Compass has acquired Patterson Realty, a 49-agent indie with two support staffers based in California’s central coast, the company confirmed to Inman Friday. The move follows on the heels of Compass’ acquisition of Central Coast Realty Group earlier this summer, giving the brokerage 80 agents and 9 offices serving California’s Central Coast region.
“Compass has welcomed some of the best real estate professionals in Northern and Southern California, and with the addition of these two top brokerages, we are thrilled to be expanding even further into the region,” a spokesperson for Compass said. “With this addition, Compass will connect its Northern and Southern markets to better serve its clients.”
Compass has grown massively in California over the past year, with the headline-grabbing acquisitions of Pacific Union International, Paragon Real Estate and Alain Pinel Realtors. It’s also recruited some of the top agents in the country to join its Southern California operation.
The company, which says it now has more than 13,000 agents and 250 offices in the top 20 markets across the country, also claims to now be the number one brokerage in California by sales volume.
The acquisition isn’t Compass’ only move to grab more market share in California this summer. Thrive Real Estate, a small indie based in La Mesa, California, is now affiliated with Compass. The team officially joined in late July, but the move was first reported by Patch on Thursday.
Founded by Lisa and Sean Purcell, Thrive first opened its doors in 2017. Lisa Purcell said, as a small brokerage, Thrive wasn’t really impacted by Compass jumping into the San Diego market, as other indies have reported. In San Diego, it was mostly bigger companies that were losing agents to the New York City-founded brokerage’s growing Southern California presence.
For Thrive Real Estate, it was more about finding a home where their agents could, well, thrive.
“We’re all about what our agents deserve,” Purcell said. “When you see the things that other companies [have], especially Compass – I came from Keller Williams and they had some pretty good tools and technology but this company blows them out of the water – it’s only fair to the agent to provide that kind of stuff to them.”
“If you remain a small brokerage, you don’t have all the stuff that those guys have,” Purcell added. “In order for our agents to grow their businesses we needed to do something like that.”
The entire Thrive Real Estate team – roughly 20 agents and a couple of support staff – made the switch to Compass, according to Purcell.
“Compass was probably the only company that aligned with us, that shared the core values and beliefs with us,” Purcell said. “With [Compass], it’s all about the agent, trying to improve the agent, not remove the agent.”
The mass-move to Compass marks a more organic approach to growth for a company that’s made major headlines by acquiring large indies like Pacific Union International, Alain Pinel Realtors and Stribling & Associates, to name a few.
Compass declined to disclose if the agents were given any bonuses to sign on at Compass, so it’s not clear if it’s cheaper for Compass to sign a small brokerage all to independent contractor agreements or outright acquire it.
