Arizona-based independent brokerage Launch Real Estate has joined Compass, America’s largest brokerage by sales volume.
Launch, an agent-owned full-service brokerage based in Scottsdale, AZ, claims to be #1 in sales volume by office in Scottsdale and has just over 300 agents.
“Launch is a premier luxury brokerage and a great fit for our brand and culture,” Compass founder and CEO Robert Reffkin said in a statement. “We are adding an excellent agent-centric agency in a top U.S. market, creating significant synergies within our vast agent network.”
John Vatistas, Launch co-founder and CEO, said the two firms share the same values and commitment to innovation.
“Honestly, I do not want to entertain the idea of competing with them, as they are simply in a league of their own,” he said in a statement.
Founded in 2017 by John Vatistas and Sean Zimmerman, Launch’s regional leadership will remain in place, with full integration of Compass’ systems occurring over time.
For the second year in a row, Compass was named the number one residential real estate brokerage in the U.S. by sales volume by RealTrends. The brokerage produced $227.98 billion in sales volume across 210,365 sales. It averaged nearly $9 million per sales agent in 2022, far above the average.
Despite a bounty of top producing agents, Compass remains unprofitable. In 2022, Compass recorded a net loss of $601 million despite raking in revenue – up 6% to $6.02 billion. Reffkin has shifted the focus over the past year to achieve profitability, and said late last year that the goal was to be cash flow–positive by the end of June, even amid the biggest housing market slowdown in years.
