Where do I even start? I left Sotheby's and came to compass as an excited young agent, thinking I had found the place where I was going to grow my business and hang my license for the rest of my career. I completely bought in to all of the "collaborate without ego" and "we want to help everyone find their place in the world" BS. I was a massive promoter for the brand, utilized every opportunity and tool available to me, and treated all of the staff with the utmost respect. In fact, I still miss them. The staff (marketing and agent success) are still some of my favorite people i've ever worked with.
At the time I got to Compass in Houston, the office had only been open for 3 months and the agent count was in the mid-high 30's. The vibe was cool. I felt like I was really a part of something special, until all of that was taken away from me over some petty, political BS with another agent.
Many of the reviews on here from current & former staff speak about the terrible attitudes of the agents. You see, when Compass opens shop in a new market they go after the top agents in those markets, hoping to make a splash and give them some credibility to start recruiting agents at lower levels. It's genius, and it works every time. The problem is they give this first group of agents an insane amount of power, calling them "Founding Members" and asking them to participate in future agent recruitment by creating a list of YES's and No's. Literally. There was a REAL LIST at the Houston Compass office with a bunch of names of other agents from top brokerages that the "Founding Members" approved and disapproved of. If you were on the "NO" list, Compass did not call you and would not hire you.
At first, I understood the concept of this. If you are defined by the people you are associated with, you have to hire the best agents with the best reputations. It gives you credibility in a city where people literally thought they were getting recruiting calls from a bank. The major flaw here is that Compass hired 3 of the Houston luxury markets most hated realtors in the first round. Those 3 agents were then given the power to choose who could and could not join Compass. That is an insane amount of power to give these agents, and it set the tone for the bully mentality that contributed to my departure.
I still have many friends who work in the Houston office, which now has over 300 agents. The most consistent complaint I hear from them is that there is NO support because the staff numbers are literally the same as when I was there with only 35 agents.
At the time, Compass felt innovative and forward-thinking. I can now see that I was completely blinded by the smoke and mirrors. Compass is a classic bait and switch brokerage. Their technology is all licensed and white labeled from other innovators. They aren't actually creating anything. They happen to have big enough pockets to buy the technology from other companies and integrate it into their platform. Thats it.
In a lot of ways, Compass did the rest of the real estate industry a favor. It shook us all up and gave more established brands the push they needed to update their systems and branding. Now, all of the major players are on a level playing field. At some point soon, the endless supply of cash will run out. The commission splits will come down to normal levels and Compass will be just another brokerage looking to make a profit.
If you're an agent considering moving over to Compass, I would seriously think twice before you make that decision.
