Compass is poaching the celeb whisperers for its Beverly Hills operation.
The brokerage just lured over Tomer Fridman, best known as Kim Kardashian’s real estate agent, as well as three more of his colleagues who deal with the glitterati, sources told The Real Deal. The recruits all come from Ewing & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty.
Tomer and Isadora Fridman have represented the whole Kardashian clan since 2013, brokering the $20-million sale of a Hidden Hills home to Kimye in 2014 and the $7.2 million sale of Justin Bieber’s Calabasas home to Khloe Kardashian that same year. They’ve also represented Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez.
Compass also hired Dana Olmes and Jeff Biebuyck, who represented “Dances with Wolves” producer James Wilson in the $14.9 million sale of his Calabasas compound, which remains the priciest sale ever in the area.
At Ewing, the two teams collaborated on deals over $6 million and jointly represented The Biggest Loser” creator David Broome in listing his $9.5 million home in Calabasas.
Both teams will work out of Compass’ Beverly Hills office.
“It’s important to stay ahead of the market and technology is at the core of that,” Tomer said in a statement explaining his decision to move to the venture capital-backed brokerage, which has long touted its technology as a competitive advantage.
The big get for Compass is likely to add fuel to the speculation that the firm has been dangling big financial incentives to brokers to get them to come over.
“I think what Compass is doing from a poaching perspective is absolutely horrendous and disgusting to the industry,” Mauricio Umansky, founder of competitor the Agency, said in a recent interview. “I think the fact that they cannot build a company that people want to go to without having to pay them to go to it — there’s no way you can have a good culture there. Period. End of story.”
But Compass has denied offering anything above and beyond the industry standard.
“I can tell you agents are not coming to us for the compensation,” COO Maelle Gavet said in a recent interview.
Since opening its first office in Beverly Hills in early 2016, Compass has expanded to 250 agents and four locations in L.A., including Malibu, Pasadena and Brentwood.