Compass reports ‘strongest Q4’ ever, announces ‘historic’ deal 

Despite a stubbornly slow housing market and persistently elevated mortgage rates, brokerage giant Compass capped off 2025 with the strongest fourth quarter and full-year performance in its history. 

Compass reported record fourth-quarter revenue of $1.7 billion, up 23.1% year-over-year, alongside adjusted EBITDA of $58.3 million — a $41.6 million improvement from a year ago. For the full year, the company generated $6.96 billion in revenue, up 23.7%, and $293.4 million in adjusted EBITDA, more than doubling its 2024 total.

CEO Robert Reffkin said Compass outperformed the broader market for the 19th consecutive quarter, growing total transactions 19.7% in Q4 while overall U.S. residential transactions rose just 0.7%.

The company also highlighted record operating cash flow and free cash flow for the quarter and the year, continued agent growth, and the closing of its long-anticipated acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate — a deal Compass says positions it to drive cost synergies and long-term value in 2026 and beyond.

What Compass had to say

On record results and market outperformance: The fourth quarter of 2025 capped off what a company spokesperson described in a call with Real Estate News as a "defining year" financially.

"Every quarter that Compass has been a public company, we've grown faster than the market," the spokesperson said, calling the performance a testament to agent quality and recruiting momentum.

On its new deal with Rocket: Shortly before a Feb. 26 call with investors, Compass announced a "first-of-its-kind" partnership with Rocket Companies that allows the brokerage to display private listings on Redfin.

The partnership, which Reffkin described as "historic," is particularly notable given recent industry tensions — and Redfin's prior vow before its acquisition by Rocket was completed to block such listings. "It's interesting because Redfin was a co-conspirator in our lawsuit with Zillow, but now we're partnered together," the company spokesperson told Real Estate News, referring to Compass' legal challenge to Zillow's ban on listings that are publicly marketed but not widely available to consumers via the MLS.

Compass' deal with Rocket is a sign of how quickly dynamics in the portal space are shifting, the spokesperson noted.

And about that Zillow ban: It's "just wrong," Reffkin told investors during the Feb. 26 call. "Homesellers should have the freedom to publicly market their home wherever and however they want, without the fear of being banned off a platform."

Meanwhile, Compass' partnership with Redfin "stands up for homeseller choice," he added.

On the MLS 'moral narrative': In the wake of NAR's March 2025 decision to keep its controversial Clear Cooperation Policy, some MLSs decided against adopting an added "delayed marketing" option. But now that Compass has a deal with Redfin, "I don't see a scenario where the MLSs will continue to enforce these restrictive rules with Rocket on our side," Reffkin said.

That's not only because Compass has more resources, but "because they're going to lose their moral narrative," he said of MLSs, suggesting that any fines levied against agents who violate MLS rules are not part of a push for transparency but to protect the MLS business model.

Key numbers

Revenue: $1.7 billion in Q4 2025, up 23.1% year-over-year. Organic revenue grew 11.3%. For the full year, revenue totaled $6.96 billion, up 23.7%.

Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization): $58.3 million in Q4, compared to $16.7 million a year earlier. Full-year adjusted EBITDA reached $293.4 million, up from $126 million in 2024.

Net loss: Compass reported a net loss of $42.6 million in Q4, compared to a $40.5 million net loss in Q4 2024. For the full year, Compass posted a net loss of $58.5 million, significantly improved from a $154.4 million loss in 2024.

Operating cash flow / Free cash flow: Operating cash flow of $45.3 million in Q4 and $216.7 million for the full year. Free cash flow totaled $42.2 million in Q4 and $203.3 million for the year.

Cash and cash equivalents: $199 million at the end of Q4 2025, with no balance outstanding on the company's revolving credit facility.

Transactions: 60,328 closed transactions in Q4, up 19.7% from one year earlier. Organic transactions grew 5.6% year-over-year, compared to just 0.7% growth for the broader U.S. market.

Gross transaction value reached $65.6 billion, up 21.6% year-over-year. For the full year, Compass closed 250,360 transactions and generated $267 billion in gross transaction value.

Agent count: 21,190 principal agents at year-end, up 19.4% year-over-year. Compass added 830 agents organically in Q4. Quarterly retention was 96.8%.

Notable moves

Compass' deal with Rocket was announced about six weeks after its acquisition of Anywhere closed. While Reffkin remains the CEO of Compass International Holdings, Neda Navab was appointed to serve as the firm's president earlier this month. Navab was previously Compass' brokerage president, a role she stepped into in 2022.

Though the Anywhere deal has officially closed, a handful of lawmakers recently challenged the U.S. Department of Justice's consideration of the merger in a letter that suggested "corruption" may have been involved in its speedy review.

As for the Anywhere crew, Compass just last week appointed Timothy Gustavson to serve as its chief accounting officer, a position he held at Anywhere for over 10 years prior to Compass' acquisition. But not every executive who was at Anywhere has stuck around: Ryan Schneider quietly left after eight years as CEO.