Luxury isn't a Price.
It's an Experience.
How Nurit Coombe Built One of the Nation’s Top Real Estate Teams with Strategy, Community, and White-Glove Service
For Nurit Coombe, selling a home is never just a transaction. It’s about understanding the story behind the property and helping the next owner imagine their own life there. Selling a home well begins long before the first buyer walks through the door.
On the morning before a property officially hits the market, Nurit Coombe steps through the front door and pauses in the foyer. Sunlight spills across the hardwood floors. In the family room, framed photographs sit on a console table—birthday parties, graduations, family vacations. She studies the space quietly, imagining the buyers who will soon walk through the same rooms.
The placement of a chair. A fresh coat of paint. The angle of the light. The story the home will tell within the first few seconds. For Nurit, preparing a home for the market isn’t simply staging. It’s strategy.
“A property’s pre-launch matters as much as pre-dinner appetizers,” she says. “Thoughtful preparation sets the tone.” That level of preparation has helped Nurit build one of the most successful real estate teams in the region.
With more than 25 years in the Washington, DC market, she leads Team Nurit at The Agency DC, currently ranked #1 in Maryland and the DC region and #20 in the United States by The Wall Street Journal. Her team closed more than $361 million in sales last year, placing them among the country’s top-performing real estate groups.
But numbers alone don’t explain Nurit’s success. Her business has been built on something more enduring: relationships.
Strategy Before the Spotlight
Nurit believes the success of a listing begins long before the sign goes in the yard.
Every property starts with a carefully designed plan to highlight its strongest features and create the right first impression. Professional staging, photography, video, and well-crafted print marketing ensure the home is presented at its very best.
But Nurit also understands something many agents overlook: buying a home is emotional. While some agents encourage sellers to remove every personal detail, Nurit often suggests leaving family photographs in place.
“When buyers see the life that happened there, they start imagining their own,” she says. That emotional connection can be the moment when a showing becomes a decision. Because in Nurit’s view, a standout home deserves a standout strategy.
Private Exclusive Listings: A Different View
Nurit is also known for her straightforward views on industry trends—particularly the growing popularity of so-called private exclusive or “pocket” listings.
“You only have a fresh listing one time.”
While some agents promote private exclusives as a way to test the market, Nurit believes the strategy rarely benefits sellers. When a property is marketed privately, it limits exposure to only a small network of agents and buyers rather than the full marketplace.
“Here in the DMV, we have more than 25,000 realtors,” she says. “Why limit your buyer pool to just a few? You never know where the right buyer will come from.”
Without appearing on the MLS and major consumer platforms such as Zillow or Realtor.com, many potential buyers never even know the home is available. A smaller pool of buyers means less competition—and often less pressure on price.
Studies from the National Association of Realtors have shown that properties with broader market exposure typically achieve stronger results than privately marketed listings. With fewer buyers competing, sellers may ultimately accept a lower price than they could have achieved through a full market launch.
Private listings can also place the outcome almost entirely in the hands of one agent’s personal network, rather than exposing the home to the entire market. Nurit believes sellers are best served by preparing the property carefully and launching it with a full marketing campaign from day one.
“When you give a home maximum exposure and create real competition among buyers,” she says, “that’s when you give sellers the best chance to achieve the strongest possible price.”
Bringing The Agency to Washington
After more than two decades in real estate, Nurit had a clear vision for the kind of brokerage she wanted to build, one grounded in thoughtful service, strong marketing, and collaboration.
That vision led her to The Agency, the internationally recognized real estate firm founded by Mauricio Umansky. Drawn to the brand’s entrepreneurial spirit and global reach, Nurit saw an opportunity to introduce a fresh approach to the Washington market.
As the first DC Metro franchise of The Agency, she brought together local expertise and international exposure.
For clients, that means their homes benefit from both deep neighborhood knowledge and a worldwide network of buyers.
Building a Team That Shares the Vision
As Team Nurit has grown, Nurit has been intentional about the people she surrounds herself with. She looks for agents who approach the business with preparation, professionalism, and a genuine commitment to their clients.
“One of the most important decisions you make in this business is who you surround yourself with,” she says. The result is a collaborative environment where agents share insights, solve challenges together, and support one another.
That culture has helped Team Nurit grow into one of the most respected real estate groups in the region.
Even as the team has expanded, Nurit remains the primary point of contact for her clients when selling their homes. While the team helps generate exposure, coordinate marketing, and bring qualified buyers to the table, Nurit stays focused on guiding the process and representing the seller’s interests. It allows her to concentrate on what matters most—strategically positioning the home and negotiating the strongest possible result.
Turning Neighbors Into Ambassadors
One of Nurit’s more distinctive marketing strategies begins before the public open house. She hosts a Neighbors’ Open House Brunch, inviting nearby residents to preview the home while enjoying food provided by her team.
The event creates goodwill within the neighborhood and generates early excitement around the listing. But it also serves a practical purpose.
“When neighbors aren’t invited, they often stop by anyway and feel a little like the ‘nosy neighbor,’ walking through quickly and leaving,” Nurit says. “But when we invite them in, they become ambassadors for the home—sharing how much they love the neighborhood, cheering for the sellers to get the best price, and often mentioning friends or family who would love to move into the area.”
By welcoming them into the process early, they often become enthusiastic ambassadors who help spread the word before the first public showing.
Showing Up for Communities
Nurit’s connection to the neighborhoods she serves goes far beyond real estate. She lives in the same communities she serves and believes great agents should be involved in the places they represent.
“Before showing up for homes, I show up for neighbors,” she says.
Nurit serves on neighborhood boards, stays engaged with local schools, and frequently hosts neighborhood parties and informational events for residents. During Montgomery County’s recent school boundary study, she organized seminars to help neighbors understand the proposed changes and their potential impact.
She has also hosted discussions about new development projects shaping the future of North Bethesda. For Nurit, real estate has never been just about property. It’s about community.
Building Relationships That Last
Those who work with Nurit often describe her as both strategic and deeply personal in her approach to real estate. She anticipates challenges early, navigates negotiations with steady confidence, and advocates strongly for her clients’ interests.
At the same time, she brings a warmth that makes people feel immediately at ease. Many clients return years later when it’s time for their next move.
“I’ve watched families grow up in the homes we helped them buy,” she says. “Years later, they call again when they’re ready for the next chapter.” Helping guide those milestones is what makes the work meaningful.
Where Life Happens
After more than two decades in the business, Nurit still believes the most important part of real estate isn’t the property itself. It’s the people who live there.
The families who celebrate holidays in the dining room. The children who grow up playing in the backyard. The neighbors who become lifelong friends. Every house has a story to tell, she says, and the key to selling a home is helping buyers feel that story and imagine their own lives unfolding there.
To help sellers reach that moment, Nurit guides them through every step of the process. Her team connects clients with trusted professionals—from movers, estate sale coordinators, packers, stagers, handymen, and window cleaners—so the transition feels manageable rather than overwhelming.
“The goal isn’t to make a home feel staged,” she says. “It’s to make it feel welcoming and warm so buyers can picture themselves happy there. When that connection happens, everything changes.”
Helping sellers prepare their homes while supporting them through what is often an emotional transition is something Nurit takes seriously.
Because for Nurit Coombe, real estate has never simply been about selling homes. It’s about helping people find where life happens next.
