Execs Leave Resi Firms Post-Earnings

Executives at some of real estate’s biggest brands are now out of a job.

Leaders at Keller Williams, Anywhere Real Estate and RE/MAX have stepped down over the past two months, as earnings season yielded lackluster results for many residential firms.

The management shake-ups also come as the industry grapples with a housing market slowdown and a wave of antitrust litigation targeting major brokerages and the leading trade group.

Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX were all named as defendants in multiple class-action lawsuits over broker commissions. The firms agreed to settle for a combined total of more than $208 million — just a fraction of the $1.8 billion verdict issued by the jury in Sitzer/Burnett, first of the cases to head to trial.

The president of Keller Williams, Mark King, announced his exit from the company after five years at the helm. CEO Mark Willis, who returned to the job just four months prior, is taking over the role as the chief executive and president.

King said he was taking a step back to spend more time with his faith and family after “the pandemic, social unrest, wars, fires, lawsuits, and market contraction required more time on business,” according to an email he sent to colleagues.

His departure came as the Austin-based brokerage laid off 30 of its employees and as larger drama unfolds between the firm’s previous leaders.

Former CEO John Davis sued the company’s co-founder, Gary Keller, and former president, Josh Team over racketeering claims. He filed the lawsuit in August, just three months after a judge demanded he settle a fraud claim against the brokerage and a franchisee who previously accused him of sexual misconduct. The franchisee, Ingrid Dow, retracted her allegations in November.

After reporting eight-figure losses and revenue declines last quarter, RE/MAX replaced brokerage president and CEO Nick Bailey with Amy Lessinger, the former senior vice president of region development.

Bailey’s departure was the latest in a series of executive shuffles at RE/MAX Holdings, which welcomed Erik Carlson as its new CEO in November. The firm had been searching for a leader since Adam Carlson vacated the CEO post at the start of 2022.

RE/MAX lost $10.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from just $1.3 million in the same period in 2022, while revenue dropped nearly 6 percent.

At Anywhere, Melissa McSherry left her role as chief operating officer last month, as the parent company of Sotheby’s International, Corcoran, Coldwell Banker and Century 21 onboarded a new chief technology officer, Rudy Wolfs.

The firm posted a $107 million net loss in the fourth quarter after two consecutive profitable quarters. But the results weren’t all bad — it significantly narrowed its losses from the $453 million reported in the same quarter in 2022.