Hilton & Hyland’s Billy Jack Carter steps back from business

UPDATED, Jan. 31, 2024, 9:44 a.m.: Billy Jack Carter, the Hilton & Hyland CEO who presided over a surge in the firm’s sales growth as well as a period of turmoil in 2022, will step back from his leadership role to attend to a family emergency, The Real Deal has learned.

An executive committee will permanently assume Carter’s authority and the firm’s CEO position has been dissolved, according to a Hilton & Hyland statement. The new committee will include Lori Hyland, Hilton & Hyland’s chairman; David Kramer, the brokerage’s president; and Chrystal Ferber, the general counsel.

“Our new executive committee approach will provide Hilton & Hyland multiple experienced perspectives to pull from,” Ferber said in a statement. “It will lead to better solutions for our agents and the company moving forward.” 

Carter will continue to participate in the business by serving on a Hilton & Hyland advisory committee. He did not respond to a text requesting comment.

Carter’s day-to-day managerial duties will transfer to Nick Spirtos. He has served as a sales manager who most recently worked with boutique firm Strand Hill Properties in Manhattan Beach. The brokerage is affiliated with 57 agents and maintains offices in the exclusive South Bay cities of Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes Estates.

Along with managing day-to-day business of the brokerage, Spirtos also will recruit agents to Hilton & Hyland. 

At the beginning of 2022, Hilton & Hyland worked with about 150 agents, according to media reports. The firm currently works with 59 agents, according to its profile on the state’s Department of Real Estate website. No Hilton & Hyland agents appeared in TRD’s latest annual ranking of top Los Angeles brokers. The firm also was not ranked in TRD’s 2023 list of top L.A. residential firms by sales volume. 

Carter’s hiatus will be his second from Hilton & Hyland. He left in September 2022. He gave a brief statement to The Real Deal pinning his departure to changes in the real estate business. “The dynamic of the industry has changed, in part because of COVID and increasingly competitive brokerage models,” he said.

In November 2022, Hilton & Hyland star agent Drew Fenton took 35 of the firm’s top sellers, including stars such as Linda May, to new independent luxury firm Carolwood Estates. The next month, Carter rejoined Hilton & Hyland and was named CEO, seen as a vote of confidence. Carter’s biography notes that during his almost one decade at Hilton & Hyland, the firm made $24 billion in sales volume.

The firm gained note for being the place where many of Los Angeles’ luxury real estate stars got their start. Mauricio Umansky, Josh Altman, Branden and Rayni Williams all worked at Hilton & Hyland.

Late Hilton & Hyland co-founder Jeff Hyland served as one of the co-founders of invite-only listings network Forbes Global Properties. After Hyland’s death in February 2022, the other co-founder, hotel heir Rick Hilton, left the brokerage and formed a company with family members officially named Hilton & Hilton, but doing business as Hilton Hilton.

This story has been updated to include that Carter will be stepping away to attend to a family emergency.

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