One of the Washington, D.C., area’s most prolific luxury real estate teams has switched brokerages weeks after national heavyweight Compass acquired its brand.
HRLS Partners announced Thursday that it had left Washington Fine Properties/Compass and joined TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. The four-member group, ranked among the region’s top-producing small teams, includes agents Robert Hryniewicki, Adam Rackliffe, Christopher Leary and Micah Smith.
The transition was announced just weeks after Compass acquired Washington Fine Properties, the team’s former brokerage. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed at the time the deal was announced.
Hryniewicki, co-founder of HRLS Partners, said his team had “zero intention of leaving up until five weeks ago,” especially because each of them had spent their entire careers at WFP. When they found out that Compass was buying their brokerage, that changed.
“When the owners, the previous owners, of WFP decided to sell the company to Compass, it was time for us to do our due diligence and try to understand the landscape that’s out there and where we wanted to align our luxury business,” he said in an interview. “The best option that came forward after five weeks of extensive due diligence was TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.”
A spokesperson for Compass said, “We wish them the best in their next chapter. Our commitment to the luxury market remains stronger than ever. We'll continue supporting our agents representing some of the DMV's most coveted properties."
“It was a mutually beneficial move, particularly in light of our firms’ culture, and we wish them all the best," William F.X. Moody, managing partner for WFP, said in a statement. "WFP will continue to operate under its’ very own luxury brand with the most powerful agents in the region.”
In announcing the partnership last month, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said the deal would give both sides “the opportunity to enhance our combined luxury offerings. WFP President Thomas Anderson said his team felt “confident that aligning with Compass unlocks clear benefits for WFP’s agents and their clients.”
But the agents at HRLS Partners felt differently.
“It’s Compass,” Hryniewicki said. “In our local marketplace, Compass does not have a luxury presence.”
A new real estate office to open in Washington, D.C.
The HRLS team is now set to open a new office in Cleveland Park, a luxury neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. It’s TTR’s 13th office in the region.
Hryniewicki said clients will have the decision to join the team in the transition or stick with WFP.
“There’s movement always in the real estate industry,” he said. “Typical standard operating procedure is the agent or the team makes the move and their clients decide if they want to go along with the agents or if they want to stay with the previous brokerage. We’re there to help them however we can.”
Leadership at TTR said the partnership with HRLS is a milestone that benefits the larger brokerage, especially given HRLS’ presence in the local market. In 2023, the team achieved the highest average sales price — $3 million — in the region, according to media reports.
“Their proven success in the luxury market, evidenced by their remarkable sales volume and transaction history, brings tremendous value to our organization,” TTR CEO and managing partner Mark Lowham said in a statement Thursday. “We're confident this partnership will create exceptional opportunities for both our clients and our agents."
All told, Hryniewicki said the change is an exciting one for his team.
“Nothing changes for us in the sense of us helping our clients,” he said. “We have extensive agent relationships across many different brokerages. There is a finite amount of agents that operate in the luxury and ultra-luxury sphere, and we have dynamite relationships with all of those people.”