Eklund-Gomes broker jumps to Corcoran

Ryan Kaplan joining UWS office from Elliman after CEO Pam Liebman’s recruiting

Ryan Kaplan and Pam Liebman (Anthony Barillo, Corcoran Group, Getty)
Ryan Kaplan and Pam Liebman (Anthony Barillo, Corcoran Group, Getty)

A top-performing agent from Douglas Elliman’s Eklund-Gomes Team has left the firm for Corcoran Group.

Ryan Kaplan had over $100 million in sales volume last year on the team. The broker said he was recruited directly by CEO Pam Liebman for his new role, where he’ll be working out of the firm’s Upper West Side office.

Before joining Elliman, Kaplan was a partner at Imperial Development Group, and before that he worked at Elad Properties and Naftali Group. In a statement on the move, Liebman cited Kaplan’s developer background as a foundation that helped him grow his brokerage business.

“The development market around 2019 started to cool and my old business partners decided to end the fund we had,” said Kaplan. “I had a very close friend of mine on the Eklund | Gomes Team and he had been imploring me for years to try the brokerage side of the business.”

Kaplan said he jumped to Corcoran to build his own team, focused on new developments and re-sales.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Read more

Kaplan attributed part of his success to StreetEasy Experts, a lead generation program that only charges brokers once they close a sale. The program’s model has drawn ire from brokers, despite its play as a departure from other StreetEasy lead-generation services that charge upfront.

“Any time there’s innovation, you resent it,” he said. “Cab drivers resented Uber, horse-drawn carriages resented the car. I’m meeting people I never would have met through that program.”

The team run by Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes was ranked last year Douglas Elliman’s top residential brokerage team, totaling $492 million in sale-side volume in Manhattan, and over $4 billion nationally. The team recently expanded its presence in Manhattan by establishing a foothold in the West Village.

Corcoran claimed the top spot in The Real Deal’s ranking of Manhattan brokerages with $6.47 billion in closed sale volume across 2,680 deals. Elliman ranked second with $6.02 billion in closed sale volume across 2,680 deals.