How Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lost Ground in Chicago

Recent rumors that Compass was in talks to acquire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices shocked top Chicago brokers.

A deal by the residential giant for the real estate arm of Berkshire Hathaway would add to the brokerage industry’s trend of consolidation, but comes after a local “exodus of agents” from BHHS.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Compass was nearing a deal to acquire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. But mere hours later, HomeServices CEO Gino Blefari denied the report in a memo to employees, saying “there are no discussions, negotiations, or agreements” to sell BHHS or any of its affiliated companies.

Top broker Mario Greco, who left BHHS Chicago for Compass last year, said he got “like 1,000 calls” from old friends at BHHS, and when he came into his office at Compass afterward, “everyone was whispering about it.”

“It’s a sign of where the real estate industry is going, consolidation and market share accumulation. That’s what this is a play for, if, in fact, it’s happening,” Greco said. “The writing’s on the wall, just because of the exodus of agents even after me, and the general feel of the market in Chicago is that Berkshire Hathaway has seen better days.”

Greco’s MG Group, which brought in $100.8 million in sales volume across 162 transactions while working with BHHS in 2023, left the firm for Compass in March last year.

A year later, BHHS Chicago’s president of brokerage at the time, Mark Pasquesi also left the brokerage to lead Jameson Sotheby’s new team on Chicago’s affluent North Shore. Greco built a massive business over two decades with BHHS to become one of the city’s top agents and Pasquesi was with the firm for 11 years and rose from broker to brokerage president. They were the latest in a string of losses of executives and dealmaking talent for BHHS.

BHHS hasn’t kept up with new norms of aggressive recruitment, which weakened its hold on the Chicago market at a time when larger brokerages — like Compass with its massive acquisition of @properties — are focused on market share accumulation and faring particularly well, top Chicago broker Jeff Lowe, who previously affiliated with BHHS, said.

“It’s no secret that Berkshire Hathaway in Chicago has had major struggles in the last few years. Their market shares plummeted,” Lowe said.

It’s unclear whether a deal between Compass and BHHS will surface. BHHS has all the financial backing it needs as the real estate arm of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s trillion-dollar conglomerate. But it could also be viewed as an asset to offload by the famously shrewd billionaire, Lowe said.

In 2021, two BHHS Chicago offices ranked among the top 20 brokerage offices in the Chicago area, with its Lincoln Park office coming in at No. 12 and its downtown office pulling in about $1.14 billion in total deal volume over the year at No. 8, according to Midwest Real Estate Data figures provided to Chicago Agent Magazine. Last year, only the downtown office made the list and it had fallen to No. 16 with just over $570 million in total deal volume year to date.

Furthermore, in 2020, BHHS had two agents in the top Chicagoland agents ranking year to date (Greco and Sophia Klopas). Last year, it had zero.

The firm still has a strong presence in other markets, though, so Lowe said the rumors of a deal came as a shock to him.

BHHS is the fourth-largest brokerage in the country, with the top four companies together holding 20 percent market share nationally, according to RealTrends. The firm had 820 brokerage offices and 270 franchises nationwide as of the end of 2024.

BHHS Chicago CEO Diane Glass rejected the idea that the local branch is struggling, saying the company has changed in the “best possible ways” and is “as vibrant as ever.” The firm employs more than 1,300 real estate professionals through its offices in the Chicagoland area.

“We are more grounded in the work we do, more connected to each other and more confident about making a difference for our clients,” Glass said.

BHHS Chicago started losing big names when Compass came to the city in 2017, with Lowe moving his team over to help Compass launch its first local office that fall. The Lowe Group reported $247.6 million in volume across 211 deals closed from July 2023 to July 2024, according to The Real Deal’s most recent ranking of Chicago’s top brokers.

“A big chunk of the first people at Compass were from Berkshire Hathaway,” Lowe said. Among them was Eudice Fogel of Fogel Slate Group and Joanne Nemerovski, who narrowly missed making The Real Deal’s list of the city’s top 20 brokers last year with $69.4 million in volume.

Lauren Mitrick Wood is another founding member of Compass that came from BHHS Chicago. She, too, came just shy of the city’s top 20 agents with $73.4 million in sales.

Others have followed since then, and BHHS has struggled to compete when it comes to recruiting agents, Lowe said. HomeServices CEO Blefari, himself, once said Compass was not competing on a “level playing field” in offering investor-fueled bonuses and lucrative splits.

Compass, @properties Christie’s International Real Estate – which Compass acquired this year – and Jameson Sotheby’s International Real Estate have gotten increasingly aggressive with recruitment efforts, Lowe said, which can pose a challenge for firms that don’t use the same strategy.

Glass is confident in BHHS Chicago’s less aggressive manner of recruiting and retaining agents.

“We have the right people with us today and we are attracting like-minded agents and teams,” she said. “We are growing our most talented people into new and bigger roles, empowering them to put fresh ideas into action.”

But BHHS Chicago’s personnel losses are adding up. In February of 2023, Compass poached Brian Pistorius along with Amy Ruch and Jenna Cody, a team that brought in $50 million in deals over two years. Pistorius was preceded by Meredith Pierson, who left BHHS to form a new Glenview-based team with Compass’ Missy Jerfita.

Then came Greco and, earlier this month, Pasquesi, who declined to comment on the recent rumors.

If Compass does end up acquiring BHHS, the nation’s largest real estate brokerage is unlikely to get in any significant antitrust trouble given President Donald Trump’s “pro-business” stance, which includes executive purges at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, Greco said. And if they are in talks about a deal, the two companies have likely already vetted the chances of this, he said.

When asked about the Wall Street Journal’s report of a potential deal, a spokesperson for Compass said, “we don’t comment on market rumors or speculation.”

HomeServices of America Executive Vice President Chris Kelly doubled down on denying the existence of a deal in a new statement.

“There is no pending or contemplated transaction or sale between HomeServices of America and Compass or any other party,” Kelly said. “We are fully committed to our companies, agents, employees and mortgage, title and insurance professionals, helping to empower the incredible work they do for buyers, sellers and their communities.”