Tricia Lee is joining celebrity broker Ryan Serhant’s firm and starting her own team with agents from Compass and EXR Group.
The Brooklyn-based Lee got her real estate license in 2015 and began working at the Corcoran Group in 2016. She was named rookie agent of the year and was recruited by Compass and won rookie of the year there as well. She said she’s done over $100 million in sales.
Lee said her decision to leave Compass was guided by “where I could grow the most.”
“I have had a phenomenal, quote that, phenomenal experience at Compass,” she said.
Lee previously owned and operated a chain of beauty salons, Polish Bar Brooklyn, for a decade. She decided to close them after Hurricane Sandy flooded them in 2012. After launching her real estate business, Lee continued working mostly in Brooklyn, with many salon clients calling her when looking to buy or sell homes.
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“I want to help people,” she said. This year, she said, she’s worked with 20 women buying their first home.
Serhant said he first approached Lee about joining his firm in the spring after following her deals for some time.
“She’s the luxury face of Brooklyn,” he said. “I told her that I had always been a big fan.”
Lee was not as certain. She began listening to Serhant’s books to get a sense of who she would be dealing with if she made the move. About halfway through “Big Money Energy,” she decided to join.
“I was working on the toughest deal of my career, and hopefully my life,” she said. “That book got the deal done.”
The deal was the $5 million sale of a landmarked, 6,852-square-foot brownstone and development site at 164-168 Hancock Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The challenges ahead of the July closing ranged from dealing with tenants to family turmoil to unmoved vehicles.
“The day before the closing I was on one of the lots covered in mosquito bites having cars towed off the lot at 9 o’clock at night,” she said. “I could not have closed this deal if I wasn’t listening to that book.”
Lee is bringing two agents with her from Compass: her fiance Jeffrey St. Arromand — a former sports producer at CBS and NBC — and Brianah Moore. Agent Zola Abraham is joining her team from EXR Group. Lee said she began assembling the team this summer so she could hit the ground running.
“Over the summer I’ve been working to grow the foundation,” said Lee. “I didn’t want to walk in this room and not feel prepared.”
Serhant has been making a number of hires of late. Last week, Loy Carlos, a veteran Corcoran agent who worked with Carrie Chiang, joined his eponymous firm. The brokerage, which started last fall, has about 70 agents and 40 employees.
Compass declined to comment.