Compass talks M&A strategy at The Gathering

Private listings and Clear Cooperation (CCP) have been Compass’s headline calling cards over the past several months, but at HousingWire’s The Gathering on Sunday, mergers and acquisitions were the primary focus. 

In a conversation with Diego Sanchez, the president of HousingWire, Lacey Conway, the CEO of Latter & Blum and Compass executive vice president of M&A, discussed her firm’s acquisition strategy, as well as the integration of Latter & Blum into Compass. 

Founded in New Orleans 1916, Latter & Blum was a regional powerhouse in the brokerage space.

“I was trying to figure out what would be the best next chapter for the company,” Conway said. “I certainly knew of Compass, but it wasn’t in our market, but I felt like I could really get excited about the idea of taking the best of what we had to offer plus the best of what Compass brought to our market.”

Conway said she worked with Compass leaders, including CEO and founder Robert Reffkin, to ensure that what made Latter & Blum special wasn’t lost when they joined a much larger organization. 

“That is always such a concern. I think Robert was so clear from the beginning that he wanted local leadership to make the decisions and that way it didn’t feel like we were part of this big brokerage based in Manhattan with everything coming out of a Manhattan office,” she said.

The acquisition of Conway’s firm is just one of many made by Compass over the past year, with deals including the acquisition of Tennessee-based Parks Real Estate and its acquisition of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. While these firms have been allowed to maintain their own identities, Conway said Compass does not want to become a “house of brands.” 

“That is confusing to the public and confusing to agents,” Conway said. “At Latter & Blum we decided that we want to move towards being Compass, so we spent the last year co-branding and getting comfortable and trying to have a slow pace of integration into becoming fully Compass.” 

Conway believes this more measured approach to integration, as well as the fact the Compass did not have a presence in their market prior to the acquisition, has helped with agent retention.

“Very clearly important about making this deal attractive was that our team stayed intact,” Conway said. “It wasn’t like this person was leaving or we were going to have to cut office staff. We were able to show Compass that we were up and running and had great managers and happy agents and that enabled us to keep things together.” 

Looking ahead to the future, Reffkin and Compass have not been shy about their goal to have 30% market share in their top-30 markets. In her new role as head of M&A, Conway said the company is hoping that this growth is balanced between both organic growth and acquisitions. 

Despite hoping for a balanced approach, she noted that Compass was certainly interested in large acquisition deals, as highlighted in its purchase of @properties. However, she did not confirm or deny the possibility of another blockbuster acquisition: Compass’s rumored potential acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. 

“Ultimately, I think Compass is looking at companies to see whether they operate in markets where we already exist and if they can drive momentum,” she said. “Are there high producing agents, is it a company with healthy ancillary services?”