A team of seven agents has left Chicago’s largest independent brokerage to return to the country’s biggest brokerage, Compass, this month.
Led by agents Joey Halperin, Chris Sweitzer and David Schatz, the newly formed Terra Group at Compass came over from Chicago-based Dream Town Real Estate, which was acquired by Baird & Warner in June.
“With everything going on in the industry with mergers and acquisitions, including what happened to our old company getting acquired, [it was] a really good time for us to get together and realize our long-term dreams of having a top real estate team,” Halperin told Homes.com in an interview.
It also comes on the heels of Compass’ Sept. 22 announcement of the proposed acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, including its brands, some with large footprints in Chicagoland, such as Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby’s International Realty. That acquisition had little impact on the trio’s move to Compass, they say, as talks began after the Dream Town acquisition.
“Just seeing what Compass is doing as far as acquiring some of the other companies out there, it felt like the right time to align ourselves with Compass,” said Halperin.
Halperin and Schatz led a team at Dream Town for just over one year and brought their five agent members with them to Compass: Megan O’Carroll, Dana Noureldin, Riley Callahan and Daniel Banys. Sweitzer had been with Dream Town for about three years.
Their team racked up $55 million in sales volume over the past 12 months and caters to traditional buyers and sellers, but it focuses primarily on new residential and multifamily development.
All three agents previously worked under Compass, leaving initially to break out of a larger team and explore other options as their careers grew, Halperin and Sweitzer said.
Part of what drew them back to Compass this time was the technology.
“[Their technology] is definitely something that is better than most other brokerages, and it allows us to show our value proposition to our clients in a way that’s sleek and cutting edge,” said Sweitzer in an interview.
Halperin pointed toward the Compass One platform as a specific draw. The tech gives agents one online hub for documents, signatures and data, he said.
The trio plan to grow their team at Compass organically with additional agents looking to delve into development.