Keller Williams Austin

Last week at the Keller Williams Family Reunion in Las Vegas the Austin Southwest Market Center was again named the Number One Real Estate office in the WORLD for Closed Units! That is for all real estate offices in the WORLD, not just Keller Williams!

Sylvia and I are proud to work out of the Southwest Market Center at Keller Williams in Austin. Other independent agents and Brokers we’ve know for years in Austin wondered why we went from being Crossland Real Estate, a small Mom-and-Pop Property Management and Sales company, to the other end of the spectrum in joining the single biggest real estate office in the world. “Why would you want to share your commissions when you’ve already proven you can make it as an independent Broker?” is a common question we’ve heard.

Well, let’s look at the math. Essentially, we pay Keller Williams $18,000 per year plus $80 per deal for E&O Insurance. What do we get in return? A lot. Going back on our own means we’d have to rent an office, furnish and equip it with everything we need, plus keep our home office equipped since that’s where we work from most often. Our insurance costs would be very high compared to what we pay now. We wouldn’t have the free training (yes, even after 16+ years we still constantly attend trainings) and “Lunch and Learns” (free lunch AND education!).

Most of all, we’d lose the culture, camaraderie and synergy that comes with being in constant contact with so many other Keller Williams agents who are at the top of their game. When we were Mom-and-Pop, there were nice aspects of that also, but we were isolated and left to our own means when a tough problem or question came up. We mainly only bumped elbows with other agents when we were doing deals, and that’s not the same as sharing ideas and information with peers. With Keller Williams, we have incredible resources at our disposal which benefit us and our clients and the constant contact with other agents helps us stay focused on our business.

Finally, the Keller Williams footprint in Austin is huge. Keller Williams sells about 1 out of 5 homes in Austin. We’ve had clients choose us simply because they wanted a Keller Williams Agent in Austin, and we’re the ones they found when they typed a search. It’s hard to put a value on that sort of intangible benefit.

Thinking about a career in real estate? Call me or Sylvia and we’ll give you the scoop – the good, bad and the ugly – of working and surviving in real estate and working with Keller Williams.

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