After about two years as an agent in and around Washington, D.C., for Compass, Anthony Coleman was ready for more responsibility.
Except the brokerage didn't have a supervisory position to offer. So he left in 2022 to run three offices for Century 21 New Millennium in Rockville, Maryland, and McLean and Arlington, Virginia.
"I always knew I wanted to go into a management role," said Coleman, a 40-year-old licensed pilot, in an interview. "If there had been a position available at Compass, I would have taken it in a heartbeat."
The Compass opening finally materialized, and Coleman grabbed it. He returned to the brokerage last month as managing broker for about 90 agents in the firm's Vienna and Reston, Virginia, offices.
Coleman's Compass homecoming coincides with a housing market in transition across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Residential real estate observers feared the thousands of U.S. Department of Government Efficiency job cuts would flood the region with listings, putting pressure on prices, but so far that hasn't materialized. Many of the federal workers who were laid off are staying put as contractors or becoming private sector workers, he said.
Instead, it's the uncertainty over President Donald Trump's tariff plan and his return-to-work mandate that disrupted the housing market more than the job cuts, according to Coleman. Federal employees who were working remotely well outside the Beltway can't stomach the lengthy commutes and are looking to move closer to Washington, D.C., he said.
"There are still more buyers out there than there are homes for sale, but the buyers are a little pickier now," Coleman said.
In his off hours, Coleman, a Virginia native and George Mason University alumnus, enjoys spending time with his wife Ashleigh and 3-year-old daughter Collins. He also likes to make time to fly his four-seat, single-engine Mooney plane.
Occasionally, Coleman combines family and flying by taking his two favorite passengers for jaunts around the region. Even with the $6-a-gallon cost of gas for planes these days, they'll fly the 225 miles to the Greater Cumberland Regional Airport in West Virginia, enjoy a meal at the Hummingbird Cafe and fly back the same day to Fairfax, Virginia.
"I call it the $100 hamburger," he said.