Ryan Serhant, luxury broker and founder of eponymous brokerage SERHANT., shared his plans to launch a virtual world for agents and employees via his Instagram back in January.
On Monday, Serhant and the brokerage unveiled a sneak-peek at what the virtual world, dubbed “UNIVERS.,” will look like and released further details about the virtual world and its motivation in creating it.
In a new Instagram post sharing the sneak-peek footage Serhant wrote: “The UNIVERS. will take our agents and clients beyond what any traditional real estate brokerage has done before. Ever. I told you all when we launched the firm we were going to change the game and…the world.”
In a press statement accompanying the footage, Serhant stated that building a virtual world was always part of his business plan.
“The period at the end of our company name — SERHANT. — has always represented our own virtual world and I’m so excited to finally be able to share it,” he said in the statement. “We are future-obsessed and mobile-first. Since I first envisioned building my own real estate firm, I knew I wanted to prioritize the agent experience and design all of the company’s elements to support on-the-go salespeople; developing our own proprietary virtual operating world has been a cornerstone of our business plan since the beginning.”
UNIVERS. will be one centralized location, modeled on SERHANT.’s in real-life office building in Soho in Manhattan. Agents and employees will be able to access tools, documents, educational and marketing resources, and more within UNIVERS. as they would be able to in the physical office building.
The brokerage said that the opening of its virtual world will allow it to expand into new markets without having to open as many physical offices. However, SERHANT. stated that it still plans on opening flagship office locations in major markets across the country as part of its overall growth. In addition, the brokerage stated that it believes its virtual world will help it cater toward a younger generation of customers and future employees.
“Beyond allowing us to quickly expand our footprint and culture into new markets, the UNIVERS. will help us better serve agents and clients today, in 2035, and beyond,” Serhant said. “Today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s workforce, buyers and sellers, and we are building a real estate company that will support them in the way they prefer to work and communicate.”
SERHANT.’s UNIVERS. Is not real estate’s only virtual world. eXp Realty has become known for its virtual world, eXp World, designed by virtual creator VirBEL.
