Nan & Co. Snatches two More Luxury Agents

Nan and Company Properties continues its 2023 talent acquisition spree, snagging luxury agent Nicole Brende, from Martha Turner Sotheby’s, and Olga Garza, the Houston chapter president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

Brende worked at Martha Turner for 12 years, where she was awarded the Houston Association of Realtors’ “Rising Star” award in 2014. Sotheby’s bought the Houston-based firm that same year.

“Our environment changed a lot. It became less like home and more corporate,” Brende said.

She pivoted to focusing on the luxury market late in her tenure with Martha Turner Sotheby’s and hopes Nan & Co.’s reputation in the sector proves fruitful. In 2020, the veteran agent closed on a 7,400-square-foot mansion listed for $2.8 million in the city’s upper-class West University neighborhood to a mystery buyer. With Nan & Co, she’s representing a 33-acre $5 million French-inspired chateau in Kirbyville, near Beaumont. Brende has closed million-dollar deals primarily in the Inner Loop and upscale areas like West Oaks and the Energy Corridor.

For Garza, luxury is a new venture. She closed her first million-dollar deal last year with a $1.4 million mansion in the 2,400-acre Towne Lake Master Planned Community in Cypress last year. The Omg Team leader previously specialized in mid-income home sales during her six-year tenure with JPAR Real Estate.

Nan & Co. has been strategically acquiring agents from top Houston area brokerage firms over the past seven months. In January, the top 25-ranked brokerage firm re-welcomed Compass’ Albert Cantu. He previously worked with Nan & Co. for seven years before leaving for Compass in November 2021.

The move came off the heels of a series of high-profile exits in 2022 amid layoffs from Compass linked to legal and financial woes. Nan & Co. has a history of nabbing agents from the New York-based Compass’ Houston office. Nadia Ross and Claudia Valdez, two former Compass employees, also switched to Nan and Co. in August to help lead luxury sales and high-end leases in the Bayou City.

Morad Fiki, a $25 million top producer, also jumped ship to Nan and Co. from the No. 9-ranked brokerage firm, Keller Williams Metropolitan, last month.

Nan & Co. is growing in other ways too. The full-service luxury firm opened a flagship office in the Heights last year, as well as a new sales office in Galveston. The brokerage handled the city’s second-most expensive resi sale of 2022 with a Post Oak Boulevard penthouse listed for $6.9 million.