2026 RealTrends Verified: Ivan & Mike Team ride ultra-luxury wave in Miami

Ivan & Mike Team, a Compass-affiliated ultra-luxury real estate group serving South Florida’s high-end housing market, finished No. 19 among medium-sized teams by sales volume in RealTrends Verified’s 2026 rankings — recording $298.32 million in transaction volume during 2025.

Led by co-founders Ivan Chorney and Michael Martirena, the team has spent the past decade building a business focused on affluent buyers from Miami to Palm Beach.

While 2025 volume actually declined from the previous year, Chorney told HousingWire the market remained active despite a more challenging transaction environment.

“I think we had about [$50 million] more the year before,” he said. “I would say all in all, it was a transitional year. It was just a little more difficult to get deals done. You had all this tariff stuff going on and there were just many headwinds on various fronts. But that’s led into this year, which will end up being our best year ever.

“Obviously, you don’t have those numbers to report on yet, but I can tell you, come back next year at this time, and we’ll be significantly higher than we’ve ever been.”

Ivan & Mike Team was founded 10 years ago after Chorney and Martirena began working together in Miami Beach.

“We were at Sotheby’s, and I had been at Sotheby’s about six years,” said Chorney. “Mike had just been there around two years. A recruiter from Compass had been very persistent, as I’m sure you can imagine, and just kept following up with us. Then, COVID happened, and we had all this time to evaluate our business and see what would actually move the dial.

“We decided we would actually do that face-to-face meeting with the recruiter — and we saw Compass as looking to help us grow our business the most.”

That Compass affiliation became official roughly five years ago. Today, the team focuses on affluent buyers across all of south Florida’s luxury corridor.

Domestic wealth migration

South Florida’s housing market often generates conflicting headlines, but Chorney said conditions vary significantly by geography and price point.

“I think that’s the thing about Florida, it is always conflicting,” he said. “One thing can be happening in one part of the state and another thing can be happening in another part of the state. The majority of the wealth migration is to very South Florida — mostly southeast Florida — although, you’re getting some in Naples and then maybe a tad bit in Sarasota and Tampa. I think the majority is really the greater Miami metropolitan area.”

Chorney pointed to the continued influx of businesses and high-profile investors into the region.

“We’ve got all kinds of businesses moving their headquarters here,” Chorney said. “We’ve got people like Ken Griffin doubling down on Miami. That’s not only in his residential purchases, but in his commercial purchases and his development plans for offices, apartment buildings, condominiums and so on.”

That momentum has fueled activity among the highest end buyers.

“What it almost feels like is there’s a bit of [fear of missing out] amongst the upper elite,” Chorney said. “This has been the most active year we’ve ever had in the $10 million-plus segment of the market.”

He recalled a recent Palm Beach transaction in which a buyer moved aggressively to secure a property.

“The guy went to contract on an $18 million place in Palm Beach, and he hadn’t even been down to see it,” Chorney said. “He’s just like, ‘I have to get something, I have to get it now, and I need to reestablish my tax base in Florida.'”

Marketing for the ultra-luxury buyer

Asked what has helped the team maintain its position among the nation’s top-producing groups, Chorney said there is no universal blueprint.

“There’s no one recipe that fits everybody,” he said. “I think there’s many different lanes to get to the top. A key variable for us has been with our advertising. We do a lot of online leads, so we really focus on being at the top of SEO searches and AI. We’re working on all those different algorithms to make sure that when people do AI searches — ChatGPT or Claude or whatever, or just Google — that that we’re coming up in those searches.”

The firm’s strategy also includes extensive physical advertising throughout South Florida.

“You can’t go through [Miami neighborhood Brickell] without seeing our face,” Chorney said.” We had a huge billboard up on I-395 going over to Miami Beach. We call it reinforcement marketing, just to make sure we’re always top of mind. Then for Mike and I — as being really the two top performers on the team — it’s really all about delegation and continuing to challenge ourselves to reach higher price points.

“We said going into the season, we weren’t going to work on any potential buyer prospects under $5 million. For next season, it’s going to be $10 million.”

That focus on higher price points, combined with strong demand from affluent buyers relocating to south Florida, has helped propel the team to a top-20 national ranking.

And if Chorney’s outlook proves accurate, the firm’s record-setting year may still be ahead.