Sports & Entertainment Agent Beth Cassidy Keeps a High Profile in Houston

The moment you meet Beth Cassidy, it’s clear that the wonderfully effervescent Houston-based agent is an outsized character. Frankly, she has to be: At 5’3″, Cassidy is invariably much shorter than the professional athletes who make up a sizable percentage of her clientele.

“I was the baby growing up in my family, the entertainer—that’s who I am,” she admits with a laugh.

Cassidy with NFL star Adrian Peterson. (Photo courtesy of Beth Cassidy)

Cassidy with NBA star Daniel Theis. (Photo courtesy of Beth Cassidy)

As a member of Douglas Elliman’s Sports & Entertainment division, Cassidy counts numerous household names among her clients: NFL players like RG3 and Adrian Peterson, hip-hop mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and many well-known players on the Rockets and Astros rosters. They appreciate that she’s fun; it makes them comfortable. They are keenly aware that she takes pride in being a straightforward person, direct in her dealings.

A dead ringer for Kris Jenner (who’s been known to impersonate the Kardashian matriarch in social media videos for her listings), Cassidy does not put on airs or fake a character. When a client recently told her they had chosen to work with her because she was “genuine,” the agent called it her “biggest compliment.”

Cassidy recently rejoined Elliman after a brief stint at another firm, which she cut short because she missed her old colleagues and “the huge amount of support” she received at the brokerage.

“When I came back in the door to our office, I asked myself, ‘Why did I ever leave?’” she tells me. “I missed my family at Elliman.”

The feeling was mutual. Rosa Laffler, Elliman’s Houston-based Director of VIP Agent Experience and Sports & Entertainment, is thrilled to have her back.

“She has such extraordinary contacts,” Laffler told me.

Cassidy with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

Indeed, Cassidy is not shy about touting her S.O.I. (sphere of influence), explaining that “clients work with me and then recommend me to some other player or celebrity they know.”

Her career as a go-to agent for sports stars began more than a decade ago, when she helped the star running back Adrian Peterson lease his penthouse. That led to helping Peterson buy and sell his other properties, which, in turn, lead to calls from sports agents about helping other players with their real estate needs.

“I was starting out—struggling—and he saved my life at the time,” she says, noting that Peterson remains a friend and source of many a new client.

While such glitzy listings may seem ready-made for TikTok and other successors of the classic tabloid gossip column, they bring their own distinctive challenges.

“I’ve had a few instances where, thanks to a trade or a signing, the player has to move to Houston in three days and needs a home the next week,” Cassidy says. “They’ll be the fastest sales I ever have.”

Cassidy with Tony Buzbee.

Of course, some high-end homes can take years to sell, and Cassidy has many off-market sellers that choose to remain private about their desire to sell.

“They put their houses and condos on and off the market for years until they get the price they want,” she says.

Although she has many prominent clients—including the high-profile lawyer and Houston political figure Tony Buzbee, whose River Oaks home she has represented previously—Cassidy is not dazzled by celebrity. Until she became an agent 17 years ago, she did not consider herself an avid sports fan. But working with professional athletes provided a pathway out of the unimaginable grief over the sudden and unexpected loss of her 20-year-old son while he was a student at Texas Tech.

Cassidy was shattered. Deciding to get her real estate license in the years that followed helped her to put things back together.

“It saved me,” she says, without exaggeration. “My love and passion for real estate helped me to deal with the loss of my son, and I poured myself completely into it.”

Her son had been a sports fanatic who dreamed of playing professional baseball. When he realized that wasn’t in the cards, he decided he would become a sports agent.

Beth with daughter Rachel Cassidy-Yates.

“That was going to be his connection to a world he so loved,” she says.

Now, it’s she who’s forged that connection. It’s ongoing and personal. She often thinks of her son. At times, she feels as if she’s fulfilling, in some small way, the dreams he had for himself.

“It keeps me very humble,” she says.

She is also inspired by her daughter Rachel Cassidy Yates, “an incredibly talented fashion designer and artist and my biggest blessing!”

It all keeps her hopeful and ever-ready to face whatever challenges and opportunities—in life and real estate—may come her way.

“I’m a gambler,” Cassidy says. “My business can turn around in a split second. It has many times before. It will again.”