In preparation for life beyond the urban jungles of New York City, Urban Compass is dropping “Urban” from its name as it takes its first step toward national expansion.
The rebrand comes as the well-funded firm flips the switch on its first new market — the Washington, D.C., region, including parts of Maryland and Virginia. Along with the new name, the firm has a new URL, compass.com, and an updated consumer mobile app that it says enhances communication between agents and their clients.
“Compass is a simpler, more universally memorable brand name that speaks directly to the connection between people and technology that is so central to what we are building,” said Matt Spangler, head of marketing and creative at Compass, in a statement.
Just 2 years old, Compass launched first as a rentals brokerage, jumping into the sales side of the business in October 2013. It now has 212 agents and approximately 100 employees in New York City and Washington, D.C., and has its sights set on expanding to 10 new markets over the next two years, Ori Allon, Compass’ founder and executive chairman, told Inman.
To establish a presence in the nation’s capital, Compass acquired a 26-agent brokerage, Lindsay Reishman Real Estate, in November, and has since doubled its agent count there. To accommodate the growth, the firm is opening a second office in the city in March.
Since its launch, Compass has raised a total of $73 million that it says it will use to bring its tech-focused brokerage model to the national stage. Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco are among the markets the firm is looking to expand to next, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin told Inman.
Compass claims to be the only brokerage in the country to offer its agents a full-service app that melds a customer relationship management platform, a lead management system, in-house market research and more into one platform.
The tech-focused brokerage model is catching fire with firms like Redfin, Movoto and Estately.
Seattle-based Redfin, perhaps the poster child for the trend, has been on an expansion tear over the last year and soon will have operations in 30 states as it steps its way to nationwide coverage.
Brokerage and franchise giant Realogy is rolling out Zap — the all-in-one marketing, lead gen, customer relationship management, mobile tool from the tech-geared brokerage, ZipRealty, it acquired in July — to all of its franchisees this year.
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