Aaron Kirman took a major stand on his independence Tuesday, saying his brokerage, Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California, remains unchanged in ownership and leadership following Compass’ $444 million acquisition of the auction house’s real estate banner.
“The brand will not merge with Compass, and the Christie’s name and identity will remain unchanged,” a post by Kirman on his and the brokerage’s Instagram accounts said. “Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California remains 100 percent owned by Aaron Kirman.”
Compass announced plans this week to buy Christie’s International Real Estate and Chicago-based @properties through a combination of cash and stock in a deal expected to close next year.
Kirman’s social media post went on to spell out what Compass will not have access to, including Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California’s affiliate services, brand, technology, marketing or auction house affiliation.
“Our growth will continue to focus on partnerships with independent, luxury-focused brands like ours,” the post said. “The Christie’s International Real Estate leadership team and organizational structure will remain intact.”
Kirman told The Real Deal in a call Wednesday that it’s “business as usual,” citing statements made to affiliates from Christie’s and @properties co-CEO Mike Golden following the deal’s announcement.
“I just felt that the media got the messaging wrong,” Kirman said in explaining why it was important to make the clarification to the market. “I felt that the media basically said that Compass had merged companies, which was not the case. The companies are separate and there’s really going to be no commingling of brands. I wanted to make it clear that we are independent and that our brand stands alone.”
Local market chatter after the deal’s announcement pegged a Compass return for the star agent and its most recent agent addition in Tomer Fridman.
Fridman left Compass in late October in an abrupt departure, bringing to Kirman’s brokerage a 12-person team with about $1 billion in listings. Meanwhile, Kirman had been at Compass for four years before leaving to open his own brokerage in November 2022, nabbing a licensing agreement with Christie’s International Real Estate.
The statement to the market in some ways solidifies boutique brokerages’ fierce stance on independence within Los Angeles’ luxury residential real estate market.
The Aaron Kirman Group topped TRD’s list of the largest agents and teams in L.A. County with $1.2 billion in sales volume across 283 deals between May 2023 and May 2024. TRD’s research reflects deals on the MLS exceeding $1 million and does not include off-market activity.
Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California, overall, was ranked 10th in the county in a local market where boutiques have risen in TRD’s rankings.
From Kirman’s perspective, his brokerage’s independence keeps his more than 200 agents in four offices on track as its own entity and makes good on the CEO’s reason for starting the business back in 2022.
“I’ve been around the block, and I got to the point where I got a little tired and I thought there was a need in the marketplace for something new, interesting and different,” Kirman told TRD earlier this year in talking about the brokerage’s start. “I was tired of other people’s companies. I was tired of the way they were run. I felt like they were too corporate.”
As for whether more M&A is in store for the broader brokerage industry, Kirman said Wednesday he sees more consolidation and change in the coming years.
“It’s no secret that the brokerage business is a very challenging business,” Kirman said. “It’s no secret that the margins to the brokerage business are challenging and, at the end of the day, these brokerages are working for a lot less than they used to.”
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