Executives from the top real estate brokerages have learned in recent years that performance doesn’t need to correlate with compensation. Far from it, in fact.

Opendoor founder Eric Wu raked in $145 million through stock sales between 2021 and 2023, according to an analysis by real estate expert Mike DelPrete. Wu was the chief executive officer of the company the first two of those years and the president of marketplace in the third before departing the company at the end of last year.

Wu sold those stock sales while running or being an executive of a company that performed worse than many of its comparable peers. For those three years, Opendoor recorded a net loss of $2.3 billion. The company stock declined 83 percent between Wu’s stock sales.

Zillow’s CEO sold company stock when it was near an all time high

Zillow’s Rich Barton sold $86 million of company stock when its shares were near an all-time high in March 2021. From 2021 to 2023,

Zillow’s but the company lost a net of $787 million.

Since Barton’s stock sale, shares have fallen 58 percent for the company. Barton hasn’t sold any stock in the interim, though.

Other Real Estate CEO’s of big earners in stock sales

Former eXp Realty CEO Glenn Sanford, who sold $71 million of stock.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, who sold $19 million in stock.

At the end of last year, Compass CEO Reffkin sacrificed $25 million worth of performance-based restricted stock awards for a $7 million cash bonus. He’s also set to make a $900,000 salary this year.

Conditions aren’t always clear when an executive receives company stock. The fact that stock sale compensation and company performance aren’t well correlated, should upset us all.