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Industry veteran and Lower Chief Growth Officer Chris Heller has moved his real estate license to eXp Realty, the brokerage announced on Thursday.
Heller brings with him to the cloud-based brokerage the team he founded, Heller the Home Seller, a group of 12 agents and three staff that operate in communities in San Diego County. Over the past three decades, Heller the Home Seller team has sold more than 100 homes per year, for a total of more than 4,400 homes, eXp Realty said.
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The move is a notable one not only because of Heller’s stature in the industry but also because, for nearly 15 years, he was affiliated with Keller Williams, serving for two-and-a-half years as CEO of Keller Williams Realty International, a known rival of eXp Realty.
“Chris and I were once competitors chasing the No. 1 spot, and now we’re reunited at a company that gives top producers the autonomy, platform and scale to build empires,” eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja said in a statement. “His decision to bring his team to eXp is not only a validation of our model; it’s a signal to the entire industry that the most iconic leaders are choosing agent ownership, collaboration and innovation. I couldn’t be more proud to welcome Chris and his team.”
Heller also served as president of KW Worldwide for nearly five years and, most recently, was OJO Labs’ chief real estate officer and then president until May 2025. He continues to be a board member at OJO, which was recently acquired with real estate portal Movoto by mortgage lender Lower. With the move to eXp Realty, Heller will retain his current position at Lower.
Heller is also a contributor for Inman News.
“I’ve been in regular contact with Glenn since leaving KW in 2017, and it’s been incredible to watch eXp’s growth and transformation over the years,” Heller said in a statement. “From Leo’s very first day, the idea of joining forces has been on the table. What drew me in wasn’t just the momentum — it was the model, the structure, the leadership and, most of all, the culture. Aligning with a platform built for the future and locking arms with leaders like Leo Pareja, who are driven to innovate, grow and raise the bar for the entire industry, is great.”
Heller added on a call with Inman that he’s watched many industry friends align themselves with eXp Realty over the past few years and liked what he saw from the brokerage as it continued to grow. As he considers his own team expansion in the next couple of years, Heller said that he just couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
“If I’m going to be somewhere, that’s the type of company I want to be with,” he told Inman.
