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As luxury brokerage The Agency continues its aggressive expansion across the U.S. and other parts of the globe, the company, led by CEO Mauricio Umansky, has scooped up four more leading Compass agents in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Real Deal first reported.
Over the past few months, 34 agents have joined The Agency from Compass’ Northern California offices. In total, The Agency has brought on 72 agents in the region over the course of 2023, the brokerage told Inman.
With these new additions, the brokerage now welcomes leading Bay Area agents Hope Broderick and Aaron Smith, Linda Wang and Carolyn Gwynn to the luxury brand.
Broderick and Smith, who work together as individual agents, primarily serve the Piedmont/Oakland/Berkeley markets and year-to-date have sold $34 million in transactions. Their career sales volume exceeds $800 million.
Broderick spent about the last four years at Compass, and prior to that was an agent for The Grubb Company for almost 20 years. Smith joined Broderick in 2021 after building a name for himself as a luxury agent in Miami and Fort Lauderdale for several years. As a native of Oakland, he started working with Broderick to be closer to family and friends.
Wang also comes to The Agency after spending about four years at Compass, and before that, about six years at Coldwell Banker. Wang has joined The Agency Los Altos office and has closed more than $60 million in sales volume so far in 2023.
Gwynn, who largely operates in Diablo Valley and Lamorinda, is setting up shop at The Agency’s Alamo office. Her average home sale price point is about $2 million, and she averages more than $30 million in sales volume per year. Gwynn was with Compass for about eight years after spending about five years associated with Empire Realty Associates.
Rainy Hake Austin | The Agency
The Agency President Rainy Hake Austin told The Real Deal that the brokerage started its expansion in the region in the South Bay area, and has been working to increase its footprint north and east from there.
“We target markets that have higher average sales prices, where the market and the community speaks to the luxury lifestyle that our brand represents,” Austin said.
The luxury president said that the brokerage has not specifically targeted Compass agents as it expands, but it has recruited several of them as a result of Compass occupying the largest market share in the Bay Area. Many current Agency-affiliated agents in the area also have worked for Compass in the past, which has built a lot of relationships between the two brokerages, she added.
A Compass rep noted that some of the agents who left the brokerage for The Agency recently have boomeranged back to Compass, with many doing so because of Compass’ technology suite.
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