June 12, 2025 • 36 mins
Robert Reffkin is not only the CEO and co-founder of COMPASS, the #1 real estate company in the United States, but also a visionary, iconoclast, and kindred spirit.
In this episode, we explore parallel roots in the industry (moms!), the challenges for agents, sellers, and buyers, and how technology is the path to human innovation in the industry, definitely not replacement. And, of course, we talk music, Shabbat dinners, and John Coltrane.
Only on The Tom & Mickey Show!
You can follow Robert on Instagram: @robreffkin
And if you're feeling inspired to look for your next family home, or whatever makes your house-hunting heart skip a beat , contact us at @tomandmickey or tomandmickey.com
The Tom & Mickey show is produced by director & editor extraordinaire: Stephen Penta (@thepenta)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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[MUSIC]
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Today's episode is an interview with Robert Refkin, the founder and CEO of Compass, our new home. Not new anymore. Well, not new. Yeah, it's where our second year now, just barely into our second year. But Robert is a great guy. He's ridiculously smart.
He's born on the same day as you. That is true. Both Gemini's. June 7th. June 7th. Also Dean Martin's birthday, Prince.
It's a good day. Yeah. Okay. We digress. But we digress. Well, we always digress. That's what we do. Shows should have been called Tom and Mickey digress. Tom and Mickey, we digress. [LAUGHTER] Stay on top.
[MUSIC] Drum roll.
It doesn't make it nice. What is your preferred entrance music? That's what it's called. [MUSIC]
Rocky. We want to start by saying we joined this company. It was just a year. We are super thrilled to have made the decision that we did. We've watched the trajectory of Compass, and we say congratulations to you. Congratulations. We are thrilled to be here. What we want to start with is to thank you for having us ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange for our one-year anniversary. I mean, just set all of that up just for you. Exactly. I mean, we thought there would be candles or something. That was definitely a special moment. For people that have been here in just a year, I have so many great memories with you. I remember when you came over to my house for Shabbat dinner, and you were both singing by the piano and my family was around. It was such a wonderful moment. That was pretty special. I mean, we will say we've been to many a Shabbat dinner, and that really took the cake. That was fun. It was fabulous. I can't remember the last one we sang at. That's true. I don't think we've ever ever been to Shabbat. As you noticed, we were very shy. I think it was you. It was you who said, "Hey, guys, this is--" You had to do it. The evening was wrapping up. Everybody was getting ready to go. But you can also be very persuasive because I remember you're recording it. Like, "Can I post it?" Like, "Yeah, anyway, can I post it?" "Can I post it?" "Can I post it?" You're like, "Okay."
Well, thank you for giving me permission to do so. Of course. Yes, that was a great night. Well, how does this all work? How does this work? Yeah. We have decided that since we had the very first TV show on real estate, which was selling New York on HGTV, and we look at how that has now what I'd say devolved into, let's just say something other.
We decided that we have a voice, and we're surrounded by pretty wonderful people in our life, our friends, our show business friends, our business friends and clients. That's what this is. That's what this is all about. I think another component of that too is, many people think of real estate as numbers and percentages, and it's very transactional. Of course, it's transactional by nature because it's contractual, but it's also very emotional compared to commercial real estate, let's say.
We like digging into people's stories and finding out what makes them tick. We love getting real estate stories from people, whether they're in the business or not in the business, because one thing you can get out of anybody, and everybody has lived somewhere at some time in their lives, so you can always get a great real estate story out of them. I love that. Everybody's got a real estate story. Do you want to tell us your favorite one? Your favorite transaction, personal transaction?
My favorite transaction is one that I have not done yet. I grew up in a house in Berkeley, 1937, Carlton Street.
My favorite memories were in that house. My mom, I think, with a group of people, bought it for around $10,000 or $20,000, and then she sold it for a lot more, because she bought it before I was born and sold it later, and it happened to Berkeley, California. But I have this dream of buying that place again and just experiencing that life again with my family. So I'm not transacted yet, but at some point, I would love to make me so happy to have that home again. Wow, that's wonderful. Does the current owner know that?
No.
I think I said that once before, and then an agent reached out to the owner on my behalf, but now nothing happened. Okay. Well, now we just put it out into the universe. Yeah, we'll see. Maybe go to the universe. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, subconsciously, that's why I probably said it. We were talking too about the...
and you mentioned your mom, and that's a great place to start, because your mom was an agent, what we've heard, and please elaborate, but one of the reasons you started Compass was to find a better way for agents, because the business as a whole is very archaic and really needed a lift. But people, sort of like it took us a long time to get here, it's easier to muddle in the rut than to elevate and see the possibilities. And our eyes have been wide open for the past year.
If you'd like to make me sell, have you seen it yet? We're getting into it. It's getting good. Yeah. Every day there's a new thing to learn. I know, I know. And there's this whole... I come to this one and make me sell. We're just a little bit older than you. But we have Jen, and we're keeping up on... And we love when you pop by and share the next great thing with us. Like, what do you think of this guy? Well, something just came out, you want to see it? Yeah. Can I show it here? Yeah. Yeah. Are you allowed to? Yeah, sure. Well, of course you are. So... You're the boss.
Here, let me show you. So, the pins on the map, you saw for active listings were all green, orange for in contract, red for sold. We said, how about we differentiate the compass ones from everyone else and make them black pins? Truly to show the reach that we have in these different markets. And so this is... So now it looks like that. Wow. Yeah, wow, right. Wow, there's a lot of black pins there. A lot of black pins. Are we getting that? What is this called now? This is... This is just anytime you search, you're going to see a lot of black pins. Oh, wow. That's what it's called. So, see a lot of black pins. So, we can cut right to the chase. Your goal is world domination. No, no, no. So, I'm glad you brought that up.
I'm glad you brought that up. One thing that makes me sad is when you get to the point is when you hear agents at other companies
say things that are negative about our company, our people, our motivations maybe.
And so you brought in my mom.
My mom was a single mother. She was just owned by her parents for having an interracial relationship.
My father was black and so she raised me by herself. And she was born in Israel. She moved here when she was seven, went to Ramaz in New York. And I share that because she had nothing. She was not the kind of person that just had people just flock to help her. She is in Berkeley and had nothing and no resources. And what she did is she didn't give up. She created a preschool in our house called the Unicorn Preschool.
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And she could take care of me and make money at the same time. Then she went to the Jewish Community Center where in kindergarten I could go there and she can make money and take care of me at the same time. So, she worked there. Then a woman named Michael Kraft in New York Life Insurance said, "You know all these Jews and parents who just had kids, you should sell them life insurance." So, she became a life insurance agent for the next 10 or so years and then became a real estate agent for the majority of my life. And so for my entire life, I saw her as someone who was an entrepreneur, just like you, who dreams big and every year this is my best year, who never gives up. She's 79 years old. She's an agent today, having the best year of her career, and launching a new division in Compass called Compass Plus that helps seniors move into their last home and sell their last home. And so, I am inspired, I did not expect to fall in love with real estate agents.
That was not... They're a little rough to fall in love with a lot of them. Yeah, but I think when I'm...
It's almost like a spiritual belief that you could change your stars, that you can make anything possible. That's why I like Rocky, we talked about earlier.
It's so core to how I want to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. And whenever bad things happen, I try to think about, "Well, the good news is..." And this bad... "Well, the good news is..." I've done my entire life, whenever something bad happens, "Well, the good news is..." And you're thinking of a dream that's going to make everything great. And so, all I want for this industry is I want agents to be rock stars. I know how hard you work. I know all the sacrifices you make. For every one transaction, there's 90 no's. And I know you go above and beyond every day for your clients. I know you love your clients. And I want the world to see the way I see you. And I want you to have everything that you want for yourselves and your clients. And so, that's what Compass is. And so, when I see agents at different companies say, "Oh, did it at Compass?" I'm like, "All we want is for you all to be amazing and have everything you want." And we really do at this... I mean, we're doing this collectively for over 40 years between the two of us. Got some good gray hair going on. Good gray hair. Silver.
Silver. Silver. It's all about the silver.
And you know, we've been around and this company is really phenomenal. I mean, what we have witnessed just in our one year and a few weeks now, every day, it challenges us to really to continue to grow and learn. But the tools are really impressive. And we've talked about for many years before we got here, the technology, the technology, the technology, it's astounding, the technology. And the clients have really reacted to it in terms of just being able to... Just on the Compass One platform, which is what we... That was the official launch day at the Stock Exchange. And our one year anniversary, of course. Nice job. But the clients just love to be in there. And it's like it's as if we're texting with them all day, but it's attached to the listing and I want to see this. And this just came on the market and this is a Compass Private exclusive. And it's just great. Yeah, you know, these MLS and NARA rules, this stuff that is all in the market, a clear cooperation, the unintended consequence of their rules, are you all look the same? Of course. Yeah, like your name's not on your listing.
You all market the exact same day. If everything goes on immediately, there's no differentiation.
There's much less differentiation than there would be otherwise. And that, again, philosophically, I want you to all look different. Our logo is black and white for a reason. We wanted you to be the color, you to be the star, not to be the company.
You're listing to stand out. We created lifestyle photography. We created logos for you because we wanted you to stand out.
That's phenomenal. I mean, and that's it's such a different approach than other companies. And before we came to Compass, we realized this was probably the only other place we could go that would allow would not just be a blanket over our brand, but would support it and elevate it. And we found there are a lot of other brands, good brands. I'm not saying they're not great companies, but they really do expect their agents
to tow the company line and just conform. And going back to something. Conform is not a word. Conform is not around these parts. We agree. We concur.
On a personal note, I wanted to touch on something you said too, that you appreciate what we do when you realize for every high five, there are 90 gut punches. And that's the nature of the business. And we've as agents and brokers have been under attack. The value we add to a transaction has been under attack. We read comments in all the major publications, reader comments about that we're door openers and part time failures and other components in our lives. And then you have other people getting into the business who are watching all these TV shows. And they think it's just that much easier. And of course, that's why people have this perception, because it's like, oh, potential commission, $1.9 million. And 12 minutes later, all the apartments are sold, and they're driving around in rolls for us. And I have a story similar to yours. My mom was a single mom. My dad was out of the picture for most of my life. But she was very entrepreneurial. And she was a real estate agent. And her one big break, we lived on Long Island, and she got a new development, a large new development to sell. And she was on that project for years with the promise of, because in this business, we don't make any money until everything closes.
Several years into it, the developer went bankrupt, and she got paid nothing.
And I remember how hard that was for us. I mean, the financial strain, because it was always like, it's right around the corner. The closings are going to start. It's going to happen.
And that was my introduction to the real estate business. This is no get rich quick scheme. It is long, crazy hours. It is hard work. It is constantly reinventing.
And my freshman year of college that summer, I was looking to get a job. And my mom said, get your real estate license. She said, I don't know. Who wants to hire me? I'm 19 years old. She said, we'll find somebody who wants to hire you.
And having that memory of the difficulty, not the glamour of the business, and looking to sort of start as this scrappy, slightly pimply kid who was just like, I had this amazing broker, old school. I was the one who set up the first computer in the office.
Back then, the real estate listings would come in like a phone book size tome that you'd throw, and you'd comb through these little black and white grainy photos and circle things for your clients.
So it was very different. But obviously, it stuck with me because years later, after I went through all my other life pursuits, I came back to it. And it's sort of like it was meant to be. And I really think it's about the excitement of every day having a new adventure, the beauty of what we do. I mean, we get to look at beautiful architecture. We get to help people settle their lives, whether it's a joyful thing. Sometimes people just need to close the chapter and move on. But we're a part of that story. And that's why we're so attached to the relationship component of the business rather than the transactional relationship, not transaction.
What I think makes you so great at your job, you both personally, is that you, I think whoever cares the most, kind of grows the most. And like a culture of care and connection. And you reflect the best of Compass culture. I'm so thankful that you're here. And I know you could be anywhere you want. You're top agents in this market in the country.
But I've seen the people that really care about their clients, that when your client's happy, they go, "You want, you're happy?" Everything falls from that. For any client who has taken the journey of a real estate transaction with us, they appreciate it. They get it. They understand that every deal, and we say this at the beginning, there are going to be some bumps. There'll be some bumps, but we're going to be there. We're the pilots of this plane, and we're going to land it safely. It's going to be good. And we really pride ourselves on absorbing whatever stress there is, because this is what we do all day, every day. So the clients should not feel stress. Just understand that there's always a little stress. There's always something. There's always something. And that's why Compass One, I think, is so helpful.
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What Compass One is, you know, 24-7 transparency into every step of the process. It's a client dashboard for buyer sellers.
And it gives that transparency before, during, and after the transaction.
It helps solve one of the biggest problems, I think, that you have, which is you're too good at your job. You hide your clients from the pain. So at the end of the transaction, when the payments are made, do they really remember all that you did for them? Do they remember all the phone calls, all the text messages you respond to, all the emails you respond to, how quickly you responded, how early in the morning it was, how late it was at night, do they remember all of the appointments you made on their behalf, all the open houses? Of course not. How many people you negotiated on behalf? You didn't even tell them about a lot of it because you didn't want to stress them out. Now, lawyers on that example, they do the same thing. They hide you from the pain. But then they say, you know, they throw it in every once in a while. If you don't do this, you may get sued for $10 million. Like, oh. They just give it just enough. But this client dashboard, it makes your work visible. And in a nice, beautiful, attractive place where it's easy for them, it doesn't stress them out. But, you know, I actually used the client dashboard as a client. My wife and I rented a place, a summer place. And what I was shocked by is what half the things on the timeline and tasks, I didn't even know had to happen. It was like, it was one of those example, electrician appointment to test the Tesla charger. It's like, if she didn't put it there, I would have never known that she didn't, I would have known anything. Like, it just happened.
And then the whole co-op board process in New York City, I mean, that is in and of itself.
We're going to be doing a whole episode on that.
Seriously.
But, and when I said earlier, global domination, I meant then the nicest way. I really did. I mean, we're getting calls from back in December when we bought Christie's, for example. I mean, that's a big thing. That's a big thing. I mean, we got calls from a lot of clients like, wow, wow, you guys, you know, you're really in the right place in the right time. And so, and then. This is a moment for our industry. You have last year was the lowest level of transactions in 29 years. Last year. So, yeah, last year being 2024, 4 million homes sold, exactly 4 million. And the population now is 25% bigger than it was 29 years ago. And there was still the lowest level of transactions. That's crazy. You have, but, you know, with that challenge comes opportunity. And what we're seeing, it's fascinating to watch. I love it. I'm so happy about this. Is the best agents gaining market share. There's a line that people have said for many years in real estate. In down times, the best agents gain market share. In down times, the best agents keep the biz. The worst agents leave the biz.
And last, there were 1.5 million agents in the country.
Last year, 70% of those agents didn't do one transaction. Wow. Wow. And so. That's frightening. So just. It is frightening. But what it means is the best agents are doing better and better and better. And as these mandatory rules from a trade group, forcing every agent and their clients to do things. And the clients often don't even understand they do this once every seven years, but a trade group doing this to all of these homeowners.
But as these rules are unwound, like mandatory compensation, mandatory cooperation, what's going to happen is going to allow the best agents to thrive even more. And the best brokerages as well. Yeah. Because a lot of these rules were artificially propping up the smallest brokerages and the inexperienced agents. Right. Right. And there's so much discussion about it. You know, this has crescendoed in the last year with the whole NAR
situation for lack of any other word. But last year and at the end of the day, guess what? Commissions can be negotiable. Yeah. Right. I mean. Well, we also inform people, by the way, they've always been negotiable. Yeah. Yeah. To a degree, we said, you can't go into Bergdorf Goodman and say, this is a great sweater, but it's not on sale. I'll give you 10 bucks. It's like, that's not a negotiation. And Leibovin said, you get what you pay for. You get what you pay for at the end of the day. Yeah. They were always negotiable. The rule that led to the Billie Narr lawsuit was that the mandatory compensation to put your listing in an MLS, it had to be a minimum of one penny in some LLCs to a dollar. So just something that small, but you forced everyone, everyone to put an MLS, the homeowner to pay one penny to a dollar to the buyer agent.
But you're a trade group with 100% market share, right? Like 99% of agents in markets where the MLS is owned by Narr, 99% of them pay Narr because there's a three-way agreement which says, in order to access your MLS, you must pay Narr and your state and local association. And so a clear conversation is really about is it's trying to prevent any competition in listing systems because if there's another list, if you can give and get your listings from a different place and you didn't need to pay Rebne, how many people would pay Rebne? That's right. If you didn't have to pay Narr in Narr markets, how many wouldn't pay Narr? It's all money.
And so for me, this is like a very deeply social issue because as we kind of talked about before, everything that I went through with my mom was she created her own life. She dreamed big and she sacrificed and seen agents do that every day with your clients to have a trade group do this to us just for money. When I know it's just money, it's always money.
Of course. Of course. And I don't think people should be forced to do things that they don't want to do. If your client doesn't want to put the listing in the MLS or doesn't want to put the listing on Compass, put whatever, your client should do whatever they want to do. Yeah.
Absolutely. Which seems pretty simple. We've had those conversations with people. This is before we were at Compass because Compass Private Exclusive really changed the game for us. It does. Because for the longest time, we would have people say, "I have this property. It's a special property. It's not for everyone. I want you guys to just go out and shop it." Said, "We can't do that."
"I don't understand." We're like, "Well, technically, we can't do that because we have to within 24 hours put it on the RLS or the MLS."
And we had those conversations. "I don't understand. If I'm telling you I don't want that, why do you have to do it?
Isn't that a great question?" This is all coming to a head.
There's no way that I'm going... You're my clients. I work for you. There's no way that I'm going to allow...
I'm going to be in a world where agents come to me and say, "I don't understand. Why do I have to pay NAR if I don't want to? I don't understand. My client doesn't want to put in the MLS. Why do they have to?" And I look and I don't have a good answer. And the only answer is because they're making money off of you. Why is it that an agent can't watermark their own photos?
But then the MLS watermarks it. Why is it... And even with our logos on StreetEasy and things like that.
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They took it all off. They all look the same. And they can monetize it. But it's going to be a great moment.
There's an agent in Austin. I remember us talking about how we're going to end clear cooperation. And thankfully, Austin just ended it in their market. Thank you, Austin. We appreciate you. Because every MLS is choosing themselves. And she said, "This is amazing." The agent, this is like six months ago. She's like, "What do you mean?" And she's looking up. She's like, "I can't wait to see... I wish I would have videotaped her." She was like, "He's a dreamer, kind of like you." But she's like, "This is amazing. I can't wait to see all the creativity that comes out of this." I can't wait... Isn't that beautiful? Wow. That's so great. I can't wait to see all the different ways agents start marketing the properties. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're the most creative profession out there. Yeah. And they said, "We want you all to look the same. Put it in the MLS." I mean, it's going to be beautiful to see all the wonderful tools to market anywhere you want. And how that will come out. And so, like maybe it's worth talking about the Compass 3-phase marketing strategy. And we launched it just last fall. And now, in February, 62% of all of our new listings in February started off as a come in the Compass Private Exclusive or Compass Coming Soon program. And so, Private Exclusives, as you know, it allows sellers to test price privately without the risk of days on market or price drop history. Sometimes you'll find a buyer that will pay a premium to not have competition. They'll pay a premium for certainty. And an example is, if there is a seller, this is a real story, $15 million penthouse is four season. The buyer offered 14.2, it was a billionaire who flew in. And the agent said, "I'm sorry, anything less than the full ask, I'm going to put it in the MLS. You can compete against everyone else." So, what's the buyer do? Boom, here you go, 15. Because sometimes people pay a premium for certainty. But let people choose that privately. Of our Compass Coming Soon, 81% of them sold at or above list price. It gives choice. Anyone can do what they want to do. But there's no days on market, there's no price drop history. Days on market is the killer value. It's killer, absolute killer. No seller wants that on their listing. So, why is it there? Why should your seller have no choice on being forced into a system where there's days on market and the price drop history? It's crazy. I remember years ago, pre-COVID, we did a deal on an apartment. It was just about to expire on the last day. Literally, I think it was the last day. But we were able to create a bidding war situation, which was shocking to us. This is how it played out. The seller did not want to lower the price. We believe that the price was right. But on the last day, literally, we got just over the list price by a smidge. But still, closed, done, and that was that. Yes, to your point, yes. A buyer is going to ask one of two questions. Either how much do you have to pay to win this listing? Or how much can I get off list price? If there's two price drops, they're going to ask the latter.
What's fascinating is that home builders and real estate developers, the most professional, sophisticated sellers of real estate in the country, the most profit-driven real estate owners in the country, they were carved out of clear cooperation the entire time. And so they've been able to market freely without days on market, without price drop history, without evaluation estimate less than the value of the home. All we're doing in the Compass 3-Face marketing strategy is giving the home builder and real estate developer playbook to the individual homeowner. Right.
Well, that's why we're here. Keep fighting the fight. All these people are like, "Oh, this isn't right for this reason, that reason."
Look, the market has spoken.
And look at the facts. I mean, look at the facts. But it's really true, because we're talking about buyers' rights and sellers' rights. And there are some properties that are out there. Some of them notorious, and some of them notorious, and it's reverse deception. Yeah. Properties that we all know have been on the market for over 15 years, but they show up with a new broker, and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, it's a brand new to market." And a lot of people don't dig too deep into it. But if somebody has a great relationship with their agent and may have a property on the market for two or three years, we have clients who say, "I just saw that was on the market for 600 days. Let's skip it. There's something wrong with it." Maybe not. Maybe not. I mean, there are lots of circumstances. I'm glad you brought... These are property rights. This is the most valuable asset in the average person's life. And a trade group is deciding how you market your property. A trade group that makes money off every listing. That's not right.
And so, I think this is a wonderful time for agents. It's been a wonderful time for homeowners.
And look, if a buyer hires a really experienced agent,
that experienced agent will know the days on market, how many times there's listed. It'll make the best agents rise even more. For investment banking, if I'm buying your company and you're being represented by Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs would... I would love to know, how long have they been on the market, this company? How many times have they changed their price expectations? The bank would never tell me that.
Why should we? Mercedes-Benz does have days on market and price drop history on the lot. Chanel doesn't list their bags on Amazon. So, we would all buy them. No.
But if I hire Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley, they've been in the market. They're one of the best bankers. They know because they've been in the market, they would be able to give me guidance and real insight on how long you've been trying to sell your company and how your price expectations may have changed. And so, that's just an example of how the best agents will rise because you're in the flow. Yeah.
But we often say, the technology is great, but the human component, the ability to process, as great as AI is and is going to be, it's an aid, it is not a replacement. Yeah, we call it AI for AI, artificial intelligence, to empower agent intelligence. But for me, everything is about agent empowerment.
We like that.
You're here. You're here. [LAUGHTER]
We just took my daughter over the weekend to the New York Philharmonic. She plays the cello and so it's really special. Do the other kids play music? They all play piano.
It's cute seeing the little one. He's finally getting a little better.
River. They say like- We hope River play a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Then the- Oh, yeah, she watches it. Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, boys, they say girls are faster at learning. [LAUGHTER] And my wife, hear my wife talk about my son on the piano versus the girls, it's almost like, hey, don't talk about the boys that way.
[LAUGHTER] It's pretty clear.
Do you play at all? I used to a long time ago, but I'm not that good. All right. So when we get our vinyl listening lounge set up in here, what would be your- do you have your favorite record? I think- We've got a massive collection. That's great. We'll start digging. My favorite things from John Coltrane. Yeah, nice. Right? The happiness, being positive, moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. Trained. I feel like this office with you- Coltrane. Is Coltrane. Yeah, Coltrane. That's what I feel.
These speakers are made for Coltrane. Oh, really? Yeah. It's cool.
The turntable is still in the works. It takes me months to research the right equipment. It's a thing. I mean, we came from show business backgrounds. I was a professional singer.
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The sound difference, when you listen to a CD versus vinyl,
I'm hearing instruments now that I didn't even remember were on the recordings. It's absolutely fascinating. So you'll come to our- I want to kick off. To simulate the creative. We'd love that. Yeah. We'd love that. All right. We'll make it so. Well, thank you for joining us, Rob. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for being at Compass. I mean it sincerely. You reflect the best of this company and this industry.
And for me, trying to build a great company, Coltrane matters more than anything else. Because certain people make people want to be here. Some people make people not want to be here.
And there are those who give people energy, those who take it away. I call them energy vampire. We use that all the time. Yeah. I appreciate what you do. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] And so it means a lot to hear here. Thank you. Yeah. And I look forward to growing together for many years to come. Hear, hear. As do we. And happy Purim. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Happy Purim. Special Shabbat dinner tonight? No, not tonight. We're going to go. We're taking the kids for spring break to visit 40 different offices. Oh, we'll mention that. We always just telling us this as we're trying to finalize the schedule. Yeah. Every spring break we-- For two weeks. Two weeks. Yeah. We visit a bunch of Columbus offices. Last spring break we went to California, started in San Diego, then Orange County, then LA County and Malibu, and then Reno, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Napa, and Bay Area, and Santa Cruz. This year is DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We start this weekend.
And then we go to, I forget the word, but Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, 38 Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, I think it's in Naples, and then Boca, Palm Beach, and Miami.
Yeah. How do you remember that? I tell the kids, if you're good, then we'll take it to Disney World.
So, yeah, if you land at the end, yeah. Okay. Right. Springboard. Did the kids ever say, "Dad, enough with this real estate thing?" I don't think yet they know it's not as normal. Okay. Okay. I don't think so. Like, "Hey, this is what we're doing." He goes, "Spring break. Give this what daddy." That's... And look, I think it's good. Because for me, I'm trying to create positive moments of in-person culture at Compass. Right? And so that's the reason I do it. Also, I want to be connected to our people.
And remember, you're my client. And so the same way you are with your clients, I need to be with you. And you show them in every way you can that you care about them. I want to show in every way I can that I care about you and our agents. And so that's one reason. But also, I feel like it's a good thing to show them, to give them exposure to you and to work and to offices. And yeah, I think it's good.
It matters. It's great. It really does. It matters. Yeah. I mean, we began by talking about your Shabbat dinner. We can wrap up by talking about the Shabbat dinner. But that was really so special to us to be able to come to your home as new members of the compass family. And to meet- Time clients. Yeah, truly. But to meet your children and be in your home and have food together. And we all talked about what we were most appreciative of that week. And it was just absolutely beautiful. So we are appreciative of you and everything that's happening. And we're very excited to be here and we look forward to the road ahead. Well, thank you for having me here.
[MUSIC]
(00:01):
Today's episode is an interview with Robert Refkin, the founder and CEO of Compass, our new home. Not new anymore. Well, not new. Yeah, it's where our second year now, just barely into our second year. But Robert is a great guy. He's ridiculously smart.
He's born on the same day as you. That is true. Both Gemini's. June 7th. June 7th. Also Dean Martin's birthday, Prince.
It's a good day. Yeah. Okay. We digress. But we digress. Well, we always digress. That's what we do. Shows should have been called Tom and Mickey digress. Tom and Mickey, we digress. [LAUGHTER] Stay on top.
[MUSIC] Drum roll.
It doesn't make it nice. What is your preferred entrance music? That's what it's called. [MUSIC]
Rocky. We want to start by saying we joined this company. It was just a year. We are super thrilled to have made the decision that we did. We've watched the trajectory of Compass, and we say congratulations to you. Congratulations. We are thrilled to be here. What we want to start with is to thank you for having us ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange for our one-year anniversary. I mean, just set all of that up just for you. Exactly. I mean, we thought there would be candles or something. That was definitely a special moment. For people that have been here in just a year, I have so many great memories with you. I remember when you came over to my house for Shabbat dinner, and you were both singing by the piano and my family was around. It was such a wonderful moment. That was pretty special. I mean, we will say we've been to many a Shabbat dinner, and that really took the cake. That was fun. It was fabulous. I can't remember the last one we sang at. That's true. I don't think we've ever ever been to Shabbat. As you noticed, we were very shy. I think it was you. It was you who said, "Hey, guys, this is--" You had to do it. The evening was wrapping up. Everybody was getting ready to go. But you can also be very persuasive because I remember you're recording it. Like, "Can I post it?" Like, "Yeah, anyway, can I post it?" "Can I post it?" "Can I post it?" You're like, "Okay."
Well, thank you for giving me permission to do so. Of course. Yes, that was a great night. Well, how does this all work? How does this work? Yeah. We have decided that since we had the very first TV show on real estate, which was selling New York on HGTV, and we look at how that has now what I'd say devolved into, let's just say something other.
We decided that we have a voice, and we're surrounded by pretty wonderful people in our life, our friends, our show business friends, our business friends and clients. That's what this is. That's what this is all about. I think another component of that too is, many people think of real estate as numbers and percentages, and it's very transactional. Of course, it's transactional by nature because it's contractual, but it's also very emotional compared to commercial real estate, let's say.
We like digging into people's stories and finding out what makes them tick. We love getting real estate stories from people, whether they're in the business or not in the business, because one thing you can get out of anybody, and everybody has lived somewhere at some time in their lives, so you can always get a great real estate story out of them. I love that. Everybody's got a real estate story. Do you want to tell us your favorite one? Your favorite transaction, personal transaction?
My favorite transaction is one that I have not done yet. I grew up in a house in Berkeley, 1937, Carlton Street.
My favorite memories were in that house. My mom, I think, with a group of people, bought it for around $10,000 or $20,000, and then she sold it for a lot more, because she bought it before I was born and sold it later, and it happened to Berkeley, California. But I have this dream of buying that place again and just experiencing that life again with my family. So I'm not transacted yet, but at some point, I would love to make me so happy to have that home again. Wow, that's wonderful. Does the current owner know that?
No.
I think I said that once before, and then an agent reached out to the owner on my behalf, but now nothing happened. Okay. Well, now we just put it out into the universe. Yeah, we'll see. Maybe go to the universe. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, subconsciously, that's why I probably said it. We were talking too about the...
and you mentioned your mom, and that's a great place to start, because your mom was an agent, what we've heard, and please elaborate, but one of the reasons you started Compass was to find a better way for agents, because the business as a whole is very archaic and really needed a lift. But people, sort of like it took us a long time to get here, it's easier to muddle in the rut than to elevate and see the possibilities. And our eyes have been wide open for the past year.
If you'd like to make me sell, have you seen it yet? We're getting into it. It's getting good. Yeah. Every day there's a new thing to learn. I know, I know. And there's this whole... I come to this one and make me sell. We're just a little bit older than you. But we have Jen, and we're keeping up on... And we love when you pop by and share the next great thing with us. Like, what do you think of this guy? Well, something just came out, you want to see it? Yeah. Can I show it here? Yeah. Yeah. Are you allowed to? Yeah, sure. Well, of course you are. So... You're the boss.
Here, let me show you. So, the pins on the map, you saw for active listings were all green, orange for in contract, red for sold. We said, how about we differentiate the compass ones from everyone else and make them black pins? Truly to show the reach that we have in these different markets. And so this is... So now it looks like that. Wow. Yeah, wow, right. Wow, there's a lot of black pins there. A lot of black pins. Are we getting that? What is this called now? This is... This is just anytime you search, you're going to see a lot of black pins. Oh, wow. That's what it's called. So, see a lot of black pins. So, we can cut right to the chase. Your goal is world domination. No, no, no. So, I'm glad you brought that up.
I'm glad you brought that up. One thing that makes me sad is when you get to the point is when you hear agents at other companies
say things that are negative about our company, our people, our motivations maybe.
And so you brought in my mom.
My mom was a single mother. She was just owned by her parents for having an interracial relationship.
My father was black and so she raised me by herself. And she was born in Israel. She moved here when she was seven, went to Ramaz in New York. And I share that because she had nothing. She was not the kind of person that just had people just flock to help her. She is in Berkeley and had nothing and no resources. And what she did is she didn't give up. She created a preschool in our house called the Unicorn Preschool.
(00:22):
And she could take care of me and make money at the same time. Then she went to the Jewish Community Center where in kindergarten I could go there and she can make money and take care of me at the same time. So, she worked there. Then a woman named Michael Kraft in New York Life Insurance said, "You know all these Jews and parents who just had kids, you should sell them life insurance." So, she became a life insurance agent for the next 10 or so years and then became a real estate agent for the majority of my life. And so for my entire life, I saw her as someone who was an entrepreneur, just like you, who dreams big and every year this is my best year, who never gives up. She's 79 years old. She's an agent today, having the best year of her career, and launching a new division in Compass called Compass Plus that helps seniors move into their last home and sell their last home. And so, I am inspired, I did not expect to fall in love with real estate agents.
That was not... They're a little rough to fall in love with a lot of them. Yeah, but I think when I'm...
It's almost like a spiritual belief that you could change your stars, that you can make anything possible. That's why I like Rocky, we talked about earlier.
It's so core to how I want to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. And whenever bad things happen, I try to think about, "Well, the good news is..." And this bad... "Well, the good news is..." I've done my entire life, whenever something bad happens, "Well, the good news is..." And you're thinking of a dream that's going to make everything great. And so, all I want for this industry is I want agents to be rock stars. I know how hard you work. I know all the sacrifices you make. For every one transaction, there's 90 no's. And I know you go above and beyond every day for your clients. I know you love your clients. And I want the world to see the way I see you. And I want you to have everything that you want for yourselves and your clients. And so, that's what Compass is. And so, when I see agents at different companies say, "Oh, did it at Compass?" I'm like, "All we want is for you all to be amazing and have everything you want." And we really do at this... I mean, we're doing this collectively for over 40 years between the two of us. Got some good gray hair going on. Good gray hair. Silver.
Silver. Silver. It's all about the silver.
And you know, we've been around and this company is really phenomenal. I mean, what we have witnessed just in our one year and a few weeks now, every day, it challenges us to really to continue to grow and learn. But the tools are really impressive. And we've talked about for many years before we got here, the technology, the technology, the technology, it's astounding, the technology. And the clients have really reacted to it in terms of just being able to... Just on the Compass One platform, which is what we... That was the official launch day at the Stock Exchange. And our one year anniversary, of course. Nice job. But the clients just love to be in there. And it's like it's as if we're texting with them all day, but it's attached to the listing and I want to see this. And this just came on the market and this is a Compass Private exclusive. And it's just great. Yeah, you know, these MLS and NARA rules, this stuff that is all in the market, a clear cooperation, the unintended consequence of their rules, are you all look the same? Of course. Yeah, like your name's not on your listing.
You all market the exact same day. If everything goes on immediately, there's no differentiation.
There's much less differentiation than there would be otherwise. And that, again, philosophically, I want you to all look different. Our logo is black and white for a reason. We wanted you to be the color, you to be the star, not to be the company.
You're listing to stand out. We created lifestyle photography. We created logos for you because we wanted you to stand out.
That's phenomenal. I mean, and that's it's such a different approach than other companies. And before we came to Compass, we realized this was probably the only other place we could go that would allow would not just be a blanket over our brand, but would support it and elevate it. And we found there are a lot of other brands, good brands. I'm not saying they're not great companies, but they really do expect their agents
to tow the company line and just conform. And going back to something. Conform is not a word. Conform is not around these parts. We agree. We concur.
On a personal note, I wanted to touch on something you said too, that you appreciate what we do when you realize for every high five, there are 90 gut punches. And that's the nature of the business. And we've as agents and brokers have been under attack. The value we add to a transaction has been under attack. We read comments in all the major publications, reader comments about that we're door openers and part time failures and other components in our lives. And then you have other people getting into the business who are watching all these TV shows. And they think it's just that much easier. And of course, that's why people have this perception, because it's like, oh, potential commission, $1.9 million. And 12 minutes later, all the apartments are sold, and they're driving around in rolls for us. And I have a story similar to yours. My mom was a single mom. My dad was out of the picture for most of my life. But she was very entrepreneurial. And she was a real estate agent. And her one big break, we lived on Long Island, and she got a new development, a large new development to sell. And she was on that project for years with the promise of, because in this business, we don't make any money until everything closes.
Several years into it, the developer went bankrupt, and she got paid nothing.
And I remember how hard that was for us. I mean, the financial strain, because it was always like, it's right around the corner. The closings are going to start. It's going to happen.
And that was my introduction to the real estate business. This is no get rich quick scheme. It is long, crazy hours. It is hard work. It is constantly reinventing.
And my freshman year of college that summer, I was looking to get a job. And my mom said, get your real estate license. She said, I don't know. Who wants to hire me? I'm 19 years old. She said, we'll find somebody who wants to hire you.
And having that memory of the difficulty, not the glamour of the business, and looking to sort of start as this scrappy, slightly pimply kid who was just like, I had this amazing broker, old school. I was the one who set up the first computer in the office.
Back then, the real estate listings would come in like a phone book size tome that you'd throw, and you'd comb through these little black and white grainy photos and circle things for your clients.
So it was very different. But obviously, it stuck with me because years later, after I went through all my other life pursuits, I came back to it. And it's sort of like it was meant to be. And I really think it's about the excitement of every day having a new adventure, the beauty of what we do. I mean, we get to look at beautiful architecture. We get to help people settle their lives, whether it's a joyful thing. Sometimes people just need to close the chapter and move on. But we're a part of that story. And that's why we're so attached to the relationship component of the business rather than the transactional relationship, not transaction.
What I think makes you so great at your job, you both personally, is that you, I think whoever cares the most, kind of grows the most. And like a culture of care and connection. And you reflect the best of Compass culture. I'm so thankful that you're here. And I know you could be anywhere you want. You're top agents in this market in the country.
But I've seen the people that really care about their clients, that when your client's happy, they go, "You want, you're happy?" Everything falls from that. For any client who has taken the journey of a real estate transaction with us, they appreciate it. They get it. They understand that every deal, and we say this at the beginning, there are going to be some bumps. There'll be some bumps, but we're going to be there. We're the pilots of this plane, and we're going to land it safely. It's going to be good. And we really pride ourselves on absorbing whatever stress there is, because this is what we do all day, every day. So the clients should not feel stress. Just understand that there's always a little stress. There's always something. There's always something. And that's why Compass One, I think, is so helpful.
(00:43):
What Compass One is, you know, 24-7 transparency into every step of the process. It's a client dashboard for buyer sellers.
And it gives that transparency before, during, and after the transaction.
It helps solve one of the biggest problems, I think, that you have, which is you're too good at your job. You hide your clients from the pain. So at the end of the transaction, when the payments are made, do they really remember all that you did for them? Do they remember all the phone calls, all the text messages you respond to, all the emails you respond to, how quickly you responded, how early in the morning it was, how late it was at night, do they remember all of the appointments you made on their behalf, all the open houses? Of course not. How many people you negotiated on behalf? You didn't even tell them about a lot of it because you didn't want to stress them out. Now, lawyers on that example, they do the same thing. They hide you from the pain. But then they say, you know, they throw it in every once in a while. If you don't do this, you may get sued for $10 million. Like, oh. They just give it just enough. But this client dashboard, it makes your work visible. And in a nice, beautiful, attractive place where it's easy for them, it doesn't stress them out. But, you know, I actually used the client dashboard as a client. My wife and I rented a place, a summer place. And what I was shocked by is what half the things on the timeline and tasks, I didn't even know had to happen. It was like, it was one of those example, electrician appointment to test the Tesla charger. It's like, if she didn't put it there, I would have never known that she didn't, I would have known anything. Like, it just happened.
And then the whole co-op board process in New York City, I mean, that is in and of itself.
We're going to be doing a whole episode on that.
Seriously.
But, and when I said earlier, global domination, I meant then the nicest way. I really did. I mean, we're getting calls from back in December when we bought Christie's, for example. I mean, that's a big thing. That's a big thing. I mean, we got calls from a lot of clients like, wow, wow, you guys, you know, you're really in the right place in the right time. And so, and then. This is a moment for our industry. You have last year was the lowest level of transactions in 29 years. Last year. So, yeah, last year being 2024, 4 million homes sold, exactly 4 million. And the population now is 25% bigger than it was 29 years ago. And there was still the lowest level of transactions. That's crazy. You have, but, you know, with that challenge comes opportunity. And what we're seeing, it's fascinating to watch. I love it. I'm so happy about this. Is the best agents gaining market share. There's a line that people have said for many years in real estate. In down times, the best agents gain market share. In down times, the best agents keep the biz. The worst agents leave the biz.
And last, there were 1.5 million agents in the country.
Last year, 70% of those agents didn't do one transaction. Wow. Wow. And so. That's frightening. So just. It is frightening. But what it means is the best agents are doing better and better and better. And as these mandatory rules from a trade group, forcing every agent and their clients to do things. And the clients often don't even understand they do this once every seven years, but a trade group doing this to all of these homeowners.
But as these rules are unwound, like mandatory compensation, mandatory cooperation, what's going to happen is going to allow the best agents to thrive even more. And the best brokerages as well. Yeah. Because a lot of these rules were artificially propping up the smallest brokerages and the inexperienced agents. Right. Right. And there's so much discussion about it. You know, this has crescendoed in the last year with the whole NAR
situation for lack of any other word. But last year and at the end of the day, guess what? Commissions can be negotiable. Yeah. Right. I mean. Well, we also inform people, by the way, they've always been negotiable. Yeah. Yeah. To a degree, we said, you can't go into Bergdorf Goodman and say, this is a great sweater, but it's not on sale. I'll give you 10 bucks. It's like, that's not a negotiation. And Leibovin said, you get what you pay for. You get what you pay for at the end of the day. Yeah. They were always negotiable. The rule that led to the Billie Narr lawsuit was that the mandatory compensation to put your listing in an MLS, it had to be a minimum of one penny in some LLCs to a dollar. So just something that small, but you forced everyone, everyone to put an MLS, the homeowner to pay one penny to a dollar to the buyer agent.
But you're a trade group with 100% market share, right? Like 99% of agents in markets where the MLS is owned by Narr, 99% of them pay Narr because there's a three-way agreement which says, in order to access your MLS, you must pay Narr and your state and local association. And so a clear conversation is really about is it's trying to prevent any competition in listing systems because if there's another list, if you can give and get your listings from a different place and you didn't need to pay Rebne, how many people would pay Rebne? That's right. If you didn't have to pay Narr in Narr markets, how many wouldn't pay Narr? It's all money.
And so for me, this is like a very deeply social issue because as we kind of talked about before, everything that I went through with my mom was she created her own life. She dreamed big and she sacrificed and seen agents do that every day with your clients to have a trade group do this to us just for money. When I know it's just money, it's always money.
Of course. Of course. And I don't think people should be forced to do things that they don't want to do. If your client doesn't want to put the listing in the MLS or doesn't want to put the listing on Compass, put whatever, your client should do whatever they want to do. Yeah.
Absolutely. Which seems pretty simple. We've had those conversations with people. This is before we were at Compass because Compass Private Exclusive really changed the game for us. It does. Because for the longest time, we would have people say, "I have this property. It's a special property. It's not for everyone. I want you guys to just go out and shop it." Said, "We can't do that."
"I don't understand." We're like, "Well, technically, we can't do that because we have to within 24 hours put it on the RLS or the MLS."
And we had those conversations. "I don't understand. If I'm telling you I don't want that, why do you have to do it?
Isn't that a great question?" This is all coming to a head.
There's no way that I'm going... You're my clients. I work for you. There's no way that I'm going to allow...
I'm going to be in a world where agents come to me and say, "I don't understand. Why do I have to pay NAR if I don't want to? I don't understand. My client doesn't want to put in the MLS. Why do they have to?" And I look and I don't have a good answer. And the only answer is because they're making money off of you. Why is it that an agent can't watermark their own photos?
But then the MLS watermarks it. Why is it... And even with our logos on StreetEasy and things like that.
(01:04):
They took it all off. They all look the same. And they can monetize it. But it's going to be a great moment.
There's an agent in Austin. I remember us talking about how we're going to end clear cooperation. And thankfully, Austin just ended it in their market. Thank you, Austin. We appreciate you. Because every MLS is choosing themselves. And she said, "This is amazing." The agent, this is like six months ago. She's like, "What do you mean?" And she's looking up. She's like, "I can't wait to see... I wish I would have videotaped her." She was like, "He's a dreamer, kind of like you." But she's like, "This is amazing. I can't wait to see all the creativity that comes out of this." I can't wait... Isn't that beautiful? Wow. That's so great. I can't wait to see all the different ways agents start marketing the properties. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're the most creative profession out there. Yeah. And they said, "We want you all to look the same. Put it in the MLS." I mean, it's going to be beautiful to see all the wonderful tools to market anywhere you want. And how that will come out. And so, like maybe it's worth talking about the Compass 3-phase marketing strategy. And we launched it just last fall. And now, in February, 62% of all of our new listings in February started off as a come in the Compass Private Exclusive or Compass Coming Soon program. And so, Private Exclusives, as you know, it allows sellers to test price privately without the risk of days on market or price drop history. Sometimes you'll find a buyer that will pay a premium to not have competition. They'll pay a premium for certainty. And an example is, if there is a seller, this is a real story, $15 million penthouse is four season. The buyer offered 14.2, it was a billionaire who flew in. And the agent said, "I'm sorry, anything less than the full ask, I'm going to put it in the MLS. You can compete against everyone else." So, what's the buyer do? Boom, here you go, 15. Because sometimes people pay a premium for certainty. But let people choose that privately. Of our Compass Coming Soon, 81% of them sold at or above list price. It gives choice. Anyone can do what they want to do. But there's no days on market, there's no price drop history. Days on market is the killer value. It's killer, absolute killer. No seller wants that on their listing. So, why is it there? Why should your seller have no choice on being forced into a system where there's days on market and the price drop history? It's crazy. I remember years ago, pre-COVID, we did a deal on an apartment. It was just about to expire on the last day. Literally, I think it was the last day. But we were able to create a bidding war situation, which was shocking to us. This is how it played out. The seller did not want to lower the price. We believe that the price was right. But on the last day, literally, we got just over the list price by a smidge. But still, closed, done, and that was that. Yes, to your point, yes. A buyer is going to ask one of two questions. Either how much do you have to pay to win this listing? Or how much can I get off list price? If there's two price drops, they're going to ask the latter.
What's fascinating is that home builders and real estate developers, the most professional, sophisticated sellers of real estate in the country, the most profit-driven real estate owners in the country, they were carved out of clear cooperation the entire time. And so they've been able to market freely without days on market, without price drop history, without evaluation estimate less than the value of the home. All we're doing in the Compass 3-Face marketing strategy is giving the home builder and real estate developer playbook to the individual homeowner. Right.
Well, that's why we're here. Keep fighting the fight. All these people are like, "Oh, this isn't right for this reason, that reason."
Look, the market has spoken.
And look at the facts. I mean, look at the facts. But it's really true, because we're talking about buyers' rights and sellers' rights. And there are some properties that are out there. Some of them notorious, and some of them notorious, and it's reverse deception. Yeah. Properties that we all know have been on the market for over 15 years, but they show up with a new broker, and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, it's a brand new to market." And a lot of people don't dig too deep into it. But if somebody has a great relationship with their agent and may have a property on the market for two or three years, we have clients who say, "I just saw that was on the market for 600 days. Let's skip it. There's something wrong with it." Maybe not. Maybe not. I mean, there are lots of circumstances. I'm glad you brought... These are property rights. This is the most valuable asset in the average person's life. And a trade group is deciding how you market your property. A trade group that makes money off every listing. That's not right.
And so, I think this is a wonderful time for agents. It's been a wonderful time for homeowners.
And look, if a buyer hires a really experienced agent,
that experienced agent will know the days on market, how many times there's listed. It'll make the best agents rise even more. For investment banking, if I'm buying your company and you're being represented by Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs would... I would love to know, how long have they been on the market, this company? How many times have they changed their price expectations? The bank would never tell me that.
Why should we? Mercedes-Benz does have days on market and price drop history on the lot. Chanel doesn't list their bags on Amazon. So, we would all buy them. No.
But if I hire Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley, they've been in the market. They're one of the best bankers. They know because they've been in the market, they would be able to give me guidance and real insight on how long you've been trying to sell your company and how your price expectations may have changed. And so, that's just an example of how the best agents will rise because you're in the flow. Yeah.
But we often say, the technology is great, but the human component, the ability to process, as great as AI is and is going to be, it's an aid, it is not a replacement. Yeah, we call it AI for AI, artificial intelligence, to empower agent intelligence. But for me, everything is about agent empowerment.
We like that.
You're here. You're here. [LAUGHTER]
We just took my daughter over the weekend to the New York Philharmonic. She plays the cello and so it's really special. Do the other kids play music? They all play piano.
It's cute seeing the little one. He's finally getting a little better.
River. They say like- We hope River play a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Then the- Oh, yeah, she watches it. Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, boys, they say girls are faster at learning. [LAUGHTER] And my wife, hear my wife talk about my son on the piano versus the girls, it's almost like, hey, don't talk about the boys that way.
[LAUGHTER] It's pretty clear.
Do you play at all? I used to a long time ago, but I'm not that good. All right. So when we get our vinyl listening lounge set up in here, what would be your- do you have your favorite record? I think- We've got a massive collection. That's great. We'll start digging. My favorite things from John Coltrane. Yeah, nice. Right? The happiness, being positive, moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. Trained. I feel like this office with you- Coltrane. Is Coltrane. Yeah, Coltrane. That's what I feel.
These speakers are made for Coltrane. Oh, really? Yeah. It's cool.
The turntable is still in the works. It takes me months to research the right equipment. It's a thing. I mean, we came from show business backgrounds. I was a professional singer.
(01:25):
The sound difference, when you listen to a CD versus vinyl,
I'm hearing instruments now that I didn't even remember were on the recordings. It's absolutely fascinating. So you'll come to our- I want to kick off. To simulate the creative. We'd love that. Yeah. We'd love that. All right. We'll make it so. Well, thank you for joining us, Rob. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for being at Compass. I mean it sincerely. You reflect the best of this company and this industry.
And for me, trying to build a great company, Coltrane matters more than anything else. Because certain people make people want to be here. Some people make people not want to be here.
And there are those who give people energy, those who take it away. I call them energy vampire. We use that all the time. Yeah. I appreciate what you do. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. We know who you are. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] And so it means a lot to hear here. Thank you. Yeah. And I look forward to growing together for many years to come. Hear, hear. As do we. And happy Purim. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Happy Purim. Special Shabbat dinner tonight? No, not tonight. We're going to go. We're taking the kids for spring break to visit 40 different offices. Oh, we'll mention that. We always just telling us this as we're trying to finalize the schedule. Yeah. Every spring break we-- For two weeks. Two weeks. Yeah. We visit a bunch of Columbus offices. Last spring break we went to California, started in San Diego, then Orange County, then LA County and Malibu, and then Reno, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Napa, and Bay Area, and Santa Cruz. This year is DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We start this weekend.
And then we go to, I forget the word, but Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, 38 Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, I think it's in Naples, and then Boca, Palm Beach, and Miami.
Yeah. How do you remember that? I tell the kids, if you're good, then we'll take it to Disney World.
So, yeah, if you land at the end, yeah. Okay. Right. Springboard. Did the kids ever say, "Dad, enough with this real estate thing?" I don't think yet they know it's not as normal. Okay. Okay. I don't think so. Like, "Hey, this is what we're doing." He goes, "Spring break. Give this what daddy." That's... And look, I think it's good. Because for me, I'm trying to create positive moments of in-person culture at Compass. Right? And so that's the reason I do it. Also, I want to be connected to our people.
And remember, you're my client. And so the same way you are with your clients, I need to be with you. And you show them in every way you can that you care about them. I want to show in every way I can that I care about you and our agents. And so that's one reason. But also, I feel like it's a good thing to show them, to give them exposure to you and to work and to offices. And yeah, I think it's good.
It matters. It's great. It really does. It matters. Yeah. I mean, we began by talking about your Shabbat dinner. We can wrap up by talking about the Shabbat dinner. But that was really so special to us to be able to come to your home as new members of the compass family. And to meet- Time clients. Yeah, truly. But to meet your children and be in your home and have food together. And we all talked about what we were most appreciative of that week. And it was just absolutely beautiful. So we are appreciative of you and everything that's happening. And we're very excited to be here and we look forward to the road ahead. Well, thank you for having me here.
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