What the Compass Acquisition of Contactually CRM Means for Non-Compass Agents, Brokers, and Franchises. Is Your Client Data Safe in Your CRM?

Today, Contactually CRM customers received a shocking email today from CEO, Zvi Band. His email to real estate agents and brokers was simple — Contactually was being acquired by real estate brokerage and venture capital heavyweight, Compass. Interestingly, the deal with Compass had already closed two days previous to the press release.

Here’s a copy the announcement email from Contactually CEO, Zvi Band.

Hi [Agent Name]

As of Monday, February 25, 2019, Contactually entered into an agreement to be acquired by Compass.

When we founded Contactually nearly 10 years ago, we set out to build a tool that is easy to use and helps users grow long-term relationships with clients. We’ve invested heavily in product innovation, expanding our partner ecosystem – and in the last few years – doubled-down on growing our real estate client base through individual agents and enterprise partnerships (9 of the top 20 U.S. brokerages are customers).

We live our mantra that “great relationships grow great businesses.” And like us, Compass has a deep appreciation for how strong relationships lead to growth and success. Compass has expanded its business by building a national community of entrepreneurs with expertise in technology — and provides agents with a leading suite of digital tools that work in the hyper-local real estate industry. This acquisition is a major step in furthering that goal.

For some time Compass and Contactually have been collaborating, and a strong strategic partnership has resulted. As of today Contactually is proud to be among the latest technology, talent, and business partners to officially join Compass. Together, we will empower Compass agents to build stronger relationships and deliver the best experience to their clients.

Onward and upward,
Zvi

Why did Compass buy Contactually?

The official word from Compass is that by “adding [Contactually] technology and talent to our own will supercharge the Compass offering and bring us closer to our vision of the industry’s first end-to-end platform.”

However, Compass now owns the CRM and the client data (over 141 million contacts) of thousands of Compass and non-Compass agents. Given that a real estate agents database is the backbone of their career, this acquisition and the potential data ownership implications are concerning for many. Most concerned are likely those from notable rival franchises to Compass that had previously implemented Contactually across their entire brokerage.

What Companies will be Effected by the Compass Acquisition of Contactually CRM?

Below are a list of the publicly notable companies that will be impacted by the Compass acquisition of Contactually.

RE/MAX Results Contactually Partnership

Coldwell Banker Bain Contactually Partnership

Climb Real Estate Contactually Partnership

Zephyr Real Estate Contactually Partnership

Century 21 Redwood Realty Contactually Partnership

Semonin Realtors Contactually Partnership

Alain Pinel Realtors Contactually Partnership

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach Realtors Contactually Partnership

Golden Gate Sotheby’s Contactually Partnership

Liv Sotheby’s Contactually Partnership

Pacific Sotheby’s Contactually Partnership

Gibson Sotheby’s Contactually Partnership

Furthermore, many of the listed Contactually partner franchises impacted are also owned by Realogy, whose CEO Ryan Gorman recently blasted Compass with his letter to company insiders. Compass now owns the CRM that controls their rivals, agents client database. 

The depth of this acquisition is far-reaching. It goes on to impact all 565 firms and 130,000 sales associates of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World who only last summer, signed Contactually as a Solutions Group provider.

While Compass hasn’t garnered the best public image recently given their alleged agent poaching tactics, the acquisition of Contactually could bring on a whole new wave of issues surrounding data. Specifically, the intentions of this acquisition may be questioned by some given Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said at Inman Connect 2018 San Fransisco that: 

“Over the next hundred years the most valuable resource in the world will be data.” 
~ Compass CEO, Robert Reffkin. Inman Connect 2018

Compass just added much more of that lucrative data, much of it from rival brokerages. Data is the new oil and the gold rush is clearly on.

Did Compass just buy my Contactually client data? Is my client data safe?

FAQ on the Compass acquisition of Contactually CRM.

The official answer is “yes”, your client data is safe. The letter from Zvi goes on to point out that “It’s also our long-standing policy to never sell, give, or trade your data to other companies — even in the case of third-party partnerships — without your consent.” 

For now, you are safe, but agents concerned with privacy may speculate that it won’t be long before Contactually-Compass update the Terms of Use to change this. Perhaps they won’t, but that won’t stop the speculation.

How can I protect my Contactually client data from Compass?

Again, Contactually stands by the fact that this deal doesn’t impact your client data ownership so your client data should be safe. For those that are still concerned, the easiest way to protect your data is to export your Contactually data and place it in another independent platform. Contactually provides instructions on who to do this in their press release FAQ. We have also provided it below.

Here’s how to export your client data from Contactually CRM.

Navigate to your Contacts, and click on the blue button in the top right labeled “Export.” Once you have your data in a mobile format (a CSV. Excel File), you can then import that into your next independent CRM.

For an easy switch, see what we’re doing at RealOffice360 to help Contactually clients to help protect your data.