Real estate legend Clark Halstead is no stranger to leadership, having co-founded big name brokerages Sotheby’s International Realty and his namesake, Halstead Property. Now it’s his nephew’s turn to take the lead — starting in Connecticut.
Christopher Halstead is ditching his role as an agent to run Brown Harris Stevens’ Connecticut brokerage as executive sales director.
Halstead previously spent 12 years as an agent in New York City for his uncle’s namesake firm and stayed on at Brown Harris Stevens after it merged with Halstead in 2020.
“I considered it heavily because it’s a real big pivot and transition into something new, but I’m excited about it,” he said. “It’s a new chapter.”
In his new role, Halstead will oversee more than 200 agents and work with sales directors across the state’s six offices, including those in Greenwich, Darien and Westport. It’s a new full-time role that was previously held by part-time consultants, Halstead said.
Though he’s spent most of his time doing business in New York, Halstead says he’s familiar with the Connecticut market, having grown up in Westport and lived in Southport for nearly a decade.
His managerial debut comes at a time when the Greenwich residential market is — like much of the rest of the country — hot, with a lack of inventory sparking the most bidding wars the town has seen in at least four years.
“Certainly inventory is something that we’ll work with, and help our agents figure out how to approach their existing rolodexes and find ways to bring sellers to the table so that we can continue to meet the demand, which is certainly present and significant,” Halstead said.
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BHS CEO Bess Freedman noted that the younger Halstead has “strong knowledge” of the New York City and Fairfield County housing markets “and the important synergy between the two.”
“We are fortunate to count him as a resource in this increasingly competitive market,” she added.
Halstead’s appointment is the latest in a series of moves at Brown Harris Stevens in recent weeks, with a handful of real estate professionals bidding the brokerage farewell roughly a year since it merged with Halstead and became the largest privately held brokerage on the East Coast.
Halstead co-founder Diane Ramirez recently stepped down from her position as the brokerage’s executive chairman. The brokerage’s own Richard Ferrari also left the brokerage to become Douglas Elliman’s New York City CEO, a move announced Monday.