To all the agents in the house,
Compass is a real estate brokerage, but executives say it is a brokerage and technology company. I've always been confused by this designation, to the point I once snarked, "With no discernible breakthrough in customer-relations management software, or sales processing platforms, Compass's tech strategy can devolve into executives repeating the word 'technology.'"
One year later, Compass shares now trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and the company is required to file quarterly and annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Compass released its first-ever yearly report on Monday, and while the report details shaky financial numbers (a $494 million net loss, $618 million cash in hand versus $1.6 billion in debt), it provides somewhat more than the word 'technology' regarding Compass's actual technology.
On page 4 of the yearly report, Compass touts its agent platform as "built on Amazon web services" and using a "cloud native microservices architecture that is engineered for high scalability, reliability, performance and security." Also, the company employs over 1,500 "highly experienced product and engineering professionals."
Several pages on, the yearly report notes, "Our AI technology recommends specific clients in an agent's contact database that are more likely to sell their home, based on various data points like neighborhood sales trends, length of ownership, local market appreciation, and other information."
The filing also states that Compass acquired Glide, which "provide digital real estate forms, e-signatures and related products to our agents."
From my reading of the report, those are the highlights of Compass's technology offerings. Compass may dispute this, and I left them questions on the matter.
Agents, what I am interested in here is not another round of Compass-bashing. In fact: I have spoken to some of you who are Compass agents, who say that their platform really is better than the technology of their previous brokerage. So, my questions are: What if, anything, is Compass doing differently? And how does it matter?
As someone who is not a real estate agent, it is hard to discern what of this technology talk is meaningful, and what is baloney. Please send me your thoughts to mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
.png?width=1116&upscale=true&name=970x250%20(2).png)
EmoticonEmoticon