One of Tennessee’s top teams is making the jump to Compass. Erin Krueger, formerly of Synergy Realty Network, is taking her six licensed agents, three administrators and more than $120 million in transactions to Compass, starting this week.
Erin Krueger and her team are headed to Compass.
This year, Krueger estimates that her team will finish with more than 425 transactions, totaling more than $120 million in sales. Compared to last year’s Real Trends list, that put her around dead even with Deselms Real Estate for the second most productive team in the state, behind The Ashton Real Estate Group, with RE/MAX Advantage.
On last year’s list, her team finished sixth in both transactions and sales volume in the state and 186th nationally in transaction sides, according to the Real Trends Thousand.
“Over the years, I’ve been recruited by pretty much every firm in town at one time or another and what I found about Compass is that their core values aligned perfectly with ours,” Krueger said.
Those core values, according to Krueger are, a dream big mentality, being solution-oriented and leaving your ego at the door.
“There’s so many different principals they have that just aligned with us and struck a chord,” Krueger said. “I wanted to be aligned with a company that had the same vision that we do.”
Krueger also touted Compass’ technology platform, which she said allows her team to do things that would have taken a long time in the past, in just two minutes. She specifically pointed to the company’s marketing center – which is married to Compass’ entire technology platform – and the brokerage’s support staff.
In Nashville, Compass’s local office now stands at 37 agents and 10 full-time local support staff with plans to hire additional marketers, designers and administrators. Compass currently has more than 8,000 agents nationwide. By last count, Compass told Inman it had, nationally, one support staff member for every five agents.
“If I wanted to have a certain type of application – an app for a luxury listing or something like that – the marketing team comes down there and they’re going to hatch a plan to make that happen,” Krueger said.
“Even though I was associated with a small brokerage here in Nashville, we would have to source out all of these people,” Krueger added. “It seems like [Compass] is just compiling the best of the best. And it’s at our fingertips now, which saves us time.”
Krueger is also excited about Compass’ smart technology-enabled real estate sign as well as artificial intelligence technology, but did not get into specifics. The sign, however, is on backorder she said.
Bringing in Krueger could be the first move in seeking market dominance in a hot Nashville market, just one month after the brokerage launched in the Music City. Nationally, housing is seeing a bit of a slowdown, but that hasn’t been the case in Nashville, according to Krueger, which is also a market marked by a few highly productive teams.
“Real estate is competitive, however, there is a lot of business out there,” Krueger said. “The bottom line is, there’s a certain percentage of agents that do the bulk of the transactions in Nashville. It’s going to be interesting to see who joins Compass in the next couple of months.”
Bringing in Krueger’s team is Compass’ second big get in as many weeks. Last week, the company announced that in Northern California, it had hired Judy Citron from Alain Pinel Realtors, ranked number 20 on the Real Trends Thousand in terms of sales volume.
It strengthens Compass’ presence in a Bay Area market the company already has a tremendous grip on, after the earlier acquisitions of Paragon Real Estate Group and Pacific Union International.
“The combination of cutting-edge technology bolstered by Compass’ support and reach made this an outstanding opportunity for my business and clients,” Citron said, in a statement. “Compass offers me an unparalleled platform to collaborate with brilliant minds, lead the industry and offer the best in both service and product to my clients.”
Mike Hulme, president of Alain Pinel Realtors provided Inman with the following statement on Citron’s departure.
“For nearly a decade we cheered Judy on as she became one of the top 10 real estate agents in California and number three in the Bay Area. That said, with over 30 years in the industry, we recognize that every few years a newcomer comes along who can be disruptive to the real estate climate, and the desire for agents to try something new can be enticing. Although we will sincerely miss her contributions to our work through her business acumen and her analytical approach to real estate, we will always think of Judy as part of the Alain Pinel family.”
Compass also announced on Tuesday that it hired Chloe Drew as president of its philanthropy and community impact division. Drew will oversee Compass Cares, a charity initiative that allows agents on a hyper-local level to donate to local charities.
Drew will also oversee the launch of Compass Commits, a new initiative where agents will lend their skills to local charities through volunteer efforts.
Drew was previously chief of staff for the Markle Foundation, an economic security and healthcare not-for-profit organization.
Synergy Realty Network did not respond to a request for comment on Krueger’s departure.
Update: Story updated with additional comment from Mike Hulme, president of Alain Pinel Realtors.
