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Former head of Douglas Elliman’s Western Region operations Stephen Kotler has left the luxury firm after more than three decades.

Kotler’s son, Max Kotler, has also left Douglas Elliman and joined the Corcoran Group, The Real Deal reported. Max announced his move on Instagram on Thursday, calling it “the next chapter” for The Kotler Team. Stephen Kotler also reposted Max’s post with the hashtag #proudparentmoment. Stephen is not joining Corcoran.

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“What hasn’t changed is our dedication to our clients,” Max’s post said. “You can continue to rely on us for the same integrity and commitment — now backed by a company that aligns with our values.”

A representative for Douglas Elliman said the firm wished Max well in his next career step. The brokerage declined to comment on Stephen’s departure. Inman was unable to immediately reach Stephen for comment.

Douglas Elliman announced Stephen Kotler was stepping down from the Western Region CEO role in February after several months of dealing with lawsuits from former disgruntled employees. At that time, Kotler joined the Kotler Team in New York City, which included both Max and Stephen’s brother, Michael Kotler.

Michael Kotler continues to run what is now known as the Michael Kotler Team at Douglas Elliman. The seven-person team specializes in residential sales, rentals and relocation services across New York City.

“We’re happy to welcome Max Kotler to Corcoran’s Park Avenue South office,” a Corcoran representative told Inman in an emailed statement. “Max joins us as an individual agent with plans to build a dedicated team that will allow him to provide even greater support to his clients. We’re confident that Corcoran’s resources, tools and collaborative environment will empower Max to take his business to the next level.”

Stephen Kotler joined Douglas Elliman in New York City as an agent in 1991 when the firm had less than 300 agents. Today, it has around 6,600 agents. He moved up through various management roles until the firm expanded into California in 2014, at which point he started spending more time in the state and was ultimately promoted to lead the company’s Western region, which grew into Colorado, Nevada and Texas.

Kotler’s stepping down from the Western Region CEO role came after a series of leadership shakeups at the firm that started in October 2024. At that time, former chairman and CEO Howard Lorber announced his retirement, former brokerage CEO Scott Durkin was terminated, and then in December, Executive Vice President and COO Richard Lampen said he was retiring but would remain on the company’s board.

At the time of Lorber’s retirement, the firm had undergone an internal investigation into the company’s culture following mounting lawsuits alleging sexual assault against former top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander. When Lorber stepped down, Michael S. Liebowitz was announced as the new president and CEO.

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has suggested that it will likely approve a fourth amended settlement agreement in the commission lawsuit known as Nosalek, according to a legal filing submitted on Thursday.

The amended settlement negotiated by MLS Property Information Network (PIN) and homeseller plaintiffs would prohibit offers of cooperative compensation on the MLS’s platform, a move that other MLSs previously made in the settlement of the Sitzer | Burnett commission case. It also raises the total proposed settlement fund from $3 million to $3.95 million, which the filing notes is the same amount it would have cost MLS PIN to join NAR’s settlement in Sitzer | Burnett.

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The filing submitted Thursday states that, “in addition to working to address the concerns expressed by the Court following [the April 1] Hearing, Plaintiffs and MLS PIN also conferred with the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice. After considering the proposed amendments, the Division indicated that it would no longer object to the proposed settlement on the basis of Rule 23.”

However, the memorandum in support of preliminary approval of the amended settlement also notes that this doesn’t mean the DOJ is completely finished scrutinizing the case either.

“The parties understand that the Division intends to file a brief statement with the Court withdrawing its previous objection while otherwise retaining all rights to bring a separate enforcement action,” the filing said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the defendants did not immediately respond to Inman’s requests for comment.

A preliminary settlement approval hearing is scheduled for June 10 in Massachusetts federal court.

During the April 1 hearing, Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said she would not approve the proposed settlement unless the scope of the settlement was narrowed to only include residential listings, instead of all real estate listings, within MLS PIN’s service area since other types of properties were not applicable to the case’s plaintiffs. MLS PIN has since made that amendment to the proposed settlement.

MLS PIN was the first defendant in the case to reach a settlement with plaintiffs in 2023. However, the terms of the settlement have continued to be intensely scrutinized by the DOJ, which has delayed the parties from reaching a final settlement. MLS PIN is also broker-owned, and therefore not bound by the terms of NAR’s settlement in antitrust cases. In ultimately agreeing to remove offers of cooperative compensation from its platform, however, the MLS settlement is more in line with that agreed upon in Sitzer | Burnett.

Other defendants in the Nosalek case, including HomeServices of America, Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX, have all now been granted final approval of their settlements. NAR’s $418 million settlement was granted approval in November.

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Pending home sales plummeted by 6.3 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday.

All four major U.S. regions saw a drop in pending sales on a monthly basis. Year over year, the Midwest saw contract signings increase, but the Northeast, South and West regions all saw contract signings drop during that period as homebuyers resisted transacting in an elevated mortgage rate landscape.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) dropped to 71.3 in April, which was down by 2.5 percent year over year. An index of 100 represents the level of contract activity in 2001.

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“At this critical stage of the housing market, it is all about mortgage rates,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Despite an increase in housing inventory, we are not seeing higher home sales. Lower mortgage rates are essential to bring homebuyers back into the housing market.”

The West took the biggest hit on a monthly and annual basis, and was down 8.9 percent from March 2025 to 53.3 and down 6.5 percent year over year.

The South PHSI declined 7.7 percent month over month to 85.9 and dropped 3.0 percent from April 2024.

The Midwest index decreased 5.0 percent from the previous month to 73.5 and was up 2.2 percent year over year.

The Northeast PHSI declined just 0.6 percent from March 2025 to 62.1 and was down 3.0 percent on an annual basis.

Yun added that growing inventory should at least help homebuyers get a leg up in this market.

“Homebuyers have a better chance to purchase homes in affordable regions such as the Midwest, where the typical home price is $313,3000 — 25 percent below the national median home price,” Yun said. “Moreover, with housing inventory levels reaching five-year highs, homebuyers in nearly every region of the country are in a better position to negotiate more favorable terms.”

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Real estate entrepreneur and reality TV personality Todd Chrisley and his wife, Julie Chrisley, have been pardoned by President Trump.

The couple, who became famous for the USA Network reality TV show Chrisley Knows Best, were convicted in 2022 on charges of bank and tax fraud after it was discovered they conspired to defraud Atlanta-area banks out of more than $30 million in loans by submitting false documents, and committed nearly $500,000 in tax evasion while brandishing their lavish lifestyle on TV. The couple also failed to file tax returns and pay taxes for the years 2013 through 2016.

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When the charade became too much to keep up, Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy and “walked away from more than $20 million of the fraudulently obtained loans,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in 2022 after the couple’s conviction.

President Trump announced his intentions to pardon the couple in a call with their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, a video of which was posted on social media by a White House aide on Tuesday. The president then signed their pardons on Wednesday, opening a pathway for them to be released from prison.

Todd Chrisley has been serving a 12-year sentence in Florida at the FPC Pensacola minimum-security men’s federal prison since January 2023, and was scheduled for release in April 2032. Julie has been serving a 7-year sentence at the FMC Lexington prison in Kentucky, and was scheduled to be released in January 2028. In addition to their prison sentences, the couple were also ordered to pay $17.8 million in restitution.

In the video posted online on Tuesday, Trump said to Savannah Chrisley, “Your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope that we can do it by tomorrow.”

“They’ve been given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I’m hearing,” Trump later added.

Savannah posted on Instagram on Wednesday a photo of the president with a pair of signed documents in the Oval Office and wrote, “God is still writing your story. He’s Not Late. He’s Not Distant. HE’S NOT DONE, & What is coming is MORE than you could’ve imagined.”

Attorney Alex Little, who is representing the Chrisleys, said in a statement on Tuesday that the pardon “corrects a deep injustice” in which the couple were “targeted because of their conservative values and high profile.”

The move was another example of President Trump pardoning those he views as his allies, friends, donors and supporters. This week, Trump also pardoned Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff who had been sentenced to prison for 10 years on fraud and bribery charges.

Last month, the president likewise signed a pardon for former nursing home executive Paul Walczak after Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner hosted by President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Walczak had pled guilty to tax crimes shortly after the 2024 election, and submitted a pardon application right around Inauguration Day. Prior to the pardon being signed, Walczak was on track to pay $4.4 million in restitution and serve an 18-month prison sentence.

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Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!

Just weeks after hiring a new M&A executive, Anywhere Real Estate Inc. is rumored to have offered a merger deal with Douglas Elliman Inc. that would give the firm’s share price a nice boost.

The news came in just before the holiday weekend on Friday, Bloomberg reported, via sources who are said to have knowledge of the potential deal.

The offer reportedly would value the boutique luxury firm at around $4 per share, which is lower than what Douglas Elliman would be likely to accept, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources.

Representatives for Anywhere and Douglas Elliman declined to comment on the speculative news. Still, the whisperings of a potential deal were enough to send Douglas Elliman’s stock price on an upward climb. The firm’s price per share rose by more than 35 percent on Friday and closed trading for the week at $2.90. By market’s close on Tuesday, shares rose even further to $3.

Douglas Elliman, which is headquartered in New York City, has a strong foothold on the East Coast and in recent years, has expanded its business to Texas and a handful of Western states, including California, Colorado and Nevada. The firm prides itself on its new development marketing and is the brokerage of record for notable celebrity agents like Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of the Eklund | Gomes Team and Matt, Josh and Heather Altman of the Altman Brothers Team.

Douglas Elliman has gone through a bit of a rough patch in recent years, facing a string of losses as reported in quarterly earnings. Losses have improved in recent quarters, however, with the firm’s net loss lowering to $6 million during the first quarter of 2025, compared to $42 million during the same period the previous year. The fourth quarter of 2024 was the first full quarter during which new CEO Michael S. Liebowitz was at the helm, and Liebowitz has sought to frame this period as a new era for Douglas Elliman.

In the fall, former CEO, President and Chairman of the Board Howard Lorber said he was retiring from his positions at the company, but it was subsequently reported by The Wall Street Journal that he was pressured to step down amid growing scrutiny over the firm’s culture. About a week later, Scott Durkin was also terminated from his position as president and CEO of the firm’s brokerage arm.

The departures came after a vocal investor, Bradley Tirpak, called into question Lorber’s leadership last summer because of the firm’s declining financial state, and because of his alleged failures in oversight regarding now-disgraced former top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, who broke off from the firm in 2022 to found Official Partners backed by Side.

A series of lawsuits and reporting brought to light that the brothers had been accused by multiple women (including Elliman agents) of sexual assault — an allegation that one Elliman agent, Jessica Cohen, claimed she had told Lorber about in confidence in 2012. Lorber also underwent a five-hour-long internal probe, during which time he acknowledged that, while CEO, he had engaged in intimate relationships with two Elliman brokers, Jennine Gourin and Jessica Cohen.

Elliman has asserted that no formal HR complaint was filed against the Alexander brothers during their roughly 10-year tenure at the brokerage.

At that time, Elliman representatives said in a statement emailed to Inman, “Douglas Elliman notes that the former brokers accused of sexual assault left the Company more than two years ago, and there were no complaints against them when they were at the Company nor was there any concealment or preferential treatment with respect to those brokers.”

Just days after Lorber’s retirement announcement, Elliman’s stock price started to rebound. The day of the announcement, the company’s stock price was at $1.43. Three days later, it had increased to $1.81.

At a stock price per share of $3, Elliman’s market cap grows to about $266.21 million. In 2021, the firm’s market cap reached $900 million. Anywhere’s market cap is currently $379.58 million.

Meanwhile, Anywhere’s stock price was $3.40 at market close on Friday, about 4 percent higher than it started that day, and roughly held steady on Tuesday.

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