The Agency is coming to Dallas.
The luxury brokerage run by Mauricio Umansky recruited local agents Damon and Megan Williamson of Compass to run a new Dallas branch of the boutique out of the Preston Commons business center.
This will be the Agency’s first branch in Dallas and second in Texas; it already has a branch in Austin. The new office will open March 1 at 8117 Preston Road. A $10 million renovation of the building was recently completed. The 430,000-square-foot office campus is one of the largest in the Dallas’ Preston Center district.
Umansky has appeared on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and currently stars on the Netflix series Buying Beverly Hills.
Damon and Megan told The Real Deal they are bringing over a team of seven realtors from the Damon Williamson Group, which started in 2010. The husband-and-wife duo said they hope to hire 30 or 40 realtors across the Dallas area in the next year.
The couple, who have over 20 years of experience in Dallas, said the Agency reached out to them in September, while they were vacationing in Florida.
“We were just getting ready to go down to the beach, and my phone rang,” Damon said. “My wife was in the room, and I’m pretty quick to shut things down when people call; I’m always thinking its a sales call but [Megan] was like, ‘Wait, let him talk.’ ”
The brokerage will be owned by the Williamsons but will have access to the firm’s various resources, leadership and technology. Damon said they jumped at the opportunity because the timing was right from a personal level, and he believes there is a need for a luxury brokerage in the market with a more personal touch.
“We are trying to get that atmosphere where there is plenty of opportunity to rub shoulders with your fellow agents and figure out what’s out there on the market. And clients want to feel special. They want to feel like you’re going above and beyond for them, and it’s not necessarily the price, but just giving them great experience,” he said.
The brokerage will service the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area and, while it will have a focus in the high-end market, it will also look to service buyers across all price points. Despite a market that has been up-and-down the past year, they feel optimistic about short-term and long-term prospects.
“Since the start of the year we’ve had clients immediately start calling and texting about seeing houses. Dallas has never been a dead market, ” Damon said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of market conditions that will be an issue for us. I think it’s more about us trying to get the right people at the brokerage.”
The Agency announced this month that it will also open a new franchise office in Florida, years after shutting its Boca Raton office. The firm has over 65 corporate and franchised offices across the globe.
Compass, the top-ranked brokerage firm in the nation by sales volume, has seen a series of financial setbacks over the past year. The 11-year-old New York-based company, which went public in April 2021, cut costs last year in an effort to reduce expenses by $320 million. Compass announced a third round of layoffs earlier this month, in a move to become cash-flow positive by mid-2023.
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