The Crossland Team is Back at Keller Williams Realty Austin SW Market Center

And the real estate journey continues …

Sylvia and I started Crossland Real Estate in Jan 1993, and remained independent until we sold our property management portfolio in 2004 and “retired” for a year. We didn’t actually formally retire … more of a sabbatical … as we were still in our 40s with kids 9 and 12. But we did take a year off from active real estate “production”.

We weren’t sure whether we wanted to remain in real estate forever or not. I started a telecom services company and dabbled in Business Brokerage, both of which were interesting pursuits worthy of a full effort, and which I could have succeeded at doing, but after some time off from the daily real estate routine, something happened… The phone rang. It was Real Estate. It wanted us back.

Sometimes distance from something brings perspective and a renewed appreciation of it.

So, in 2005, we decided to return to real estate full time, but also to operate under the Keller Williams Realty brand. We’d operated as a “mom and pop” independent real estate Brokerage for over a decade, and wanted to see what it was like to be part a big office Brokerage.

Not just big, but the biggest single location real estate office in the world (currently 800+ agents operate out of our SW Austin location). The “KW Mother Ship”. Talk about going from one extreme to the other!

It went well. We consistently ranked in the “Top 5” Teams. We joined the leadership team, felt a “part of”, and our business thrived. We grew as professionals. We drank the “KW Kool-Aid” as some would say. And it tasted good.

But after 4 years, we left, to become independent again. Ostensibly, to slow down and work less, to focus more on Listings and to grow the Property Management side of the business, both of which we accomplished. But something was still missing.

Then the phone rang … It was KW … They wanted us back. Sometimes distance from something brings perspective and a renewed appreciation of it. 

Leaving KW wasn’t a mistake from a business standpoint. Our last 4 years have been our highest production years ever. We do very well on our own, as no frills independents. We even added a Buyer’s Agent who now has 2+ years and 50 closed sales under his belt. We’re better than ever at what we do.

But when I read the blog post I wrote 11 years ago about why we initially joined KW in 2005, all of it still applies. I joked with KW staff that it’s sort of like those people who marry their ex-spouse. After some time apart, you remember the original reasons you were together, and it all still makes more sense than do the reasons you left each other.

So, here we are .. again. Happy to be back, looking forward to it, and already enjoying the synergy and camaraderie that comes with being in the KW “hive”. Our clients will benefit from the technology resources and greater reach that KW provides. And as we add additional Agents to the Crossland Team (call if you’re interested in becoming a Realtor in Austin), those agents will benefit from the training and atmosphere that is hard to provide within a mom and pop setting.

Note: Our property management business remains apart from KW, still as “Crossland Real Estate”, though all of our leasing and sales for those clients and properties does run through our KW brand.

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