US-based real estate brokerage Compass has announced it will begin licensing its technology to other firms.
The company, which has been going through a strong round of acquisitions since receiving US$450m in funding in 2017, announced its first licensing deal last week, with Leading Edge Real Estate Group.
The move will add another income stream to the growing brokerage, which is on track to double in size in 2018.
The technology is called “Powered by Compass” and will give other networks access to the firm’s search tools, marketing tools, collections (its Pinterest-like client collaboration tool) and “insights,” a custom dashboard of listings data. As of yet the price for the product license has not been announced.
The program will only be available outside of Compass’ core markets. The company is currently on track to attain a 20 per cent market share in 20 US cities by 2020.
The move is thought to show Compass trying out two models to see which one proves more profitable – licensing their products or building tools to support their own growing number of agents.
The licensing option is likely to appeal to smaller agencies who don’t already have their own tech and investments. For small firms that prove to be no threat to Compass, the option to license the company’s tools may provide them with some edge in competitive markets.
Compass has over 4,000 agents across 90 offices nationwide.
Rumored to be on the horizon for the company is a move into mortgages, thought to be another way to bring revenue to the business which is spending fast in a bid to grow their market share.
