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Why Keller Williams Realty?

by Karen Goodman on August 2, 2009

A few months ago I shared with you that I joined Keller Williams Realty.

Keller Williams is the 3rd largest real estate company in North America, but it is fairly new to the St. Louis area…and I find myself often answering questions about the company and why I chose it over more established St. Louis real estate companies.

Why I Chose Keller Williams St. Louis?

1. Education & Support

Every real estate brokerage tells you that they have excellent training, but with Keller Williams, it really is true.

The company offers an extensive video library for free online training to agents. Plus, there are training classes at my office almost every weekday. Some classes help agents who need to launch, or relaunch, their careers. Other classes help established agents improve their lead generation activities so that they can work with more clients and build their business into a successful business.

Technology and business building classes cover topics that most brokerages either don’t understand or simply ignore.

Keller Williams even offers free continuing education classes. I just took the best continuing class I’ve had since I got licensed, and it was free and only a few feet away from my desk.

I haven’t had time to take advantage of the free coaching available, but I know that coaching is the one thing that can dramatically improve every agent’s business.

2. Compensation & Profit Sharing

Real estate agents are really small business owners that operate under the umbrella of a real estate brokerage. The brokerage provides office space, arranges professional E&O insurance, deals with state and local real estate licensing regulations, handles accounting and many many more details.

In exchange, the real estate brokerage keeps a portion of the commission income that each agent generates.

I often get asked why I don’t just become a broker and open my own company. The answer is simple. By joining Keller Williams, I am able to focus my attention on what I do best – helping buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. My brokerage takes care of the rest.

But compensation plans vary dramatically across brokerages. Keller Williams has created a compensation plan in which all agents are at a 70%-30% split (the agent keeps 70%) until an annual cap is reached. Then the office passes all commissions onto the agent. As an international company, Keller Williams also has an agent paid franchise fee. But unlike the other national companies, this 6% franchise fee caps out at $3000 per year. Once an agent hits the cap for both the office and the franchise fee, 100% of income is paid out to the agent.

The amount that agents pay into the office varies from office to office due to differences in office rent and other services that the local office provides. However, each office has an open book policy so that all agents can see how the company is choosing to spend money. And, each office has an Agent Leadership Council made up of agents who help decide how the office will operate.

Profit Sharing

Keller Williams believes that agents that help build the business should share in the profits. When agents join a Keller Williams office, they are asked which Keller Williams agent most influenced their decision to join the company. This referring agent then is listed as the new agent’s sponsor.

At the end of every month about half of the profits in each office are distributed to the ownership group, and the other half is distributed to the agent sponsors. Even better, agents get a portion of the profits not only for the agents that they sponsored, but for every agent recruited in their profit sharing tree down to 7 levels.

Keller Williams profit sample profit sharing tree

(sample profit sharing tree…so far, Sara is the only agent in my tree)

Let’s say I recruited 2 agents, Sara and Cathy. Even if these two agents never closed very many real estate deals, I could do well in the profit sharing IF they end up recruiting a few agents. If those agents weren’t really productive agents, I could still do well if just some of the people downstream end up as productive agents that contribute to their office’s success.

Even better, these agents can be at ANY Keller Williams office. I work out of the St. Louis Kirkwood office, but I can get profit sharing if an agent joins another St. Louis area office (currently Fenton & St. Charles with Clayton in the works). I can also earn profit sharing if an agent in my profit sharing tree joins a Cincinnati or Phoenix office.

Forgetting the money for a moment, the profit sharing model also provides another great benefit. Since agents earn money on the profitability of the office, Keller Williams offices have a culture of sharing and cooperation. Rather than working at an office where each agent is in it for themselves, Keller Williams agents actually can profit personally if other agents in the office do well. The result is an office where agents share successful methods and take the time to help each other.

Keller Williams is currently the 3rd largest real estate company in North America. With only 3 offices currently in the St. Louis region, and plans for big growth in the area, agents have a rare opportunity to create a solid passive income stream simply by getting in on the ground floor and then sharing their experiences with other agents that they know.

3. Meeting the Needs of My Clients

By joining a company that provides me with the best available training and compensates me well for my work, I am able to offer better service for my clients.

Since I now have the potential to earn a better income, I can afford to spend money on things that will get my listings sold more quickly and provide better home search options for my buyers. A few of the services that I am now using are:

Enhanced Realtor.com account
Single property websites through vFlyer
Wolfnet Maptracks MLS home search
Centralized Showings service for listing appointments & customized feedback surveys
Market Snapshot (coming soon – provides weekly updates for all market activity around any address via email)

In addition, I can afford to pay an assistant to develop professional marketing materials, visit vacant properties regularly and stay on top of the competition by previewing nearby listings. I even just shelled out a bunch of money to improve this website so that my client’s home listings get even better exposure on the internet.