Hilary Saunders was instrumental in pioneering the brokerage-as-a-service model that empowers the best agents, teams and indie brokers to create and grow their own companies — without the time, cost or risk of operating a brokerage. Elite agents are in a world all their own, and Side gave them the platform to be entrepreneurial and strike out on their own — without going it alone.
Saunders, a real estate broker, co-founded Side believing that the future of real estate is local, boutique and agent-owned. She realized that traditional real estate brokerages were not built to serve the highest-producing agents. When she started her own boutique brokerage to offer agents a different experience, she saw how difficult brokerage operations are — and how much time they take away from actually selling real estate.
So in 2017, she partnered with tech executives Guy Gal and Ed Wu to create a new model: a real estate brokerage platform where agents can create and grow their own companies without having to operate a brokerage. At Side, agents own their businesses and can focus on selling; Side takes on the liability and handles their back-office. Side has grown to power a community of 600-plus market-leading boutique companies, 50% of which are woman-owned and over 30% are minority-owned.
Despite the past year’s challenging housing market, Side was named the #9 largest brokerage by volume on the RealTrends 500 while operating in just 17 states. With more than $22 billion in volume, Side became the #9 brokerage in the nation by volume in 2023.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The only person you can 100% count on is yourself. In order to be a good leader, you must lead by example and encourage others to do what they need to do in order to gain confidence in themselves. Inner confidence is not innate — it is a learned and fostered skill that begins at childhood. Once someone truly believes in their capabilities, they can achieve greatness even if it’s a massively uphill battle the entire way!
Name:
Hilary Saunders
Title:
Co-Founder and Chief Broker Officer
Company Name:
Side
