SERHANT. gears up for October Rhode Island expansion

The Newport, Rhode Island, office will be led by Deborah Hauser and launch with five founding agents who closed roughly $550 million in sales volume in the past year.

“I feel very humbled and excited to be aligned with these great people, because their collective experience, their production and their reputation set the tone for our growth in the state,” Serhant said of his team, which will have 18 total agents.

Founders include Dina Karousos, formerly with Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty. She brings 15 years of experience and more than $435 million in career sales, and closed $68 million in 2024.

Devin Sheehan, previously with RE/MAX, has more than $114 million in career sales, including $17 million so far in 2025.

Caroline Richards, most recently with Hogan Associates/Christie’s International Real Estate, has logged over $120 million in career sales.

Hillary Olinger, also from Hogan Associates/Christie’s, has closed more than $70 million in sales across 120-plus transactions.

Tammy Bass — another former Hogan Associates/Christie’s team member — brings 23-plus years of experience in the Rhode Island market. She has closed more than $700 million in career sales.

Rhode Island as the ’13th state’

SERHANT. is now active in 13 states, which Serhant noted was fitting given Rhode Island’s own place in U.S. history.

“It occurred to me that Rhode Island was the 13th state in the union,” he said. “We are finishing up our expansion across the eastern seaboard — and we have a lot of agents up and down the East Coast who have a lot of clients who are also in Rhode Island, or who have vacation homes in Rhode Island.

“Rhode Island as a state is is small in size, but I think it’s massive in opportunity. We don’t just chase the volume as a firm, especially not in head count. We chase vision.”

On top of recent expansion, the firm has leveraged the popularity of its Netflix show “Owning Manhattan” as a recruitment tool and catalyst for substantial transaction sides growth.

Technology and branding as differentiators

Asked how the company adapts its tech-forward model to a smaller market like Rhode Island, Serhant said the strategy doesn’t change.

“We make our agents their own individual platforms, so agents have access to Serhant Studios, which is our production company, ID Lab, which is the marketing agency, and S.MPLE. That’s our AI operating system for sales people — which replaces administrative work and has completely changed the game.”

He stressed that the move is “not just another brokerage planting a flag.”

“We’re bringing the entire Serhant flywheel, from content to media to education to technology to a market that we feel has been underserved from those four pillars,” Serhant said. “We help agents build a platform to grow their personal brands and and really become market leaders individually.”

Housing market outlook

Looking at the broader housing market, Serhant expressed optimism despite uncertainty over mortgage rates and inventory shortages.

“I think with the feds (indicating) rate cuts coming by the end of the year, there is such pent up demand for housing,” he said. “There is a significant amount of buyers who’ve been sitting on the sidelines. Rent is at or near all-time highs — even though it started to slowly cool this year. You also have inventory shortage because of the locked-in effect from rates.”

That dynamic, he said, could set up a strong run.

“I expect that we are going to go into probably the strongest housing market for the next two years [that] I’ve ever seen in my career,” said Serhant. “One of the reasons we’re also moving as quickly as we are is in anticipation of that.

“We just want to make sure that we can service our clients and our agents in as many markets as our clients and our agents want.”