Inman

Compass opens first Philadelphia office with former leader of Philly Home Girls

Compass opened its first office in Philadelphia last week with a team led by Kristin McFeely, a longtime leader at Philly Home Girls, a Coldwell Banker affiliate.

Kristin McFeely. (Photo courtesy Compass)

“Compass is thrilled to open our doors in Philadelphia,” said Rob Lehman, Compass’ chief growth officer. “We’re excited to extend our community and referral network to the sixth largest U.S. city and the dynamic, forward-thinking real estate market we’re encountering across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.”

McFeely told Inman that she had been in talks with Compass since last fall when she heard the tech-focused brokerage was eyeing the market for expansion. At the same time, she and several members of her team had left Philly Home Girls and were looking for a new home.

“More than anything I kind of wanted a clean break and something totally different,” she said. “I was looking for some energy, something with excitement around it.”

After meeting with Compass, McFeely and nine other members of her team – which had just merged with New Jersey real estate broker Daniel Giannetto – became Compass’ first in Philadelphia: Philadelphia Home Collective.

“From day one, I’ve been completely impressed with them,” McFeely told Inman.

She admitted it was a big change – she couldn’t sleep the night before thinking about whether her listings would transfer over – but Compass’ transition team made it easier.

“Our first day was last week and it was great,” she said. “They had a whole transition team waiting for us when we arrived.”

“They already had DocuSign, zipForm and the multiple listing service transferred over,” she added. “We really could just come in, plug in and go.”

Joining McFeely at Compass is mother-daughter team Mary Genovese and Margaux Pelegrin from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach. Together they represent a combined gross commission income of $2.2 million, Compass said.

Keller Williams Philly Real Estate is the market’s only brokerage to crack the Real Trends 500 list of the top brokerages in the country. It finished 482nd with 1,957 transaction sides in 2017 and was the 160th ranked Keller Williams affiliate in transaction sides.

The largest independent brokerage in the market – and the 144th largest independent in the country according to Real Trends – is Elfant Wissahickon Realtors which closed 1,375 transaction sides in 2017.

Compass, in recent weeks, has announced acquisitions in Chicago and San Francisco to increase its market share as well as opened new offices in other markets like Florida and Tahoe. The company has stated its goal is to achieve 20 percent of market share in the top 20 markets in the country by 2020. In a statement to Inman, Compass said the Philadelphia expansion confirms the company’s commitment to opening in the top 20 cities in the United States and expanding to 100 new offices this year.

Compass said it currently has 90 offices across 30 regions, including: New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Philadelphia, Aspen, the Hamptons, Miami, Philadelphia, Westchester, Greenwich, Naples, Santa Barbara and Marin.

Email Patrick Kearns