Tyler Whitman ditches clawbacks, recruits top agents for Hamptons franchise

Tyler Whitman and Dana Trotter have pulled two more veteran agents over to their Hamptons franchise.

Their pitch? No clawbacks.

The Agency’s Hamptons franchise, launched by Whitman and Trotter last summer, has recruited Randi Ball from Corcoran and Rylan Jacka from Sotheby’s International Realty.

Ball was Corcoran’s second-best selling agent in East Hamptons last year, with self-reported volume of $100 million, and Jacka has been Sotheby’s top-selling agent in the market since 2015, ranking in the brokerage’s top 100 agents nationwide last year.

Both agents likely left considerable sums of money on the table — at least upfront — to join Whitman and Trotter, who are pioneering a new recruitment strategy by doing away with clawbacks. While it provides flexibility for agents should they decide to leave, it also means the franchise owners can’t offer the kind of lavish signing bonuses that have become the industry norm in recent years. The lack of clawbacks doesn’t affect marketing budgets, Whitman said.

“I really want to bring back the free agent,” he said. “If somebody is not happy, I want them to have the freedom to go be happy and not feel like they’re financially imprisoned with me, and vice versa.”

Corcoran declined to comment on Ball’s departure. 

On Rylan, Sotheby’s said: “We are proud of everything Rylan accomplished during his tenure at Sotheby’s International Realty and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

While clawbacks have been around for years, the amount of money at risk for agents and the aggressiveness with which they’re enforced have risen in recent years, as a result of Compass’ disruption-by-capital approach to recruiting. 

As the brokerage poached agent after agent with lucrative sign-on bonuses, it instituted clawbacks to make sure those agents couldn’t take the money and run. Some agents have reported having hundreds of thousands of dollars vulnerable to clawbacks should they leave the firm. 

Other firms, like Core and Corcoran, felt compelled to institute similar policies to reduce churn. Last year, Elliman sued former star agent Andrew Azoulay for $700,000 in clawbacks when he left for Bespoke. The case was settled confidentially.

While not getting a sign-on bonus may be a non-starter for some agents, Ball said the pitch resonated with her.

“Welcome to the brave new world,” said Ball. “I think it shows a lot of integrity, I think it acknowledges that what an agent earns was hard-earned and should ultimately be theirs. I wouldn’t be surprised if more [brokerages] wind up following suit.”

Said Whitman, “I’m basically giving away 100 percent of my secrets to everybody who works here.”

Ball and Jacka will lead The Agency Hamptons’ East Hampton office when it opens in April. Their arrival brings the franchise’s agent count to 10; Whitman wants to reach 30 by the end of the year. 

Neither agent had plans to leave their brokerages before Trotter, a longtime and well-respected Hamptons agent, approached them, although it was initially Trotter’s husband who pitched Jacka on a move at their tennis club.

“We’re not calling every broker under the sun,” she said. “We’re really particular about the culture we want to build.”

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