Keller Williams Realty ~ Teaching Real Estate Agents to be Small Business Owners

by Karen Goodman on August 31, 2010

To learn more about Keller Williams Realty, visit ConsiderKW.com.

The video above gives a good overview of the business systems which are taught at Keller Williams Realty. The videos at the bottom of this article go into more detail on how to start building a team. If you are an agent in the St. Louis area and are considering changing brokerages, contact me to discuss how I can get you a free copy of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent book.

When I joined Keller Williams, I was positive that I would never want to hire an assistant or build a team. At the same time, I recognized that there have been times in the past when I was equally as positive about something, and then later changed my mind.

A perfect example is my insistence that I never wanted to represent sellers.

I was working at an exclusive buyer’s brokerage which served people who were relocating to St. Louis for a job. I was sure that I would feel very uncomfortable trying to win the business of a seller…competing with agents and having to pitch my services. I was sure that I would have less control over the transaction since I knew how to help my clients find the best home to meet their needs and budget, but with a listing I simply would have to wait for a buyer to discover the house (how wrong I was!).

After 5 years of exhausting work and 24/7 work weeks, I finally decided that I had to make a change or I was going to have to get out of real estate. I simply couldn’t continue working myself to death.

So I took a deep breath, got some great advice from a trusted colleague, and moved my license. I left a company which only allowed me to work with buyers but provided me with all of the clients I could handle, to a full service brokerage where I had more control over my business and could start representing sellers, but I would also have to find my own clients (yes..I was going to have to pitch my services to people!).

My point is that we don’t always know where our path will lead.

A year later I realized it was time to change brokerages again. My independent brokerage was changing ownership and it simply wasn’t a good fit for me. This time, I wanted to move to a brokerage that met my current needs but also had the resources to help me if I decided I wanted to grow in an unanticipated direction.

I realized that all of my real estate training at my 1st two brokerages focused on teaching me how to work with buyers and sellers, how to price homes and negotiate deals. I was taught how to avoid getting sued and how to get a deal closed.

But no one had ever taught me anything about running a business. My brokerages didn’t talk about reigning in your expenses or how to hire an assistant. They didn’t help me develop a business plan, calculate how many leads I needed in order to hit my income goals or how to implement a solid accounting system.

I still haven’t gotten around to doing all of these things, and some of them I may never do. But I like knowing that I’m with a company that can guide me through Small Business 101 when I am ready to take those steps.

Take a look at the videos below to get a taste of how Keller Williams can help agents who want to treat their business like a business.

Millionaire Real Estate Moment: The Assistant Executive

Millionaire Real Estate Moment: The Three Key Hires

These videos just give you a snapshot of the types of things that Keller Williams can help you with as you learn to treat your real estate business as a small business.