Hal Bennett is headquartered in the Seattle metropolitan area. He joins Compass at a time when agencies continue to compete for top agent talent.
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This spring’s recruiting war shows no sign of dying down, with Compass poaching one of its top-performing agents from Redfin this week.
Hal Bennett
Hal Bennett lives in the Seattle, Washington, area and “has been at the peak of his career,” according to a statement from Compass. Before joining Compass, he worked at Redfin, where he ranked No. 17 in Washington state by sales in 2023, according to RealTrends. He ranks No. 16 on both sides of the trade in 2023.
Compass’ statement noted that Bennett moved to the brokerage firm “primarily to leverage the industry’s only end-to-end platform to improve client service and operational efficiencies.”
“Joining Compass, a company at the forefront of technology and agent support, makes sense for my business at this stage,” Bennett said in a statement. “Compass’ investment in artificial intelligence and tools that optimize our workflows is extraordinary.”
Before joining Redfin, Bennett began his career at Keller Williams and, according to his LinkedIn page, also worked at RE/MAX.
Bennett’s move to Compass comes at a time when agencies are fiercely competing for top agent talent. While competition in the industry has always been fierce, the slowdown in the market over the past few years has shifted the focus to agents with strong closing records.
Compass has been particularly aggressive in growing its agency ranks recently, having seen multiple teams return to the company in recent weeks after previously leaving rival firms. The company has also made major acquisitions to grow its workforce, including its purchase of Gulf Coast giant Latter & Blum in April.
Other brokerages have responded with recruitment campaigns of their own. Notably, against this backdrop, Redfin announced a new plan last fall to replace its salaried agent model with a new commission model. The scheme is designed to attract high-performing agents who might otherwise have reached earnings caps under the old system, but now have theoretically unlimited earnings. The company has gradually rolled out the model in more and more markets this year.
In Bennett’s case, however, Compass’ products were apparently enough to entice him to switch firms, with the statement noting that the company’s “technology platform greatly influenced Hal’s decision to join the agency.”
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