MoxiWorks, an open real estate tech platform funded by two of the top three regional brands in the country, took a sharp jab at Compass this week, claiming its agents report a 16-percent decline in productivity shortly after moving to the New York City-based national brokerage.
The charge comes on the heels of a June CNBC interview with Robert Reffkin, in which the Compass CEO made several claims that drew ire from many in the real estate industry, including a bold statement that agents at the tech-forward brokerage net a 24.9-percent boost in transactions in their first year.
“We’re the only company that is empowering agents,” Reffkin said during the interview. “Our only customer is the agent.”
The remark drew the suspicion of MoxieWorks Chief Executive York Baur, who promptly dug into the first six months of Compass’ agent productivity.
MoxiWork’s data scientist, according to a spokesperson for the company, took data from all listings sold on or after Jan. 1, 2016. The analysis only included agents who stayed with Compass at least six months and had “substantial” transaction records before or during their Compass tenure, but the company did not elaborate on what it considered “substantial.” The same six-month period was used year-over-year to adjust for seasonal market shifts.
The data was pulled from the company’s MoxiCloud platform, which it claims contains data for more than 90 percent of the U.S. home sale footprint.
“I was very disappointed to hear Robert Reffkin from Compass, claiming on CNBC in front of the world, that their improvement of agents that go to work there is 24.9 percent, measured in transactions, when in fact the data we’ve looked at across their entire footprint says there’s actually a 16-percent decline in productivity, again measured in transactions during the first six months that an agent goes to Compass,” said Baur in a video on MoxiWork’s website.
“So my message to you as brokers is simply this: do look at agent productivity. It is the key to your business,” Baur added. “But get to the truth, get to the actual numbers, because then you can act on them. They may not be pretty but start with what reality is, don’t create a fiction around that because it’s not actually going to help you improve your business.”
MoxiWorks hasn’t been shy about taking shot at Compass. In an open letter to the company published this summer, Baur took issue with Compass’ market share claims – as others have – as well as comments from Compass President Leonard Steinberg about its place in the real estate ecosystem.
“I have to call you out on your boastful approach to an industry that we all know and love,” wrote Baur, whose company has a page on its website dedicated to Compass. “While we agree that there’s a great opportunity to employ technology in ways to make both the consumer and agent experience better, we don’t think you need to resort to the trash-talking and grandstanding that we’ve heard from you – you’re better than that, and frankly we don’t want you to tarnish an industry that has funded the creation of the very technologies you now claim credit for.”
Compass has stated publicly that its goal is to achieve 20 percent of market share in the top 20 markets in the United States by 2020 and has been aggressive in its pursuit of that goal, acquiring major brokerages including Pacific Union International last month.
MoxiWorks, which receives funding from heavy hitters Windermere Real Estate, Howard Hanna Real Estate and Long & Foster, is a technology platform for brokerages. Its suite of products includes a customer relationship management tool, marketing solutions and an open platform data service.
An initiative by Compass to license its own propriety technology platform could theoretically put the two companies in direct competition.
Compass declined to comment on MoxiWork’s claims about the company’s broker productivity.
