For Noble Black and his New York-based mega team Noble Black & Partners, 2025 was an eventful year. Not only did the team of 25 licensed agents close 220 transaction sides totaling $546.03 million in sales volume, earning the team the No. 7 rank in the nation among mega teams for sales volume in the 2026 RealTrends Verified The Thousand, but after a decade at Douglas Elliman, the team moved to Corcoran in September 2025.

The move was a homecoming of sorts for team lead Black, who had previously been brokered with the Anywhere brand. 

“Culture was part of why we moved to Corcoran from Elliman last year,” Black said. “Culture has always been important at Corcoran — what they value, how they treat people — and I think everyone on the team has recognized and really appreciated the support, culture and how well the company is run, since we moved here.” 

Black acknowledges that a team the size of his is not typical for Corcoran and he is grateful for the support of Pamela Liebman, the president and CEO of Corcoran. 

“With Corcoran we appreciate that it is such an established brand and Pam just runs a great business and she makes very logical business decisions that are good for the health of the overall company,” Black said. “For us that was really important, plus the systems, the advertising, the staff here — they are all amazing. It is a great backbone for us to build our business off of.” 

Building a team

He added that Liebman is also a great mentor, something he greatly values and something that he has worked to cultivate in his team, creating a collaborative culture among the agents. 

“I think there are so many teams out there that are just a bunch of agents putting their numbers together to get a ranking, but we are very much a team in the sense that people are pitching in to help each other out with showings or sharing information   — it is just a very collaborative group,” he said. 

Having worked so hard to create this collaborative, tight knit group, Black said he is very careful with who he adds to the team. 

“There have been cases where I have foregone hiring somebody because I didn’t think they were a fit personality-wise or ethics-wise because I want my people to enjoy working with one another,” Black said. “We are not looking to grow for the sake of growing. I am very aware of the downside of having a bigger team because it makes it harder to keep that culture and it’s harder to make everyone feel like they are valuable and that they have time to work with me.” 

While Black is selective about who he brings into the team, one person he now couldn’t imagine running the team without is COO Jamie Gagliano.

“Jamie joined me going on four years ago and that has been the biggest difference,” Black said. “I really wanted someone that could help organize the team structure and we are very big on making sure we meet a certain standard of service we are delivering to clients and she has been so good with that. Having her part of the team is what has allowed us to produce the larger numbers we are now and do things like open up a wing of the team in the Hamptons.” 

While Black is thrilled with where his career has gone, he said he never thought he would be the guy with a team of over 20 agents. 

“I’ve been doing real estate for 22 years now and about two years in it became clear that I have more business than what I could handle on my own, so I hired somebody and then eventually needed to hire a second and a third and we’ve grown from there,” Black said. 

Market conditions

As he looks ahead to the rest of the year, despite the continued slow market conditions and the recently enacted “pied-à-terre” tax enacted in New York, Black said he and his team are looking to continue to grow and improve productivity. 

“The main lesson for us that we keep coming back to is that there are always going to be people buying and selling, so it is important that we always know what we are talking about from the latest market conditions to home values and then just making sure we are delivering a product that is at the very top of the market,” Black said. “We want to be distinct from others in the city and make sure that we are putting their interests ahead of ours.”