Douglas Elliman is bringing on a brand new chief know-how officer.
The agency has tapped Chris Reyes, a veteran within the brokerage business, to go its know-how crew, the place he’ll be tasked with managing the division in addition to supervising product launches and software program growth, the corporate introduced Tuesday.
Earlier than becoming a member of Elliman, Reyes was an govt with Brown Harris Stevens, the place he served first as chief data and product officer earlier than taking up as CTO in 2022. He’s additionally held govt know-how positions with Guardhill Monetary, Town Residential and Citi Habitats.
Reyes is entering into the function at a time when many of the business is targeted on integrating artificial intelligence. Final month, Elliman introduced its personal AI assistant app, referred to as Elli AI, which it plans to debut in Florida earlier than increasing its use to different markets.
“Everyone seems to be speaking about AI,” Reyes stated. “Personally, my philosophy is easy. If instruments don’t save time or drive income, they don’t belong within the stack.”
A spokesperson for BHS stated the agency “[wishes] Chris the perfect in his subsequent endeavor.”
Reyes will change Elliman’s former CTO, David Ballard, who was terminated from his put up final November on the heels of a leadership shakeup on the agency.
CEO Michael Liebowitz — who took over the agency’s high function final yr after longtime chief Howard Lorber abruptly retired — stated he took his time discovering the fitting individual to switch Ballard, together with placing him by a “rigorous hiring course of” adopted by the corporate beneath Liebowitz’s tenure.
“Whereas everybody desires to come back out with a wham-bam magic Sam know-how answer for the business, we actually needed to search out somebody who knew the business,” stated Liebowitz. He added that the agency discovered that in Reyes, and the corporate will provide Reyes a bigger platform than his earlier roles.
Liebowitz stated that the agency is betting on AI to assist streamline the corporate’s operations, together with decreasing bills and worker counts. He added that the efforts had been a part of his plan for 2026, the theme for which he described as “being about each single individual being a income generator.”
“2025 was a transition yr,” Liebowitz stated. “2026 is our development yr.”
Information of Elliman’s new govt comes per week after the agency reported its third-quarter earnings, together with a $25 million internet loss. The loss was lower than the $27 million it misplaced in the identical quarter final yr. The agency additionally noticed revenues decline modestly year-over-year, down from $266 million to $263 million.
Nonetheless, Elliman did remove its debt final month after it offered its property administration arm to Associa for $85 million. The deal allowed the corporate to repay a $50 million mortgage it acquired from Kennedy Lewis final yr.
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