Facts:
1. Keller Williams is a licensed Real Estate Company that abides by all the same regulations as any brokerage. This piece of fiction comes from the fact that agents are paid a portion of the income from the other agents they recruit. Traditional companies do not share this exact same income with the agents but keep it for the single owner.
2. At Keller Williams agents keep 70% of their commissions and the other 30% will go towards a $18,000 payment to the office in which they are a part owner. If they do not sell enough to pay the full $18,000 then nothing is charged and they try their best the following year. There is a $3,000 franchise fee that is also paid throughout the year but if the agent is not able to pay on their 70/30 split then they simply try again the following year. IT IS NOT OWED AT THE END OF THE YEAR.
Once the agent has paid the $18,000 to the office and the $3,000 to the franchise they are done and at 100% for the remainder of the year. For anyone that does more then $2 Million in volume this is much more then the traditional brokerages could ever afford to pay because of their overhead.
3. Keller Williams is the 2nd largest real estate company in the U.S. and in Canada. It is the ONLY large real estate company to grow in 2010 and the ONLY in the top 4 with $0 debt. It is the fastest growing company in Cleveland.
Currently the Westlake office has over 175 agents and grows at about 3 agents a month or more!
4. Keller Williams does focus on the agents more then other companies. It is able to do this by simply not having unnecessary overhead and corporate ownership to pay off before the agents.
5. Keller Williams does not have a website or marketing campaign that promotes the company branding for the single owner. This only benefits the perpetuation of franchises.
Keller Williams has an open internet system that does not try to monopolise their agents inventory and build profit by making other companies or web sites pay to display.
The truth, is that Keller Williams does have a great web site with over 86,000 agents inventory but, more importantly, educates it's agents on using the best websites like Realtor.com or Homes.com Statistically, these are the best websites to promote your clients homes on. Additionally, all homes listed by Keller Williams are still on all the smaller local real estate companies web sites anyway and now you get more!
6. Keller Williams does not have a new hire training that focuses on making sure their agents understand the importance of an unneccessary service administration fee. However, there is new hire trianing, mentorship programs and a focus on everyone being successful. Because Keller Williams gives ownership to every agent in the office, every agent, is focused on profitability of every other agent!
7. This fee is completely unnecessary and will NOT be imposed by Keller Williams Greater Cleveland West or The EZ Sales Team.
8. Every real estate company has a recruiting program that allows its agents to make money off that agent. No one is a victim here and it will be easy to find agents that where taken/recruited from other companies in your office the same way we are now recruiting you.
9. Keller Williams Realty would not be taking over market leadership roles on Cleveland's East Side, Cleveland's Southern Cities like Strongsville and now the West Side if the company was not selling homes. How would all these local agents be surviving on recruiting alone? They are not only surviving but thriving and the results show that.
10. The only value proposition they can try to offer is that their logo means more to your buyers/sellers then who you actually are and how hard you work. The fact is that your buyers/seller list with YOU and not the logo on your card. You will not fail by simply changing the logo on your card.