One of Miami-Dade’s top agents has jumped ship from One Sotheby’s International Realty to join Compass.
Ben Moss, a luxury broker and former head of the sports and entertainment division at One Sotheby’s, is now the East Coast director of sports and entertainment for Compass, he told The Real Deal. In July, Compass nabbed Kofi Nartey, the former managing director of Beverly Hills-based the Agency’s sports and entertainment division to launch its own celebrity-oriented arm.
Moss said culture, technology and a national platform were the reasons he joined the tech-oriented brokerage. He’ll be based out of Compass’ Coconut Grove office. With Moss comes his roughly $55 million in listings, four of his team members and two new Compass agents in Tampa.
One Sotheby’s hired Moss in July 2014, after he and his former wife and business partner Katrina Campins closed Campins Luxury Real Estate, the sports-and-entertainment focused brokerage they co-founded in 2004.
One Sotheby’s president Daniel de la Vega said via a spokesperson that the firm and Moss’s business goals are “no longer aligned and we have parted ways with Ben Moss, however Ben Westby and Kimberly Knausz continue to serve integral roles with the Sports and Entertainment Division.”
Over the past three years, Moss said he’s closed about $120 million in deals. He’s also worked with more than 350 athletes over the course of his career. Currently, his listings include NFL player Karlos Dansby’s Southwest Ranches home at 6850 Stratford Court and Poonam Khubani’s penthouse at the W for nearly $20 million.
“[One Sotheby’s] is a great brand but it was time for me to continue to evolve … to go where I felt the business is going, which is technology,” Moss told TRD, calling the real estate industry overall a dinosaur. He used Compass’ proprietary system, which brings tools like database management, marketing tools, lead management and the MLS together onto one portal, as an example of the technology he was looking for.
“Right now, as Realtors, we have to include many different platforms into our daily lives and they don’t necessarily jive together,” he said.
Sports and entertainment divisions have popped up across the U.S., including at Douglas Elliman, Opulence International Realty and Venegas International Group in South Florida.
“I think a lot of the brokerages have the division because it’s sexy,” Moss said, adding that dealing with athletes and celebrities involves not-so-sexy logistics like issues with privacy, moving back and forth for training, rentals, finding homes for parents, and more. His clients have included Kevin Durant, former NFL player Chris Chambers, actor Russell Brand, Cincinnati Bengals player Karlos Dansby and Bollywood’s Poonam Khubani.
Moss said he’s working with a client headed to spring training who wants to bring his horses with him. “I’m never amazed at the things that keep popping up.”
Beth Butler, head of Compass in Florida, told The Real Deal that the overall goal for the sports and entertainment division is to keep it exclusive, and “create more business opportunities for the select agents that are involved.” She said the brokerage reached its goal of 100 agents in Florida by the end of last year.
Butler and Moss declined to provide financial information, including commission splits.