Our Growth
As we build upon our New York City foundation, Compass invests in industry experts to lead offices, Atlantic to Pacific.
Two months after the company’s Southern California launch—a milestone in its history—Chief Revenue Officer Rob Lehman dialed up Leah Sternberg and Stan Richman in Los Angeles, Stanton Schnepp in Washington DC, and Gene Martinez in Miami to talk on-the-ground tactics—how their regional successes are being leveraged company-wide.
Rob Lehman: As we continue to grow at an unprecedented rate and expand on both the national and local levels in a way no real estate firm has, I think it’s helpful to us as a leadership team to examine what’s driving the expansion philosophy. So, jumping right in, what is the value of expansion? Growing at the pace that we are, what value does that really provide agents?
Stanton Schnepp: I think we, for the first time ever, are creating a real referral network. It’s not a situation where you refer business without any idea who the other person is; agents here in DC can easily enlist any one of the teams in New York about a property. It’s a tangible way for agents to add value and benefit their sellers by increasing exposure to include some of the highest-end luxury markets in the country.
RL: And that speaks to the quality of our growth, rather than the quantity alone, right? There’s an implicit trust that the people you work with in each market are that top-ten percent of talent. What is the communication like between markets at this point?
Stan Richman: In my short month and a half with Compass, I’ve seen coast-to-coast communication that’s never existed in real estate. That’s the most important predictor of growth, and I think it starts from the management side and then filters to the agents, which is really exciting.
Gene Martinez: That’s so true. Having that sense of cross-pollination — that every market can reach out to one another — has hopefully instilled a sense of trust and empowerment in the agents. And it really does impact the bottom line of the company, in the sense that you’re keeping these deals in-house with the awareness that clients are receiving professional and ethical service. It’s an opportunity that no one else seems to be doing as well.
SS: I think that comes down to the spirit of collaboration. I don’t know another brokerage with such a strong sense of culture, where the bar is raised in terms of upholding our values.
RL: Despite real estate being so localized, many of the fundamental challenges are the same, and it’s interesting how different markets approach them. For example, the way that Boston agents develop listing presentations from a data and preparation standpoint is highly sophisticated. Then you look at a market like LA, where agents are investing in building their personal brands and developing long-term marketing strategies that resonate with their image. One of our major operational advantages is the ability to extract best practices from each market and apply them across the country, so how are we doing that?
SS: I’ve found that there are so many opportunities here to lead initiatives; we can roll a program out in one market to gauge whether it’s even applicable to others. You may have a wonderful idea in LA that turns out to be scalable and transferrable to the agents here in DC. All of these ideas stemming from the different markets and converging, that’s exciting.
SR: And I think as we grow, especially from the East to West Coast, the insights we’ve gathered will expedite and improve our expansion.
RL: I’m passionate about local empowerment, and I want the decision-making to be decentralized, but there’s clearly value in having a consistent company culture. How does the national perspective find its way into the local offices?
GM: It’s important for all of us on the management side to spend time together. Bring the managers to New York several times a year so that we can experience the culture of each market and collaborate in person.
SS: I just spent two days with Gordon Golub, a managing director in New York, and I feel like I’ve known him forever. It’s interesting how quickly we connect — this is probably the third time I’ve met him — and I think this has to do with our shared culture.
Leah Sternberg: Absolutely. Even now, on this call, we’re spread across the nation, but I feel like you’re my team! You’re my people!
GM: That’s so true, Leah, and it’s so wonderful to have a sense of camaraderie. We all share the same vision, which extends to the agents and staff in each market.
RL: We all recognize that operations are scaling faster and faster with each new market. Look at LA, where we hired about 80 agents in 60 days. What are your thoughts about introducing and building the Compass brand in a local market?
LS: In Pasadena, we’re not having to do anything! I had lunch with the owner of the local paper yesterday, and he said, “Leah, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on, because these other offices are freaking out about Compass.” The thing is, agents do their research. They’re online reading about the management, looking at the way the site is set up, reading people’s backgrounds — and we’ve done a beautiful job of selling our story. I spent a lot of time checking out the company online before joining, and the more you dig, the more impressive it is.
SR: It’s true. Fore more than 30 years in LA, I’ve never seen a company create so much havoc. For whatever reason, everyone is scared of us — impressed and scared at once.
LS: You know what’s hit me more and more as I’ve been here? We’re reinventing the way an agent can think about real estate. And that is inspiring. When you consider the tools, the culture, the engineers, all these tenured, intelligent people who are running the show — not to mention the diversity of everyone’s backgrounds—it breaks down every wall that we know as agents and allows for total opportunity. To be part of all that — it’s a game-changer in how you think.
SR: And when the competition realizes that we’re only three years old — that we’ve just begun — they don’t even know how to react. Now we’re seeing other companies starting to rethink their messaging, saying: “We’re here for you.” The mantra of agent support that we’ve created has introduced a whole new way of looking at this business. But words only go so far. We’ve dedicated real commitment to building tools and better foundational support for our agents to succeed.
RL: When we launch in a new market, it’s about putting a collection of people in place. What is the magic that happens when you put together real estate veterans with experts from other industries, and why is that so special?
SR: Well, I don’t think anyone’s ever done it. For decades, everyone recycled the same people and the same products, and so all that happened was that the same ideas were recycled. Here, we have different brains working on different levels, and thinking about how they can help agents, which is a different philosophy completely. When you consider the traditional brokerages, all you have to do is ask, how many 100-year-old companies are even around anymore? They’re not, because they never changed.
GM: I think what’s really so great is the blend of people from other industries — Google, Apple— paired with those of us with years of experience in the real estate world. That’s why it’s so important to have both great managers and company leaders in place, because these offices are a reflection of us, starting from the top down. In the case of Compass, that pursuit of excellence really trickles through to every individual in the organization. Every day, I pinch myself and say, “I can’t believe I’m a part of this.”
