Keller outlines company’s ‘interdependent’ business model at Connect

San Francisco—Day two of Inman News Features’ Real Estate Connect conference being held here this week opened with a speech from Keller Williams Chairman Gary Keller, who outlined a series of business philosophies that he said have influenced his own private musings about the future of the real estate business.

Among the philosophies that captured Keller’s imagination were the dependent, independent and interdependent relationships model developed by author Steve Covey.

Keller said the traditional real estate business model in which the broker generates leads for the salespeople and gives them a cut of the commission is a type of a dependent relationship while the 100 percent commission model cuts brokers out of the lead-generating process and is a type independent relationship. He argued that these two business models polarize in a way that creates an opportunity for an interdependent relationship model.

Keller’s imagination was also captured by the notion of a customer-and-partner business model. He said in real estate there is only one true customer—the home buyer and home seller—and everyone else is by default a partner.

He said companies that use a partnership model must share profits, have honest standardized accounting, give partners decision-making authority so they can impact the financial results and provide appropriate training.

“At Keller Williams, an agent is a partner, so they share profits,” he said, “and they see the books, (so) they can impact the results,” he said.

Keller said there is no cause to “make fun” of any of real estate’s traditional or new business models because they all work and not everyone can be placed within the same category.

“Pick your poison. Choose the model that works for you,” he said. “No one is going to put any of these models out of business.”

He also stated that Keller Williams’ profit-sharing business model is misunderstood by other people in the business and that is a competitive advantage for the company.

“I need my competitors to continue to attack my model from a position of ignorance,” he said.

The Keller Williams chairman said the company now has 14,000-plus agents and 210 offices and is growing at the same rate that RE/MAX International was growing at a similar stage in its lifespan.

“We are going to overpass them,” Keller declared.

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