that AI is going to take over the brokerage business and then the agents’ business.
Moving a little bit to the current news headlines, I wanted to get your thoughts on this new deal that Compass has with Redfin and the upcoming listings on Redfin. What do you think about it?
In fact, I’m very sympathetic to some of the things Compass is working on. I believe sellers should have the right to choose. This is working towards more explicit cooperation, but we believe sellers should have a choice in that regard. I also don’t think that just because something is listed it should not be made available to the public immediately. I think the seller should have the right to decide what they want to do with it or not.
And I 100 percent agree with Robert’s decision to fight against current standards. I don’t think sellers should be forced to publicly advertise their homes. And I don’t think agents should have to share information just because they’re on the list. Some things are private, some people want them to be private, and I think sellers should have the right to do so.
When it comes to Compass Coming Soon, I think the reality is that there are advantages to people being part of such a large multinational company. If they choose to share information about what’s coming soon to Redfin or similar services, [portals],it’s okay. It worked.
But I think it should be the seller’s choice, and I also think it should be the agent’s choice as to how they proceed with their marketing program. It is not always possible to respond one-size-fits-all. I think that’s the problem with real estate. Everyone tries to package it as one-size-fits-all, but it’s not that simple. And every house is different, each customer is different, each situation is different.
And you obviously work with a lot of high-end clients who prefer privacy. Do you think you mainly do private listings these days?
I sold an estimated $1.5 billion worth of real estate last year. No, although many of our listings are public, we also have many private listings. Many of our clients are celebrities, billionaires and millionaires who seek the discretion that a private listing provides.
Buyers often don’t want to buy an over-advertised home for a variety of reasons, including security and other factors, and they want to be able to buy a non-over-advertised home if they want. There are a lot of factors in the world right now regarding security and public issues, so we do a lot of private sales, and a lot of the people we represent appreciate that fact.
Thinking about Southern California and Los Angeles, how do you think people are reacting to the Los Angeles mansion tax at this point?I saw a splashy headline the other day about how new construction permits have dropped significantly since before they went into effect. Do you think people are still feeling the effects of that tax?
Until the condominium tax is abolished, I think the people will continue to feel the effects of the condominium tax. I think the mansion tax was one of the biggest mistakes California voters ever made in passing legislation. And I think the mansion tax cost California billions of dollars, not just in investment but in terms of reinvestment into the state. So somehow, somehow, we have to get that mansion tax off the books here in California.
There aren’t as many developers on the market as there used to be. Because of the condo tax, we don’t see the same number of multi-unit offices. I hate the term “condominium tax”…and that’s how it stuck. By the way, this word was a very good word for those who believed in it. But the reality is that this is a terrible tax, and cities that need development and housing need to get it off their books somehow.
Makes sense. On a more personal note, do you have any upcoming reality shows? Do you think about returning to that situation in the future?
That’s an interesting question. I was approached by multiple people to appear on the show. But I’m now focused on growing my brokerage and brand. In the past three years, we’ve grown from 0 to 350 agents. That’s where we grew Christie’s International Real Estate SoCal.
And I was very keen on selling the house. I’m going to do a show, but it has to be the right show. No offense to my dear friend Jason Oppenheim, but that’s just not my thing. I would like this to be a little more intelligent and informative, but to do the right thing, I’m going to do it. However, I’m focusing on other things right now and I’m really enjoying it.
I also think that while it’s great to have shows in today’s world, social media has become so powerful that we don’t need shows. Because any one of my videos can reach millions of people. [create] — and we do.
Good to know. Is there anything else you’ve been working on at your brokerage recently that you’d like to share?
We’re about to launch some really cool stuff. I can’t say what it is yet, but we have something very – it’s not necessarily [at] It could be my brokerage, but I’m actually launching a really cool new concept that’s independent of my brokerage. But I think it would be an interesting, revolutionary, very successful and fun business.
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Email Lillian Dickerson
