Within the months after Kelly’s appointment, HomeServices of America introduced a number of management appointments, together with Alex Seavall including the title of chief operations officer to his present title of chief monetary officer. Candace Adams was promoted to fill Kelly’s vacated function of government vice chairman. Renee Gonzales as named vice chairman of core services integrations, which is a brand new function, and Jimmy Burgess grew to become because the agency’s first ever chief teaching officer.
HousingWire lately caught up with Kelly to debate the entire modifications at HomeServices this previous yr and what’s in retailer for 2026.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Brooklee Han: It has been about eight months because you took the helm at HomeServices. Are you able to inform me a bit about how these first eight months have gone?
Chris Kelly: It has gone very effectively, and I believe there are two foremost causes. One is that I’ve been a part of the group going again to 2007, so I didn’t should really feel my means round a brand new enterprise or new individuals. I’ve had the prospect to work with so lots of our workers and get to know them over the past 18 years, [so] there’s a diploma and familiarity and luxury with every of them. That has actually helped to make the transition that a lot simpler.
The second factor is that we moved shortly to ascertain a crew. I’ve all the time discovered that having a crew is critically vital as a result of there’s solely a lot that anybody individual can do. It’s all the time in regards to the crew.
What this meant in apply is that we noticed a variety of individuals step into new or expanded roles inside our government crew and that has allowed us to [move] shortly on our objectives and aims by getting everybody in place inside a few months of me being named CEO.
BH: You undoubtedly moved shortly with these appointments. I believe most have been introduced by mid-June. What are a number of the issues that you just and the crew have been excited to perform this yr?
Kelly: This yr, we have been in a position to begin transitioning from previous initiatives and objectives to the place we predict the trade goes and the place we at HomeServices must be positioned for the long run.
In Could, we gathered all of our crew collectively in individual to stroll via the place we have been and the place we wanted to go. How do you flip the web page on three or 4 years of what felt like disaster mode that we as an organization and the trade had been in? We stayed in that mode for too lengthy, and it was creating burnout. We weren’t ever actually shifting ahead as a result of we have been simply reacting to every part within the second.
We bought again collectively in November in individual to evaluate all of the work we had performed on some key initiatives. It was good to see that we’ve been working from the bottom up. We put collectively quite a few working teams composed of our working firm leaders, enterprise phase leaders, IT and HR, and we work collectively to establish the place we are able to go ahead with HomeServices and the place we’d like [focus].
We additionally discovered that we’d like readability round our objectives and that we have to do much less, however higher. We are able to’t chase round each tiny penny. [We must] decide what we predict a very powerful issues are for our enterprise and our mannequin after which lean into that.
Because of this, we created a number of initiatives which are in progress that we are going to execute on in 2026 to actually place ourselves for lots of success shifting ahead.
BH: Waiting for 2026, with these initiatives in thoughts, what are a few of your huge areas of focus?
Kelly: One of many first issues is one thing I initially mentioned after I grew to become CEO and that’s that we actually want to return to the DNA of HomeServices. That’s being a full-service mannequin and what we name internally, the whole actual property expertise. I believe the trade is diverging in two alternative ways proper now.
There shall be a mannequin for sure forms of brokers and shoppers that’s primarily based on low value — so digital, low-fee, cloud primarily based — after which there’s one other course rising which is the full-service mannequin that’s targeted on creating ecosystems the place the buyer and the agent can get every part they should full a house transaction in a single place. That’s what we have been based on and we’ve had these capabilities since our founding in 1998, however we have to convey these ahead into the digital age.
It’s about taking that subsequent step ahead, having mortgage, title, and insurance coverage which are owned by our firm and staffed by precise workers on our crew, and now ensuring all of these totally different elements can work collectively extra intently.
An instance of that is that our mortgage, title, insurance coverage and brokerage segments have been very effectively aligned in mission and tradition, but when a shopper got here via one channel that information didn’t routinely switch over to a different channel, even when they have been working with each a HomeServices mortgage officer and actual property agent. We’re making a mechanism that allows us to introduce all of those different providers to a shopper within the HomeServices ecosystem on the proper time of their transaction.
BH: There was plenty of buzz round end-to-end transaction platforms this yr, particularly after Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin. What’s your tackle competitors inside this area?
Kelly: I believe you will have HomeServices and different related corporations on one facet and then you definitely take Rocket-Redfin and Zillow on one other. Everyone seems to be attempting to get to the same point, [an] extremely seamless, intuitive ecosystem for the buyer to purchase and promote actual property.
The rationale I put them on totally different ends of the spectrum is that we’re coming at it from a unique place to begin. Their place to begin has been know-how first — very a lot digital and never plenty of human interplay. We’re beginning the place we have already got an unbelievable crew of precise people and now we’re layering within the know-how facet of issues to make their jobs simpler and to satisfy brokers and shoppers within the digital area they’re so usually in at present.
If I’m selecting which facet of the spectrum I need to be on. I’d a lot moderately be on our facet as a result of, on the finish of the day, I imagine the human relationship — in individual — nonetheless completely issues in the actual property transaction. When you don’t have already got that human capital deployed throughout the sphere, I believe it is going to be a hindrance to attending to the place you need to go.
BH: As you mentioned, the trade has been in a disaster mode of types over the previous few years and there’s nonetheless plenty of noise and chatter at present. How are you working to tune out a few of that noise and concentrate on what you want for future development?
Kelly: On a sure degree, you simply can’t ignore it. I believe our job for our brokers and the shoppers is to concentrate to a few of that background noise to be sure that we don’t fall sufferer to pondering one thing won’t ever come to fruition.
What we discuss to our brokers about is ensuring that our communications and messaging to the buyer will not be reinforcing issues that most likely don’t matter to them. What I’ve realized, even with individuals in my family, is that they simply need to know the way to purchase and promote a home. We’re targeted with our brokers on how they’ll higher serve shoppers.
One of many greatest traps that we are able to fall into is continuous to look simply inside our personal trade for alternatives to be higher. I believe the very best corporations are all the time ones that aren’t simply benchmarking in opposition to their friends, however in opposition to a broader pool. We predict we should always set the bar increased, so we’re corporations on the market in any trade which are delivering the very best buyer expertise.
BH: Talking of all of the noise this yr, what have been the first storylines you have been following?
Kelly: I believe plenty of the stuff we care about shoppers might care much less about and plenty of that this yr was the entire M&A.
M&A presents nice alternatives for development, however when plenty of it occurs, a sameness begins to unfold within the trade. There’s a actual alternative for each firm to look internally and say, ‘How can we be totally different from this homogeneous sameness that’s spreading throughout our trade via all of those mega acquisitions?’ It’s a probability to be totally different and stay totally different, so we need to [avoid] following that very same course.
BH: One other huge storyline this yr is the dialogue surrounding Clear Cooperation and personal itemizing networks. What are your ideas on this?
Kelly: In the case of the lawsuits and the legal battle between Compass and Zillow, I’m a bit jaded as a result of I’m a recovering lawyer. With litigation like this, I hardly ever have seen it flip into one thing constructive. As a substitute, it’s a drain on assets and finally ends up distracting you from a few of your broader objectives. I do perceive from each side why these fights are occurring, however I don’t assume it’s going to truly find yourself leading to something that’s helpful for any of the events concerned.
Particularly on unique listings, our stance stays the identical, which is that we really feel we should always not want laws to inform us to do the proper factor. There are particular situations the place an unique or an off-market, personal itemizing is smart, however the overwhelming majority of the time it doesn’t make sense. The truth that we’d like regulation from both the nationwide or native MLS degree to inform us to do the proper factor, I discover to be disturbing and regarding.
If sufficient corporations determine to go down the unique route, everybody else will and now, as a shopper, I’ll should go to 10 to fifteen totally different web sites or brokerages to seek out out what is definitely on the market.
We’re all the time anxious in regards to the stickiness between the buyer and the agent, however I believe that may be one of many issues that really begins separating the agent from the buyer, as a result of now it’s not straightforward to work with an agent because you’ll should work with a number of to see what’s on the market.
I hope everybody is sensible about this and doesn’t have a look at the short-term achieve of doubtless double-ending extra offers, for a way this might change issues 10 years sooner or later.
BH: Trying on the huge image in 2026, is there something for the trade on the whole that you’re actually listening to?
Kelly: With our brokers, we’re specializing in not perpetuating this false perception with shoppers that they shouldn’t be doing something till interest rates attain a sure degree. Charges appears to have stabilized in that 6% vary, which for those who common out for the previous 30 years, is about the place issues ought to be.
We anticipate charges to remain there over the subsequent few years until one thing huge occurs, so we don’t need to be caught in making a giant deal about each little change or drop.
We all know the overwhelming majority of dwelling purchases aren’t mere monetary selections, they’re life-based circumstances, they’re goal-driven, and there are plenty of methods to perform the buyer’s wishes to be householders or promote a house no matter what the market is doing.
