Compass is in the midst of one of the biggest technology platform rollouts in real estate history, and one of the executives running it says the hardest part comes next.
Rory Golod, president of growth and platform at Compass, is leading the rollout of Home Platform to the brokerages Compass acquired in its blockbuster $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, which was officially completed on Jan. 9.
Many thousands of agents at those company-owned brands are already onboarded, Golod said, and Compass expects to finish by the end of this year. Franchisees and affiliates, independent businesses that will need to be won over, will follow in 2027.
Compass says it has no mandate to use the platform, even though much of its growth thesis depends on agents doing exactly that. Golod argues the tension works in Compass’ favor. He also previewed a new artificial-intelligence-focused data pledge and, for now, shut down the idea of licensing Home Platform to outside brokerages.
This interview is part of an ongoing series on Compass International Holdings’ Home Platform rollout, featuring interviews with brokerage executives, real estate agents and industry insiders with the most at stake.
The first part of the series (read here) featured an interview with Coldwell Banker Realty CEO Kamini Lane. The second part (read here) featured an interview with FirstTeam’s Lauren Henss. The third part of the series (read here) featured an interview with Sotheby’s International CMO Bradley Nelson.
Inman: A lot of people have called the platform Compass’ most important innovation to date. Why do you think they feel that way?
Rory Golod: We’re in a world where technology has so much potential to help agents grow their business, save time and create great experiences for their clients. It’s not the only tool, but it’s definitely one of the most powerful. Consider that against the backdrop of agents openly saying for a long time that our industry didn’t have great technology to use with their clients.
We see this as significant because we’ve built a platform that can help agents grow their business, save time and create great client experiences. If you step back as a brokerage, our job is to help our agents grow their business. That’s our only reason for existing.
So we have to figure out what we can give them that helps them grow their businesses, and technology is at the top of the list in terms of impact. That’s why we take it so seriously and put so many resources into it.
What differentiates the Home Platform and makes it better than other technology available to agents?
The No. 1 thing is the integration. I always say, “The integration is the innovation.” Today, the average agent is logging into 15 to 20 different systems every day to do their job. That means 15 to 20 different logins and 15 to 20 different apps. Nowhere else in our lives do we use 15 to 20 systems and enjoy it.
Over the past decade-plus, we’ve spent close to $2.5 billion building and perfecting this platform. We’ve taken all these disparate workflows and all those 15 to 20 logins and brought them into one platform, one login, one app.
When you bring everything together in one place, you create great client experiences. That’s how you save time and speed things up. That’s how you connect the dots and give agents the insights they need to grow their business. If everything is disconnected, the day-to-day experience is frustrating, and you can’t help them grow.
So No. 1 by far is the integration. Everything lives in one place, and as an agent, I can run my entire business in one system, from the day I meet a client to years after the transaction closes.
Some of the Home Platform’s value has been framed around Compass’ proprietary data, not just AI. What type of proprietary data makes the platform so valuable, and how do you translate that into growth?
First, and this is really important for people to know, so I’m encouraging you to share it: We take data privacy, safety and security incredibly seriously. We’ve built multiple layers of security and data protection into the platform.
But the most important part is our data pledge. Every agent who uses the platform signs a data pledge with [Compass CEO] Robert [Reffkin]. It says their data is their data.
If, God forbid, they ever leave the company, they can take their data with them. We will never contact their clients without their explicit permission. We’re about to roll out a new data pledge that covers AI as well, so agents can rest assured their data and usage won’t be shared with third-party AI companies or used to train AI that gives other agents an advantage.
As for the data advantage, it comes in a few parts. No. 1 is inventory data. Agents on the platform have access to more inventory than agents who are not. When I search for properties, I can see not only everything in the MLS but also listings that aren’t on the market yet. I see them there first. We even have what we call Make Me Sell, where you enter an aspirational price for a property a client wants. So there’s an opportunity to get so much more inventory.
Rory Golod
The second is the network effect. The more users on the platform, the better the tools. For example, we have a tool called Reverse Prospecting. If I have a listing, I can see any agents who have buyers looking at it. So I can call that agent and say, “Hey Nick, you have a client who’s looked at my listing 10 times online. Let’s set up a showing.” If there are only five agents on the platform, that tool isn’t that powerful. If there are 80,000, it becomes incredibly powerful.
The third is the data we can gather from testing to see which strategies work best and help agents understand that. This is more something we’re looking toward in the future. If I’m creating a postcard, what’s the best design? If I’m posting on Instagram that I have a listing coming to market, what’s the best first photo? If I’m pre-marketing a property, what’s the best strategy, and how long should I do it, based on market conditions?
So it’s inventory, the network effect, and the insights we can serve up to agents.
Compass says there’s no mandate to adopt the platform, but there’s some tension there, because much of your growth thesis relies on agents adopting it. How do you square that?
I actually think it’s a very good tension, because it forces us to build the right things. Just as agents have to earn their clients’ business, we have to earn the right for agents to use our tools. There’s no mandate; they’re independent contractors. That creates a sense of competition. We have to build something worth them using.
I think that’s part of the issue in our industry with the MLS and Zillow: they don’t face competition, so the market doesn’t force them to improve their products. In our case, if our tools aren’t getting better, aren’t strong or aren’t creating value, no one will use them, and agents will use something else. That’s a great forcing function.
We think about it this way: if you listen to your customer and build what they want, they’re more likely to use it. We built every piece of technology with agents alongside our product and engineering team. Agents were heavily involved in testing and iteration, and they drove most product ideas. Working backward from that gives you a higher likelihood of success than spending months building something behind the scenes, launching it and hoping everyone uses it.
That strategy has worked. Before we rolled it out to our other brands, Compass agents used it heavily. Now, in the early days of rolling it out to our other owned-and-operated brands, we’re already seeing impressive usage in the first few weeks. So the tension is good. It keeps you focused on what matters.
The rollout has already begun with company-owned brokerages. What’s the progress so far, and what role does Compass International Holdings play with each brokerage?
Compass International Holdings has partnered closely with each brand to execute a customized, brand-specific rollout strategy based on each brand’s needs and feedback from its agents and leaders.
That’s underway today. Thousands of agents have already been onboarded and are fully using the platform, and we’ll finish onboarding, training and coaching all agents across our owned brokerages by year-end. It’s a remarkably quick timeline. We announced the deal in January, started onboarding agents in July and will be done by year-end. Without each brand’s partnership, we couldn’t have done that.
The initial feedback has been fantastic. My team, our leaders and I have been traveling the country, visiting our offices and meeting agents in person to learn what’s working and what we can improve.
We’ve also built a significant rollout process. We’ve hired some of the top real estate coaches in the country, including Tom Ferry, Ninja Selling and Chirag Shah, to coach agents at each brand not just on how to use technology, but on how to use the platform to grow their business. We’ve set up in-person events, one-on-one training and all sorts of learning opportunities.
Most people aren’t excited about learning technology, but everyone’s excited about growing their business. Technology just happens to be the mechanism.
It’s one of our biggest initiatives this year, and we’re moving quickly.
Is there a scenario where Compass International Holdings licenses the platform to brokerages outside its network?
Right now, we’re focused on rolling it out to our owned-and-operated brands, and in 2027, we’ll roll it out to our franchisees and affiliates. Those are independent businesses, so that’s sort of a version of what you’re describing.
We’re staying laser-focused on those two groups, and we still have a lot of work to do to fully bring that through the process. We’re mostly heads-down on that right now.
Internally, what metrics are you using to judge whether it’s a success?
We measure a lot. We look at how frequently agents use the platform and specific tools and at the success metrics for each tool. In the CRM, for example, how many more clients can an agent reach out to because the CRM makes it easy and effective? How many new listings are they winning with these tools? How many buyers are they setting up on Collections, the tool agents use to share properties with buyers?
This October, Inman turns its focus to AI and its rapid rise in real estate. During Artificial Intelligence Month, we’re digging into the startups shaking things up and the established players folding AI into their offerings.
So there’s overall usage, then success metrics: Can an agent do more transactions and grow their business after getting onboarded? Then there are sentiment-based measures like CSAT and how willing they are to recommend it to a fellow agent. We survey a lot about ease of use, likelihood to recommend and so on.
The early metrics are coming back very positive, and I credit our teams. Early in the year, we talked about how if we’d just emailed everyone a link and said, “Good luck,” it wouldn’t have gone well.
Instead, we did the opposite: We were thoughtful and intentional, making it feel like a one-on-one, high-end onboarding experience. That’s more work up front, but it’s definitely worth it when you see how much more successful agents are on the platform and how much faster.
Anything else you think is important to add?
One thing I’m personally very excited about is the AI tools within the platform, particularly AI Assistant, which lets agents effectively have their own personal assistant, or multiple assistants, at their fingertips. We named it that purposefully.
We want agents to think about all the situations where they’d pick up the phone and call an assistant for help. Now AI Assistant can do that.
A couple of things have been really positive and, frankly, a little surprising, in a good way. First, it’s flattening the adoption curve. AI makes technology easier to use because I don’t have to worry as much about how the tools work. I can just focus on the outcome I want. I can pick up my phone and say, “I just met this client. Here’s what they’re looking for. Can you put them in my CRM, set up a collection, populate it with properties, and send it to them?”
In the past, I needed to know how to do all those things. Now I just need to know what to ask for, and every agent, no matter how comfortable they are with technology, knows what they want to ask for.
Second, it makes the platform easier to learn and improves the customer service experience. In the past, I’d have to call someone on the team if I had an issue. Now I can ask AI Assistant to help me solve the problem.
I was talking to an agent the other day who created a collection and couldn’t find it. They asked AI Assistant, “I just created this. Where is it?” and it surfaced it immediately. Agents can troubleshoot in real time, and we’re seeing tremendous positive feedback. I’m really excited about what AI Assistant can do for agents, especially in terms of saving time.
