Jones Fridman International & Associates, one of Compass’ top Los Angeles teams, can stick another feather in its cap with an expansion into Silicon Valley.
Jones Fridman, helmed by star brokers Sally Forster Jones and Tomer Fridman, said this week it merged with Katy Thielke Straser’s seven-person team, Straser Silicon Valley at Compass, a move that underscores the group’s appetite to rapidly expand its luxury business.
“The properties we sell that are $10 million, $20 million, $100 million, a lot of these people are from up north,” JFI’s Tomer Fridman said. “When we set out to look for a partner, Katy came up constantly in terms of her level of service and her team’s caliber performing in the luxury market. It was a no-brainer that this was going to be our partner up north.”
Jones Fridman is also run by Tomer’s mother and Israel Sotheby’s International Realty founding partner Isidora Fridman.
The team, with the addition of Straser Silicon Valley, now counts some $25 billion in total career sales and 45 agents.
Thielke Straser started her Compass team in 2020 with operations executive Virginia Nicoletti and has since grown it to close $440 million in transactions. The team counts four agents, including Lena Gustafsson, Rachel Zhang and Rachel Wilt, and will now be based out of Compass’ office in Menlo Park.
Jones Fridman’s new Northern California arm will focus on submarkets such as Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Atherton. The latter presents plenty of opportunity with properties priced from $6 million to $200 million, Thielke Straser said.
She and her team have seen buyer activity in the area ranging from executives who have made their money from tech startups and IPOs to international buyers.
For Jones Fridman, Silicon Valley is just one move in a more ambitious plan to bring the Jones Fridman brand to the nation’s top real estate markets for luxury residential.
“The key for us is luxury,” Fridman said. “We’re not just looking to expand. We’re looking to expand in key luxury markets in the country.”
That includes New York, Miami, Nashville, Montecito, Orange County and Aspen, according to Forster Jones. She confirmed they’re actively speaking with agents in all of those markets.
On future mergers, Forster Jones said: “It’s all in the process at the moment.”
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