Douglas Elliman, the third largest residential brokerage in the U.S., has bought Strickland Property Group, one of Pinellas County’s most successful real estate firms, and has opened an office in St. Petersburg.

The firm has 7,000 agents in 118 offices across the country, including 22 in South Florida. The St. Pete location at 100 Beach Drive will be the company’s first on the state’s Gulf Coast. Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Elliman’s Florida brokerage, talks about his company’s reasons for expanding into the Tampa Bay market in this dRTB Live interview with Tom duPont, publisher of duPont Registry Tampa Bay.