Upheaval For Agents

[David Goldsmith]

How a Non-Compete Ban Could Affect Real Estate

Brokerages could face fewer legal options if FTC bans non-compete clauses in employment contracts nationwide.

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What a ban on noncompetes could mean for real estate​

Common contract provision hurts workers, according to the FTC​

Brokerages may have fewer arrows in their legal quiver if the Federal Trade Commission makes good on its new goal of banning noncompete clauses in employment contracts nationwide.
The contract provision restricts managers and executives from benefiting rival brokerages by switching jobs, usually within a defined geographic area or time period once a contract ends. Noncompete clauses do not typically affect agents, who are independent contractors.
“The higher you go in the food chain, the more common they are,” said New York real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, who said he sees, and litigates, both sides of the issue.
Noncompete clauses “constitute an unfair method of competition,” according to the FTC, and have forced some real estate professionals into de facto unemployment — albeit compensated.

Steven James and Brad Loe waited out year-long noncompete clauses after leaving Douglas Elliman to join Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices as CEO and director of sales, respectively.
“People should be free to work where they want and associate with who they want,” said Jonathan Sack, an employment attorney in New York City opposed to broad noncompetes.
“Parties are free to contract,” said Sack, but trying to enforce overly broad restrictions can be “a total disaster.” Once a noncompete clause is found invalid for one worker, others working under the same restrictions are more likely to be freed. “They can be very difficult to enforce,” he said.

WeWork had to release 1,400 workers from an overly broad noncompete clause and reduced restrictions on a further 1,800 people after New York and Illinois attorneys general challenged the company in 2018.
The result has not stopped other real estate companies from trying to enforce noncompetes.

Cushman & Wakefield sued rival brokerage JLL in October after two former salesmen changed jobs, claiming they had violated the noncompete provision in their employment contract. Cushman also sued over a non-solicitation clause, which aims to stop workers who have changed jobs from recruiting others to join them at the new company — in this case, non-producing supportive staff.

Sack defended the ability of teams of workers to relocate, likening them to a musical quartet that needs the talents of each individual to function as a whole. Proving damages can also be tricky, he suggested, because the beneficiary of someone changing companies — such as a landlord who wants to close a deal — is unlikely to testify against their own broker.
Compass became a target of litigation for poaching managers of rival brokerages in order to build its company in the late 2010s. While Compass claims not to use noncompete clauses, it has gone to court to enforce non-solicitation clauses.
In one such dispute in California, rival brokerage The Agency countersued Compass to argue that its non-solicitation provision was illegal. Noncompete clauses are unenforceable in California due to state law, but the ban does not cover non-solicitation agreements.

The FTC’s noncompete agreement ban must still undergo a 60-day public comment period, though a final proposal is unlikely to proscribe non-solicitation. Nor will it ban other contract provisions that real estate professionals may enter into, such as clawback agreements that require agents to repay commission advances if they leave a brokerage prematurely.
Job seekers may lack leverage to negotiate specific language with employers, but real estate professionals who spoke with The Real Deal advised retaining an employment attorney to ensure noncompete restrictions are narrowly tailored. Several people spoke harshly of noncompete clauses but objected less to non-solicitation agreements. They asked to remain anonymous in order to preserve their relationship with an employer.

Bailey said he recently viewed a noncompete clause that would restrict a real estate professional from working for rival firms in New York City, the Hamptons and Miami — a geographical range he felt was too broad.
“If you’re paying people millions of dollars, you don’t want them competing against you in a year or two,” said Bailey. “But are they needed at brokerages? I think the free market should reign.”
The FTC claims that as many as 30 million Americans toil under noncompete clauses, dampening their total earning potential by as much as $300 billion per year.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Number of Realtors Hit Record in 2022

National Association of Realtors’ membership reached 1.58 million at the end of 2022, the fourth straight year of record membership.

therealdeal.com

NAR hit record membership in 2022, but expects a drop​

Realtor count hit 1.6M at year’s end despite cooling housing market​

The ranks of the National Association of Realtors continued to grow last year, but membership may be poised to drop in 2023.
There were slightly more than 1.58 million members of NAR at the end of last year, according to Inman. The figure was a 1.37 percent jump from the previous year, when there were just shy of 1.56 million Realtors in the trade group.
It was the fourth straight year of record membership for NAR. Growth in the organization was not nearly as explosive as it was the previous year — the group grew by more than 21,000 people last year, that’s barely a fifth of the 100,000-person jump seen in 2021.
Florida is the biggest hub of Realtors in the nation, counting 223,000 people among its membership. California, Texas, New York and New Jersey round out the top five states for Realtors.

The state with the biggest rise in Realtor membership was West Virginia, which grew by 5.3 percent year-over-year to more than 3,300 people. The biggest decline came in Nevada, where membership dropped nearly 2.6 percent to more than 20,000 Realtors in the state.
The prominent real estate trade association may be in for a reduction this year. NAR’s finance committee anticipates membership will drop to 1.43 million in 2022, including a decline of more than 10,000 members by the time May rolls around.

A cooling housing market could be one reason for a reduction in membership in the coming year: fewer home sales means fewer Realtors able to be part of transactions and make money in the wake of a downturn from interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, which sent mortgage rates almost double their levels at the beginning of 2022.

“Some real estate professionals do well even in down markets, while others struggle even in hot markets,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said. “Overall, though, reduced sales — like what occurred in 2022 and are forecasted in 2023 — can lead to more shakeouts.”
Meanwhile, some who entered the industry during the pandemic — when the market rapidly heated up and jobs in other industries were more precarious — may have the ability to move to another industry as the economy continues its recovery.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Top Broker Tamir Shemesh Out At Serhant

Top-producing broker Tamir Shemesh was terminated from Serhant a year after joining the firm from Douglas Elliman.

therealdeal.com

Top broker Tamir Shemesh out at Serhant
Tamir Shemesh, a top-producing Manhattan broker, has been terminated from Serhant, the brokerage confirmed to The Real Deal.

The reasons for Shemesh’s termination, which comes just over a year after he and his four-person team joined Serhant from Douglas Elliman, were unclear.

The broker’s personal page on Serhant’s website was inaccessible as of Wednesday morning. Shemesh could not immediately be reached for comment.

It’s the broker’s third abrupt exit in recent memory. Shemesh joined Serhant after three years at Douglas Elliman, before departing in January 2022 for unclear reasons, as both he and the firm declined to comment.

Shemesh previously left the Corcoran Group in 2017, suddenly departing the firm after six years over a dispute with senior management. Sources told TRD at the time that Shemesh was asked to leave, but he said the decision was mutual.

He wasn’t a free agent for long, landing six days later at Douglas Elliman for his second stint at the firm, having previously worked there for 13 years before moving to Corcoran in 2011.

His arrival at Serhant a year ago was a marquee acquisition for the upstart brokerage, which has grown quickly since its founding in 2020, but lacks heavyweight names outside of founder Ryan Serhant.

The Shemesh Team ranked seventh in TRD’s 2021 ranking of Manhattan brokers with $279 million closed across 47 deals. It was the only Serhant team besides the firm’s eponymous founder to be named in the top 50.

Under Serhant’s New Development division, the team has worked on marketing and sales for luxury projects including 1080 Lorimer, a 29-unit luxury residential development in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and The Westly, an Upper West Side condominium known for its cantilevered design at 251 West 91st Street.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Douglas Elliman Taps Todd Bourgard For Long Island

Douglas Elliman promoted sales executive Todd Bourgard to CEO overseeing Long Island, the Hamptons and the North Fork.

therealdeal.com

Elliman taps new head of Long Island​

Todd Bourgard replaces Ann Conroy as head of region that did $2.7B in sales last year​

Call it a stay-at-homecoming.
Todd Bourgard is Douglas Elliman’s newest executive sales manager for Long Island, including the Hamptons and the North Fork. In his new role, Bourgard will oversee the region’s 36 offices and 2,000 agents including Nassau and Suffolk counties and Bayside, Queens.
Bourgard replaces Ann Conroy, who will stay on in an advisory role. Operations executive Melody Newberry will move with Bourgard to become vice president of the region.

Born on the North Shore, Bourgard left a construction job in the Hamptons to get his real estate license in 1997. He worked as an agent in Hampton Bays for 17 years before Elliman tapped him to manage its sales office. He added Westhampton Beach and Quogue to his purview before taking on all of the Hamptons and North Fork in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

Elliman’s sales volume in the Hamptons and North Fork grew from $1.4 billion in Bourgard’s first year as manager to an estimated $2.7 billion last year, notching a high-water mark of $3.2 billion during the pandemic boom of 2021.

Newly signed contracts in the Hamptons and North Fork markets fell over 50 percent in November from a year ago, but Bourgard predicted a bumper year for the Long Island region in 2023.

“Sellers are being realistic,” he said. “They don’t think the market of ‘the pandemic [frenzy] is still here.’ That was a specific time and place, and that is gone.”
Low inventory in the region could help stabilize prices, but is fueling competition among the area’s post-pandemic population.
“The pandemic resulted in many people living full-time in the region, and the community has grown,” he said. “Our agents are helping sellers price properties appropriately, and we are seeing bidding wars as a result.”

The brokerage has kept busy in the area over recent months with a series of luxury deals. In January, an 8,000-square-foot oceanfront home at 214 Dune Road closed for $12 million, a 12-bedroom home twice that size sold at 180 Rose Hill Road in Water Mill for $20 million, and a 6,000-square-foot abode at 267 South Main Street in Southampton sold, last asking $13.8 million.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Top broker Tamir Shemesh joins Nest Seekers - The Real Deal

Residential agent Tamir Shemesh will join Nest Seekers, his fourth brokerage in six years, after being terminated from Serhant.

therealdeal.com

Tamir Shemesh joins Nest Seekers after Serhant exit
Tamir Shemesh, one of Manhattan’s top-producing brokers, is joining Nest Seekers International.

The move comes less than a week after Shemesh was terminated from Serhant for unclear reasons. Nest Seekers said in a statement Monday Shemesh “left Serhant to join Nest Seekers.”

CEO Eddie Shapiro said Shemesh was coming to the firm for a “multi-market expansion.” The brokerage confirmed the broker would be joined by members of his Serhant team, but the size of his Nest Seekers team remains unclear.

“I am excited to work alongside a CEO who is laser focused on supporting my growth on a local and global scale,” Shemesh said in a statement, referencing the brokerage’s chief executive Eddie Shapiro.

Nest Seekers is the broker’s fourth firm in the last six years. Shemesh joined Serhant in January 2022, after he suddenly ended his second stint with Douglas Elliman for unknown reasons. Both the broker and the firm declined to comment at the time.

Prior to that, Shemesh abruptly ended a six-year run at Corcoran in 2017 over a dispute with senior management. The broker said the decision was mutual, though sources told The Real Deal at the time that the brokerage has asked him to leave.

The Shemesh Team ranked seventh in TRD’s 2021 ranking of brokers in Manhattan, with $279 million closed across 47 deals. It was the only Serhant team other than founder Ryan Serhant’s to crack the top 50.

The 20-year-old Nest Seekers suffered a loss of star power in 2020, when top broker and “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Serhant left to launch his eponymous firm. But the brokerage, which counted 1,500 agents across 30 offices, was alongside the biggest names in New York City residential in TRD’s 2021 ranking of Manhattan residential firms, coming in seventh with $327 million in closed sales across 127 deals.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Compass Poaches Brian Pistorius from BHHS Chicago

The fifth-generation Chicago residential broker, joined rival Compass, the company announced.

therealdeal.com

Compass poaches Berkshire Hathaway broker for Lincoln Park office​

Brian Pistorius and his team generated $50 million in sales volume over the past two years

Another Berkshire Hathaway agent is jumping ship for Compass’ Chicago office.
Brian Pistorius, a fifth-generation Chicago residential broker, joined the brokerage, the company said.

Pistorius was at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago for more than six years. He brings two agents, Amy Ruch and Jenna Cody, with him to Compass. The team generated more than $50 million in sales volume over the past two years.
In an interview with The Real Deal Pistorius said he opted for Compass because of its technology.

“It allows me to focus on my clients and their needs without having to worry too much about all the backend stuff,” he said.

​

Pistorius will be working out of the company’s Lincoln Park office and mainly operate in the Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Fulton Market neighborhoods.
Pistorius isn’t the first Berkshire Hathaway agent to find their way to Compass this year. In January, Meredith Pierson joined the firm to start a new team at the brokerage with the Glenview-based team headed by Missy Jerfita. The rebranded Jerfita Pierson Team has five licensed agents and two support staffers across two Compass offices — in Glenview and Lincoln Park.
Compass’ gain comes after a challenging 2022, with its financial challenges capturing the attention of those within the residential real estate sector. But the company has responded to setbacks by cutting about $320 million, or 20 percent of its operating expenses, by the end of last year.

Originally billing itself as a technology company, Compass sought to reinvent the homebuying process, and raised record amounts of capital before struggling over the past year as residential real estate transactions slowed due to rising interest rates, strained inventories and economic uncertainty. In January, the company announced a third round of layoffs, with more than 1,200 workers ousted over the past year. However, Compass still has north of 3,000 employees and was the number one residential real estate brokerage in the nation based on 2021 sales volume.

 

[David Goldsmith]

I told you lower commission splits were coming!

Brokerage Side Tells Agents Commission Splits Could Change

White-label brokerage calls all-hands meeting to say E&O fees will change, as well as some commission arrangements.

therealdeal.com

Side tells agents: Some financial relationships will change​

Brokerage looks to modify commission splits, liability insurance
Side is exploring changing its financial arrangements with its agent teams, The Real Deal has learned.
In an all-hands Zoom meeting on Feb. 21, the venture-backed white-label brokerage said it is exploring changing commission splits for some agents, as well as modifying its liability insurance fees, according to two sources.

A Side representative declined to comment on its financial arrangements with agents, though she said, “wow, a lot of the info you’ve been told is way off.”
Side doesn’t have a “one size fits all” commission split with the agents it works with, though co-founder Guy Gal said in 2020 that all agents were on a 90-10 split. According to an agent present at the Tuesday meeting, some agents may now be required to cough up more of their splits.

In the past, Side has reportedly required agents to pay splits until they reach a cap. There is talk that the cap may be lifted, though TRD could not get more details.
Side may also modify the fees it charges for errors and omissions, a form of liability insurance. By April, teams will be responsible for paying $100 per month for each of its agents. Previously, some teams paid a flat $1,000 in annual E&O fees.
Since the real estate market slowdown of 2022, many brokerages have switched up their business models to drive profitability. Major players including Anywhere Real Estate and Compass have spoken of revising commission splits.

​

Also, brokerages have trimmed their payrolls, including Side, which laid off employees in October.

The all-hands meeting and new financial relationships come soon after Side’s annual convention, held in Long Beach, which featured a cameo by NBA legend Magic Johnson.
Correction: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that some Side teams paid a flat $1,000 for liability insurance every month. In fact, some Side teams paid $1,000 annually in errors and omissions fees.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

https://www.inman.com/2023/03/22/the-real-brokerage-to-raise-agent-fees-on-heels-of-20m-loss-in-2022/amp/

Inman
The Real Brokerage to raise agent fees on heels of $20M loss in 2022
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In these times, double down — on your skills, on your knowledge, on you. Join us Aug. 8-10 at Inman Connect Las Vegas to lean into the shift and learn from the best. Get your ticket now for the best price.

The Real Brokerage is the latest firm to turn to agents to raise revenue.

In its quest to become a profitable company, Real is raising fees on new and existing agents that work for Real, according to details the company shared last week while releasing its fourth quarter financial performance.


Real cranked up the fee for incoming agents to $249 (up from $149), and is raising its annual brokerage fee from $500 to $750, among other changes to its model of sharing revenue with agents. The details were first reported by The Real Deal.

In the past, Toronto-based Real aggressively marketed its value proposition to agents — generous commission splits coupled with tech tools — by offering them a portion of the commissions of new agents they bring to the company.

The fee changes were laid out by Michelle Ressler, Real’s Chief Financial Officer, during the fourth quarter earnings call.

Real will start charging those who participate in revenue sharing a $175 annual fee and 1.2 percent of revenue share payments. It will also increase the transaction fee agents pay after reaching their commission cap by $60, to $285 per transaction.

The financial changes come after a year when Real saw its revenue — and its losses — grow in 2022. Company losses grew to $20.6 million, up from $11.7 million in 2021.

Andrew Robinson, an elite agent with Real in Ohio, confirmed the details of the fee increases with Inman and applauded the company for making the changes.

“As an agent at the company and as a shareholder I actually support all of the changes they made,” Robinson said.

“They developed the model prior to having 9,000 agents. As we grew they kind of got a better idea of what the profitability would look like per agent,” he added. “We’ve attracted so many high-end agents to do a lot of business that those very, very large teams, after they went through their cap, didn’t really contribute much to the profitability of the company. Yet they represented a significant portion of the management overhead to service those teams.”

The changes for agents who were with Real before Jan. 31 will take effect on April 1. They make Real just the latest firm to change its financial agreements with its agents.

The Real Deal also reported in February that Side, a firm that provides tools that allow agents to open their own boutique brokerages, was changing some of its financial agreements with agent teams.

A representative for Side told Inman at the time she couldn’t comment on specific changes.

“As our partners run businesses with varying, highly individualized financial structures, it wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss blanket details of their finances with the press,” the spokeswoman, Katherine Mechling, said.

“What I can say is that our pricing structure is extremely competitive, especially given that we are the only brokerage platform on which top agents can build their own companies,” Mechling said. “Side is always innovating around how things work, and our primary goal in all things is to help the top-producing agents in our community grow their companies.”

 

[David Goldsmith]

Compass Poaches Keller Williams Team in Catskills Expansion

Compass is growing its Catskills presence with the recruitment of the 15-agent Upstate Curious team from Keller Williams.

therealdeal.com

Compass poaches KW’s Upstate Curious team in Catskills expansion​

15-agent team, active from Westchester to Albany, says it’s closed $260M in sales since 2019

Curious about upstate New York? So is Compass, which just poached the Upstate Curious Team from Keller Williams as part of an expansion into the Catskills.

The 15-broker team, founded by Megan Brenn-White in 2019, says it has closed nearly $260 million in sales in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where competition for talent has been heating up among New York City’s top brokerages.
Brenn-White said she reached out to Compass after CEO Robert Reffkin suggested in February that the brokerage may switch to a franchise model for geographic expansions as it tries to reduce its expenses.

“As late as this fall I was putting feelers out to see if there would be an opportunity to join and at the time there didn’t seem to be,” said Brenn-White.
A franchise deal never happened, but a slowdown in expansion at the brokerage, in place since last summer, now appears to be over. Compass ended a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions last week when it picked up a 300-agent independent brokerage in Arizona in a deferred, all-equity deal.
“They’re not ready to franchise yet, but they were open to going into a new market,” Brenn-White said of Compass’ Upstate Curious deal.
The team, which is active from Westchester County as far north as Albany, and from the state borders with Massachusetts and Connecticut in the east to Schoharie and Sullivan counties in the west, developed a community app that has roughly 6,500 users.
“We thought the app could fill in a gap for questions we can’t answer as real estate agents for very valid fair housing reasons,” said Brenn-White. “People would say, ‘Hey we’re a biracial queer couple, what town should we move to?’ … If they can throw it out to the community and get answers, that’s extremely helpful.”

Brenn-White said seasonality is returning to the Catskills market after a flood of city dwellers during the pandemic transformed the area into what analyst Jonathan Miller calls a co-primary market, meaning residents split their time somewhat evenly between the area and the city.
Like in the Hamptons, the post-lockdown bonanza decimated inventory in Hudson Valley and the Catskills and drove up prices. Home prices in Ulster County, which includes Kingston and Woodstock, jumped 20 percent in 2021.
“December, January were way slower than they have been the past two years … and then in the spring it has picked up so much,” Brenn-White said. “It feels like right now there are five houses across those 11 counties that every person is looking at. It’s very rough.”
Nabbing the Upstate Curious team isn’t Compass’ only recent move north of New York City: Last fall, the firm recruited the Hudson Valley-based Banx Team, an 11-agent group, from Berkshire Hathaway.

Brenn-White says she first caught the real estate bug after buying a Park Slope studio for $79,000 two decades ago and flipping it for twice that a few years later.
The Harvard graduate eventually got into real estate in earnest after burning out from her day job, first with Habitat Real Estate. She eventually founded Upstate Curious after moving to the area from New York City, an experience which helped her come up with the name.
“Everyone in the city is a little upstate curious,” she said.


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Compass poaches KW’s Upstate Curious team in Catskills expansion
15-agent team, active from Westchester to Albany, says it’s closed $260M in sales since 2019


APR 10, 2023, 5:31 PM
By Harrison Connery
TAGS: Residential brokerage, Compass, tristate

Curious about upstate New York? So is Compass, which just poached the Upstate Curious Team from Keller Williams as part of an expansion into the Catskills.


The 15-broker team, founded by Megan Brenn-White in 2019, says it has closed nearly $260 million in sales in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where competition for talent has been heating up among New York City’s top brokerages.

Brenn-White said she reached out to Compass after CEO Robert Reffkin suggested in February that the brokerage may switch to a franchise model for geographic expansions as it tries to reduce its expenses.


“As late as this fall I was putting feelers out to see if there would be an opportunity to join and at the time there didn’t seem to be,” said Brenn-White.

A franchise deal never happened, but a slowdown in expansion at the brokerage, in place since last summer, now appears to be over. Compass ended a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions last week when it picked up a 300-agent independent brokerage in Arizona in a deferred, all-equity deal.

“They’re not ready to franchise yet, but they were open to going into a new market,” Brenn-White said of Compass’ Upstate Curious deal.

The team, which is active from Westchester County as far north as Albany, and from the state borders with Massachusetts and Connecticut in the east to Schoharie and Sullivan counties in the west, developed a community app that has roughly 6,500 users.

“We thought the app could fill in a gap for questions we can’t answer as real estate agents for very valid fair housing reasons,” said Brenn-White. “People would say, ‘Hey we’re a biracial queer couple, what town should we move to?’ … If they can throw it out to the community and get answers, that’s extremely helpful.”

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Brenn-White said seasonality is returning to the Catskills market after a flood of city dwellers during the pandemic transformed the area into what analyst Jonathan Miller calls a co-primary market, meaning residents split their time somewhat evenly between the area and the city.

Like in the Hamptons, the post-lockdown bonanza decimated inventory in Hudson Valley and the Catskills and drove up prices. Home prices in Ulster County, which includes Kingston and Woodstock, jumped 20 percent in 2021.

“December, January were way slower than they have been the past two years … and then in the spring it has picked up so much,” Brenn-White said. “It feels like right now there are five houses across those 11 counties that every person is looking at. It’s very rough.”

Nabbing the Upstate Curious team isn’t Compass’ only recent move north of New York City: Last fall, the firm recruited the Hudson Valley-based Banx Team, an 11-agent group, from Berkshire Hathaway.

Brenn-White says she first caught the real estate bug after buying a Park Slope studio for $79,000 two decades ago and flipping it for twice that a few years later.

The Harvard graduate eventually got into real estate in earnest after burning out from her day job, first with Habitat Real Estate. She eventually founded Upstate Curious after moving to the area from New York City, an experience which helped her come up with the name.

“Everyone in the city is a little upstate curious,” she said.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Compass Poaches Keller Williams Team in Catskills Expansion

Compass is growing its Catskills presence with the recruitment of the 15-agent Upstate Curious team from Keller Williams.

therealdeal.com

Compass poaches KW’s Upstate Curious team in Catskills expansion​

15-agent team, active from Westchester to Albany, says it’s closed $260M in sales since 2019
Curious about upstate New York? So is Compass, which just poached the Upstate Curious Team from Keller Williams as part of an expansion into the Catskills.
The 15-broker team, founded by Megan Brenn-White in 2019, says it has closed nearly $260 million in sales in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, where competition for talent has been heating up among New York City’s top brokerages.

Brenn-White said she reached out to Compass after CEO Robert Reffkin suggested in February that the brokerage may switch to a franchise model for geographic expansions as it tries to reduce its expenses.
“As late as this fall I was putting feelers out to see if there would be an opportunity to join and at the time there didn’t seem to be,” said Brenn-White.

A franchise deal never happened, but a slowdown in expansion at the brokerage, in place since last summer, now appears to be over. Compass ended a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions last week when it picked up a 300-agent independent brokerage in Arizona in a deferred, all-equity deal.
“They’re not ready to franchise yet, but they were open to going into a new market,” Brenn-White said of Compass’ Upstate Curious deal.
The team, which is active from Westchester County as far north as Albany, and from the state borders with Massachusetts and Connecticut in the east to Schoharie and Sullivan counties in the west, developed a community app that has roughly 6,500 users.
“We thought the app could fill in a gap for questions we can’t answer as real estate agents for very valid fair housing reasons,” said Brenn-White. “People would say, ‘Hey we’re a biracial queer couple, what town should we move to?’ … If they can throw it out to the community and get answers, that’s extremely helpful.”

​

Brenn-White said seasonality is returning to the Catskills market after a flood of city dwellers during the pandemic transformed the area into what analyst Jonathan Miller calls a co-primary market, meaning residents split their time somewhat evenly between the area and the city.

Like in the Hamptons, the post-lockdown bonanza decimated inventory in Hudson Valley and the Catskills and drove up prices. Home prices in Ulster County, which includes Kingston and Woodstock, jumped 20 percent in 2021.
“December, January were way slower than they have been the past two years … and then in the spring it has picked up so much,” Brenn-White said. “It feels like right now there are five houses across those 11 counties that every person is looking at. It’s very rough.”
Nabbing the Upstate Curious team isn’t Compass’ only recent move north of New York City: Last fall, the firm recruited the Hudson Valley-based Banx Team, an 11-agent group, from Berkshire Hathaway.

Brenn-White says she first caught the real estate bug after buying a Park Slope studio for $79,000 two decades ago and flipping it for twice that a few years later. ​

The Harvard graduate eventually got into real estate in earnest after burning out from her day job, first with Habitat Real Estate. She eventually founded Upstate Curious after moving to the area from New York City, an experience which helped her come up with the name.
“Everyone in the city is a little upstate curious,” she said.

 

[David Goldsmith]

Keller Williams Black Label Sues Serhant Over Expansion

Keller Williams Black Label accused former brokers on Serhant’s Societe Select team of taking proprietary information to the firm.

therealdeal.com

https://therealdeal.com/

Serhant, PA team members sued for $10M over expansion​

Keller Williams Black Label alleges “plundering” and “sabotage” in expansion

A Pennsylvania brokerage accused Serhant and Philadelphia-based brokers of a scheme to “loot” the company for the New York City-founded firm’s expansion into the Keystone State.
Keller Williams Black Label named the two-and-half-year-old brokerage, founder Ryan Serhant and Andrea Desy Edrei, his newly recruited Pennsylvania team lead, in a complaint filed in Philadelphia Commerce Court that accuses them of “plundering its clients, intellectual property, confidential information and personnel, while crippling its ability to operate.”

The brokerage and its parent business, the Condo Shop LLC, are seeking more than $10 million in damages, as well as punitive damages over the terms of Desy Edrei’s departure from Black Label last month to head Serhant’s local expansion.
The plaintiffs are also seeking a preliminary injunction barring Serhant and Desy Edrei from using any proprietary information it alleges was taken as a result of her departure and the return of Black Label social media accounts it claims were “sabotaged.”

“With their scheme accomplished, defendants left Black Label as a shattered, empty shell, having stripped it of its clients, assets, and ability to do business,” the firms claim in the complaint.
The complaint also named former Black Label Director of Marketing Michael Skokowski, Jr., and former Marketing Coordinator Kailey Bondiskey, who were allegedly recruited to “join the scheme” by Desy Edrei.
Serhant and representatives for his firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The wrongdoing started months before any agents defected to Serhant, the brokerages claim, during which time several defendants used Black Label’s proprietary marketing materials to create marketing materials for Serhant and “deliberately sabotaged Black Label’s social media accounts while claiming those accounts had been ‘hacked’.”

​

When Serhant was ready to begin operating in Pennsylvania under the label Societe Select, several agents resigned in unison, according to the complaint, while others provided the funding to support the new team.

Once the team was up and running, the brokers took down “numerous” Black Label listings before re-listing them with Serhant, the firm claims. The defendants are accused of restoring Black Label’s social media accounts as Societe Select pages while taking steps to lock Black Label out of those accounts.
Black Label also alleged the defendants emptied the client database of contacts and other information.
The complaint points to a marketing presentation for a new Serhant team, referred to as Societe + Serhant. Prepared in November 2022, while Desy Edrei, Bondiskey and Skokowski were still working at Black Label, the complaint says the presentation identified Black Label clients as “Select VIP Clients” for the new team and used information taken from the firm’s marketing materials.
From November to December Desy Edrei, Bondiskey and Skokowski were to finalize Serhant brokers and agent agreements, open bank accounts and file LLCs and business licenses, according to the presentation. On top of contributing $600,000 as a start-up commitment, they planned in January to open a new office, recruit agents and have a launch party with “Partner Ryan Serhant,” among other activities.
Bondiskey, Desy Edrei and Skokowski did not immediately return requests for comment.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Elliman Sues Broker, Who Bolted to Bespoke, for $700K

Douglas Elliman, citing a contract, is suing its former broker Andrew Azoulay for nearly $700,000 after he defected to Bespoke.

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Elliman sues broker for $700K after he bolted for Bespoke​

Firm pursuing Andrew Azoulay, alleging he broke contract
Douglas Elliman is pursuing one of its former brokers for nearly $700,000.
The brokerage alleged in a summons Thursday that Andrew Azoulay left Elliman on March 15, about a year before the end of his three-year contract. As a result, Elliman says it’s entitled to $687,600 in incentives and benefits it paid him.

Azoulay, who could not immediately be reached for comment, has joined Bespoke Real Estate as vice president of business development, according to the firm’s website.
The former Elliman rainmaker was known for a star-studded client roster that included NBA champions Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett when he left Town to join Elliman in 2014. He brought with him more than $70 million in listings.

Douglas Elliman declined to comment.
Clawbacks have become a hot-button issue in recent years as firms like Compass and the now-defunct Town Residential aggressively recruited agents away from legacy brokerages. Firms like Core, Elliman and Corcoran updated their policies and started to more aggressively target costs eligible for recoupment.

​

Clawback policies in Compass contracts sometimes allowed the brokerage to recoup money after the end of a broker’s deal. One agent previously told The Real Deal their one-year contract had a three-year clawback period that applied to all marketing, administrative and office expenses.
The suit against Azoulay isn’t the only legal action he’s been involved with in recent years.

In 2019 he sued Taylor Swift, alleging the pop star owed him a $1 million commission for giving her representatives a tour of 153 Franklin Street, a four-bedroom townhouse that Swift later bought. A judge threw the case out, ruling that Swift and Azoulay did not have a formal agreement.
The broker’s new firm has also been the subject of litigation lately. The firm was accused by a former executive in March of racial discrimination. It’s also being sued by a Hamptons broker alleging the firm owes him $545,000 in commissions.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Bankruptcy Expert Greg Corbin Leaves Rosewood to Start New Firm

Bankruptcy specialist Greg Corbin left Rosewood Realty Group and started his own firm to capitalize on rising distress in commercial real estate.

therealdeal.com

Bankruptcy expert Greg Corbin launches new firm as CRE distress rises​

Corbin says he’s leaving Rosewood Realty to focus on booming demand for restructuring, foreclosure services
Bankruptcy is becoming such big business in commercial real estate that one of New York’s top restructuring specialists is starting his own firm to capitalize on booming demand.
Greg Corbin, formerly president of bankruptcy and restructuring at Aaron Jungreis’ Rosewood Realty Group, is taking his four-person team and starting a new company, North Point Real Estate Group, which will focus on bankruptcies, foreclosures, workouts and restructuring as a wave of distress threatens property owners across the city.

Corbin joined Rosewood in 2019 from Besen & Associates, where he became known as one of the city’s most active bankruptcy and foreclosure brokers.
High-profile cases handled by Corbin included the foreclosures of Fortis Property Group’s massive 1 and 2 River Park site in Cobble Hill and a Flatbush apartment complex developed by Eli Karp’s Hello Living, as well as the bankruptcy sale of a large Brooklyn portfolio owned by landlord Chaskiel Strulovitch.

Corbin is also running the bankruptcy process for the Wagner Hotel in Lower Manhattan and Abraham Leifer’s nearly completed 21-story hotel project in Downtown Brooklyn. In total, Corbin says since 2019 his team has arranged the sale, workout or recapitalization of over 100 buildings, development sites, membership interests and loans totaling $1.1 billion underlying collateral.
“He’s typically my go-to guy for sales in connection with bankruptcy matters and non-judicial UCC foreclosures,” said Jerold Feuerstein, co-founder of the law firm Kriss & Feuerstein, who represents some of the city’s largest real estate lenders.
“They [Corbin’s team] understand the nuances and intricacies of distressed sales which is why we work so closely with them,” added Marvin Azrak of Maguire Capital, an investment firm focused on distress.
Corbin said he wanted to start his own business focused more narrowly on the coming distress in the market, noting Rosewood’s established reputation as an investment sales powerhouse in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Based around his existing team of Chaya Milworn, Felix Ades and Shaun Rose, Corbin’s North Point Real Estate Group will be one of the few boutique firms in the bankruptcy and restructuring space. It will mostly compete with deep-pocketed national brokerages like Newmark and JLL, as well as other firms like Robert “Large Loan” Verrone’s Ironhound Management, which specializes in loan workouts and restructurings.

Expertise in bankruptcy and UCC foreclosures is becoming increasingly sought after by both lenders and property owners as more landlords struggle to make their debt payments.
Lenders often pursue UCC foreclosure as a way to seize properties while bypassing the traditional court process. These types of foreclosure require a formal marketing process in which brokers are hired to ensure outside bidders can participate in an auction.
Faced with a UCC foreclosure, property owners frequently file for bankruptcy, delaying the auction process and giving them a chance to sell their properties or ownership interests. This also presents opportunities for brokers like Corbin, who are hired to market the properties and attract maximum interest. The challenge is marketing the property through the onerous terms of bankruptcy law.

​

With distress percolating through commercial real estate, demand for these is poised to increase.

“Of my 18-hour days, 14 to 15 of them are consumed with real estate distress,” said Y. David Scharf, chair of the Manhattan-based law firm Morrison Cohen.
The uptick in delinquencies and defaults has primarily been driven by rising interest rates, which have put a squeeze on borrowers. About $1.5 trillion in commercial mortgages are coming due over the next three years, according to data provider Trepp, which tracks securitized mortgages, and refinancing has become a challenge for most owners.
“It is very difficult to see how all these maturities get paid off, and I think dusting off the ‘extend and pretend’ playbook does not work nearly as well in a 8-10 percent senior mortgage rate environment,” said Mike Comparato, head of commercial real estate at Benefit Street Partners, an alternative lender.
“This is going to be painful,” he added.
For Corbin, more pain means more business. He’s currently involved in 26 bankruptcy and foreclosure deals where the underlying collateral totals over $500 million in value.

“I’ve been doing bankruptcy and foreclosure deals for 15 years, and the last downturn in 2009 was a non-event compared to what we are seeing now,” said Corbin, citing the pandemic, rate hikes and changes to the state’s rent laws that capped increases on stabilized units.
Corbin’s exit from Rosewood is the third major departure at the brokerage in the past month. In May, the head of its national investment sales division, Jonathan Brody, left with broker Michael Schattner to start their own firm, Base Realty Group.
Jungreis said he will still work with Corbin and that the pair will send each other deals. Unlike other notable splits in the city’s brokerage world, Jungreis said Corbin left on good terms.
“I’m more upset that I won’t see him everyday,” said Jungreis.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Keller Williams Black Label Sues Serhant Over Expansion

Keller Williams Black Label accused former brokers on Serhant’s Societe Select team of taking proprietary information to the firm.

therealdeal.com

https://therealdeal.com/

Serhant, PA team members sued for $10M over expansion​

Keller Williams Black Label alleges “plundering” and “sabotage” in expansion

A Pennsylvania brokerage accused Serhant and Philadelphia-based brokers of a scheme to “loot” the company for the New York City-founded firm’s expansion into the Keystone State.
Keller Williams Black Label named the two-and-half-year-old brokerage, founder Ryan Serhant and Andrea Desy Edrei, his newly recruited Pennsylvania team lead, in a complaint filed in Philadelphia Commerce Court that accuses them of “plundering its clients, intellectual property, confidential information and personnel, while crippling its ability to operate.”

The brokerage and its parent business, the Condo Shop LLC, are seeking more than $10 million in damages, as well as punitive damages over the terms of Desy Edrei’s departure from Black Label last month to head Serhant’s local expansion.
The plaintiffs are also seeking a preliminary injunction barring Serhant and Desy Edrei from using any proprietary information it alleges was taken as a result of her departure and the return of Black Label social media accounts it claims were “sabotaged.”

“With their scheme accomplished, defendants left Black Label as a shattered, empty shell, having stripped it of its clients, assets, and ability to do business,” the firms claim in the complaint.
The complaint also named former Black Label Director of Marketing Michael Skokowski, Jr., and former Marketing Coordinator Kailey Bondiskey, who were allegedly recruited to “join the scheme” by Desy Edrei.
Serhant and representatives for his firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The wrongdoing started months before any agents defected to Serhant, the brokerages claim, during which time several defendants used Black Label’s proprietary marketing materials to create marketing materials for Serhant and “deliberately sabotaged Black Label’s social media accounts while claiming those accounts had been ‘hacked’.”

​

When Serhant was ready to begin operating in Pennsylvania under the label Societe Select, several agents resigned in unison, according to the complaint, while others provided the funding to support the new team.

Once the team was up and running, the brokers took down “numerous” Black Label listings before re-listing them with Serhant, the firm claims. The defendants are accused of restoring Black Label’s social media accounts as Societe Select pages while taking steps to lock Black Label out of those accounts.
Black Label also alleged the defendants emptied the client database of contacts and other information.
The complaint points to a marketing presentation for a new Serhant team, referred to as Societe + Serhant. Prepared in November 2022, while Desy Edrei, Bondiskey and Skokowski were still working at Black Label, the complaint says the presentation identified Black Label clients as “Select VIP Clients” for the new team and used information taken from the firm’s marketing materials.
From November to December Desy Edrei, Bondiskey and Skokowski were to finalize Serhant brokers and agent agreements, open bank accounts and file LLCs and business licenses, according to the presentation. On top of contributing $600,000 as a start-up commitment, they planned in January to open a new office, recruit agents and have a launch party with “Partner Ryan Serhant,” among other activities.
Bondiskey, Desy Edrei and Skokowski did not immediately return requests for comment.

​

Anudder one

Ryan Serhant, Brokers Sued by South Florida Brokerage

A South Florida brokerage sued former agents and Ryan Serhant’s firm, alleging stolen trade secrets and violated contracts.

therealdeal.com

Palm Beach County firm alleges agents took trade secrets to Serhant​

Ex-Sutter & Nugent agents didn’t have non-competes, lawyer says
A South Florida brokerage is going after two of its former agents and Ryan Serhant’s firm, alleging the brokers stole trade secrets and violated their contracts.
Sutter & Nugent sued Serhant Florida, Matthew Moser and Nicholas Gonzalez in late May and are seeking unspecified damages from the two ex-Sutter & Nugent agents and their new employer.

Palm Beach Gardens-based Sutter & Nugent, led by broker and president Talbot Sutter, says it invested a “substantial amount of money” in setting up an office in Boca Raton where Moser and Gonzalez were based.
Moser and Gonzalez notified Talbot Sutter on March 20 that they were leaving the brokerage, according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges Sutter tried to keep them, but after finding out the two agents had been soliciting staff and agents in the Boca Raton office to join them at Serhant, Sutter & Nugent terminated the agreements on March 24.

Nearly two months after they left the brokerage, Sutter & Nugent allege Moser and Gonzalez recruited William Volpe, who led the Jupiter office, to join Serhant.
Sutter & Nugent also claims that Moser and Gonzalez used confidential marketing data and took listings that were initiated or secured through Sutter & Nugent.
David Beckerman, Moser and Gonzalez’s attorney, denies the allegations. Beckerman, of Beckerman Law, said they did not have non-compete agreements, “so they had the right to leave.”

​

“There were no trade secrets taken,” he added. Beckerman filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The lawsuit marks at least the second time Serhant is sued as it expands into new markets.
A Pennsylvania brokerage in April accused Serhant and Andrea Desy Edrei, who leads his team in the Keystone State, of “plundering its clients, intellectual property, confidential information and personnel, while crippling its ability to operate.” Keller Williams Black Label and its parent company sought more than $10 million in damages over the terms of Desy Edrei’s departure in March to head Serhant’s local expansion.
New York-based Serhant teased its South Florida expansion last year with a $100 million co-listing in Golden Beach, a wealthy enclave in north Miami-Dade County. This year, it officially opened up shop in six new markets along the East Coast: Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina and South Carolina. It is also considering expanding to Chicago.
Serhant, who launched his firm in 2020, became a household name on Bravo’s TV show “Million Dollar Listing: New York” and his own spinoff, “Sell it Like Serhant.”

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Jason Castro and Liz Mello Combine Forces At Compass Real Estate - CandysDirt.com

Jason Castro made two big announcements the week: he's joining forces with Liz Mello and moving to Compass Real Estate.

candysdirt.com

Jason Castro and Liz Mello Combine Forces At Compass Real Estate​

Photos taken inside 2200 Custer Parkway, a recent Castro project.
Agents Jason Castro and Liz Mello made a big announcement this week — well, actually, two big announcements. Castro is moving to Compass Real Estate, and Mello is joining forces with Castro as co-principal, along with her team of agents.
CandysDirt.com readers (and anyone paying attention to Dallas real estate) will know Castro from our coverage of his renovations and upcoming Big Bear Mountain vacation property.
A former English teacher and literacy specialist, Liz Mello is a third-generation East Dallasite with strong ties to the community. Mello has worked with both Dave Perry Miller and Meyer Group Real Estate brokerages. Liz and Jason met when their children attended school together, and they later became colleagues at the Lakewood office of Coldwell Banker Realty. When that office closed recently, and many of the agents found themselves asking, “What’s next?”
Jason said, “What if we could do something together?”
CandysDirt.com sat down with Jason and Liz to talk about the move and the future of The Castro Group at Compass Real Estate.

How did the two of you come together?​

Castro: For a long time I have been saying that we need someone who can lead and guide our agents. Liz has a passion for nurturing and mentoring people, and that same kind of relational-driven attitude that she takes to her clients, she also brings to working with agents, so that was a missing piece I saw within our organization that was a perfect fit.
Mello: It happened super organically. Our families know each other, and we did a deal together at Coldwell that went very smoothly.
Castro: That deal — we had found a client through Instagram. 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.

Why Compass?​

Castro: The tech is superior. From the app to the CRM, it’s very impressive. 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. 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.
Mello: The Lakewood office of Coldwell Banker recently closed, and Compass Lakewood is extremely high-performing, so from that perspective, it was a no-brainer.

What will The Castro Group look like going forward?​

Mello: I came over with three other agents and Jason had two at the time, and we’re onboarding two right now.
CandysDirt: Are Castro Stays and Castro Casa separate from The Castro Group?
Castro: Yes. I’ve been so focused on the design/build stuff, that I don’t have the time for the agent work, and Liz is so plugged in on all the agents. Liz has the pulse on everything that’s going on with agents and in the market. We really complement each other in that way.
Castro: I think there’s an endless amount of business to chase and produce, and you have to be efficient with your time, or otherwise it will just own your life. So the heart behind the team is to give them the power and the path to a career that they love and to fast forward through all of the hard times in the beginning when you don’t know what to do. What does it mean to create a place where agents can thrive and how can we bring people together? That’s what we’ve always been working toward.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

The W Team Leaves Serhant For Compass

Compass picked up Maggie Wu’s The W Team, a top-performing New York City small group according to RealTrends, from Serhant.

therealdeal.com

Compass scores ‘W’ as team departs Serhant​

Four-person W Team ranked 21st NYC small group by RealTrends

A top-performing Serhant team has departed the two-year-old brokerage for Compass.
Maggie Wu’s The W Team was named 21st most successful small team by volume in New York City with $102 million in self-reported sales last year, according to RealTrends.

Wu was previously attached to a high-profile new development project when Serhant took over sales of the penthouses atop 277 Fifth Avenue in July 2022. The agent, along with brokerage founder Ryan Serhant, bumped Corcoran from its spot marketing the entirety of Victor Group and Lendlease’s Fifth Avenue tower. Wu said her team is not taking those listings to Compass.
The team’s departure marks the second exit by a top performer after broker Tamir Shemesh was terminated from the firm earlier this year for unknown reasons. He later announced he was joining Nest Seekers, marking his fourth brokerage in six years.

The move to Compass is a homecoming for team lead Wu, who started her career there in 2019 before departing just over a year ago to start a team at Serhant.

​

Wu isn’t the only notable name to return to Compass this week. Former Compass California President Mark McLaughlin returned as its chief real estate strategist, the same title he held before his departure to focus on his eponymous venture capital firm, but a different role.
Wu said her team includes a guaranteed minimum for agents aimed at “eliminating bias” in the sales process.
“I think there’s a little bit of a conflict of interest in the way our compensation is structured,” said Wu. “How can you sell something with no bias and push people to buy something if that’s your next paycheck?”

She’s also recruited outside of real estate: Her most recent hire, Michelle Pinner, was previously an executive director at MAC Cosmetics, and team member Isabelle Van Oppen was a paralegal when she and Wu met at a Thanksgiving dinner party.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Serhant Adds Jersey City Brokerage Trompeter Real Estate

Serhant added a fourth independent brokerage, Trompeter Real Estate, continuing its expansion in New Jersey.

therealdeal.com

Serhant trumpets Trompeter affiliation deal​

Ryan Serhant’s eponymous firm adds a 30-agent brokerage in Jersey City

Serhant is doubling down in New Jersey.
The brokerage has added Trompeter Real Estate, a 30-agent firm operating in Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken and Bayonne that averages $150 million in sales annually.

The expansion is Serhant’s second in New Jersey and its first since the brokerage, founded and led by Ryan Serhant, moved into to six states earlier this year. The firm at that time recruited Short Hills agent Michele Zyska, Compass’ former broker of record in New Jersey.
Trompeter is the third independent brokerage to join Serhant, which has targeted entire brokerages — as opposed to poaching teams from other major firms — in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. No money was exchanged in the deal, which Serhant is calling an affiliation, not an acquisition.

The firm this week also suffered a high-profile defection when Maggie Wu, founder of The W Team, left for Compass. The W Team was Serhant’s most successful small team by volume last year, according to RealTrends.
Serhant’s expansion hasn’t always gone smoothly. The brokerage was sued in Pennsylvania and in Florida over the way it recruited agents.

Like several of the brokerages that joined last winter, Trompeter was recruited through Serhant’s “Sell It Like Serhant” coaching program. Enrique Napoles, who co-founded the brokerage four and a half years ago with Mark Trompeter, said they had been looking for coaching for themselves and their team members.​

Napoles said he aspires to double his team’s headcount in the coming year now that he has the weight of a major brokerage behind him.

Napoles said the Serhant move comes as New Yorkers’ interest in Jersey City condos ticks up, though the overall market remains cooler than last year because of higher mortgage rates.
“Hoboken was always a popular neighborhood,” said Napoles. “Downtown Jersey City, not so much; but the location and the amount of businesses opening, the amount of employers coming to the area, it’s attracting a lot of buyers.”

 

[David Goldsmith]

The W Team Leaves Serhant For Compass

Compass picked up Maggie Wu’s The W Team, a top-performing New York City small group according to RealTrends, from Serhant.

therealdeal.com

Compass scores ‘W’ as team departs Serhant​

Four-person W Team ranked 21st NYC small group by RealTrends

A top-performing Serhant team has departed the two-year-old brokerage for Compass.
Maggie Wu’s The W Team was named 21st most successful small team by volume in New York City with $102 million in self-reported sales last year, according to RealTrends.

Wu was previously attached to a high-profile new development project when Serhant took over sales of the penthouses atop 277 Fifth Avenue in July 2022. The agent, along with brokerage founder Ryan Serhant, bumped Corcoran from its spot marketing the entirety of Victor Group and Lendlease’s Fifth Avenue tower. Wu said her team is not taking those listings to Compass.
The team’s departure marks the second exit by a top performer after broker Tamir Shemesh was terminated from the firm earlier this year for unknown reasons. He later announced he was joining Nest Seekers, marking his fourth brokerage in six years.

The move to Compass is a homecoming for team lead Wu, who started her career there in 2019 before departing just over a year ago to start a team at Serhant.

​

Wu isn’t the only notable name to return to Compass this week. Former Compass California President Mark McLaughlin returned as its chief real estate strategist, the same title he held before his departure to focus on his eponymous venture capital firm, but a different role.
Wu said her team includes a guaranteed minimum for agents aimed at “eliminating bias” in the sales process.
“I think there’s a little bit of a conflict of interest in the way our compensation is structured,” said Wu. “How can you sell something with no bias and push people to buy something if that’s your next paycheck?”

She’s also recruited outside of real estate: Her most recent hire, Michelle Pinner, was previously an executive director at MAC Cosmetics, and team member Isabelle Van Oppen was a paralegal when she and Wu met at a Thanksgiving dinner party.

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Nest Seekers Sues Former Broker Over Departure

Nest Seekers sued broker Natanel Malkoukian over his exit, which came after a lawsuit claiming religious discrimination and retaliation.

therealdeal.com

Nest Seekers snaps back at former broker​

Brokerage accuses agent of stealing clients, employees, commissions

Broker Natanel Malkoukian left Nest Seekers for a shot at building his own new development marketing company. But his departure earlier this year followed a rocky few months at the brokerage and is now the center of an $11 million lawsuit filed by the firm.
The move followed a lawsuit that Malkoukian, who is Orthodox Jewish, filed against the brokerage in April, accusing Nest Seekers broker Michael Bethoney and CEO Eddie Shapiro of religious discrimination, bullying and retaliation.

Three months later, Nest Seekers sued Malkoukian, claiming he breached his employment contract and stole clients, employees, confidential information and commission payments from the firm when he departed in June.
Malkoukian, who denied the firm’s claims, said the brokerage only filed the lawsuit as a scare tactic.
“[The lawsuit] is more to put fear in our eyes,” Malkoukian said. “It’s Eddie Shapiro.”
A spokesperson for Nest Seekers declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a company policy prohibiting discussion of pending legal matters.
The brokerage filed the suit on June 27, eight days after Malkoukian left the company. Nest Seekers is requesting $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
The complaint also names as defendants Malkoukian’s new venture, Reavis Real Estate Group, and other members, including former Nest Seekers agent Yitzchak Khaimov, Malkoukian’s brother David and agent Jonathan Anobian.
In the lawsuit, Nest Seekers claims Malkoukian and others coached the firm’s developer clients on how to subvert their exclusive listing agreements with the brokerage in violation of the non-solicitation clause in their contracts.

The complaint also alleges the defendants stole more than $200,000 in commission payments and redirected them to their company by “forging signatures on documents, fabricating documents, and making misrepresentations to these developers to send the checks directly to them rather than [Nest Seekers].”

​

Nest Seekers also claimed Malkoukian and Khaimov forwarded “confidential contracts, renderings, photos, videos, pitch decks, trade secrets and other documents and marketing materials” to their personal email addresses and tried to “conceal their misdeeds” by deleting the emails from their company account.
In Malkoukian’s lawsuit, the broker alleged Bethoney “threatened and bullied” him, including remarking that he “barely works” regarding his observance of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays as well as “yelling and screaming, spitting, and clenching his fist, to the extent that [Malkoukian] felt physically threatened.” The suit also alleged Bethoney has a “history of harassing women agents and employees… because they are women.”
The complaint alleged that when Malkoukian complained about Bethoney’s behavior, Shapiro told him Bethoney would be fired but later changed his mind because of Bethoney’s relationship with Nest Seekers’ developer clients.
The broker claimed Bethoney removed him from projects and denied him $1.5 million in commissions after that conversation with Shapiro.
Nest Seekers’ complaint references Malkoukian’s April lawsuit, referring to the legal action as “frivolous” as it made claims of religious discrimination “even though Bethoney is Jewish and Nest Seekers was founded and is owned by observant Jews, one of whom was born in Israel and had his children’s Bar Mitzvah at the Wailing Wall.”
Malkoukian’s lawsuit also alleges that while Khaimov, also an Orthodox Jewish man, was at Nest Seekers, he also faced similar discriminatory conduct because of his religion.
Nest Seekers dismissed those claims in its June complaint, arguing that “Yitzhcak echoed similar complaints as a smokescreen” in order to “[implement] their fraudulent unlawful scheme.”

​

 

[David Goldsmith]

Mike Fabbri Joins The Agency In NYC

Nest Seekers agent Mike Fabbri is joining The Agency as the Los Angeles-based brokerage builds its New York City foothold.

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Nest Seekers agent Mike Fabbri joins The Agency in NYC​

Former digital strategist joined Nest Seekers in 2019
,
A digital strategist turned agent is leaving Nest Seekers for The Agency, as the Los Angeles-based firm looks to build up its New York City outpost.
Mike Fabbri joined Nest Seekers in 2019 as a member of Ryan Serhant’s then 50-person team. Fabbri stayed on at the firm when Serhant left a year later to launch his eponymous brokerage.

While at Nest Seekers, Fabbri focused on new development sales at buildings like the Etage on the Upper East Side and 145 Central Park North in South Harlem. The agent said he will start with a fresh slate at The Agency and won’t be bringing any business over from Nest Seekers.
“A lot of my business is from my strong referral network globally, so not just in New York, but a lot of West Coast and back and forth,” Fabbri said. “Having that brand established there I think is really helpful, and also just their expansion and their visibility in all these really key global markets.”

Before he started selling real estate, Fabbri served as the head of digital and social media at Douglas Elliman and as a brand manager and agent developer at Compass. In 2016, he became an agent at Corcoran, where he was named rookie of the year with his former business partner Scott Francis.

​

The Agency, led by CEO and founder Mauricio Umansky, expanded to the East Coast last year after acquiring Triplemint. The Agency’s New York City office and tri-state operations are headed by Molly Townsend.
The Agency locked down its first new development project in the city in May at Sackman Enterprises’ 15 West 96th Street.
“Whenever I feel comfortable, it’s time to make a move and challenge myself,” Fabbri said. “I’ve done well with that in the new development space specifically, and I know [The Agency] is putting a lot of effort into that.”

​