The Real Deal’s TRD 100, published May 12, named Premier Estate Properties’ Margit Brandt to its Top 100 Real Estate Titans of the Year — the only PEP agent recognized on this year’s list, and a direct read on which broker is closing the largest tape on the island. Brandt has cleared more than $700 million in 2026 transaction volume, including the $62.5 million Randal Kirk Manalapan oceanfront close on May 7 and the $167.5 million Manalapan double-close earlier in the month.
The TRD 100 feature, headlined “South Florida’s resi power players usher in wealth migration,” is the annual brokerage map that identifies which firms control the dominant share of the Miami-to-Palm-Beach trophy market. For Palm Beach specifically, the 2026 list confirms what the spring transaction tape has been telegraphing for months: Premier Estate Properties, founded by identical twin brothers Gerry and Joe Liguori with Carmen D’Angelo Jr. in 1993, has become the dominant boutique force in the island’s high-end market.
The Brandt tape
Brandt’s 2026 production reads like a single-year highlight reel for Palm Beach trophy real estate. The $62.5 million Randal Kirk Manalapan sale on May 7 marked the largest trophy discount of the Palm Beach cycle — 53 percent off the original 2024 ask. The $167.5 million double-close further north on the same barrier island stacked two adjacent oceanfront properties in a single transaction window. And the $49.5 million Maurice Fatio mansion at 115 Via La Selva, which went under contract earlier in May at roughly 9x the 2017 Korsant basis, is moving toward close.
Together, those transactions account for the bulk of Brandt’s $700M-plus 2026 tape. The TRD recognition is her second major 2026 honor — she was named a Power Broker in Residential Real Estate by the South Florida Business Journal earlier this cycle.
The Premier Estate Properties power structure
PEP’s market position rests on founder continuity, a structural advantage boutique brokerages rarely hold against national franchises operating in Palm Beach. Gerry and Joe Liguori founded the Boca Raton-based firm in 1993 on a $1-million-and-up exclusive listing model and have run it since. Broker Associate Pascal Liguori has been ranked among the nation’s top 125 real estate professionals by the Wall Street Journal and has been PEP’s top-producing broker associate every year since 2006, accumulating $1 billion-plus in career sales.
The TRD profile pairs Brandt’s Top 100 honor with the Pascal Liguori Estate Group’s recent $10 million Delray Beach close at 1010 Poinsettia Road, anchoring PEP’s hold across multiple Palm Beach County submarkets simultaneously.
What it means for the Palm Beach asset market
The TRD 100 functions as a transaction-flow signal for capital flowing into Palm Beach trophy real estate. When a single boutique firm holds the closing tape on the largest island transactions, the brokerage map matters for anyone tracking where the next listing inventory will surface and which agents control the off-market pipeline.
For the broader luxury asset ecosystem, the TRD 100 also serves as a useful read on which transaction nodes are functional in the 2026 cycle. With 84 percent of Town of Palm Beach transactions closing in cash, the trophy market continues to operate independently of rate-driven mid-market dynamics. PEP’s positioning on the TRD list confirms that discretionary wealth migration into Palm Beach hasn’t slowed — it’s concentrated more tightly through a smaller number of brokerage nodes.
Brandt’s TRD 100 honor lands in the same week the Palm Beach trophy tape produced the Kirk $62.5M close (May 7), the North Palm Beach Turtle Beach Road $13M close (May 14), and a $29M Bal Harbour waterfront print on the same day. The brokerage map and the asset tape are pointing in the same direction. For Palm Beach owners and asset-backed lenders, the practical implication is that the 2026 listing cycle will continue to flow through a recognizable shortlist of broker-led nodes — and PEP, with Brandt and the Liguori bench, holds the top of that shortlist heading into summer.
From the Borro desk: For the broader cross-market read, see Borro’s coverage of the broader 2026 trophy-asset auction cycle.
Related coverage: See Randal Kirk’s Manalapan Oceanfront $62.5M Sale and Margit Brandt Manalapan $167.5M Double-Close.