Introduction
When you choose a career in real estate you choose a path that rewards hard work, dedication, and persistence. You choose a future in which your destiny lies within your hands. No boss, no restrictions, just you. Real estate is a commission based business, which means your income is limitless and solely based on how much business you do. The opposite is a typical salaried (or hourly) position which is capped. You may work 80 hours a week for a year to impress your boss, and in the end you might be rewarded with a title change and a modest pay raise. With real estate, work pays off… If you put in the time and do a good job, paychecks will start to roll in faster and faster, snowballing as the months and years pass. Robert Kiyosaki said in `Rich Dad Poor Dad’: “Mind your own business”. Real wealth is not obtained with a salary. It is created as a business owner.
So why Keller Williams? After all there are likely dozens if not hundreds of brokers in your area to choose from. One of the great benefits of joining Keller Williams is their unique business model which teaches agents how to scale their business and reach heights never before imagined. Though an important one, this of course is not the only reason why I joined Keller Williams. In this article I will break down my decision process for choosing them as the brokerage at which to build my career. Key factors include: training, support, commission structure, community, and overall feel. If you’re a new agent, I hope this article makes your decision a bit easier when choosing where to hang your license. If you’re an existing agent, please hear me out. You may decide where you’re at now is not the best fit. After all, there’s a reason why Keller Williams tops the list when you google “best real estate brokers to work for”.
The Interview
As I approached the date of my state exam I started researching the best companies to work for. As I just mentioned above, nearly all the top pages in my google search declared Keller Williams the overall best brokerage to work for currently. It was great to see this consensus between multiple sources right off the bat. But being the skeptical information seeking person I am, I wasn’t going to let a few hours of research dictate this massive step in my new career.
The next step I took was to make a spreadsheet of the top 20 brokers in my area. I then held phone calls with each managing broker and went for in person interviews to the ones who survived the first round of calls. I evaluated each company on the following items: office quality, website quality, fees, office size, training, commission structure, and overall feel.
Between dilapidated offices smelling of cat urine, offices with literally no training, and terribly off putting (and self serving) managing brokers, I had narrowed the search down from 20 options to 4. One such off putting broker was putting on a fake smile for me when another agent had called her and asked for help with something. In the blink of an eye her entire demeanor changed as she lambasted her employee, saying she was in a meeting and she shouldn’t be disturbed right now. Click. Re-enter the friendly helpful managing broker. The place oozed of fakeness. She went on to tell me later in the meeting: “I’m going to tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to join Keller Williams because their training is hands down the best in the business. Come back in 5 years when you know what you’re doing to make real money”. I actually went on to win a listing vs her a year later, but that’s a whole other story.
Let’s get back on track. I had narrowed the search considerably at this point. The time had come to do a deep dive into each remaining company to compare and contrast. Spoiler alert: Keller Williams won out, and by a very wide margin. Read on to see why.
Training
Take a second to open a new tab. Google “number 1 training organization in the world”. Here, i’ll save you the time:
Of all the factors deciding who to join, this is the most important by far. The pre-license classes you take teach you one thing: how not to get sued. Nowhere in those classes do you learn how to operate in the field of real estate. How do I write an offer for my buyer? How do I write a listing agreement? How do I compile a CMA? What % of the purchase price do we put down as earnest money? Is it actually required? WIll this property pass for FHA financing? Why not? What needs to be fixed? How do I build a client database? What are the best marketing techniques? How many people do I need to connect with to close X deals this year? You get the point. This list is endless.
You. Need. Training. And GOOD training that yields results.
Don’t listen to the seedy managing broker at Shady Realty who tells you otherwise, or that you’ll learn on the job. During my interview process I heard many different training models. From 1-1 training with the managing broker (how would they have that kind of time?) to classes once a week, to 100% online training. None of them compared to what Keller Williams offered. Not even close. Here is our training calendar for April:
And this is just the in person schedule. All of this plus much more is available online on demand in ‘Keller Williams University’.
Though all great, some of the critical trainings here include:
- Command Monday: Teaches you how to use the online CRM database.
- Productivity Coaching: For newer agents, keeps you on track and focused. A LOT of early learning comes from these classes.
- Next Steps Coaching: For intermediate agents looking to take their business to the next level.
- Contract Writing Q&A: Explores the nuances of writing contracts.
- Scripts & Role Play: Teaches real life scripts and acclimates agents to real world conversations with clients.
- Listing Agreements: Teaches how to write a listing agreement.
- IGNITE: Critical! This 4-week course teaches you the foundational knowledge of operational real estate. It is built to launch agents into immediate production.
- BOLD: The graduate program to Ignite. This 7-week training program was made to teach you how to build an abundance of leads into your business, overcome limiting beliefs, and incorporate time-saving strategies and techniques that will take your business to the highest levels.
Coaching
Just as important as training, if not more, is coaching. Coaching programs vary from office to office, so be sure to ask your local Keller Williams office what they offer. At Keller Williams Elite you’re automatically placed into Productivity Coaching when you join as a new agent. In addition to classes that teach you the ins and outs of day to day life as a realtor, you have instant access to a coach who you can call or text anytime. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve called my coach with critical questions needed to close a deal. This goes back to knowing absolutely nothing when you first start. Even with world class training you are going to run into dozens of roadblocks every single month. You will need immediate answers in many of these situations. Having a coach one call away is critical to your success. It was to me, anyway. I imagine not having a coach is much like navigating a long road trip with old mapquest directions with missing steps. The only way to get back on the right track is to ask someone who has been down that road many times over. I can’t speak to the coaching programs at other brokerages, but I know I have that at Keller Williams Elite. It’s been the single most beneficial factor in my success so far.
Commission Split
This is further down the list because the commission split should not be what you focus on first when selecting a brokerage. Training and coaching come first, then the commission split. There will be other brokers that offer you 90% commissions right off the bat. But the training will very likely be subpar, and if you can’t close a deal because of that… 90% of $0 is still $0. They might also charge very high office fees up to $1200 a month.
Keller Williams has a commission split of 64/30/6%. It breaks down as such: 64% goes to the agent, 30% goes to the market center, 6% goes to KWRI (Keller Williams Realty International). However, the 30% that goes to the market center and the 6% to KWRI is capped. The 30% market center cap is different for each market center (office) while the 6% is the same across all offices.
The market center commission cap at my office is $19k and the company wide cap for KWRI commission is $3k. This resets yearly on your work anniversary date.
This results in agents at our office capping at around $60,000 in gross commissions. Once agents cap, they earn 100% of their commissions until their next work anniversary. $60k in gross commissions is $2M in closed volume. That sounds like a whole lot, but in reality it can be done with just 8 home sales at $250k a piece. To put that into perspective, I sold 5 homes in my first full year with the help of KW’s training and coaching. You’ll be capping in no time, so don’t get fooled by the “if you want to make real money join our brokerage” argument. Put in the work to build the foundation of your business and over time it will return dividends.
Community
From day 1 at Keller Williams I have been greeted with open arms and have been offered help left and right whenever I needed it, which was often. Not from just my coach but other agents as well. KW is known for its friendly company culture. Opposed to some other firms where it’s a dog-eat-dog “why would I help you, you’re my competition” environment. Every single person I’ve asked for help or for advice has jumped at the opportunity to help me. How do you get ahead faster? Stand on the shoulders of giants. I can’t speak from personal experience because I’ve only been at Keller Williams (totally not biased), but I’ve heard countless stories from agents saying their brokerage is uber-competitive and help came few and far between. At Keller Williams, you’re a part of the family, and when you succeed we succeed. More on that below!
Cherry on top: PROFIT SHARE!
The best way to explain profit share is that it’s a pyramid scheme that’s not really a pyramid scheme… let me explain deeper. When you join Keller Williams you name a sponsor, who is the person that convinced you to join. As covered earlier 30% of your commission from each deal goes to the market center up until you cap. As long as the market center is profitable that month, they then share about half of that with that person’s sponsor. Let’s go through an example:
Ed is an agent at Keller Williams. He writes a very in depth 2429 word article about why Keller Williams is the Cat’s Pajamas. Ed sends this article to his friend, David, who just got his real estate license and is looking for a brokerage to hang his license at. Intrigued by this information, David interviews at his local KW office, joins, and names Ed as his sponsor. He goes out and kills it his first year, earning $60,000 in gross commission income (GCI). 30% ($18,000) goes to the office. Some of that is used to pay for the office expenses, lets say $8,000. $10,000 is left over in profit, and about half of that goes to the sponsor, Ed. That’s $5,000 Ed just made that year for bringing David to the office.
Profit Share is how Keller Williams recruits agents. They don’t spend massive amounts of money on marketing and advertising. They instead reward their agents for doing that work for them. And how do we do it? By sharing our success stories with other agents and potential agents, and showing them what it’s like to be an agent at the world’s largest real estate brokerage. And us being honest about our positive experiences is all that it takes. Profit share also goes 7 layers deep. So when you bring someone in and they name you as their sponsor, they can then go out and recruit others and you will earn a portion of their deals. Hence the pyramid scheme analogy. The reason it’s NOT a pyramid scheme is because you’re not stealing a penny of the agent’s money. You’re taking straight from the company’s profit. Another great thing about profit share is that it is forever. You can straight up leave Keller Williams and retire from real estate all together. You will still get checks in the mail as long as people in your downline are doing business. I personally know people in my brokerage getting $3k a month just from profit share, and that’s not even close to what’s really achievable.
Conclusion
There is no one and only factor when choosing a brokerage. It’s an amalgamation of all the factors outlined in this article. Do your own due diligence. Find the best fit for you. But beware that you are speaking to seasoned salespeople when you go talk to the managing broker or team leader at each company. They are going to tell you what you want to hear, not necessarily what you need to hear, and not necessarily the truth. If you want to talk more about this topic or if you have any questions please reach out to me directly at 773-993-5921 or edwhalen@kw.com. Likewise, if you think I’m wrong and you want to tell me why your brokerage is better, I’m all ears. I’m not committed to any one brokerage for life. Right now at this point in time the fundamentals support Keller Williams as the best real estate company to work for. Hands down. If that changes and you can convince me otherwise then I’ll join your brokerage.