HomeServices’ new CEO ready to ‘go back on offense’
Chris Kelly is eager to move past the challenges of the past 18 months and focus on unifying and growing the company, with agents and consumers at the core.
Key points:
- Kelly is taking over day-to-day operations as president and CEO while longtime leader Gino Blefari will play an advisory role during the transition.
- With commissions litigation in the rearview mirror, Kelly said the company “can really get back to growth mode” and help agents “do business in an easier, more simplified fashion.”
- He also wants to help the industry tackle issues like Clear Cooperation. Kelly’s view? “We want to be adaptive to the markets and what makes sense for that seller.”
As Chris Kelly settles into his new role as president and CEO of HomeServices of America, one of his first priorities is bringing its wide range of brands closer together for the benefit of agents and the buyers and sellers they serve.
Kelly, who joined HomeServices in 2007, is taking the helm following the announcement of Gino Blefari's transition to an advisory role. And despite moving into the new position during a period of change and uncertainty in the industry, he told Real Estate News that he also sees it as a time when the company can focus on becoming a more efficient real estate brokerage that helps agents get back to business.
"A lot of us in the industry — not just HomeServices — have really had to be in a defensive posture over the last year-and-a-half coming out of the trial and the verdict and then the rule changes and settlements," Kelly said, referring to the commissions lawsuits and the new policies that came out of it.
"We've worked through that, and while there's still a lot of things we're all navigating … we can really get back to growth mode and go back on offense."
Refocusing on agents, consumers (with some tech in the mix)
So what is Kelly's plan for shifting from defense to offense? With support from Blefari — who "is going to be a mentor for all of us" — Kelly said he will be building out his leadership team in the coming weeks, and the overall focus will be ensuring HomeServices' collection of companies, including its mortgage, insurance and title businesses, make life easier for both agents and consumers.
One aspect of that will be using technology to improve the back-end of the business and bring all of its brokerage brands — which include Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Long & Foster Real Estate, Iowa Realty and Home Real Estate — into alignment.
But becoming a tech-forward company isn't the goal. Rather, the upgrades are intended to bolster HomeServices' commitment to providing an all-inclusive experience.
"We want our technology backbone to better support that particular model for the consumer and for our agents," Kelly said.
"What our mission is, and what we want to make sure we're leaning into and accelerating for the benefit of those agents, is that we help them do business in an easier, more simplified fashion," Kelly added.
Clear Cooperation and the need for local market flexibility
While leading HomeServices is Kelly's chief responsibility, he is also mindful of Blefari's role as a respected and influential industry voice — and he hopes to take up that mantle as well.
"It's an opportunity I welcome, being in the room with other industry leaders as we tackle some of these problems and do what's best for our consumers and this industry," Kelly said.
One of those problems? The divisive debate over NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy and how listings should be distributed. From Kelly's perspective, the core issue is that the industry is trying to impose top-down rules on local markets.
"There's a lot of things that collectively make us strong — that we're unified around — but we operate a little differently when we go from market to market with respect to HomeServices," Kelly said, noting that office exclusives are more common in some markets and "seldom, seldom ever used" in others.
With that in mind, Kelly doesn't believe a one-size-fits-all policy is the answer.
"We want to be adaptive to the markets and what makes sense for that seller," Kelly said. "We absolutely believe our agents are in the best position to make these types of decisions along with their sellers. We have thoughts on how the industry should be approaching the problem, but we very much value the entrepreneurial spirit of our agents and what business acumen they bring when they're working with their sellers at a local level."
The debate will likely continue, but for now, Kelly has plenty of other priorities for the business as he looks to the future.
"We're ready to get going and grateful for everything Gino has done to set us up for the success that we're having and in our next steps."