To all the agents in the house,
Keller Williams and eXp are at each other's throats, but what will come of this?
KW, the largest brokerage in the U.S. by agent count, has obtained a temporary restraining order against its former CEO Mark Willis that prevents Willis from joining eXp, probably the fastest growing brokerage in the country by agent count.
Willis was KW's CEO for nine years, and he worked with the company from 1991 to 2016. But Willis has since been out of brokerage, venturing to everything from creating a leadership group to creating a nutritious juice.
The legal argument is over whether Willis would "inevitably" share "confidential information" as KW contends in its bid to enjoin Willis from joining its rival.
The immediate issue here is a Montague-Capulet level (or Rocket-UWM level) feud that has erupted between KW and eXp, founded by ex-KW agent Glenn Sanford. In addition to going after eXp over the plucking of a former executive, KW snared a current eXp executive, announcing that Stacey Onnen, eXp's former president of operations, is now KW's head of growth operations.
What's next includes a hearing Feb. 18 held by state court judge Cleve Doty on whether to extend the injunction. Prior to that hearing, juicy information could come out in the court records about the comminiques between each company and executives at the other, and perhaps insight into why KW has picked this battle.
Agents, I'm curious about what you think of the KW-eXp conflict, and how it is now a legal showdown. On the one hand, this might not be terribly relevant to your lives, even if you're an agent at KW or eXp (but I could be assuming wrong). On the other hand, if brokerages are willing to file lawsuits trying to prevent executive movement, could they also sue to prevent agents from switching brokerages?
This is not unheard of. Howard Hanna filed a lawsuit against Compass last year over Pittsburgh agents jumping ship, and as with Willis, the reasoning was that the agents would take with them confidential information. A Pennsylvania judge ruled for Compass in not enjoining the move.
We don't know the full details of Willis's contract with KW, or what confidential information it may have. But what we know now raises an important question about the brokerage business: In a highly fragmented market, when is it okay for a company to stop one of their current or former employees from joining a rival?
Please send me your thoughts at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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