The First Global Luxury (Real Estate) Multinational Holding Company: Is This The Kering, LVMH, Capri Holdings Of Real Estate?

The merger of ANYWHERE and COMPASS is extremely exciting and holds the promise for tremendous future opportunities once approved and finalized, which can take many months. But what exactly does this mean, how do I see this, personally?

Currently ANYWHERE houses multiple real estate brands including Coldwell Banker, Sotheby's, Corcoran, Better Homes and Gardens, Century 21. Most don't even know these outstanding brands and their wonderful people are owned by Anywhere. They have co-existed for many years, each competing against one another, and amongst one another, not unlike agents within COMPASS - even within their own offices - compete with one another as independent contractors. Now add in COMPASS, and some of the other brands that merged with COMPASS over the years. The difference is not that dramatic. More importantly, there is no experiment or test needed around whether this works or not: It has worked well at Anywhere, and we have seen this work well for decades in the luxury goods sphere too....

Kering is a major LUXURY BRANDS Multinational Holding Company: its family of brands include Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Creed, Maui Jim, and Alexander McQueen. LVMH is another Luxury Brands Multinational Holding Company that houses brands like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Loro Piana, Fendi, Givenchy. Capri Holdings houses Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Versace. So will the COMPASS-ANYWHERE merger be the Kering or LVMH of real estate? I don't know, but one thing I'm CERTAIN of:  Together we have the ability to clearly message and demonstrate our real value to the consumer who is being seduced daily by the tech-sector promise of quick-'n-easy and do-it-yourself schemes in real estate where we all know real estate is a high tech AND high touch business: Both! While agents obsess about successful transactions, our clients know that our work can begin months/years before a transaction, throughout the transaction and then forever afterward. We don't just transact: we provide real time, ongoing insights, curated data, advice and so much more. No algorithm can emulate that successfully.

Collectively we have the power to clearly message what we do, and the full value we bring to the consumer 365 days of the year. This message has been distorted and muddied, but together we can thrive and grow while servicing our clients needs as our priority, fully supported, tech enabled and jointly committed in our mission to elevate the real estate brokerage PROFESSION. And yes, it's a profession. An important one too.

Would Christian Dior, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, etc be thriving today were it not for the collective support of their holding companies? I doubt it. Each has retained their own unique character. Each competes with one another, aggressively. They deliver broad and exciting consumer choice. On their own they were extremely vulnerable, but housed under a protective umbrella they have SOARED. Loro Piana's sales have grown five-fold in the past decade alone.

I met Robert Reffkin about 12 years ago and the one thing I remembered most was our united belief that the ultimate mission - besides great tech, culture, collaboration, etc - was not just to elevate the profession within a new brokerage, but to really impact the whole industry, an entire profession. This requires high tech AND high touch! Now this vision has the capacity to become a global reality.