Julie Jones (Florida Luxurious Properties)

Broward County’s top broker left her boutique brokerage to join Douglas Elliman, The Real Deal has learned.

Julie Jones will keep her majority ownership of Fort Lauderdale-based Florida Luxurious Properties, and the roughly 30-agent brokerage will remain operational, she said.

Like many other brokers, Jones had a record year in 2021, closing sales totaling nearly $369 million in dollar volume, according to Elliman. Jones said she was the top broker in Broward County last year, citing Multiple Listing Service and off-market deals. So far this year, she’s been involved in deals totaling $129.4 million and has about $29 million more under contract.

“After eight years of managing the brokerage, I felt I wanted a wider platform for my customers as the market starts to shift,” Jones said, referring to Elliman’s partnership with Knight Frank.

Jones focuses on luxury residential sales of waterfront homes and condos in Fort Lauderdale, and will be based out of Elliman’s Las Olas office. Her recent deals include the $24.5 million sale of the waterfront estate at 1818 Southeast 10th Street late last year.

Residential sales have started to slow across South Florida. At the same time, Jones and others are reporting an uptick in foreign buyers from Europe, Canada and Latin America. Domestic buyers have dominated throughout the pandemic.

“The inventory in the luxury market is still incredibly low in Fort Lauderdale,” she said. “While the inventory remains low, the asking prices are not shifting. The buyers’ decision-making process has slowed a little.”

Any major market shift historically results in agents and smaller firms joining larger brokerages, or setting out on their own.

The Keyes Company recently acquired the 140-agent Skye Louis Realty in Broward and Palm Beach counties. In Miami-Dade, the Riley Smith Group, one of Miami’s top brokerage teams, left Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty after 17 years to move to Compass.

Elliman’s top brokers, Oren and Tal Alexander left this month to launch their own company called Official, backed by the white-label firm Side.