Douglas Elliman’s new CEO Michael Liebowitz is focusing on retaining top talent, expanding the brokerage’s lines of business, reducing its office space, and staying on the offense.
On Thursday, Liebowitz made his first major public appearance since he took over three weeks ago, in a one-on-one with The Real Deal’s founder and publisher, Amir Korangy at TRD’s South Florida Real Estate Forum.
The brokerage has been under fire recently following the sudden departure of longtime Chairman and CEO Howard Lorber, as well as due to its shaky financial performance and the sexual assault allegations made against its former top brokers, Oren and Tal Alexander. Bloomberg on Thursday reported that Lorber admitted during an internal inquiry to having intimate relationships with two of the company’s brokers.
Liebowitz said he’s zeroed in on culture, “character, integrity, and we’re going to make a lot of money.”
“We’re going to be a company that is constantly changing, constantly evolving,” he added. “You always have to be looking over your shoulder … and we’re going to play offense every day.”
Liebowitz said he plans to expand Elliman’s property management business. He said Elliman could buy insurance or staging businesses.
“We want to be really disciplined, really smart,” he said. “If we buy an insurance business, if we buy a staging business, if we expand in title [companies], relocation, it’s going to be things that sit around the agent, because our agents need to make more money.”
Elliman reported a net loss of $27 million in the third quarter, logging its ninth straight quarterly loss.
While Liebowitz said that he’s not going to cut Elliman’s budget, he added that, “I’m going to get more out of the money we’re spending.” He said Elliman would “cut some dead leases” and combine offices.
After Lorber’s departure, all C-suite jobs were essentially on the table, sources said. That same week, brokerage CEO Scott Durkin was terminated. The Wall Street Journal reported days after Durkin’s exit that company insiders were aware of an investigation of the company’s “sexually charged” work culture following the rape allegations against Oren and Tal Alexander.
Liebowitz said that was “before my time” as CEO. He said he took the job because he wanted to. “I didn’t have to do this,” he said.
When Korangy mentioned shareholder Brad Tirpak, the activist investor who had pushed back against Lorber’s multimillion-dollar compensation package. Liebowitz said Tirpak is “supportive of what I am doing.” Liebowitz also said his relationship with Lorber, who he has known for a long time, is “good.”
Korangy commended Liebowitz for being brave enough to speak at TRD’s event, which attracted more than 6,000 agents.
“I’ve been doing this for three weeks,” Liebowitz said. “I think I’ve maybe slept three hours a night.”
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