“Million Dollar Listing” Star Tracy Tutor Joins Compass

“Million Dollar Listing” star Tracy Tutor has left Douglas Elliman for Compass, marking a major agent coup for the Robert Reffkin-led brokerage.

Compass revealed the news Tuesday morning, confirming Tutor’s arrival along with her 18-person team located in Beverly Hills, Dallas and Austin. The group has active listings of more than $550 million.

Among those making the move to Compass with Tutor are the team’s CEO Cody Coffman and CMO Ani Cataldi. Breah Brown, who Elliman said is its top agent in Texas, did not go to Compass and will remain with the brokerage.

Tutor, with career sales of more than $4.5 billion, said in a statement the jump to Compass “aligns with my vision” for her business’ future.

“This partnership will not only enhance my ability to serve clients in California and Texas, but also enable me to expand my reach into new markets, elevate my team’s capabilities and continue setting the standard in the luxury real estate industry,” she said.

The celebrity agent began her team’s expansion beyond California in 2022, when she launched in the Texas market with a team of 13 in Dallas and Austin. The business now counts about $200 million in active listings.

“We are proud of the agent Tracy became under the Elliman banner and wish her the best in her next endeavor,” a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement provided to The Real Deal.

Tutor is the most recent addition in a growing number of big names Compass has poached within L.A.’s luxury residential market.

Less than a month ago, former Hilton & Hyland President David Kramer brought his six-person team and $1.7 billion in career sales to Compass’ Beverly Hills office. The addition of the David Kramer Group brought to the brokerage nearly $317 million in active listings, some of which are co-lists with Kramer’s former firm.

“Tracy and David’s decision to join Compass underscores the strength of our platform, luxury support and powerful network,” Compass Regional Vice President of Southern California and Hawaii Parker Beatty said in a statement to TRD. “Top agents choose Compass for innovative tools like Private Exclusives and Compass Coming Soon, which help them test the market, gain insights and launch listings strategically. Beyond technology, our network fosters strong relationships and business efficiency, giving agents and their clients a clear advantage.”

In early 2024 Josh Flagg, another star on “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles,” joined Compass after two years at Elliman.

Across markets, Compass added 55 agents from Elliman last year, according to the brokerage.

Elliman exits

Tutor’s departure ends local market chatter that had been mounting in recent weeks about where she might move, particularly after recounting to the New York Times in July an incident involving former Elliman agent Oren Alexander.

Tutor declined through a Compass spokesperson to comment on if what she told the Times in relation to the Alexanders had any bearing on her severing ties with Elliman.

The agent had told the newspaper she remembered sharing a drink with Oren at a 2014 cocktail party and then “blacked out.”

Another Elliman agent told the Times he found Tutor with Oren in a restaurant bathroom and removed her. Although a top Elliman executive was made aware of the incident, a formal complaint with the brokerage was not filed, the agent told the newspaper.

The FBI arrested and charged Oren, along with his brothers Tal and Alon Alexander, last month with three counts of sex trafficking offenses. They face allegations of sexual assault, trafficking and rape of dozens of women over about two decades, according to court documents.

Oren and Tal, another former agent at Elliman, were at the brokerage for more than a decade before the two started their Side-backed firm Official in 2022.

Elliman has been at the center of an executive shuffle in recent months.

The brokerage in October announced the sudden retirement of longtime chairman and CEO Howard Lorber, billing the exit as his choice to step down. But a report from the Wall Street Journal said Lorber’s exit came at the urging of the board in relation to concerns about Douglas Elliman’s workplace culture.

Not long after Lorber’s retirement announcement, the firm said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it had terminated CEO of Brokerage Scott Durkin. Executive Vice President and COO Richard Lampen retired in December, with the brokerage announcing he will remain on the board.

Tutor’s exit is the latest headline for Douglas Elliman’s western region, which was rocked in October by a trio of lawsuits that included two from former employees and a third from the brokerage.

The suits, while filed for separate reasons, presented similar allegations of kickback schemes involving different reality TV stars and, in one lawsuit, an alleged audit of the company’s escrow subsidiary Portfolio Escrow by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Elliman’s lawsuit was against Portfolio Escrow’s former President William Grasska, accusing him of a kickback scheme. A report following the lawsuits’ filings from TRD in December further highlighted a dysfunctional work culture within the brokerage’s Western region.

Douglas Elliman reported its Western business — comprising California, Nevada, Colorado and Texas — generated $48.3 million in revenue during the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to $48.9 million in the year-ago period. The total for the recently ended quarter made up about 18 percent of the firm’s overall revenue, the smallest share in comparison to its sister markets in New York, the Northeast and Southeast.