Best Real Estate Company

PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Compass was voted the top real estate company in the Orange County Register’s Best of Orange County readers poll.

1. Compass

compass.com

Compass has had one wild decade. Founded in 2012 by a Goldman Sachs executive and a Twitter engineer, the tech-forward company is now the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States. Last year it went public. This year, it debuted on the Fortune 500.

Compass has sold half-a-trillion dollars in real estate, served 400,000 clients and built a team of 30,000 agents across 352 American cities.

“During the pandemic, technology went from being a nice-to-have to a must-have. I think every agent in the country needs some sort of real estate platform,” says Parker Beatty, Compass’ regional vice president of Southern California and Hawaii. “Compass is building that and building tools for agents to take advantages of collaborations in the communities across the country.”

Some of those tools include Collections, which Beatty describes as “Pinterest for real estate,” that allows agents and their clients to keep track of interesting properties, and “private exclusives,” which enables Compass agents to share listings among each other, without making them visible to the public.

For home buyers, the Find an Agent option has helped people on their home searches in other parts of the country. Then there’s Compass Concierge, a loan program that helps folks with staging and home improvements to increase the value of the property.

But, there’s another reason people love Compass, which opened its flagship operation in Dana Point last year.

“Especially in Orange County, today’s home buyers and sellers come to Compass to work with the most qualified agents,” Beatty says.

2. Century 21

century21.com

With more than 50 years in business through its franchises around the globe, Century 21 is an immediately recognizable brand in the real estate business. Its listings across Orange County showcase a wide swath of what the region has to offer, from senior living condos for under $200,000 to single-family houses hovering around the halfmillion mark to palatial multimillion dollar homes with ocean views.

While the franchise model could make it difficult to keep tabs on all the independently owned and operated offices, the search function on the corporate website makes it easier to search among the listings that fit your parameters and find the agents that best suit your needs.

Between the offices, you’ll find similarities, most notably a diverse, frequently multilingual, group of agents who serve a broad expanse of locations across Southern California.

Founded in 1994 by a group of real estate agents based in South County, Regency Real Estate Brokers has two offices, one in Dana Point and one in Mission Viejo, where its team of 180 agent/brokers can focus on cities and communities throughout the county.

The company’s model has been successful. Last year, Regency racked up 893 transactions and tallied over $845 million in total sales volume.

A bonus for clients is Regency’s Enhance concierge program, where agents work with clients to figure out what improvements need to be made, whether that’s a deep clean, new flooring or a fresh paint job. You’ll work with your agent to find the pros who can tackle those jobs and then list your home after they’re completed. All of this is done with no upfront cost to the client.

3. Regency Real Estate Brokers

Dana Point, Mission Viejo; regencyrealestate.com