The company celebrated during a live “Growth Call” with leaders from more than 1,000 franchisees across the U.S. and Canada. Nearly 150 KW agents received more than $1 million in lifetime profit sharing.
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Keller Williams hit a milestone Monday: The major real estate franchise has shared more than $2 billion in profits with its agents since the program began in 1987.
The company, which has 174,000 agents, is hosting a live “Growth Call” at 11 a.m. Central Time, featuring senior leaders from its more than 1,000 franchisees, also known as market centers, across the U.S. and Canada Live celebration.
“This achievement is a quantitative testament to our strong, growth-minded culture,” KW CEO and President Mark Willis said in a statement.
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Keller Williams also revealed on Monday that its franchisees delivered more than $148 million in profits to its affiliated agents between January 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. KW co-founder and executive chairman Gary Keller said in a statement that the profit-sharing plan allows franchisees to treat their agents as partners and allows agents “to play a key role in our franchise model.” building their own business in a model that is just as powerful as if they had a franchise store.” The brokerage firm itself. “
“This profit sharing milestone stems from how we view our relationships with our business partners,” Keller added. “Profit sharing is an equal opportunity, but unequal reward. Those who put in the effort will reap the greatest results.
Keller Williams is a private company, which means it is under no obligation to share any financial information publicly. The franchisor was a defendant in multiple Antitrust Commission lawsuits and settled for $70 million earlier this year.
Although the settlement received final approval from the district court, some home sellers are appealing the decision, claiming the payments are too low and objecting to the deal exonerating franchisees from liability without requiring them to pay compensation to those they allegedly injured or altered. People pay for anything regarding their practice.
Keller Williams’ profit-sharing plan has also been the subject of multiple lawsuits, as a plan to cut profit-sharing for defecting agents has now been scrapped. Attorneys behind the lawsuit claim the scheme amounts to a breach of contract and unjust enrichment by the company. These lawsuits are ongoing.
As of June 30, 2024, 137 KW agents had a lifetime profit share of more than $1 million, while 386 agents had a lifetime profit share of more than $500,000, according to the company. During this period, tens of thousands of agents received at least five figures in profit sharing:
- 3,077 KW agents receive more than $100,000 in lifetime profit sharing
- 6,648 KW agents receive more than $50,000 in lifetime profit sharing
- 28,827 KW agents receive more than $10,000 in lifetime profit sharing
“Profit sharing is the engine of our culture,” KW Atlanta agent Shawn Rawls said in a statement. “It gives everyone a seat at the table.”
Through Keller Williams’ current profit-sharing model, employees who have been with the company for more than seven years will receive a lifetime portion of their former market center’s profits. The market center takes a little over 50 percent of the profits, and then the sponsoring partners split the rest.
The model works like a pyramid, with each employee getting 50% of the profits, and then the rest is divided among their sponsoring partners, and that partner’s sponsoring partners, and so on, up to seven levels.
“Each of these programs is initiated when an employee joins a Keller Williams office and designates one person as the individual primarily responsible for bringing them to the company,” Keller Williams noted in a white paper describing the model. “This may not be the first or the last person they talk about Keller Williams.
“This could be people from their market centers, or people from other regions, provinces or countries,” the paper continues. “This is the person who has the greatest influence on their decision to join the company.”
According to KW, the agent can designate a beneficiary to receive distributions of their share of profits upon their death.
“Profit sharing is the legacy you can leave behind,” Jessica Starr, a KW agent in Simsbury, Connecticut, said in a statement. “You can leave it to a loved one or you can leave it to a trust fund.”
Send an email to Andrea V. Brambila.
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