The Agency Establishes Office in Fort Worth

With The Agency opening up a new office in Fort Worth, luxury brands are moving to Cowtown in droves.

The Agency, a Beverly Hills, California-based brokerage founded by television star Mauricio Umansky, established its ninth Texas branch at 2833 Crockett Street No. 127 in Fort Worth, according to a press release issued Wednesday.

Managing partner Heather Stevens, who already leads The Agency’s offices in Frisco and Rockwall, will lead the new Fort Worth branch, which marks the company’s ninth office in Texas, according to the release. Bret Whitfield, an agent who specializes in North Texas luxury ranches and land, assumed the role of managing director.

Whitfield claims a heightened appetite for land and Western culture is boosting Fort Worth’s luxury market — a cultural trend he calls the “Yellowstone effect” that’s drawing some buyers from Dallas.

“If you’re talking about traditional Dallas real estate, the Park Cities and Preston Hollow, you’re really limited to either a big house or a big lot. You can’t have both. In Fort Worth, you get both. That’s the major draw of the market in that ultra-luxury space,” Whitfield said.

The Agency is recruiting agents for the new office, Stevens said.

It isn’t the only big brand bucking through the Cowtown chute. Compass expanded its office space in the Shops at Clearfork in February after recruiting heavily in the area, luring teams from League Real Estate, Williams Trew and Douglas Elliman. Compass later absorbed the Bray Real Estate Group, a formerly independent brokerage with offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston.

The Agency expanded to Texas in 2022 with its Austin office. The Agency established a Dallas office in 2023, recruiting the husband-and-wife duo Damon and Megan Williamson from Compass to run the branch. It entered the Houston market earlier this year when the Sugar Land-based Sansone Group joined from Re/Max.

“In the Fort Worth market as a whole, nobody is really boutique global luxury. There are plenty of firms in Fort Worth, but the old school firms — Williams Trew, Berkshire Hathaway — I think those firms have become so conglomerated, they’ve kind of lost their luster,” Whitfield said.