This Side up: White label brokerage plucks luxury team from Compass

White label brokerage Side has plucked a seven-member luxury agent team from Compass in Los Angeles County, focusing on the gated Hidden Hills enclave and surrounding communities.

The team is led by Dana Olmes and Jeffery Biebuyck, whose “Dana and Jeff Luxury Homes” signs populate that area. The pair had been at Compass for three years, after jumping from Sotheby’s International Realty.

Side’s business model is to provide administrative support for agent teams, which maintain and promote their own brand. The San Francisco-based brokerage collects a 10 percent cut of all commissions made by its agents. Side has been incrementally building sales teams across the country, with a particular focus on the Bay Area and L.A. County.

The Olmes and Biebuyck brand is being dubbed Frontgate Real Estate because it will do business in the gated community of Hidden Hills, a 2,000-resident enclave whose welcome sign is “Relax. Slow Down. Children and horses at play.”

Frontgate Real Estate will be the “leading boutique luxury brand in Hidden Hills and the surrounding communities,” Side CEO and co-founder Guy Gal said Tuesday. In a release announcing the move, Frontgate said it has “a combined 45 years of experience and over $1 billion in sales.”

Messages left with Compass were not returned.

The Olmes and Biebuyck move comes days after Side said it had recruited veteran luxury agents Payton Stiewe, Arrian Binnings and Sejal Binnings in San Francisco, who are also leaving Compass.

Side isn’t the only firm seeking to make inroads in the L.A. luxury market.

Last week, Corcoran affiliate Corcoran Global Living said it had expanded into the L.A. market, its latest push across California. The luxury brand absorbed L.A. brokerage PLG Estates and its 200 agents.

And agents Rayni and Branden Williams took their Williams & Williams group out of Hilton & Hyland to form their own wholly independent shop, Beverly Hills Estate Inc.