Lil' Buddy's Blog - Why I am a Keller Williams Dog - AR EXCLUSIVE!

THE CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE MARKET, AND OTHER THINGS CHICAGO, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A LITTLE WHITE DOG!

Woof, y'all!  Just got back from Hot-lanta, and Keller Williams Family Reunion, with our Human Team Members Dean & Sue Moss.  What a Great Time!  What a Great Town!  What Great KW People (the best I could tell, I was the only Little White Dog in attendance).  Next year - Orlando - and maybe I'll finally get to meet that Big Mouse down there!

You know, just over a year ago, right after Christmas, 2006, Team Leader Dean packed us all up and we made our way to Keller Williams Fox Realty, on the North Side of Chicago - the Lincoln Square Neighborhood.  

There were six of us - me - woof, Sue, our Business Manager, Buyer's Agent Kathy Weaver-Zech, Jeff Ardito, our Listing Specialist, and Iwona Filipiak, who found success since and now works on her own within Keller Williams. 

We were at a Century 21 office on the Northwest Side for 13 years before that - and, for many years, as Dean said, "There is no reason to leave!"  We were all doing OK - and I was being walked by everyone on a regular basis.

But, as sometimes happens in this business, and we all know, a business dispute with our old broker - a very nice guy, by the way, got us thinking about moving on.

We checked out the usual companies - the Big Blue Company, another Big Gold Office, and the Company with the Balloon.  But we settled on KW!

The big draw was the CULTURE - it was one of learning and training and sharing with each other, rather than whoever the broker brings in or says.  Don't get me wrong - we all had outside training while at C21 - but, often times, I feel we were successful IN SPITE of the system, rather than BECAUSE of it.  No offense intended, but that's how we felt!

At KW - we could brand ourselves as Dean's Team, with our own logo, and slogan, rather than as a small group within a big company.

Splits make sense, Company Royalty is capped - under the rule of the company, it cannot be changed at the local level, or arbitrarily!  And you control your own destiny - especially if you are a top-producing Real Estate Team.

There was something called "Profit Share" - which has made us over $2,000 last year, in a down market.

Each office had an Agent Leadership Council - an ALC - where the top tier of agents actually debate and enforce rules the company lives by.  And we commit to training, coaching, and betterment to our careers, and to teach others what we learn.

And each office, and KW Corporate, is an Open Books Company!  Though privately held - Gary Keller and his Team in Austin TX - we KW agents can view a local or national P and L anytime, review expenses, and comment on them.

As a Little White Dog, who has lived in Chicago virtually all of his life (not counting my first 6 weeks in Joliet, before Dean & Sue sprung me), I have to admit I first looked at Keller Williams as some kind of crazy cult.   They emphasized RECRUITMENT and AGENT COUNT - many KW agents were quite emphatic about it, too!

Now, after 14 months in the system, we enjoyed a year-to-year sales increase of 4% Gross, and nearly 9% net (think about these numbers, for a minute).  We attended two KW Family Reunion Conferences. 

Now, I believe I know the root of why KW actually grew in agent count and revenue last year, while the others fell, some considerably.  Today, KW is the Number 4 Real Estate Company in North America, without any national image advertising, for one key reason.

THEIR BUSINESS MODEL!

The company focuses on the AGENTS, UP, rather than the CORPORTAION, DOWN!

Many of the other big three in real estate, and I have personal knowledge of Century 21 from experience, nearly shun successful agents.  For many years, while there, I couldn't fathom this!  But here is there business model, corporately - recruit new agents, at a low split, and make hay while the sun shines.  If they leave - just recruit more agents - and churn!  The most successful agents, in many cases, actually generate less income for the company.

They spend thousand of dollars each year in NATIONAL advertising, and agents there, in part, toil to build up this corporate image.  Agents here might be building businesses, but, often times, WHOSE business are they building?

At KW - producing agents are the key.  They recruit other producing agents.  Everyone is rewarded, at every level.  Top Producing agents, really, are partners in our business here.  Training is Agent-Centered, geared to bring every agent to Mega status.  Learning is no-nonsense, and how-to, in line with the lifestyle of the company's executives - who all have Real Estate Sales experience, by the way, up to the very top!

There is more I can discuss here - but that pretty much sums it up!  Make sense?

Aside from a few more nuggets of Company Philosophy.

Their mission - To build careers worth having, businesses worth owning and lives worth living!

Their Vision - To be the real estate company of choice for a new generation of sales associates and real estate owners.

Their Values - God (whoever He may be to you),  Family, then Business.  NOTE:  Bible Thumping has nothing to do with KW, contrary to what many have rumored.

Their Belief System -  Can be summed up as WI4C2TS -

If you love the place your with, that's cool!  Best of Luck, and we'll see you soon!  I'm a dog who doesn't write commercials!

But you owe it to yourself to at least give me a bark on the phone, or stop by the Dean's Team World Headquarters, in a Basement on Western Avenue, to investigate things here at KW a bit further - might make good sense.  Good BUSINESS sense!

This Little White Dog don't lie!  And I'll always have time for you!

YOUR ACE REPORTER ON FOUR PAWS,

BUDDY HOLLY MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO