Urban Compass is Now Compass
Urban Compass (which I’ve written about before) recently re-branded to Compass, as they are expand outside of their urban NYC environment to the suburbs (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia).
They have money, are extremely well connected, and are investing heavily in tech tools. I like the newer, shorter name, but I’m sure that domain name cost them a pretty penny.
My questions:
- What’s their core differentiator?
- What does the brand stand for?
- Is great tech enough?
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Sam DeBord
Posted at 08:38h, 20 FebruaryTheir technology is outstanding–and it’s geared to the agents moreso than the consumers as far as I can tell. The draw seems to be bringing in more agents as opposed to consumers first.
When they flipped from salaried agents to a traditional commission model, the greater industry smirked as it has plenty of times before. This isn’t a non-profit industry. If you’re tech, you still need to make money. I wonder how long it will take for Redfin to shake its defiant startup mentality and go make the real commission income they could be taking in–probably 6 months after IPO.
Consumers are clearly willing to pay good listing agents healthy commissions, even with the widespread availability of companies that call themselves “discounters”. Follow the money.
James
Posted at 12:20h, 08 MarchI believe Redfin has found their sweet spot where they can do what they have always wanted to do (which is save consumers’ money thus rebate a portion of their comission), and also make money. So, after years of tweaking things, I believe they have found the model that works. They must be doing something right, if Redfin agents are closing 2-3 deals a month (mainly on the buyers side). So, yes even though their model might be a little expensive as they pay salaries, bonuses, benefits, etc, it works because of volume. thats hows they can make money, survive. So, as long as Redfin agents are closing 2-3 deals a month (which is not a problem as they get more leads than they can handle through their own website), they will be ok.