Compass, Inc. Revenue and Transaction Statistics (2023)
Compass is a full-service real estate brokerage incorporated in 2012 under the name Urban Compass. The company later shortened its name and went public in 2021.
Compass’ integrated software platform is a CRM built specifically for real estate providing end-to-end workflows that help its agents attract and retain clients, list and market homes more effectively, and locate desirable properties at attractive prices for buyers.
Here’s an overview of what you’ll find on this page as we take a deeper look at Compass’ business activities:
- How Many Transactions Does Compass Do?
- How Many People Visit Compass.com?
- Compass Revenue
- Compass Expenses
- Is Compass Profitable?
- Compass Market Share
- How Many People Work at Compass?
Key Compass Stats
- In 2022, Compass agents represented buyers or sellers in 211,538 transactions totaling over $230 billion in gross volume.
- Compass had a 4.6% share of the total U.S. real estate market by transactions in 2022.
- Compass generated roughly $6 billion in revenue in 2022 but is not currently profitable.
- Compass had an average of 13,073 Principal Agents (defined below), an 18% year-over-year increase from 2021.
How Many Transactions Does Compass Do?
Since the company started, Compass agents represented buyers or sellers in over 600,000 transactions.
The company reports transaction in its annual reports by year, represented in this chart.
Here is a table showing the number of deals closed by Compass agents since 2019:
| Year | Total Transactions |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 87,158 |
| 2020 | 144,748 |
| 2021 | 225,272 |
| 2022 | 211,538 |
Source: Compass
The company claims that it is the largest independent real estate brokerage by gross transaction volume, the combined dollar amount of properties closed by its agents.
Gross transaction volume in 2022 was $230 million, a 9% decrease from 2021.
Here is Compass’ gross transaction volume broken down by year:
| Year | Gross Transaction Volume |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $98 million |
| 2020 | $152 million |
| 2021 | $254 million |
| 2022 | $230 million |
Source: Compass
How Many People Visit Compass.com?
Compass’ website receives an average of 2.2M organic visitors per month, a year-over-year increase of 58%. The site ranks 13th among the most-visited residential real estate websites.
Here is a table with Compass.com's average monthly organic visits:
| Year | Monthly Organic Visits |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 105,000 |
| 2018 | 152,000 |
| 2019 | 250,000 |
| 2020 | 550,000 |
| 2021 | 952,000 |
| 2022 | 1,504,000 |
Source: Ahrefs
The company’s early growth strategy was one of acquiring traditional brokerages. In traditional brokerages, agents are responsible for marketing and sourcing deals, not the company.
Compass’ traffic improvements are notable as it might be able to capitalize on lead generation for its agents in the same way Redfin does.
Compass Revenue
Compass generates nearly all its revenue from agent commissions earned by helping customers buy and sell homes. The company states it makes a small amount of revenue from ancillary real estate services like title and escrow. It plans to expand its revenue from services and add new ones.
Here is a look at how Compass has increased its revenue over the past four years.
Here is a table with the revenue since 2019:
| Year | Total Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $2.4 billion |
| 2020 | $3.7 billion |
| 2021 | $6.4 billion |
| 2022 | $6.0 billion |
Source: Compass
From 2019 to 2022, Compass increased its revenue by 2.5x. The company experienced the most revenue growth during 2020 and 2021 by adding agents and increasing transactions from both new and existing agents. In 2022, Compass experienced a slight revenue decline which the company stated was due to macroeconomic conditions.
Compass Expenses
Compass’ total expenses amounted to $6.6 billion in 2022, up 2.3x since 2019. The company's expenses include commissions and other related costs, sales and marketing, operations and support, research and development, and general & administrative expenses.
Here are Compass' operating expenses broken down since 2019.
| Year | Total Operating Expenses |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $2.8 billion |
| 2020 | $4.0 billion |
| 2021 | $6.9 billion |
| 2022 | $6.6 billion |
Source: Compass
We can see that the company had slightly lower expenses in 2022 than in 2021, correlating to its somewhat lower revenue in 2022 versus 2021. Typically more income leads to higher costs, as the company's most significant expense is paying commissions to agents.
Compass Expenses by Category
Around 74.7% of Compass' total expenses are commissions and other agent-related costs, which amount to $4.94 billion in 2022. Sales and marketing were Compass’ next biggest expense, amounting to 8.7% of the company’s total expenses. Here are Compass’ expenses in 2022 broken down by category.
Source: Compass
Is Compass Profitable?
In 2022 the company reported a net loss of $601 million, resulting in a negative net margin of (10%). The company had a negative net margin of (7.7%) in 2021. Compass, Inc. is not yet profitable.
Here is table of Compass' income, by year:
| Year | Net Income (Loss) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | ($388 million) |
| 2020 | ($270 million) |
| 2021 | ($494 million) |
| 2022 | ($602 million) |
Source: Compass
Compass Market Share
In 2022 Compass had a 4.6% share of the total U.S. real estate market by number of transactions, up from 4.5% in 2021.
The company had previously reported its market share by transaction volume but has adjusted this year to the number of transactions due to new reporting methods by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Source: Compass
How Many People Work at Compass?
Compass last reported on its number of employees in 2021, when it had 4,775 employees. On June 14, 2022, Compass laid off 10% of its employee (non-agent) workforce.
Compass currently has over 28,000 agents.
Of those agents, approximately 46% use the company's software platform and CRM. This subset of agents is the company's 'Principal Agents.'
The average number of Principal Agents is essential to the company's growth potential, particularly when coupled with Compass' platform strengths.
In 2022 Compass had an average of 13,073 Principal Agents, an increase of 18.2% year over year.
Here is a breakdown of Principal Agents in recent years:
| Year | Average Number of Principal Agents |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 6,787 |
| 2020 | 8,686 |
| 2021 | 11,058 |
| 2022 | 13,073 |
Source: Compass
Compass reports that its principal agents transact more than an average agent. Principal Agents generate an average of 7.5 transactions per year versus the industry average of 6.4 transactions. Compass’ Principal Agent retention rate exceeded 90% in 2022.
Conclusion
That's it for my 2023 round-up of Compass Real Estate.
This leading brokerage – differentiated by its use of technology and its platform – showed a slight slowdown in 2022 due to macroeconomic trends yet improvements to its website traffic. Compass is not profitable. Despite this, the company still claims to be the largest independent real estate brokerage by gross transaction volume in the U.S.
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