Keller Williams Pyramid Scheme is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

why is it only suckers who joined the company get comments posted. This is a very dangerous pyramid scheme. I looked into and as a relator i can say that it is only non-producers that I have found moved to this company. There are no shortucuts in the real estate business. The only way to make money is to work hard!

Corinne, thanks for pointinig that out. There are alot of other fees that KW has also.

IT MIGHT BE GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE SELLING THE HOUSES BUT I AM HERE TO TELL YOU SINCE JULY I AM FIGHTING TO GET MY EARNEST MONEY BACK AND THE RICHMOND OFFICE IS DOING NOTHING BUT JERKING ME AROUND .EVERYONE THERE IS GIVING ME THE BIGGEST RUN AROUND AND NO STRAIGHT ANSWERS..I WILL NEVER TELL ANY ONE TO USE THEM EITHER BUYING OR SELLING...BUYER BEWARE

Here's the truth about KW:

While KW touts their AMAZING growth to 90,000 agents, the reality is that their per-agent-productivity is 5 homes a year. Let me repeat 5 HOMES A YEAR!!!! Take a company like RE/MAX with about the same number of associates and you see their P-A-P is 15 deals a year. So the average RE/MAX agent sells 3 times the amount of real estate as the KW agent!!! So much for all that great training with KW ehh??

Keller Williams is nothing more than a license mill for unqualified, non-producing agents to hang their license. The sad thing is that I give my daughter more allowance in a year then probably 80% of the KW agents make in profit sharing.

I have read Gary Keller's "millionaire" book and if I ever met him I would ask him right to his face "if you're so concerned with training and being the best, and KW agents succeeding, then how come the average KW agent sells 5 homes a year????" Thats poverty level folks!!! Thats not a millionaire agent!!

Finally, just thought I'd point out that KW DOES NOT have the #1 market share IN ANY OF THE MARKETS THEY ARE LOCATED IN...NONE!!! Not even their hometown of Austin Texas!!! This my friends, is why it is called "drinking the KW KoolAid"... because all the agents are buying into is a dream... not a reality.

Tom, this company that you hate so dearly is really a great team. In Houston we have great teams with really great leaders. If you're having trouble with getting your earnest money back contact your states real estate commission. I haven't seen anything bad about them in over the year that I have been with them. The pyramid scheme that you call it really works. It is a retirement plan that continues forever and I plan on retiring someday, I'm glad they have and I do recruit for that reason. The training is there and the agents that use it are high producers. There are those agents who don't need as much income and they are happy with what they make. I'm sorry that you are having troubles however that does not speak for the remainder of us. Sincerely Bobbie Lehmer KW Commercial Texas.

It is a scheme and here is my point. I belong to a brokerage where I only pay $185 per transaction. My monthly fee is $99. I'm not a broker and I was just named in Real Trends Top 100 Agents in 2013. The scam behind there profit share is simple. If a Market Center is not profitable, none of the agents make profit. No one tells you that in Keller Williams. Plus, agents aren' aware if you simply google online brokerage. You'll find brokerage after brokerage quoting these same rates I'm paying. Research it. If you really are a God fearing company, keep this message on the comments section here. In so far as training, an agent can simply take the same classes at their board. Research it folks.

Keller Williams Profit Sharing aka Retirement Plan, that some want to call it… only works if the company is GROWING… If Real Estate dips, which it will again within a few years or less, you can all but kiss that retirement plan goodbye. KW has a great sales pitch and I do like the team building philosophy, but don’t be so blind to see that profit sharing is an MLM and all MLM’s die when they stop growing. Many KW agents, who drank the coolaid, found out exactly what will happen to that RETIREMENT when the market crashed in 2008.

I want to be fair and objective and not bash anybody. I respect everybody's decision to work wherever makes them productive and happy. I did interview with KW a few years ago since a friend of mine works there and referred me. First they fed me a ton of information including books, classes and training they offer. It was great they had so much, almost overwhelming to be honest. The culture they pitch which does exist is very rah rah go go and everything is wonderful, very corporate. What had me at odds was their list of priorities. My first priority is my family where there's was GOD and family was second. It was too religious for me and no business except the business of religion should be like that. They also wanted $21,000 per year deducted from my already low split this making it closer to 60 to 65%% plus the office fees on top of that. I am not completely in the know about how the distribution of profit sharing works, but I hope it's not a Ponzi scheme.

its simple if you get a check for .66 cents on a recruits 200k deal it means if the people under you do a million in business you'll get approx. 6 dollars. STOP !!!! not even enough to cover you for one month of their fees.

Does KW discourage agents from showing other company's listings? Do KW agents receive greater incentives for selling KW listings First?

It's too bad, because on the surface, Keller Williams appears to be a great real estate company, but if you've ever had a chance to look behind the curtain, you'll find that there are a lot of shady goings-on and things aren't exactly as they like to tell their agents. KWRI & the company's many associates across the country, like to boast about being the number one training company in the world. You might ask yourself why they push their classes so hard, specifically the classes that cost you money. You should also ask yourself, why they so strongly recommend that you take every class/course at least 10 times. Shhhhh...it's a secret, but they don't really make their money from the real estate company. MAPS Coaching (Keller WIlliams' training company, led by Diana Kokoska) actually makes more money than the real estate brand. You see? There's a reason they jam the paid education & training down your throat. Need more? Well then take a look at any agent (Mega or otherwise...but usually it's a Mega Agent who possesses the knowledge to embark on a venture like this) who has started a successful training company. As soon as they begin to pose a threat to MAPS Coaching, Diana and KWRI take them out. They either purchase the Mega Agent's coaching company, or they lure the agent away with some kind of an incentive. If they are unsuccessful at stopping a budding training/coaching company that possess a threat to MAPS Coaching, that's when things get nasty. They'll attempt to intimidate and if that doesn't work, they'll eventually just smear that agent with vicious rumors and unrelenting negative gossip. What it comes down to is this...KW is not a real estate company, they're a training company and that's where they make all their money...and if someone starts a competing training company (whether they be a KW agent, or not) that possess a threat to MAPS Coaching, then KW will stop at next to nothing to take that competitor out. Some might say, "well that's just business", but that only makes it more ludicrous, because the company supposedly stands by it's "Belief System", otherwise known as the WI4C2TS...unfortunately they only adhere to these "Beliefs" when it's convenient, because their actions and vicious attacks on anyone who poses a threat to the corporate profitability, definitely don't fit their hallowed WI4C2TS. In fact, their actions are completely opposite of this supposed belief system. Kind of like the religious person who only calls themselves a "Christian", because they think that it automatically gives them credibility as a honest person, yet their actions are so far from being "Christian" that it makes you wonder how they haven't caught on fire yet. There's a special place in hell for the puppeteers at Keller Williams. The reason I know all of this? Because I used to be a Keller Williams Mega Agent. I built a team from the ground up, achieving the top 10 list for our region. I was recognized on stage numerous times at both Family Reunion and Mega Camp. I have been on many panels at both semi-annual conventions. I have spent time with Gary Keller, Diana Kokoska, Mo Anderson, Mark Willis, Chris Heller, Ben Kinney and many more. I got to see behind the curtain and I promise you that this company is not at all what it seems. There are some VERY dishonest, greedy people running the show and they have no problem doing everything in their power to ruin a competitor's business. Not at all what you'd expect from a company who says things like "God, family, then business...", or "A career worth having and a life worth living". It's all a facade and while there are some really great and innocent people in this company, who have no clue what goes on at the top and to what levels leadership will stoop to ruin someone who they feel is a threat, the company as a whole, is pure evil. I'm not telling you this to get you to change your mind about your company (assuming you're a KW associate right now), or to cause you to choose a different company (if you're in the process of choosing a brokerage, or changing brokerages), I'm just telling you to really take a hard long look at what's really going on in this company...don't just take their word for it...see for yourself...question why things are done a certain way, or why they're done at all...don't drink the Kool-Aid and do not blindly follow your team leader, eating up everything he/she says, believing it to be the truth. When I started to see things that didn't seem to make sense (and remember that I was rubbing shoulders with the founder of the company and just about every top executive in KW) and when I started asking questions about what I was seeing, they quickly tried to shut me up. That didn't go over very well with me, especially since I had bought in and was 100% on board with everything I had been told about the company. I not only drank the Kool-Aid, I chugged it down in gallons! But when they couldn't answer my questions to my satisfaction and when I started voicing my opinion about certain actions seeming unethical, or dishonest, it was like a switch had been flipped almost instantly. I went from being a superstar, who was being flown around the country to teach classes and to meet with members of the executive team, to having them spread rumors about ME doing unethical things and supposedly recruiting all of their top agents to start a new company that would compete with KW. This of course, was totally bogus and when I asked them for proof of what they were accusing me of, they claimed that they "don't need to prove anything" to me. They didn't stop there...they went on to trash my name within the local association in the market I was operating out of...they also specifically talked about me at team meetings in my home Market Center, spewing lies and rumors about me, in an effort to ensure that none of the many followers/attendees of my classes would approach me to hear my side of the story. They then went on to contact (I later found that their IT guy had hacked our team computers and stolen our client databases) all of my personal past clients and those of my team as well. Ever since then, they heavily target any agent who joins my team. They recruit my people non-stop, continuing to tell their lies about things that they accuse me of doing, yet can never seem to produce any proof to support their accusations. It's SO ridiculous and so disheartening. Keller Williams really could be a fantastic company, but it's run by dishonest, unethical, perverted (YES...you read that right...I'll save those stories for another post, but I've witnessed many of the top MARRIED leadership members of KW at Mega Camp and Family Reunion, getting into bed with, or behaving sexually inappropriately with people of the opposite sex, who are NOT their spouses!), greedy jackasses, who have ruined what this company should be known for and should be promoting. My team and I have survived and not only that, we are thriving, amidst the constant attacks from KW...even now...5 years later! In fact, their attacks and rumor mongering have actually helped us. With all of the agents that we've brought on from KW (I haven't ever recruited even one of their agents...these are all people who came to me, after seeing similar things that they themselves didn't care for at the company), we've chosen to move from being a large team, to becoming our own brokerage. It hasn't been easy to deal with such dishonest attacks, but it seems as though they're beginning to get what they deserve. My only hope is that YOU will QUESTION what you're told at KW and that YOU will THINK FOR YOURSELF. Just remember, if someone doesn't want you to question their actions, or if they're offended by you not blindly trusting them, then there's a high probability that something is not right...and you should start to look at things a little more closely.

The local agent here in St cathariens ontario just told me theircommission is 5%. That is 1% higher than any other company, 2% higher than many others as most will offer 4% commission. Their estimated selling price is way above any other agent I have spoken to and their process is to hold all listing one week as exclusive, not posted on MLS, to market it themselves to their internal people first. Then put on public MLS system to open it up to everyone. There is NO commission reduction during the exclusive listing period of 7 days either.....full 6-% if sold during this time. Sounds quite fishy to me, especially in a fast hot market.....thoughts??

KW has done amazing things to not only improve their business numbers but also to improve the lives of clients by meeting their goals with trained professional estate agents using proven systems to achieve better and faster results. So if you are a traditional estate agent working in a 50/50 commission split, you should ask yourself WHY you have not have made the move. KW is the largest by agent count, volume and units. Sucks to me anywhere else when you work for the No1 happiest workplace in the world, as voted by employees in USA.

I joined KW for two months and wondered If had actually joined Scientology. I left.

KW is a scam. Everyone saying otherwise is in on the scam