Industry icon to retire after 3+ decades as Miami Realtors CEO
Teresa King Kinney announced plans to depart at the end of the year, capping a career that has spanned some of real estate’s most disruptive periods.
After 33 years as CEO of Miami Association of Realtors, Teresa King Kinney announced on Feb. 20 that she will retire at the end of 2026, closing one of the longest and most consequential association leadership runs in modern real estate.
When Kinney arrived in 1993, the association had about 5,000 members and a single office. Today, it represents 60,000 real estate professionals and is the largest local real estate association in the U.S, according to RealEstateAlmanac.com. It also operates the largest association-owned MLS in the country.
Kinney will become CEO emeritus at the end of the year, then stay on for another 12 months in a consulting role as the organization conducts a search for its next leader.
"These have been the most exciting years of my life so far," Kinney said on the MiamiRealtors.com site. "I will be leaving one of the largest, most innovative and successful organizations in the best shape ever to move forward."
Making history: Kinney's tenure spanned the shift to online listings, consolidation through mergers, the 2008 housing crash, a global pandemic and commissions lawsuits.
Miami became the first large market to put listings online in 1996, the association said. A year later, Kinney oversaw what was then the largest and fastest Realtor association merger in history — the union of Miami and Miami-Dade County — cementing Miami's position as one of the country's largest local associations.
Kinney also helped build an organization that could move quickly. When Covid hit, Miami shifted operations online within a day and secured "essential" status for Realtors locally. When the NAR settlement reshaped industry practices in 2024, the association released member toolkits the same day and launched bilingual education sessions within a week.
A global perspective: Kinney made global expansion a defining strategy — a vision shared by another longtime Florida organized real estate leader, Stellar MLS CEO Merri Jo Cowen, who is also stepping down this year.
Under Kinney's leadership, Miami built partnerships in 77 countries and is nearing its 300th international agreement, positioning South Florida as a gateway for global real estate investment.
Kinney's contributions to the industry have not gone unnoticed: She has consistently appeared on the Swanepoel Power 200 list of residential real estate's top influencers, most recently ranking as No. 68, and claiming the No. 9 spot among organized real estate leaders.