Loken Group’s luxury president jumps to Compass

Compass began the year on a high note with a trio of team acquisitions including a top agent from the Loken Group, The Real Deal has learned.

Sara St. Marceaux departed Keller Williams’ the Loken Group to join Compass’ Houston office. St. Marceaux served as president of Portfolio Real Estate, the group’s luxury affiliate, for five years.

St. Marceaux boasts a decade of experience in Houston real estate. She was among some of the Loken Group’s top producers in 2022 with a total sales volume of $8.3 million. Her annual average from 2020-2022 was $8.9 million, with an average price point per deal exceeding $900,000.

The Loken Group is one of Keller Williams’ top Texas teams. The Houston Business Journal ranked the group second among Houston-area real estate teams by sales volume and transactions with $740 million in 2021. The group took the top spot last year, according to data analysis by TRD, with a sales volume of $216 million between October 2021 and October 2022.

Also joining Compass are Cassandra Lawrence of Coldwell Banker, as well as RE/MAX duo Darena Canizalez and Andrea Thomas. Canizalez and Thomas join the team with over 30 years of experience between them. Canizalez focuses on residential properties, closing million-dollar homes in Brykerwoods and Hyde Park, while Andrea Thomas boasts over $200 million in real estate sold throughout her career, focusing on central Houston, according to her profile on HAR.com.

Lawrence made the move to Compass to launch her own team, the Cassandra Lawrence Group. Her expertise ranges from single-family sales to luxury rentals and investment properties primarily in downtown Houston, River Oaks, Memorial and Katy.

Compass’ use of cutting-edge technologies like AI renovation tools was a key reason Lawrence made the move, she said.

“There’s a lot of great brokerages, but a lot of them are doing the same thing if you compare them … Compass was the only one that stood out that was being progressive,” Lawrence said. “I think Compass is going to push other brokerages to use more technology and get on board with AI to predict what our clients need to give them a better experience.”

Compass remains the top-ranked brokerage firm in the nation by sales volume despite a series of financial setbacks over the past year. The New York-based company cut engineering teams and product costs hoping to reduce expenses by $320 million in 2022 and earlier this month announced a third series of layoffs in a move to become cash-flow positive by mid-2023.

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