Mauricio Umansky’s The Agency Plants Flag in Houston

The Agency, the celebrity-fueled residential brokerage led by Netflix star Mauricio Umansky, is officially operating in Houston.

The Los Angeles-based firm brought on Sugar Land’s The Sansone Group, which until this month operated under the Re/Max Fine Properties banner, according to the Houston Business Journal. The new Agency office opened Tuesday at 14140 Southwest Freeway, marking the brokerage’s first office in the Houston market.

Umansky, best known for starring in Netflix’s “Buying Beverly Hills” and his ties to Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” universe, founded The Agency in 2011. Since then, he’s built the firm into a global luxury brand with more than 150 offices across 14 countries. Expansion has been brisk: The Agency launched 27 offices in 2025 alone, according to the outlet, with more in the pipeline.

Houston has long been on the company’s shortlist. The Agency already operates in other major Texas metros, including Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, and Umansky has pitched the state as a market with durable fundamentals and room for long-term growth, he told the publication.

The Sansone Group is led by Chris and Lizz Sansone, who founded the team in 2000 and have spent 24 years under the Re/Max umbrella. Their nine-agent operation ranked No. 10 among small residential teams in the publication’s 2025 Residential Real Estate Awards, logging $78.2 million in sales across the Greater Houston area.

The pairing began with a chance meeting at a Houston Association of Realtors event and evolved into a franchise deal that gives the Sansones ownership of the first Agency outpost in Houston. Lizz Sansone described the move as a “legacy” play after decades with the same brokerage, citing alignment around culture, service and branding.

The Agency’s arrival adds to a growing cast of personality-driven brokerages in Houston. White House Global Properties Chairman Washington Ho, star of HBO Max’s “House of Ho,” already claims a slice of the city’s reality TV–meets–real estate overlap.

While Umansky’s personal résumé leans heavily toward trophy deals, The Agency has been clear that it’s not chasing only ultra-luxury listings. The Sansone Group’s inventory spans from entry-level homes to multimillion-dollar properties, reflecting Houston’s broad housing mix.

The firm was also drawn to Sugar Land specifically for its schools, planning and quality of life, Umansky said, positioning the suburb as a stable launchpad rather than a flashy inner-loop debut.

— Eric Weilbacher