Home sellers in Oakland, Alamo and Los Altos switch affiliation
The Agency has poached three more Bay Area teams from Compass as it continues its expansion in Northern California.
➤Oakland-based agent Hope Broderick is joining The Agency after a nearly four-year run at Compass. Before that she was affiliated with The Grubb Company for nearly two decades. She is joined by business partner Aaron Smith, who has a long history with The Keys Company in Miami and teamed up with Broderick in late 2021. They had a combined volume of $59 million in sales in the Oakland, Piedmont and Berkeley markets in 2022 and $34 million thus far in 2023.
Smith said via email that they made the switch because The Agency is “boutique in nature” and would elevate their clients’ experience through “personal touch.”
➤Carolyn Gywnn, who represents homes in Diablo Valley and Lamorinda and averages more than` $30 million in volume each year, will join the Agency’s Alamo office after being with Compass since 2015.
Gwynn, whose average price point is around $2 million, said the opportunity to collaborate with other Alamo and Danville-focused agents, as well as The Agency’s “exceptional” marketing and PR divisions, convinced her to make the switch.
➤Los Altos agent Linda Wang has had $60 million in sales so far this year and also defected from Compass to The Agency, which started its Bay Area push in Los Altos and Los Gatos about a year and a half ago.
Wang said via email that she moved to The Agency in large part because “I know everyone” in its growing Los Altos office.
The Agency started its NorCal expansion in the South Bay and has been working its way north and east ever since, according to President Rainy Hake Austin.
“It’s not accidental,” she said of the brokerage’s heavy Bay Area recruitment strategy. “We target markets that have higher average sales prices, where the market and the community speaks to the luxury lifestyle that our brand represents.”
The Agency primarily reaches out to agents who broker a mix of higher and lower luxury sales to create a “full ecosystem” in each office, she said, adding that the company’s average price point is $3.5 million.