SoftBank-backed real-estate brokerage Compass is adding a Netflix-like recommendation feature to browse houses
- Compass, the SoftBank-backed residential real estate brokerage, is adding new features to its consumer-facing website and app.
- The changes include a recommendation tool for properties and new commenting functions.
- Compass, founded in 2012, is now valued at $6.4 billion after a late July round of funding led by SoftBank, and was the sixth-largest US brokerage by transactions in 2018.
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Compass, the SoftBank-backed residential real estate brokerage, said Wednesday that it has added new features to its customer-facing website and app.
Compass, founded in 2012, was last valued at $6.4 billion after a late July round of funding led by SoftBank. The company has raised a total of $1.5 billion, including three separate funding rounds. It has grown rapidly through acquisition of other brokerages, and was the sixth-largest US brokerage by transactions in 2018.
Compass, which is a high-profile name among a wave of companies looking to put a tech spin on real estate transactions, has had an eventful few weeks.
A number of top execs left the company in September, including head of communications Jason Post and chief operating officer Maelle Gavet. Gavet had told the Wall Street Journal in April that the company was "not yet at a stage where I have a very clear monetization strategy because we haven't really talked about it."
Gavet left on September 24 - the same day Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO of SoftBank-backed co-working company WeWork. According to media reports, SoftBank is now struggling to raise its $108 billion Vision Fund 2 after WeWork did not go to IPO and Uber's underperformed.
Compass hired CTO Joseph Sirosh from Microsoft's AI program last year as part of its plan to build more tech tools for agents and customers. The company says it now has more than 400 software engineers, product managers, and product designers.
The tech upgrade announcement, according to a company press release, brings the company closer to creating "the industry's first end-to-end software platform." The new features include a recommendation tool and upgrades to its listings map.
The recommendation tool would be familiar to anyone who has perused Netflix's Suggestions For You section. There will be two options - "Similar Homes" will find homes that share characteristics with what a customer is currently looking at, while"Recommended For You" will suggest homes that are similar to ones a customer has previously searched for.
"AI and machine learning have revolutionized entire industries and real estate is no exception," said Sirosh in a statement.
The upgrades also include an update to the Collections feature, which launched in March of 2017. The tool allows agents and customers to monitor a portfolio of properties they might be interested in. The upgrades bring a new design as well as commenting capabilities for agents and customers.
Other changes include searching across multiple localities at once; the ability to see the listing agent for every property, including non-Compass properties; and a map update that differentiates Compass's own listings from those from other brokerages.