Compass nabs Hudson Valley team from Berkshire Hathaway

Compass is beefing up its presence in the Hudson Valley.

The firm has recruited the Fishkill-based Home Team from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, an 11-agent group led by Michael Kahns, which will be moving into a new office in Wappingers Falls and changing its name to the Banx Team.

The team, whose current listings range from Newburgh and Beacon up to Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park, sold $62 million of real estate 185 transactions last year, good for 11th in the state among large teams when ranked by number of sales and 33rd by volume, according to RealTrends’ “America’s Best” list.

The team notched a record sale in East Fishkill, when they sold a 12-acre, 19th-century estate for $1.8 million.

Kahns cited Compass’ culture and technology as reasons for jumping over from Berkshire Hathaway. The Banx Team will be the only one based in Compass’ new Wappingers Falls office.

The expansion upstate comes as the brokerage world awaits Compass’ third quarter earnings report next month. Though it was the largest residential brokerage in the country by sales volume last year, Compass has yet to turn a quarterly profit. In August, it announced second-quarter losses of $101 million and a second round of layoffs — though it’s far from the only brokerage making cutbacks as the housing market slows.

Critics have questioned the company’s ability to right the ship in a down market, but Compass executives say they have a path forward now that they’ve built out their $900 million tech platform and plan to trim roughly $320 million in expenses by the end of next year.

Offices won’t be part of those cuts. Executives say the locations are necessary agent support and were inherited from acquisitions of profitable firms or teams, meaning closing them would be counterproductive.