Jennifer Berman was a godmother to million-dollar agents everywhere

On April 3, 2024, Jennifer Berman, one of real estate’s most remarkable and innovative leaders, lost her decade-long battle with melanoma and breast cancer. This feisty, petite blond with the gravelly voice and the courage of a lion had a deep love of the real estate industry and the people in it. Most importantly, she was a friend you could count to be there when you needed her. 

Jen’s career started at Homestore. She went on to hold management positions at Keller Williams, First Team Estates and, ultimately, became the general manager of Hilton and Hyland, the No. 1 brokerage in Beverly Hills. 

From there, she partnered with Chris Pollinger to found Berman and Pollinger, “Advisors to the Elite in the Business of Luxury.” 

In 2022 she joined DirectOffer as their COO. DirectOffer is committed to “breaking down homeownership barriers in a world that is DEI and ADA-focused.”

From 1998 to 2017, Jen was a host and moderator for Inman Connect. Together with Marti Gallardo, in 2014, she helped to launch Luxury Connect at the iconic Beverly Hills house where The Godfather was filmed. Arianna Huffington was the host.  

The Godmother to the Million-Dollar real estate agents

As the General Manager of Hilton and Hyland, many of the largest residential transactions in the country crossed her desk. When the Million Dollar Listing TV series first took off, Jen became affectionately known as their “Godmother,” since she played a pivotal role in helping so many of them to get started. 

In January 2020, Jen became part of the cast for NBC’s Listing Impossible. Although Aaron Kirman was the star, Jen’s expertise in negotiating ultra-luxury deals was bar none. She was often operating in the background, not only putting the deals together but keeping them together when they started to unravel.  

I was riding back from Palm Springs with Jennifer when I had a chance to see her resurrect a $50 million deal that was falling apart. It was unusually complex since there were multiple agents and brokerages in the deal.

What made the deal especially difficult was that the buyers and their agents were from outside the U.S. and were totally clueless about what was required to close a deal of that magnitude. 

What I witnessed was a master class in negotiation. There are very few people in the industry who have the negotiation chops it took to put that deal back together like she did. 

An indomitable spirit  

One of my favorite stories about Jen happened at Inman Disconnect in Palm Springs. I had sprained my ankle badly and had to go to the ER. I ended up with a boot and was advised not to put any weight on my foot. When Jen found out, she showed at my room with a care package in hand. 

The next morning, the hotel set me up with a wheelchair. Jen was determined to push me out to breakfast. When she realized pushing me and my wheelchair over the dirt paths wasn’t going to happen, that didn’t deter her. She grabbed Mauricio Umansky and recruited him to help.

Of course, she also made sure she got the picture: 

Til the wheels fall off

Jen has always been an active supporter of WomanUP!, as well as my conference at Awesome Females. 

In 2018, I was chatting with her about what she wanted to cover at that year’s conference. The theme that year was, “Playing Your Game Your Way.” 

Jen wanted to interview three of the top female luxury brokers. That didn’t feel right to me. I kept working with her to find another topic. It took close to an hour until she finally broke down and told me a story that virtually no one had ever heard. 

Jen was always so busy she seldom had time to date. A friend set her up on a blind date with someone who supposedly was a great guy. He turned out to be a psychopath who brutally attacked her. 

She was screaming as he pounded her head against the floor trying to kill her. Her neighbors called the Beverly Hills Police.

When the police showed up at Jen’s door, she was going in and out of consciousness. Her attacker answered the door and said nothing was wrong. The officer answering the call forced his way in and, in doing so, saved Jen’s life. She had sustained multiple injuries from the beating, including a severe concussion. 

It took Jen a long time to recover. The day she was scheduled to see her doctor for the last time for the concussion, she had also had a routine physical and mammogram. When she met with her doctor he advised her to do the following: 

“I want you to call several of your closest friends and go the Peninsula Hotel. Have drinks and a beautiful dinner. Unfortunately, you have breast cancer [on top of the melanoma that she had already been fighting] and you need to begin treatment tomorrow.” 

I encouraged her to share her story as a keynote for Awesome Females. The title of her session was, “Til the Wheels Come Off.” 

She was terrified about going public with the story. The agreement I had with the women in the room was that no one was to discuss this outside our conference. Jen came very close to not doing it. 

It was her first keynote and the most powerful one that has ever been delivered during the 18 years that we have held that conference. The room was in such shock no one even moved. 

The beauty of what Jen did was that she took us to that dark place she had been to, and then shared her journey about how she had put her life back together. It takes tremendous skill and talent for a speaker to share such a horrific event, and then leave the audience with a vision of a “brightness of the future” that leaves them walking away with hope.  

Playing her game her way

Jen certainly played her game her way and inspired so many of us along the way. 

Virtually no one knew how sick she was, about the multiple surgeries she went through, round after round of chemo, in and out of the hospital, seizures caused by meds and the tumors that metastasized to her brain. 

They didn’t know how she was locked in her condo in West Hollywood during the pandemic, with helicopters overhead and rioting even inside her building, and was unable to access the care she needed for multiple cases of COVID due to her weakened immune system.  

All we saw on Zoom was her smile, her unstoppable energy, and her giving heart.  

I spoke with Jen earlier yesterday. She could barely speak. She asked me to tell you the following: 

“I have been honored to have been to be part of the Inman community for so many years, as well as WomanUP! and Awesome Females. Thank you for your support for all these years. You have touched my heart in ways you cannot imagine. I love you.” 

For those of us who loved Jen, admired her indomitable spirit, and the light she brought into our lives, April 3, 2024, was the day that the “wheels fell off.” 

Rest in peace, my friend.