Blog · Strategy

I Met Compass's Founder. Here's What the Biggest Brokerage in the Country Actually Does for Our Clients.

After meeting Robert Reffkin, who founded Compass, I reflected on why our team chose this brokerage. The reason a father-and-son team from Huntington Beach cares who runs Compass has nothing to do with the name on the sign, and everything to do with two things it changes for you.

July 2, 2026 · 5 min read

By Justin Ratowsky, Principal agent, Ratowsky Group at Compass

I met Robert Reffkin, the founder and CEO of Compass (Real Estate News). I'll be honest about why a father-and-son team from Huntington Beach cares who runs Compass: it isn't the name on the sign. It's what that scale does for the people we actually work for. Here's the straight version.

The short version of who he built

Reffkin started Compass in 2012 and built it into the largest residential brokerage in the United States by sales volume, ranked number one for the fifth year running, with about $262 billion in sales across 245,173 transactions in 2025 (Compass, Real Estate News). In January 2026, Compass closed its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate. Combined, the two do more sales volume than the next three brokerages, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and HomeServices, put together (Inman). Compass also owns Christie's International Real Estate, a luxury network of more than 100 affiliates across roughly 50 countries (Real Estate News).

None of that, by itself, sells your house. What it does is change two things that land directly on you.

1. If you're moving into or out of the area, you're not starting from zero

Most people we help aren't only buying or selling here. You're relocating for work, buying a second place in the desert or the mountains, moving a parent closer, or cashing out on the coast and landing in another state. Because Compass is the number-one brokerage in the country and part of the Christie's global network, we can hand you to a vetted, top-producing agent almost anywhere, and stay in it with you as the person who actually knows you, coordinating both ends so nothing slips.

It runs the other direction too. Buyers relocating to this coast from other markets often reach us through that same network, which means more qualified demand pointed at the homes we sell. When you list with us, you're not just tapping our local buyers. You're tapping a national referral engine.

2. A bigger, quieter buyer pool before your home is ever public

When we launch a home, we don't start on the open MLS. We start with a Compass Private Exclusive, your home shown quietly inside the Compass agent network before it goes public. The entire value of that step depends on how large and how active the network is. With Compass the biggest brokerage in the country, a Private Exclusive puts your home in front of an enormous pool of agents and their ready buyers first. That lets us test the price, build discreet demand, and protect your days-on-market before the public clock ever starts.

There's a real strategy conversation about whether to use it, off-market discretion versus maximum public exposure, and that's your call to make, not ours to assume. We walk through exactly how the three-phase launch works, and when it's the right move, in our selling process.

The honest part

Scale is not a strategy on its own. Plenty of enormous brokerages deliver forgettable service. What we try to do is put the largest platform in the country behind a team small enough that Craig or I answer the phone. You get the reach of the number-one brokerage and the Christie's global network, run by two people who have sold this coast since 1977, with 900+ homes behind us.

If you're thinking about a move, here or somewhere else, or you want a read on whether an off-market launch fits your home, reach out to Justin or Craig. The first conversation carries no strings.