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Prominent Dallas-based team leaders Jason Castro and Liz Mello have joined forces — and their first move will be transitioning their teams from Coldwell Banker to Compass. The $40-million team will now operate as The Castro Group.
Jason Castro | Credit: LinkedIn
“Liz is well-known for leading one of the top-performing real estate teams in Lakewood and Greater DFW,” Castro told Real Trends on Wednesday. “We’re excited to take our collaboration to the next level at Compass and to leverage the industry’s leading end-to-end technology platform.”
Castro launched his real estate career with Keller Williams in 2016 and established the Castro Real Estate Group a year later. He moved his team to Coldwell Banker in 2018, where he expanded his business to include real estate investing and home design and renovation.
Meanwhile, Mello kickstarted her career in 2015 with Ebby Halliday team Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate. A year later, she joined the boutique brokerage Meyer Group Real Estate and established a team, Mello Residential Group.
The duo met when Mello joined Coldwell Banker in 2021, and they soon realized they could take their respective teams to the next level together.
Liz Mello | Credit: LinkedIn
“It happened super organically,” Mello said in an exclusive interview with Dallas-based real estate site, Candy’s Dirt. Our families know each other, and we did a deal together at Coldwell that went very smoothly.”
“That deal — we had found a client through Instagram,” Castro added. “Liz had a listing that was perfect for our client, and we were able to do the deal together and make it work. And now we are helping that couple design and add on to that house as well. And in that moment it was like, OK, this is what I’ve been trying to do.”
Mello said the closure of Coldwell Banker’s Lakewood office pushed them to begin looking for a new home, and Compass quickly became the “no-brainer choice.”
“The tech is superior. From the app to the CRM, it’s very impressive,” Castro told Candy’s Dirt. “Their network — where we’re building projects and renovating — I think Compass has one of the largest partner shares, with their Compass Exclusives, which opens up a lot of opportunities for us.”
“Their network, the ability to presell, there’s just no comparison,” he added. “I’ve been a fan from the very beginning. It’s amazing since we’ve gone into the onboarding, how turn-key it is. Their proposition is, ‘We want to give you your time back,’ and that’s the key for any agent.”
Castro and Mello announced their move on June 29 with a joint Instagram post that garnered more than 100 likes. The duo is hosting a soft launch on July 14 in one of their latest renovation projects.
“@LizMello_ is joining @jasoncastromusic as co-principal and bringing her team of talented agents to join us,” the post read. “Together we will continue building a place where agents can thrive within a community of like-minded people while leveraging the opportunities that come with our investment activity.”
Compass has plucked 47 high-performing Coldwell Banker agents and teams over the past six months, with the latest recruit being Tacoma-based star agent Margo Hass Klein. In a previous Inman article, Compass said five of those recruits are “win-backs” — sometimes also referred to as “boomerang” agents — who had previously been with the company.
“[Agents’ and teams’] decision to join Compass speaks volumes about the value we provide through our collaborative culture, cutting-edge technology, and forward-thinking leadership,” Compass President of Growth and Communications Rory Golod told Inman of the company’s recruiting run on June 23.
