To all the agents in the house,
Hi, this is Matthew Blake, HousingWire's new senior real estate reporter. Starting now, I am writing the OpenHouse open newsletter two days a week.
The purpose of this newsletter is to better connect myself, the journalist living in a charming but tiny apartment in locked-down Los Angeles, with you, the residential real estate professional living in all parts of the country.
I want to know what you feel is literally "new" in the real estate profession.
I've never worked in real estate. So I also want to sometimes know really basic things about how you spend each day, and what camaraderie is like between agents, and, yeah, things that do intersect with the news, like what kind of computer and mobile software and applications you use to find interested homebuyers, or do clerical work.
That last part brings us to the topic de jour, Compass, which released its S-1 on Monday.
As we have covered at HousingWire, there is a lot of skepticism about Compass, and the company's financials would seem to bolster that skepticism. The NYC brokerage lost $270 million in 2020, and made just $664 million, when one subtracts the agent's cut of each commission split.
Compass has billed itself as tech-driven, but rival agents have largely discounted that as advertising puffery. Statements in the S-1 like, "Key investment areas for our platform include continuing to build an integrated platform" do not help. Nor does the exit of Ori Allon, the company's co-founder and software engineer, from Compass's board of directors.
That being said, I know a lot of successful, clear-eyed agents who work for Compass. They argue that the company's agent-centric focus on tech and marketing — plus generous splits — is good for the industry. Here in northeast L.A., Compass is dominant, with neighborhood mainstays like Kurt Wisner and Tracy Do switching over to the brokerage.
I would love to hear what folks think of the brokerage: Do you see them as more still a coastal curiosity? Does their explosive growth augur ultimate success despite troubling signs now? Do you want to work for them?
Please write to me at mblake@housingwire.com.
Until then,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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