Compass continues to defy market conditions with record Q3 results 

During a quarter in which U.S. home sales fell below 4 million, Compass' financial performance reached record highs — an outcome the company said was due to its financial discipline and ability to "prudently manage" costs during what has been an exceedingly challenging market.

Compass reported record Q3 revenue of $3.9 billion; record Q3 adjusted EBITDA of $306 million, which surpassed the high end of the brokerage's guidance; and record Q3 net income of $62 million. This was also the first Q3 in the company's history to close with positive net income. 

What Compass had to say

'A flight to quality': Crediting its strong recruiting pipeline, Chairman and CEO Robert Reffkin said during a call with investors that Compass was seeing "a flight to quality," with productive agents looking to take advantage of the brokerage's technology and tools during a tough market. The company said the retention rate among agents producing at least $20,000 in gross commission during the past 12 months was 98.7%, while more than half of the attrition during the quarter was from agents with $0 in commissions over the past year.

The No. 1 priority: Reffkin also highlighted Compass' 3-phased marketing strategy and the rollout of its AI-powered Home Platform, which he said was the firm's current top priority. "More agents on the platform means compounding positive network effects," Reffkin said, including greater access to Compass' inventory of private exclusive and coming-soon listings. 

"In cities where we face no industry restrictions on marketing today, 3-phased marketing adoption of newly launched listings in the Compass brand is on average at 63% as of the most recent year," Reffkin noted. That figure suggests that "as the industry's artificial restrictions on homeowners and seller choice are removed, the good majority of listings would start off as a private exclusive or coming-soon and be a 'See It First' listing on Compass.com and our sister company sites," he added.

On OpenRE: When one investor asked Reffkin for his take on the recently announced Open Real Estate platform, the CEO reiterated that he "welcomes" the new platform and is excited to see other industry companies join.

"In terms of joining or not, I think there's definitely a path," Reffkin said, adding that his brokerage "is definitely excited that there will be a national real estate listing service that will return the power back to the creator of the listing: the homeowner and their trusted agent. And that is good news for all agents and for their clients, and we're looking forward to seeing if there's a way for us to be involved."

Key numbers

Revenue: $3.9 billion, up from $1.85 billion a year ago. On a pro forma basis, revenue was up 11.6% year-over-year (comparing current Compass International Holdings numbers to what the combined Compass-Anywhere revenue would have been).

Cash and cash equivalents: $841 million, up from $694 million the previous quarter.

Net income: $62 million, up from a loss of $4.6 million one year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization): $306 million, up from $93.6 million during Q3 2025, and more than either Compass or Anywhere generated during all of 2025.

Transactions: Brokerage agents closed 140,118 transactions during the quarter, up 106.4% year-over-year, and their gross transaction volume totaled $138.9 billion, up 96.5%. On a pro forma basis, volume increased 7.5%.

Agent count: Brokerage agent count was 85,476 at the end of Q3, up from 83,184 at the end of Q2.

Q4 outlook: The company expects to see revenue in the $3.15 billion to $3.35 billion range, with an adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $130 million.

Notable moves

The firm launched a global division in September, as well as a redesign of its website centered around a trademarked phrase: "See It First."

Compass also announced a handful of personnel changes during the third quarter, including the promotion of marketing VP Felipe Hernandez to CMO — the first person to hold that role at the company — and the addition of former Google VP Sissie Hsiao to the company's board. Under the former Anywhere brand umbrella, longtime Sotheby's International Realty CEO Philip White recently stepped down from that role to remain executive chairman while Mark McLaughlin took up the CEO and president posts as of Nov. 1.

But some of the biggest news during the quarter was on the litigation front. California Regional MLS sued Compass in October and was joined by OneKey MLS in an amended complaint later in the month. Arizona Regional MLS and five other MLSs also sued Compass in October. The lawsuits make similar claims and were filed in an effort to block Compass from suing the MLSs, as it threatened to do in September, and to have a judge rule that the MLSs' listing policies are pro-competitive. 

Compass clapped back, filing its own lawsuit against CRMLS last month. The brokerage is also suing ex-ERA President Alex Vidal, who is now president of REMAX, alleging that he violated non-compete agreements by joining the competitor.