Compass International Holdings is moving roughly 340,000 agents onto a single tech stack, Home Platform. If it works, the industry’s largest brokerage won’t just house real estate agents. It’ll also own the CRM, search, marketing and transaction-workflow agents use to run their businesses.
Blake O’Shaughnessy has a stake in how that plays out.
The former Sotheby’s International Realty broker co-founded and now leads Ownli. The startup, launched last year, is building a similar connected platform for brokerages and agents who’d rather not join a conglomerate to get it.
Inman spoke with O’Shaughnessy about who really benefits from Compass’ Home Platform, why it should be a wake-up call for independent brokerages and how all-in-one tech could eventually push real estate agent commissions toward an à la carte model.
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 Bradley Nelson, Sotheby’s International CMO. The fourth part of the series (read here) featured an interview with Rory Golod, Compass’ president of growth and platform.
Inman: Compass is trying to get roughly 340,000 agents onto Home Platform. What does it mean for the industry when a brokerage as massive as Compass International Holdings tries to consolidate that many agents onto one tech stack?
Blake O’Shaughnessy: I think it’s a conversation about becoming a brokerage versus becoming an infrastructure company. And there’s the whole consolidation piece, too. You’re seeing Real acquiring REMAX, Compass buying Anywhere. These are massive conglomerates trying to dominate the industry.
It really shows that Compass is trying to own the consumer relationship. Search, communication, property collaboration, financing and the transaction all happen in one environment. So Compass remains connected to the consumer before, during and after the transaction. I think that’s what they’re trying to achieve by getting all of those agents on Home Platform.
Strategically, that’s incredibly powerful. But it raises a much larger question: Who should control that relationship? The agent, the brokerage or the platform? And I think they’re trying to be all three here.
Who do you think benefits most? Is it Compass itself? The agents? Consumers?
I think it probably strengthens the brokerage the most. Compass benefits the most. The agents may think they’re benefiting, but they’re still working within the brokerage’s parameters. Compass is trying to control the system and the data. So the big brokerage benefits most from this kind of consolidation.
Have you heard how Home Platform itself works? Is there anything that makes it better than other platforms?
I’ve heard a lot about the way it operates. And honestly, not to plug my own company, but it really validates the direction we pivoted with Ownli.
Compass really understands that the future isn’t standalone CRMs, marketing tools and transaction products. It’s connecting the entire experience. They’re creating one environment where agents can manage their clients through the CRM, plus their listings, marketing, search and the transaction workflow.
We believe in that same basic thesis. The difference is that Compass is building around its own brokerage ecosystem. It’s all proprietary. We’re building independent infrastructure that other brokerages and agents can use. So we’re coming at it from the same thesis, but they’re consolidating it inside one proprietary infrastructure to control the agents, get even bigger and control the entire transaction.
Are there agents in your network under the CIH umbrella who’ve talked to you about Home Platform? What are they saying?
I wish I could answer that. I was a Sotheby’s International broker, and I’ve worked with many Compass agents, but I haven’t asked them how they feel about the platform. It’s pretty new, and my day-to-day has been building my own platform rather than talking to agents.
I do talk to independent brokerages a lot, and they all feel the need for something like this. Independents don’t necessarily have the bandwidth or funding to build it themselves. That’s the gap we’re trying to bridge.
Blake O’Shaughnessy
I’m sure Compass’ platform is really slick. But it’s another tool agents have to learn, and agents are always learning new tools. The brokerage, not the agent, is driving this. No agent is coming to their broker saying, “What will make me a much better agent is learning another software platform.” Brokerages want to control the transaction, and by controlling the transaction, they control the infrastructure.
So they’re coming at it from a proprietary background, and we’re coming at it from a free-market, independent background. But it’s needed. You need to connect the transaction, connect all the friction points, connect where things drop off, connect communication and connect the verticals integrated into the transaction: lending, escrow, title, inspections, property insurance. It’s all very fragmented.
Everybody’s coming at it with the same strategy. The question is how you market it. Do you have to be part of one company to use it, or can you use it on a SaaS model?
Going back to independent brokerages, how do they see this from the outside? Do they think they need something similar, even if it’s not as powerful as Compass?
You’re absolutely right. It should be a wake-up call for independent brokerages. They’re not just competing with Compass, Real, eXp and the other big ones on brand, commission splits and culture. They’re competing with deeply integrated technology backed by enormous scale and enormous investment.
Most independents ask their agents to piece together a CRM, a marketing system, a transaction product, an e-signature provider and everything else, and then the agent becomes the integration layer. To stay competitive, independents need their own connective infrastructure. Ergo, why we’re building Ownli.
They shouldn’t have to sell their company or join a national conglomerate to get that kind of technology. Consolidation in real estate is inevitable, but some of it can be resisted by adopting certain platforms or building it yourself.
You’ve talked a lot in the past about how commissions don’t always correlate with agent value. Does a platform like this change that? Does it make agents that much more valuable?
Yes, I’ve been pretty outspoken about commissions. It’s kind of interesting, since it’s cannibalizing what buttered my bread for so long, but I don’t think commissions should scale with price.
With platforms like this, you’ll see a lot more à la carte real estate. I also think there are probably too many agents in the industry. Something like the top 10 percent of agents do 90 percent of the deals. There are about 1.4 million agents right now, and 800,000-plus haven’t done a deal in 2026. That attrition will continue as agents drop out because they aren’t doing business.
[Editor’s note: The National Association of Realtors reported 1,438,569 members as of June 2026. In NAR’s 2026 Member Profile, 6 percent of individual Realtors and 2 percent of team members reported zero transactions in 2025. Broader estimates that include all license holders are higher.]
Better agents will get more clients, and they’ll need transaction software like this to manage and service that clientele. And agents will be able to pass technology along to the consumer and say, “I can do an à la carte deal for you. If you handle X, Y and Z, I’ll handle A, B and C, and you pay for what you get.” I don’t know if that’s right around the corner, but I think it’ll happen eventually.
AI isn’t replacing good agents. It’s going to replace a tremendous amount of administrative work. Agents’ value will increasingly come from what AI can’t do: judgment, negotiation, local knowledge, relationships and helping clients make difficult, emotional decisions. The technology will handle the coordination.
So it won’t be one commission covering the whole kit and caboodle. You’ll pay me for the negotiation, the judgment and the hyperlocal knowledge, and that 6 percent commission might start to tick down, because the administrative work bundled into it may not be necessary anymore. Again, not right around the corner, but eventually there’s going to be a conversation around it.
Anything else on your mind about Home Platform that you want to add?
It’s funny. Over the past several months, eXp rolled out its Nexus platform, Real rolled out Hey Leo, and Compass continues to work on Home Platform. It really validates what we’ve been building and the pivot we made from targeting consumers to targeting brokerages and agents, making their lives easier so they can serve clients instead of doing administrative work.
It’s emboldened me to build something for independents and the free market, not proprietary tech locked inside a brokerage that you can only get by joining. This kind of platform is necessary, but there can be more than one. It shouldn’t have to be “join Compass to get the tools.” We’re building independent infrastructure other brokerages and agents can use.
I’m encouraged by where the industry is going. The big brokerages are leaning into technology and AI assistants, not AI taking over what agents do, but taking over the administrative stuff.
It’s a whole new world. Agents will adapt, brokerages will adapt, and consolidation will continue, but there’s still a place for independents in this new landscape.
