Nan Properties Poaches Two Agents from Compass Houston Office

Nan and Co. Properties has plucked two agents from Compass’ Houston office, The Real Deal has learned.

Nadia Ross and Claudia Valdez have made the jump to Nan and Co. Properties for two different roles.

Ross, a top performer at Compass who in 2021 booked $12 million in sales volume, will focus on luxury sales for Greater Houston and the Bayou City’s high-end lease submarkets.

Ross previously worked at Nan in 2019, starting out as an assistant to Nancy Almodovar, the president and CEO of the company, before making the jump to Compass.

“I was excited to be able to come back now as a realtor and be a part of this top local luxury brokerage in Houston,” Ross told The Real Deal.

After one year at Compass, Valdez joins Nan as the head of sales for The Residences at Tiki Island, a luxury condominium development project in Galveston that Nan is marketing.

The Residences at Tiki Island will offer condos starting in the $800,000 range and villas starting at $1,000,000. The two-, three- and four-bedroom homes will be available for purchase later this year, with completion planned for late Spring 2024.

Valdez said she was primarily drawn to Nan because of the company’s culture — and the fact that it was founded by a local Hispanic woman.

“I have been in new construction home sales for the past 17 years and typically visit different brokerages and do numerous sales presentations,” Valdez said. “During one of those visits, I had the opportunity to meet Nancy and her team. Nancy’s commitment to cultivating a teamwork environment left an impression on me.”

Ross and Valdez said that even though they are seeing changes in the Houston real estate market, the Bayou City’s luxury market seemed to be mostly intact for now.

“It’s always an honor as a local independent brokerage to be selected, as so many opportunities are presented to these agents,” Almodovar said about Ross and Valdez. “Nan is a marketing company that happens to sell real estate and it’s nice to see they recognize that.”

Ross’ and Valdez’s move to Nan comes as Compass is suffering major setbacks since going public on April Fool’s Day last year.

Both agents said their move was not connected to Compass’ financial woes. but a source familiar with the company told TRD that some local agents are not happy.

Agents have complained about a lack of guidance, logistical support and delayed payments in recent months, the source said.

“They don’t have enough support and to get any answers you have to call a number which goes to corporate and then they decide on who from Texas calls them back, it’s such a mess,” the source said. “Not to mention it takes weeks to get paid now.”

The source also referenced comments made at Inman 2022 by Nina Dosanjh, Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at Vanguard Properties in San Francisco, as very much in line with the sentiment felt by some of Compass’ Houston agents.

Commenting on Compass CEO Robert Reffkin’s leadership, the company’s business model and approach to recruiting agents in different locales with different economic and social dynamics, during a booming national real estate market, Dosanjh said: “The strategies that company (Compass) was using to recruit agents, we knew that wasn’t a sustainable model, you could not do that for a long period of time and there was a reality that was going to set in at some point, and where is Robert, where is he?”