Today was our Compass Day.
We met our CEO, Robert Reffkin, and we were thoroughly impressed.
We come from different backgrounds – I’m the scrappy street guy, and he is the Wall Street wunderkind – but we see the future of real estate the same way.
He mingled for longer-than-necessary during the breakfast warm-up, and then spoke for about an hour on his vision of Compass, and creating a platform for top-producing agents to best serve their clients. Then he hung around for another extended period during happy hour, shaking hands and making himself very available to agents and support staff alike. He exemplified leadership in the best way.
It is a contagious environment!
Since January, Compass has hired 210 top-producing agents in San Diego (when we signed two months ago, there were 160). Most importantly, there are also 54 full-time support staff, which is unheard of in typical real estate brokerages.
There will be some consolidation coming to the real estate industry, and eventually the consumers will have a choice between taking their chances with discount fees for minimal service or hiring top professionals to deliver superior service and results (Wal-Mart vs Nordstrom).
We’ll do a second post on this topic, which won’t include how old I feel. I was the only one wearing a tie, and black shoes. This is a younger crowd!
I am a little saddened reading this, but life goes on. Keeping the good stuff coming I hope will not be curtailed. Will there be better seats at Padres’ games?
Yes, life goes on.
Here’s the other way we look at it:
Even the disrupters are spending big money on advertising now, and for consumers who don’t know us, they will favor either of the other two choices (Compass/Traditional or disrupters) because they have more familiarity.
If we stay a no-name independent boutique brokerage, people will assume we have less to offer, and either shrug us off or expect a discount.
I need to appeal to people who don’t know me. I’ve been very fortunate to have past clients and blog readers be very supportive of our business, but I could be selling twice as many homes. I need to build a bigger team and reach people I don’t know, AND impress them with our full-service package.
Blog content?
Yes, it is touchy with more bosses plus Donna thinks I can come off as an angry old man – but the ethics topic is a major problem that nobody is willing to address.
But I’ve never had anyone contact me and say, “Because you stand up for ethical behavior, I’m going to hire you.”
I have lost the fight, and now I will be tip-toeing around the Coming Soon topic, which every major brokerage is employing in spite of my rantings!
Compass is a main sponsor of the Del Mar races, which means we should be getting a shot at the Turf Club occasionally.
I probably should do more contests for Padres tickets to see how many people will participate. There aren’t as many people who comment as before so I’m not sure many will – and I’m not sure people want to win Padres tickets!!
A Chevy Stepside with a crate 350 never gets old. Padres? Another story.
A Chevy Stepside with a crate 350 never gets old.
It may not get old, but it gets rusted! 🙂
Jim, even though I may not have said it before, that’s actually one of the reasons that we chose you as our realtor and why I do everything I can to promote Klinge Realty.
While it may seem that “ethics” has taken a back seat to corrupt and unprincipled business practices, hopefully some day ethics will make a comeback!
But until such time, you still have to put a roof over your head and food in your belly. So, you do what you have to do to stay alive and fight another day.
Thanks Eddie89!
You know that I try to cause a positive change where I can, but on this topic I’ve have gotten my lunch handed to me.
All I can do is be ethical myself, and be an example. The rest is hot air, unfortunately.
I did have a short convo with a Compass boss who said they will not tolerate unethical behavior, which is much better than most shops (and all I can hope for).
Jim, I still have a card and will beat them back if you want.