Compass Nabs Former Hilton & Hyland Agent Paul Salazar

Los Angeles agent Paul Salazar capped a 16-year career with Hilton & Hyland as he and his team made the jump over to Compass this month, The Real Deal has learned.

Salazar said he brought three agents along with an operations executive to Compass’ Beverly Hills office after a couple months of weighing options on his next move.

“Compass was an easy choice,” he said as he evaluated different brokerages’ marketing, office space, tech stack and leadership.

Joining Salazar at Compass are agents Kyle Amicucci, Christian Hose and Kate Caffrey, in addition to a director of operations, Isabella Franciscovich.

The agent and his team join a brokerage with at least one familiar face in former Hilton & Hyland President David Kramer, who brought his six-person team to Compass in December.

“I think since Jeff [Hyland] passed, it’s just been a hard transition for the company to be without his leadership,” Salazar said in discussing his decision.

He added that the brokerage is still a “great company,” but said, “It was just my time to leave.”

Hyland, who founded the brokerage in 1993, with Rick Hilton, passed away in 2022. That was then followed by several leadership changes that most recently included the addition of Steve Katz as managing director about a week after Kramer parted ways with the firm.

“We thank Paul for his 16 years of dedication and contributions to Hilton & Hyland,” Katz said in a statement provided to TRD. “His professionalism and consistency were valued here, and we wish him nothing but continued success as he enters this next chapter in his career.”

Salazar ends a long-running career with Hilton & Hyland, where he carved a path into the luxury residential market after selling real estate in Rancho Cucamonga. He made the move to Los Angeles in 2009 at the urging of his mother, who he had previously been selling with as she encouraged her son to work his way into the high end.

Once in L.A., Salazar started as an assistant to Hilton & Hyland’s Chad Rogers. He absorbed plenty of learnings from the former “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” star before striking off on his own and later building a team.

“There’s some strengths to being at a boutique firm, but what I can say about Compass — even though it’s a behemoth of a brokerage — it’s just really well run,” Salazar said.

That’s a boon as the agent considers the growth of his business and brand in the years ahead.

“The first and second quarters are probably going to be the strongest two quarters since the rise of interest rates in 2022,” Salazar said of his business so far this year. “It’s been two tough years. We’ve been able to sell. We do a lot of calls and prospecting, but I think this year we’re finally seeing some movement.”

Like many others working the high end locally, Salazar’s seen an uptick in inventory hitting markets such as Santa Monica, Brentwood, Venice and Mar Vista following the Palisades fire that swept through that community in January.

While the agent thinks the size of his current team is sufficient for his current business, he said he could see it growing over time with people who fit within his team’s structured culture where there are prescribed times for meetings and making calls.

There’s also a potential runway Salazar sees with Compass that could allow him to build out his personal brand, weaving his real estate business with his podcast focused on men’s spiritual health, called “On Frequency,” and set to launch in a few weeks.