You may have seen The Agency on the silver screen and painting the town red, but it’s more than glitz and glamour for this hard-working team of dedicated real estate professionals. Founded in Beverly Hills in 2011, The Agency has, in the words of Forbes magazine, “done business differently while changing the industry paradigm for success.”
While the company has put a modern face on the often traditional world of luxury real estate – from creating proprietary customer-relationship software, to cultivating the world’s largest Instagram following for a residential real estate brokerage and partnering with relaxed, personable agents who are far more likely to greet you in business-casual jeans and blazer than a three-piece suit – The Agency has ranked on Inc. 5000’s list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for six years in a row, closing more than $30 billion worth of transactions in less than a decade.
What started as a modest office in Beverly Hills, The Agency is now a global presence that spans more than 40 offices in major markets across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean. You may have seen the team featured on Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, CNBC and Bloomberg Television, and read about them in The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Robb Report and many other major international publications.
And now, The Agency has arrived in Vancouver.
What brought them here? It all comes down to Hugh Cooper and Kit Matkaluk.
Cooper and Matkaluk are both North Shore residents of more than 30 years. Having joined forces in 2015 under the name Kit + Coop, together they’ve been the #1 agents in Lower Lonsdale for six years straight. Guided by the maxim “Put clients’ interests and needs first, which fosters long-lasting relationships,” says Matkaluk, they’ve established a best-in-class reputation thanks to what Cooper describes as “service you wouldn’t normally get with high-end marketing.
“A lot of other high-end [real estate teams] – you’re just a number in the system and it’s not hands-on,” he continues, “whereas we’re quality service with very high-end marketing. We’ve carved out a niche for ourselves. And we have a full support team to assist.”
Cooper and Matkaluk recognized kindred spirits in The Agency – in their constant quest for innovation, their hunger to be the best, and their reputation for delivering an unparalleled customer experience to everyone. (Cooper likens them to “the Apple of real estate brokerages.”)
“The brand and their core values really resonated with how we run our business,” says Cooper. And, fortunately, the feeling was mutual. While The Agency is keen to continue its global expansion, they don’t align themselves with just anyone who knocks on their door. “It goes against the grain of a lot of brokerages, where they’re hounding people to come and work for them,” says Matkaluk. “The Agency is the opposite, and that’s one of the things we were drawn to.”
Kit + Coop were also drawn to The Agency’s reputation for offering “candid, well-rounded advice” to its clients. “Ours is a collaborative process. Our goal is to market the property and tell the story about the home. We sell a lifestyle and not just a product. We’re very open and communicative in the whole process, which we feel is key,” says Cooper.
While The Agency’s Lower Mainland presence has launched exclusively in North Vancouver for now, Cooper and Matkaluk reveal that expansion into Vancouver and West Vancouver are planned within the next two years. The duo are excited to build upon the qualities that have made them so successful on the North Shore, but with the international reach and leading-edge innovations of The Agency now backing them up.
“The Agency is young, it’s hungry, it’s impactful and it’s proven,” enthuses Cooper. “A lot of people in real estate say they have global marketing and reach. But they don’t – and The Agency does.”
To learn more about The Agency and to explore its listings for North Vancouver, visit theagencyre.com/vancouver.
