Gary Keller has either discovered micro-dosing or, like so many Boomers his age, finally facing the inevitable. How else to explain KW’s latest incarnation?
Last month KW held their annual “Mega Agent Camp”. Full disclosure, I have never been. But from what I understand these things tend to feature lots of rah-rah-Ing, ego-stroking and feel-good vibes. Well…?
Many years ago, Gary Keller did his best Steve Jobs imitation in announcing his vision for real estate as revolutionary. Not too long ago, Gary donned a hoodie, just like Zuckerman, when declaring KW to be a technology company. No telling what’s going on now, but clearly Gary is channeling some combination of Timothy Leary with an annoying first-year psychology student.
In this year’s keynote address, KW’s co-founder highlighted the “pursuit of happiness” as the most important goal one should have in their life. To that end Keller urged everyone to “drill down on their faults and failures to find the happiness to fuel future achievements”. “Grasping happiness is a serious pursuit that requires agents to be honest about their faults”.
ACTUAL QUOTES
“No one’s going to use their dying breath to say, I just want to take one more listing. You’re not going to say show me my checkbook balance one more time. All that will matter to you is that you’re in harmony with the people that own your heart”. (Good Lord when does the rah-rah-ing begin!?)
“It’s about being intentional” added Jay Papasan KW’s Vice President of Strategic Content. While it’s not entirely clear as to whatever Jay was talking about, we do note his job title which speaks volumes. As the Agent Camp wore on Keller added, “You can’t make me unhappy. What freedom”! When he was asked about his Company’s impending lawsuits Keller added; “I don’t care. You can take it all away. It means nothing to me”. Really? (Check your dosage)
We mention this because of the madness in it all. While Gary’s final chapters have yet to be written, agents need to re-evaluate if this “style” of real estate affiliation is what you want for yourself in 2024.
Franchise real estate means agents have a “partner” in real estate. They must pay a percentage of every commission to their franchise partner. Away from the franchises, agents can simply use a “Service Provider” and pay a flat fee. At Wynd Realty that flat fee is $350. A $100K home sale and a $10M dollar sale home have the same $350 fee. Why should we get paid any differently if the contract is written in higher numbers?
Wynd Realty is about as far away from the franchise business model as you can get. Our agents never pay Board dues. We don’t believe in NAR. Our agents never pay a cent on referral or rental income. Whatever they earn is paid back at 100%. Again, Wynd Realty never believed Brokers should cheese-in on the referral and rental income of agents. It just seemed small.
Franchise agents must pay for their Brokers brand. Why? Who cares about the Broker’s brand? Wynd Realty isn’t concerned if the consumer even knows our name. We’d much rather have the consumer remember the agent and their message.
In the franchise world, it’s the brokers brand that allegedly brings in business. Spoiler alert—it doesn’t. It did in 1993, but in 2024 the franchise tag is a Polaroid. At Wynd Realty, agents are encouraged to create their own brands and business models. Afterall it’s the agents who are the stars of this trade—not the Broker.
Wynd Realty has a low monthly agent fee ($14.95) in large part because we don’t employ Vice Presidents of Psychobabble. As a matter of fact, we don’t have any Vice Presidents, Receptionists, Closing Coordinators, or Training Directors. We don’t pay rent on a cool office building that agents hate going to. We also don’t have a lot of expensive equipment and there isn’t an expresso machine anywhere in sight.
We run a commons sense business. Everything we do has to make common sense. We never preach or psycho-analyze our agents. We never claim to know it all. We are a service provider working FOR the real estate agent.
Update your Realty Profile today and affiliate with Wynd Realty or with any of the other wonderful independent brokerages throughout Atlanta! Never forget, Little “r”s rule Atlanta! Become a “little r” today!
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