Compass, a fast-expanding, high-tech real estate brokerage recently valued at $800 million, has rolled out a mobile app that New Yorkers can use to access up-to-date market information, with plans to expand the app’s coverage to other markets.
The app, which is currently only available to iOS devices, includes a feature that Compass says all real estate agents can use generate and share customized market reports with clients.
Consumers can obtain housing market reports from a growing number of sources, including brokerages and tech startups. But few brokerages have made real-time market data available in a mobile app, and fewer still, if any, have created an app solely devoted to purveying such data.
Screen shot showing bar chart generated by Compass’ market data app of the median price per square foot of two-bedroom listings in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.
“Compass Markets” will provide a moving picture of the market so that consumers and their agents can work together to make better, more informed decisions on their real estate journeys,” said Compass CEO Robert Reffkin in a statement about the app.
Compass’s app serves up quarterly housing statistics on active, pending and sold listings, including median price, total listings, total dollar volume, days on market and negotiability. Users can filter the data by home type and view bar graphs illustrating year-over-year changes.
Users can also easily generate and share PDFs of customized market reports from within the app. Compass casts the feature as particularly useful to agents who want to help clients stay on top of market conditions.
Compass plans to expand the app’s coverage to other markets where it operates. The brokerage is currently serving Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Hamptons, Washington, D.C. Miami and Boston. It has a wide array of other markets in its crosshairs as well.
Compass recently raised $50 million in funding that valued the brokerage at $800 million. The raise followed a couple other head-turning funding rounds. In all, the startup has raised $123 million since launching two years ago.
Compass has said that it’s also “actively exploring” opportunities to set up shop in markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, the Hamptons, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
Compass claims to provide proprietary technology that helps its agents save time “by reducing reliance on multiple platforms.” Reffkin has told Inman that examples of this technology include:
- A valuation and comparable market analysis (CMA) tool that allows agents to “value properties better than any tool in the country.”
- A listing strategy tool that provides insights into what month is best to list a property and the best pricing strategy by month.
- An open house and “show sheet” tool that allows agents to create “high-quality collateral in seconds, not hours.”
Compass has said it envisions bringing market intelligence to players across the real estate value chain, including mortgage bankers, real estate developers and investors and actuaries.
The firm has also said it might consider licensing its technology to brokerages in markets outside its coverage.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct that Compass is currently serving Boston. A previous version of this story reported that Compass was planning to expand to Boston.