Compass, a luxury real estate startup with a $1 billion-plus valuation and high-tech star power, will open an office in Newport Beach this month.
Joining the firm as an agent is Rob Giem, former managing director and partner at HOM Sotheby’s International Realty in Newport Beach. Giem has represented Orange County’s most high-profile and pricey residential deals.
Launched in New York City in 2013, Compass now has 1,200 agents in markets including Manhattan, the Hamptons, the Washington D.C./Maryland area, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Aspen.
In L.A., the firm created an entertainment and sports division catering to celebrities and athletes.
Compass Founder Ori Allon sold one of his ventures, Orion, to Google and another to Twitter. “The tech behind Orion eventually became a core part of how Google search works,” said The Verge, which reports on the technology industry.
Robert Reffkin, Compass CEO, was chief of staff to a Goldman Sachs president, as well as a onetime White House fellow working as a special assistant to the Treasury secretary, according to a Compass spokesperson.
A Hollywood Reporter story on the firm last fall referred to “a free consumer app powered by the company’s 50 in-house engineers (that) offers data updated by the second” and mentioned “rumors of an IPO.”
In Orange County, heavy-hitter Giem is the first agent Compass has announced.
Breaking News: Rob Giem will lead our growth in Orange County. Get the scoop on our latest expansion on @trdsocal. https://t.co/8H1s3cR2n0 pic.twitter.com/SFTDzLft8i
Giem, 51, has been selling coastal real estate in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and nearby areas since 1990. He’s sold the most properties above $10 million of any agent in the county, his bio states, and he claims the record for the highest average sales price of any local agent, with personal annual sales in excess of $100 million.
He’s maintained an average sales price, per transaction, of about $10 million consistently for the past decade, according to Compass, and represented one or both sides of every local deal over $30 million in which brokers were involved.
Giem’s current listings include President Nixon’s former Western White House in San Clemente, a sprawling, oceanfront estate with an asking price of $63.5 million.
Last year, he handled both sides of the transaction on Twin Points, a blufftop Laguna Beach property on two promontories jutting into the Pacific Ocean. It became the most expensive home sale ever in the county, at $45 million.
Giem said he’s been impressed with Compass’ capitalization, its sole focus on the luxury market, the firm’s plans to expand internationally and its tech platform.
“Compass has all these wonderful technological tools that help me to substantiate value with meaningful, highly articulated data,” Giem said.
In addition, he said, “They understand there’s a tremendous opportunity to advance the entire real estate trade.”
Compass is slated to open its 3,100-square-foot office suite in the tower at 520 Newport Center Drive on Feb. 15.
As of Thursday, the company had not yet named additional agents expected to sign on.
You can see more listings at robgiem.com.
Contact the writer: mkalfus@ocregister.com Twitter: @mkalfus
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