Patrick Southern of Serhant: 5 Questions

In a world where Manhattan is largely considered the most glamorous market in which to broker luxury residential deals, SERHANT’s Patrick Southern takes a different approach.

Across the Hudson River from Manhattan lies Jersey City, N.J., a smaller but equally urban metropolis that has been in its glow-up era. Jersey City saw a rental boom in the post-pandemic years, particularly in 2022, when rents hit $5,500 a month. Now that rents have leveled off to around $2,860 per month, the power is with the renters, who are looking to occupy all of the new developments that came online during the pandemic migration out of the city.

For Southern, a New Jersey native, the Jersey City residential market represented a fun and unique challenge. Since entering the market — purely by chance, by the way — Southern has closed hundreds of deals for rentals and condos, both in that market and throughout New Jersey as a whole. 

He joined Serhant in 2025, bringing over 20 years of “dirt-to-exit” residential experience, as well as institutional development site acquisition knowledge. 

Commercial Observer caught up with Southern in May to discuss his career, his first year at Serhant, and his love of New Jersey, of course. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Commercial Observer: What would you say defines you as a broker?

Patrick Southern: I’ve been selling real estate in Jersey City for two decades now. I run a very high-transaction business in the marketplace. Last year, I helped close 376 contracts. I sold about one property a day last year, so I do very high volume.

A little over a year ago, I teamed up with Ryan Serhant. I’ve run the largest new development condo sales business, that’s non-high-rise and stuff like that in Jersey City, and have always wanted to go after some of the bigger stuff. So Ryan and I have teamed up, and we’re now working on some larger projects together in Jersey City, which is really super exciting.

I’ve lived in Jersey my whole life — minus college and some floating around. But I started my real estate business in Jersey City when I was 23 years old. I’m 47 now. So it’s been an incredible experience to be able to watch the transition of Jersey City during those impactful years. 

Why did you decide to join Serhant?

Throughout my career, I have been with three different firms before I joined Serhant.

I started out with a mom-and-pop brokerage, which was great and what I needed at that time. 

I then transitioned to this company that was run by this big Australian hedge fund. I have a part of my business that deals with institutional clients. I’ve helped a giant publicly traded company that was a REIT that bought about 700 properties and helped them navigate how to get out of that portfolio without cannibalizing themselves within the same market. Then that shop closed down. 

I went to Coldwell Banker, where I was for six years, and I had a great experience there. But as far as the ability to take my business to the next level, which is what I’ve really worked hard for — new development — they didn’t offer that, so I had limitations. 

With Jersey, to be really basic about it, we’re not Miami, we’re not Manhattan, and we’re not Brooklyn. We’re just behind on certain things because the product doesn’t follow, and the transaction volume doesn’t follow, but we eventually get there. But when I was at the Coldwell Bankers of the world, I had run a very big new development business here in Jersey City, but I would max out at a unit count, and I couldn’t compete in the bigger space.

So, when speaking with Ryan — and we’d had a relationship before working together — about my goals, we decided to do something together. Ryan said, “I don’t have a me in New Jersey. You’re that guy. You can’t chase big stuff in Jersey without someone like me.” 

Because of Ryan’s new development division, I can now provide service to bigger clients, and some of these bigger clients I’ve worked with in the past, but they’ve outgrown the brokerage where I was. I wanted to do bigger stuff, but I just didn’t have the support to do it. Serhant is the perfect fit for me.

What drew you to the Jersey City market, and how have you seen it evolve over the course of your career?

Jersey City kind of just picked me, I didn’t necessarily pick it. I was young when I moved to Jersey City. It was 1999 and I was putting myself through school at Rutgers Newark. I was also working three jobs, trying to make it work and figure out life. I had moved to Jersey City because it was so cheap. 

I just happened to pick this area to live where I was going to school, and I had random jobs to support myself. When I was about 20 or so, I started this site acquisition company, which was to find property to house equipment. I would find rooftop space to be able to lease to Verizon Wireless, or at the time it was Nextel and companies like that. 

After 9/11, that telecommunication business changed tremendously, and I had sold off my part of the company to my partner because our fees got cut by a turnkey operation out of California. I said, “Well, gosh, what’s like this? Real estate’s probably like this. Why don’t I go get my license?” 

I was living in Jersey City at the time, so I just started here because it was convenient, it wasn’t that forward thinking. If I was smart, I would have paid the dollar to go across the river and do what I’m doing in Manhattan. It would have been much better. The price point is much better, especially after that. I just happened to be there because that’s where my life was happening. I wish I could say I was forward thinking and I had life figured out.

How were you able to close 376 contracts in 2025 alone?

A lot of that was new development, and some of those rolled into this year from a closing standpoint. But I always tend to grade myself on just the number of contracts secured. That’s the way that I metrically do it, just to analyze what my volume and pace is independently of when some of the stuff closes. Because some of it is new dev and has a lag, to me it skews what the real numbers are for me to see how good I’m really doing. 

If I have a great closing year, it does something weird to my brain, and it feels inaccurate. I live in a world where I just have to be brutally accurate all the time and honest about things in order to feel that I’ve got the data I need to be able to grow and advise myself of what I should be doing. I do it by being incredibly disciplined with lead generation, incredibly disciplined with systems and how things are done. I’m incredibly mindful and committed to client services and the client experience.

Is there a specific project that is special to you?

We just did 139 Christopher Columbus Drive in Jersey City. It’s a 50-unit condo project, and we worked really hard on that with the developer to optimize floor plans and to get this project perfect. We were able to come to market and sell that project out in 11 weeks for the developer. I’m really proud of that. 

That was three or four years of my life, working on that site. From day one, from acquisition to planning, to getting the floor plans right, to design, to launching it, to building its identity, all of that stuff. To see that go to market and just be so well received is so fulfilling.

I think about how lucky I am that the developer entrusted me with such a big project, and such big money to guide him on this process. My input was really important. He really let me do my job on this thing. 

We did 50 sales in 11 weeks with five price increases, and it was just perfect. They all started closing this year. We went to market at the end of last year, and we’re just finalizing the last few things now. That’s probably the one I’m most proud of.

With every development, we get just better and stronger and wiser.

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.