Texas Christie’s Affiliates React to Compass Acquisition

Nancy Almodovar founded her company from her kitchen table, with the idea for a luxury real estate brokerage in Houston.

A decade later, she’s grown Nan and Company Properties to four offices, becoming the metro’s exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.

One thing she didn’t sign up for: being tied to Compass.

“I was blindsided. My agents were blindsided, my support team was blindsided, my leadership was blindsided,” Almovodar said. “I found out when the rest of the world found out. It’s not a good feeling, as a business owner, to have your whole company call you, asking you, ‘did Compass buy us?’”

Compass — the largest residential real estate brokerage in the nation by sales volume — announced it was acquiring @properties, the parent company of Christie’s International Real Estate, for $150 million in cash and 44 million shares. The $294 million worth of common stock represents roughly 9 percent of Compass’ 510 million outstanding shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brokerages and affiliates under the Christie’s umbrella will operate independently from Compass, the filing said, and Christie’s affiliates in Texas were quick to explain to their agents things would be, mostly, business as usual.

Jerry Mooty Jr., CEO of the Dallas Fort-Worth @properties Christie’s office and nephew of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Compass said in its announcement of the deal it plans to grow the Christie’s network in all its regional markets.

Exactly how such expansions within the brand’s pre-established regional markets across the country might look remains to be seen, but new Christie’s offices, extra affiliates or giving Compass agents more latitude to use the Christie’s brand wouldn’t hold ground in Texas, according to Romeo Manzanilla, CEO of @properties Christie’s in Austin.

The deal would allow each affiliate to operate independently, as it stands, and Compass leadership will have little to no way to dictate how existing affiliates perform, Manzanilla said. It’s also unlikely that the two would share any proprietary technology in Texas, he said.

The @properties affiliates in Dallas, Austin and Houston “own the rights” to their markets and would remain the only independently owned Christie’s affiliates in their respective regions, said Manzanilla.

“It actually benefits us, because it puts us on somewhat of a pedestal,” Manzanilla said. “Compass can’t access it, and Compass agents [in Texas regions] can’t market with our branding at all.”

Manzanilla said he was less shocked by the news itself, but was surprised by the timing: Compass and Christie’s have differed in their public stances on hot-button issues related to the National Association of Realtors and how agents play a role.

For example, the Clear Cooperation Policy requires agents to list properties on multiple listing services within one business day of marketing them. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has pushed to eliminate th four-year-old rule, while Christie’s has intentionally remained neutral, Manzanilla said.

Any confusion over the new ownership structure is likely to be limited to misconceptions by agents and clients on how involved Compass will be in Christie’s dealings — as well as the extent to which Compass agents can bandy about the international brand.

“It’s sort of a non-event for actual Compass agents,” he said. “The agents themselves are not able to leverage any of the branding or marketing that Christie’s agents will continue to enjoy.”