Luxury real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate is getting into the mortgage business as part of a broader strategy to grow ancillary businesses including escrow, title insurance, property management and renovations.
The brokerage says its new in-house mortgage platform, Elliman Capital, is a “strategic alliance” with a small New York-based lender, Associated Mortgage Bankers Inc.
Elliman Capital will operate as a mortgage broker and has launched in Florida, with plans to expand to other states where Douglas Elliman operates.
Michael Liebowitz
“By bringing mortgage services in-house, we’re creating an unprecedented level of convenience and oversight to the entire real estate transaction process,” Douglas Elliman President and CEO Michael Liebowitz said in a statement Tuesday. “Our clients will benefit from competitive rates, diverse loan products, and the seamless integration that only comes from working with a single, trusted source for both their real estate and financing needs.”
Ronkonkoma, New York-based Associated Mortgage Bankers (AMB) is licensed in nine states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia) and sponsors 20 mortgage loan originators working out of three branch locations, according to records maintained by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS).
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Last year AMB originated $40 million in loans, about three quarters of which were purchase mortgages, with an average loan size of $449,778, according to an analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) records by iEmergent.
Douglas Elliman’s 4,763 principal agents, by contrast, handled 22,212 transaction sides during the 12 months ending March 31, 2025, representing buyers or sellers in home sales valued at $39.1 billion with an average sale price of $1.76 million.
One of the largest residential brokerage companies in the New York metropolitan area, Douglas Elliman has 121 offices in New York, Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Elliman Capital — a “doing business as” (DBA) name of AMB — will offer traditional and specialty loan products “from multiple national and regional lenders,” the company said, “leveraging strong lender relationships to secure optimal terms for clients.”
Although AMB is a direct lender, Elliman Capital will operate as a mortgage broker — the business model employed by Motto Mortgage, RE/MAX’s mortgage franchising business.
In addition to conventional and jumbo loans, Elliman Capital will offer construction loans, investment property financing, bridge loans, commercial lending, second home mortgages, FHA loans, VA loans and USDA loans.
The new mortgage platform “is specifically designed to be flexible by extending financing to qualified self-employed individuals, investors, foreign nationals, and other borrowers with unique financial circumstances who have historically faced challenges in securing appropriate financing,” the company said.
Jim Bender
“We’ve engineered Elliman Capital to be truly inclusive, offering loan products that meet the diverse needs of today’s homebuyers and investors, from all over the globe,” Elliman Capital Director Jim Bender said, in a statement.
Growing ancillary services through investment and acquisition
Douglas Elliman provides title and escrow services through subsidiaries Lincoln Land Services and Portfolio Escrow, and acquired a 50 percent interest in Florida-based Partners Land Services LLC in 2021.
In the company’s most recent annual report to investors, executives said Douglas Elliman was seeking to expand its ancillary real estate services through investment and acquisition.
Providing ancillary services including escrow, title, mortgage finance, property management, notary, staging, renovation, security, moving and capital fundraising for developers will “enhance the client experience and drive growth in revenues and earnings,” the company said.
“We expect technology to be a key differentiator as we grow our ancillary services businesses, in terms of adoption by our agents, delivery to their clients and disruption of traditional business models not yet transformed by technology,” Douglas Elliman executives said.
Through its subsidiary New Valley Ventures LLC, Douglas Elliman has invested more than $11 million in proptech companies and funds, including Rechat, Purlin, LiveEasy, Fyxify, Bilt, Persefoni AI, Tongo, Guest House, Getaway House Inc. and Infinite Creator.
Douglas Elliman’s Development Marketing division, DEDM, markets properties to international audiences employing a hybrid broker model where traditional residential real estate agents work in tandem with DEDM professionals.
A subsidiary, Residential Management Group LLC, manages 450 cooperative, condominium and rental apartment buildings representing approximately 55,000 units in New York City, Nassau County, Long Island City and Westchester County.
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