KW profit sharing is no different from collecting a referral from another agent for sending them business.

It's really simple, the owner of each Keller Williams Market Center shares appox. 50% of their profits with the agents who help build the team. Profit is distributed based on the monthly company dollar contribution of agents who you had a role in recruiting.

At a Century 21 office, a small handful of managers, the owner and broker are the only people with a direct stake in recruiting agents. At KW... an office with 100 agents has 100 agents + staff with an economic incentive to recruit and that must be a challenge to compete with.

The very best way to recruit is to help people buy and sell real estate. If you meet an agent you enjoyed working with you can refer them to a team leader and collect a portion of the profits that agent generates....

It is just like a referral, and a great competitive advantage for our company.

Yes, it is different.

With a referral fee, it is generally a one-time event. You refer a client to another agent and recieve something back when they sell something to or of the client. Generally speaking, referring a client doesn't distort the behavior of the agent referring the client. Nor, is a referral distributed based on a 7 level system.

KW's "profit sharing" is supposed to generate a perpetual stream of income off agents referred to KW, thereby creating a path to financially independence. That's why KW agents pursue everyone they deal with to join KW --- regardless of whether they are a good agent or even a good fit.

That pursuit distorts nearly every relationship. That's why so many are leery of multi-level arrangements like KW.

And, it is why KW agents vigoriously claim it is something besides a multi-level arrangement.

Seeing as everyone seems to be so interested in the profit share hopefully I can shed some light on the program.

All of the training that I have been to since joining Keller Williams has been pitched the same. Work with buyers and sellers. Do what’s right and if you run into an agent that would fit the KW culture ask if it would be ok for our Team Leader to contact them. If it is a yes, then great pass the name along... I believe all managers jobs are to recruit, retain, and educated no matter which real estate company you affiliate with. (Some just do it better then others.) If the answer is no thank you then move on and understand that people are often happy where they are.

As for profit sharing; it is far from Amway or any other marketing scheme. KW is built on sharing the profit with the agents and owners. The numbers are roughly 47% of profits each month to the Owners and 53% to the agents that have successful helped to grow the office.

If I come across an agent that I feel exemplifies the KW culture and he or she comes to KW then I am open to receive a portion of their CAP (a number that each office computes... mine office in MA is 21K per year). Once that CAP is paid off by the agent that I recruit I will not receive any profit share until the following year (anniversary not calendar) that the agent renews. The profit share goes seven levels which can get exciting when an agent you recruited recruits a successful agent.

While you could get away to say it is Amwayish; I am sure many agents will beg to differ.

Also, I have never met any Agents, Staff, or Team Leaders (By the way; you can't sell real estate as a Team Leader / Manager at KW) affiliated with Keller Williams who doesn't make recruiting optional. Although I would challenge any Broker, Owner, Manager, or Team Leader to tell me that they don’t encourage their agents to help them recruit. We are in the field everyday and know which agents we would like to work with the most; right?

By the way I think it’s again important that to say I have been at KW since 6/06 and haven’t recruited a sole. My Team Leader isn’t pressuring me to either. However, I am starting to see some of my friends receive some nice checks so I am more vigil of the agents I work with now.

If they shun you, oh well. It is YOUR business that you are trying to jumpstart here. When they first brought this up to me I thought to myself, "why would I want other agents or why would I try to recruit good agents from other companies - I want the business, I dont need others sticking their hands in."


Alls I want to do is help people buy and sell homes also. Not only does my office have the whole downline, they are now starting to do all sorts of insurance now, which they want to incorporate into the profit sharing. This is something I will also not do.

I did not join KW for profit sharing reasons, and I don't plan on doing a whole lot of recruiting. I just want to concentrate on my business.

Someone above said that they cant block out the profit sharing concept of KW. Either someone is trying to really grow their downline or someone is weak minded and cant block things out.

Focus on yourself. Not every franchise and not every office is the same. Can a great downline make you money? Yes! Not every downline will.

I just wanted to pipe in yet again - RealTrends just released their RealTrends500 issue, which I received yesterday. They did a section on market leaders by metro areas.

For IDAHO (not metro area, entire state), 2006, here's how they rank:

By Transaction Sides:
Keller Williams Realty 3159
Coldwell Banker Aspen Realty 3109
Century 21 Beutler Associates 2421
Group One, Inc 2407

By Sales Volume:
Coldwell Banker Aspen Realty Inc $888,994,948
Keller Williams Realty $776,632,628
Group One, Inc $681,989,605
Century 21 Beutler & Associates $618,638,138

Just an interesting tidbit of info.

It is interesting to see what agencies did as a whole. But, what is even more inciteful is how the average agent did in each.

Here is how it looks for each of the agencies you named:


- - - - - - - - - - Gross Sales- - - - Agents - - - Sales Per Agent

Keller Williams- - - $777 million - - - 472 - - - - $1.646 million
CB Aspen - - - - - - $889 million - - - 227 - - - - $3.916 million
Group One - - - - - -$682 million - - - 194 - - - - $3.515 million
C-21 Beutler - - - - $719 million*- - - 210 - - - - $3.244 million


* The number is the RealTrends report has a typo. It is $719 million, not $619 million.

Again, you'll note that the Keller Williams office in Boise (according to an earlier post the one with the highest level of profit sharing in the entire KW system) has the lowest per agent productivity of all the agencies you mentioned.

Ouch!

What does this have to do with Pros & Cons of each company?Results vary per office. And let me ask you this, which of those companies above is the newest? Is it KW? Cause if it is, that is not bad at all.

Joseph,

The reason I even mentioned that is that I've had a couple KW folks try to throw statistics at me about the Idaho offices (as occured above).

In response to your question, the KW office has been around at least seven years (that is the earliest I remember seeing when I was in Boise). It may be older than that.

As you said, it really does depend on the individual office.

I have contributed comments to this site for awhile, but for those of you looking to join a new office, check out what your "cut" will be from the office. Many are 50% for new agents but my sister joined KW in Florida and as a new agent with no experience, she start at 80% 9yes, I said 80%). BIG difference!!! That was at the end of 2005 or the beginning of 2006 - I don't remember the date exactly, but I believe the cut is still way up there above the rest.

Judy

Judy,

You are missing a key point. EVERY office of EVERY franchise is different.

There are RE/MAX offices with all kinds of split commission plans. There are CENTURY 21 offices with 100% plans. There are KW offices with a variety of plans.

It truly depends on the individual agency.

In fact, I don't think ANY franchise that dictates a 50/50 split for newbies. It really depends on the local office, local situation and current circumstances.

Splits have always cracked me up, I just targeted a smaller mountain community where an EXIT location opened up and they requested I help them recruit. There were only two other shops in town, and they both offered only 40% to their agents even the ones that had been there for years!

I couldn't imagine being in the industry and working for 40%!!!

Keller Williams works for us. My wife and will be working in California

The answer to this question comes down to one thing. Do you want to run a business in real estate or do you want a job? If you want a job in real estate, I would definitely reccomend a traditional real estate company like Century 21 or Coldwell Banker.

If you want to run your own real estate business...then Keller Williams Realty is the obvious choice. Want to know why Keller Williams Realty is now the 3rd largest real estate company in the U.S., check out this link:

Old topic, but to shed some light on KW I'm a new agent with a 70/30 split and once I pay $18,000 in commission I keep 100% commission for the rest of my fiscal year. After the year is over, I of course have to revert back to a 70/30 split until I pay $18,000 more then again at 100%. If we don't do enough business to pay the $18,000 its not a problem, its not an issue.

The profit sharing thing is something that is interesting, but I didn't choose KW for that. I choose KW because the broker told me she earned over $150k her first year and will help me succeed and basically be my mentor.