Side's Hilary Saunders on Building a New Brokerage Model

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

19 Mar 2025

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In the competitive world of real estate, the traditional brokerage model has remained largely unchanged for decades. That changed when Side entered the market. Founded in 2017 by a team including Chief Broker Officer Hilary Saunders, Side has redefined how top-producing real estate professionals build and scale their businesses.

Side’s mission is straightforward yet innovative: empower high-performing agents to build their own companies without the administrative challenges and financial constraints typically associated with launching an independent brokerage.

From Law to Real Estate Innovation

Saunders’ journey to co-founding Side began with a realization during law school that real estate knowledge created powerful opportunities for wealth building and generational change.

“I fell in love with real estate in law school,” Saunders explains. “It was fascinating to me that, along with tax, how the knowledge is key. If you’re in the game, you have a massive leg up. Your kids have an opportunity. Your family has a great opportunity.”

After leaving litigation to pursue residential sales, Saunders quickly discovered the limitations of working within traditional brokerages. The corporate structure restricted her ability to build a personal brand around her unique expertise in estate planning and real estate.

“I was working for a traditional brokerage and realized very quickly that they weren’t really helping me in any good way,” she recalls. “My clients were coming to me for my particular expertise, my knowledge base, and I wasn’t able to create a brand around that. I was limited by the corporate structure and their rules.”

This frustration led her to launch her own brokerage in 2012, combined with a law firm that allowed her to offer estate planning alongside real estate services. When she later connected with her tech-savvy co-founders, Side was born from their shared vision to reimagine the traditional brokerage model.

The Side Difference

Unlike conventional brokerages that prioritize corporate branding over agent identity, Side deliberately operates behind the scenes, providing comprehensive support while allowing partners to build their own distinct brands and companies.

“We are very specific. Our market share, who we serve, are those top producers who are industry leaders, market share leaders… and want to own their own business at the end of the day,” Saunders says.

Side has now partnered with over 600 companies across 17 states, providing back-end support that includes transaction management, legal compliance, technological infrastructure, and marketing insights—essentially handling all the operational aspects of running a brokerage.

This approach allows real estate professionals to focus on what they do best: selling homes and building client relationships, while Side manages the operational complexities.

Building Real Assets, Not Just Transactions

One of the most compelling aspects of Side’s model is how it transforms a real estate practice into a valuable business asset—something traditional agent models typically fail to do.

“So many realtors, I will say probably 95% when they retire or they die, don’t have an asset that you can value,” Saunders points out. “There is, however, a value to a company you build on the Side platform, because you can monetize it.”

This asset-building capability has already yielded significant success stories. Saunders highlights several of their partner brokerages that have leveraged Side’s platform to grow and eventually merge with complementary firms, creating even more substantial market leaders.

“City Real Estate and Polaris… after years of successfully, individually growing their companies, they decided to merge the two. And so now City Real Estate is the number one market share leader in the San Francisco area, as far as boutique owned sides wise,” she notes.

Another example she cites is the merger between Ocean Blue and Element, which created “one of the largest and most successful brokerages on the San Francisco coast.”

Beyond Transactions: A Consultative Approach

As real estate continues to evolve, Saunders sees a positive trend emerging among top professionals: a shift from transaction-focused sales to genuine wealth-building consultation.

“There is a big trend in focusing on the end seller, on really identifying how they can continue building their wealth,” she observes. “The good realtors are actually being consultants at this point and really analyzing, if the client can actually keep that home, can they turn it into a rental property and build out a rental portfolio?”

This consultative approach aligns with Side’s mission to elevate industry standards through professionalism and expertise—something Saunders believes is crucial for the industry’s future.

Leveraging Technology for Growth

Side partners benefit not only from operational support but also from cutting-edge technology that keeps them competitive. Saunders emphasizes the importance of using tools strategically, including artificial intelligence.

“I think a lot of companies are doing amazing things with AI, especially with being able to organize workflows or automate correspondence,” she says. “Really utilizing that technology to understand what part of our daily workflow could we automate… and make those top level decisions rather than being in the weeds of everything.”

This technology-forward approach to business is central to Side’s value proposition, giving independent brokerages the same technological advantages as large national firms without sacrificing their unique identity.

Looking Ahead

As Side continues to expand, Saunders remains focused on helping their partner companies achieve new heights. She expresses enthusiasm about seeing more of their partners reach significant production milestones.

“This year, I’m excited to really leverage just what we have already built, but helping more people achieve bigger and better numbers over their prior years,” Saunders says. “The more companies that we help hit a billion dollars, I think that makes me love what I do.”

With housing inventory showing signs of increasing and buyers adjusting to current interest rates, Saunders maintains measured optimism about the market’s direction. Her focus remains on empowering real estate entrepreneurs to build businesses that reflect their unique vision and expertise.

For those interested in learning more about Side’s approach to real estate, Saunders hosts a podcast called “Own It,” where she interviews industry leaders and shares insights on building successful real estate businesses.

In the real estate industry, Side has demonstrated that by prioritizing agents and giving them true ownership, all parties benefit—especially clients who work with focused, empowered real estate professionals building sustainable businesses.