Meet us

Michael Sandak

Michael Sandak, a co-head of Compass’ Trade Residential Team, has been personally responsible for $250 million in closed real estate transactions.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey, Michael has lived in various neighborhoods in New York City and Miami throughout his adult life. At the University of Maryland and Rutgers University, Michael studied sociology, psychology and business. His passion for architecture and interior design and his gregarious personality made becoming a real estate agent an obvious career choice.

Cutting his teeth in New York City, the most competitive real estate market in the country, was not easy, but the competition sharpened Michael’s skills and taught him that market knowledge and customer service are paramount. For ten years, Michael was at two leading Manhattan real estate firms, where his award-winning Sandak Team was consistently recognized as a top producing group. Michael joined Compass in 2015 where the firm’s outstanding platform and technological superiority laid the groundwork for the Sandak Team to enjoy years of notable success including being ranked in the top .25% of the country multiple times over the past several years (per the Real Trends/Wall Street Journal rankings).

In 2024, Michael and his longtime friends and colleagues Tim Rothman and Joe Messina merged their award-winning teams to create Trade Residential, which maintains a full-time presence in New York City and South Florida, and currently includes Michael, Tim and Joe as partners, as well as four other top-flight agents. Trade Residential provides best-in-class service in both the New York and South Florida markets.

Michael is not just a real estate agent or broker. To his clients, he is a trusted advisor with whom they stay in touch for years or, and in many cases, decades. Diligence, honesty and effort are the three cornerstones of Michael’s business philosophy. Not surprisingly, the large majority of Michael's business is from repeat clients and referrals from those clients. Michael says "I want my clients to hire me because they believe I am uniquely qualified to best represent their interests.”

Michael is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable agents in both New York and Miami. He tracks new listings in both markets each and every day, and studies market reports weekly, monthly and annually, as they are published, which allows him to develop a keen understanding of macro market trends, to keep ahead of them, and to share his forecasting with his clients. This extensive body of knowledge translates to particularly accurate property valuations and pricing, yielding maximum profits for his seller-clients. For his buyer-clients, Michael's market knowledge helps them to make the right offer to win the home they wish to purchase without paying more than is necessary.

Throughout his career, Michael has built strong relationships with his industry peers which pays dividends for his clients who often prevail in multiple bid situations or gain early access to properties that have not yet hit the open market. Michael strives each day to preserve and build upon his well-deserved reputation as someone who operates in a respectful and ethical manner while getting the deal done.

Michael is available to his clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year so that nothing ever slips through the cracks. He treats each and every one of his clients as though they are his only client and deserve 100% of his time.

Michael has worked with everyone from C-Suite executives, wealth managers, entrepreneurs, entertainers and athletes to young families purchasing their first homes. Michael works with buyers, sellers, investors and landlords.

In his free time, Michael's favorite activity is spending time with his wife Daryl and their young son Shea. They enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants and taking Shea on a variety of family adventures. Michael, who is a former DJ, enjoys listening to a variety of genres of music, playing softball with other real estate agents and playing tennis which he has recently taken up again since playing competitively in high school.