Does it ever feel like the pace you’re leading is unsustainable? Perhaps what you’re lacking is either the proper systems and processes or the human capital to help get the job done.

As Gary Keller was expanding his business, it required him to live his life on the road, spending more time away from his family than he wanted. What changed? A simple behavioral assessment led him to pause and identify the right processes, hire the right people, and eventually fire himself from the CEO role.

When an individual feels comfortable in an environment that isn’t working it becomes the basis with which you can accept change.

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Does it ever feel like the pace you’re leading is unsustainable? Perhaps what you’re lacking is either the proper systems and processes or the human capital to help get the job done. As Gary Keller was expanding his business, it required him to live his life on the road, spending more time away from his […]

Adding to its phenomenal international
growth, Keller Williams Worldwide announced that one of Malaysia’s top real
estate companies, the
Reapfield Group, is joining the Keller Williams family. With an award-winning
35-year history, and more than 800 agent-entrepreneurs throughout Southeast
Asia, the Reapfield Group will
morph into KW Malaysia.

Founded in 1984
by David Ong, the
Reapfield Group’s 11 offices are a fixture all over the Klang Valley and Penang, attracting
high-potential agents and professionals with an emphasis on building and training strong leaders. The company
dominates local and international real estate projects in residential,
industrial, and commercial markets, yet elevates long-term business
relationships over property transactions.

We’re excited to be welcoming David and his amazing leaders in Malaysia to our KW global family,” said William E. Soteroff, president of Keller Williams Worldwide (KWW), the international division of Keller Williams.

“David’s leadership team brings with them decades of experience growing an agent-centric brokerage model that’s in near perfect alignment with KW.”

The partnership is KWW’s 38^th region and marks Keller Williams first expansion into Malaysia.  From its branding to its mission, values, and culture, Reapfield’s resemblance to Keller Williams’ belief system is striking. Like KW, character and personal development are core values at the Reapfield Group, where they instill In God We Trust, In Family We Cherish, In Business We Excel.

“We stand amazed at how well the belief system is instilled and implanted in the people at Keller Williams. We were drawn to the consistency that we saw. That Keller Williams’ people wholeheartedly seek to live an uplifted life, personally and in their businesses, really resonates with us,” said Jonathan Lee, the Reapfield Group’s chief operating officer.

After an initial meeting with Keller Williams nine years ago and watching the company double its agent count since then, Ong knew the time was right to “ride on the shoulder of an industry giant.” The company’s technology transformation and commitment to equip and bring agents closer to the market solidified the decision.  

“Globally, things are changing so fast. The need to evolve and adapt is continuous. There’s no need to go it alone. We’re so proud to partner with a company that has the kind of forward mentality that Keller Williams does. We need that leadership they bring and feel the time is perfect to leverage our efforts, join with the industry’s foremost leader, and engage on their growing real estate smart cloud platform.”

“We’re so proud to partner with a company that has the kind of forward mentality that Keller Williams does.”

David Ong

As of June 30, KWW has 206 market
centers (outside of U.S. and Canada) across 38 regions. KWW has 8,075 agents
collectively operating outside the U.S. and Canada, up 20.9% since the end of Q2 ’18.

KWW is currently exploring further expansion opportunities across Africa, Central and South America, Central and Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia.

Adding to its phenomenal international growth, Keller Williams Worldwide announced that one of Malaysia’s top real estate companies, the Reapfield Group, is joining the Keller Williams family. With an award-winning 35-year history, and more than 800 agent-entrepreneurs throughout Southeast Asia, the Reapfield Group will morph into KW Malaysia. Founded in 1984 by David Ong, the […]

Innovation is the core of entrepreneurship, an instrument that creates consistent value and a tool that allows real estate agents to operate within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The period marked by rapid technological advancement and artificial intelligence has shifted the way business is being done. 

“Artificial intelligence helps you make smart decisions and gives you [and your clients] a better experience,” explains Gary Keller, CEO, co-founder and chairman of Keller Williams.

“When you think about the digital experiences you have (i.e., Netflix), you’ll notice they shape-shift over time and personalize to your preferences. This is AI in action and AI is fed by data.”

“The businessperson who wins in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is one who has access to the most amount of data, powered by strong AI.”

As the world’s largest company by agent count, Keller Williams has a competitive advantage: the data exhaust its people produce. This advantage has fueled Command – an open and highly customizable platform that allows agents to run their business in different ways.

At every turn, Command offers customization that CRMs cannot with its
suite of interconnected technologies. Among many things, agents can:  

• Customize client touches, including checklists, drip campaigns and marketing.
• Track their deals from lead to close.
• Customize phases of their transactions based on their preferences and workflow. 
• Create tailor-made marketing pieces.  

To enhance this already powerful technology and further drive value
for agents, Keller Williams is collaborating with leading technology companies
such as Google, DocuSign, and Nextdoor through the Keller Cloud Innovator
Program (KCIP).

“At its core, KCIP brings the best ideas from the most innovative
disrupts to drive real estate forward,” says Neil Dholakia, chief product officer of Keller Williams.

A Customizable Command Experience

The program enables the integration of top tech tools within an agent’s suite of Keller Cloud solutions, making way for further customization. All integrations are accessible through a marketplace for use in Command, allowing agents to work efficiently in a single ecosystem that they own.

“These add-ons in Command allow real estate agents to deliver robust services surrounding the transaction to consumers based on how they want to be served.”

Neil Dholakia

“They also allow us
to focus on our most important initiative – to build core business systems that
create an unfair advantage for our agents. To do this, we cannot spend our
time, focus and investment building generic commodity software. Instead, we
will integrate these capabilities into Command to give agents a choice as to
which features they’d like to use.”

Innovation is the core of entrepreneurship, an instrument that creates consistent value and a tool that allows real estate agents to operate within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The period marked by rapid technological advancement and artificial intelligence has shifted the way business is being done.  “Artificial intelligence helps you make smart decisions and gives you […]

With only 24 hours in a day, it’s important to focus your time on the activities that earn you the biggest rewards. By taking over crucial tracking tasks – like transaction management and compliance – Command puts time back on your calendar.

How? … (Through Opportunities.)

Introducing Opportunities

Opportunities is an application within
Command that replaces traditional CRM databases
by tailoring all your tracking to the real estate transaction process. From
lead to close, agents can manage all offers, documents, and communications with
clients that fall within their sales pipeline from one convenient location.

“Opportunities gives us a more streamlined client and transaction management,” says Erin McCormick, COO of Hergenrother Realty Group. In 2018, the Hergenrother Realty Group closed 2,117 transactions for $519.5 million in volume. “Everyone from clients to agents and the administrative staff working behind the scenes will have visibility and power to ensure the process is as smooth as possible from start to finish.”

Customize Your
Transaction Process

One of the most
common frustrations with traditional CRM is a one-size-fits-all mentality that
doesn’t jive with your personal transaction process. To curb those
frustrations, Opportunities breaks down transactions into four phases – Appointment,
Active, Under Contract, and Closed – each of which can be further broken down
into stages that are fully customizable based on your preferences.

Once you create an opportunity
– a single record that tracks everything related to the transaction – you can
simply drag-and-drop it through the various customized stages of your pipeline
as the transaction progresses. 

Business Opportunities at Your
Fingertips

True to its name, Opportunities
also allows agents to take a deeper dive into their pipeline to get a pulse on
impending business opportunities. At a glance, you can see your listings,
appointments, contracts, closed deals, and forecasted GCI in real time. You can
even customize the reports Opportunities creates so you can get a sharper look
at your goals – and the exact activities it will take to achieve them. 

“Finally, agents are able to put a dollar value on their calendar of appointments,” says Allie Livengood, Director of Agent Services.

“Opportunities allows for a more holistic view of the current business and their pipeline than we have previously had access to.”

Taking an Opportunity
to the Finish Line

Transaction
management isn’t the only activity made easier through Opportunities;
compliance is as well.

As a part of Keller
Williams’ mission to own its own data and create an end-to-end platform,
DocuSign has been invited into the Keller Cloud as the preferred partner in the
launch of Compliance in Command.

Already the industry leader for digital signature
services, DocuSign is also a provider of document management. They will perform
such tasks through integration into Command’s Opportunities application,
helping agents dramatically reduce data entry and effort in the preparation of
real estate forms for listing agreements, purchase agreements, and more.

“Command offers both simplicity and incredible visibility into our entire organization,” says Adam Hergenrother, founder and CEO of Adam Hergenrother Companies. “One interconnected system, with access to data in real time, enables us to scale our business like never before.”

Compliance in Command

With only 24 hours in a day, it’s important to focus your time on the activities that earn you the biggest rewards. By taking over crucial tracking tasks – like transaction management and compliance – Command puts time back on your calendar. How? … (Through Opportunities.) Introducing Opportunities Opportunities is an application within Command that […]

Life is made up of moments, ranging from joyful to painful or tough. How you respond to these moments will directly impact your success.

Emerging from a low point in his life, both personally and professionally, Gary Keller reevaluated, reprioritized and let go of fear, allowing him to take a leap of faith and create Keller Williams as we know it today.

Vision is ultimately behaving in a manner where you’re always asking the question what’s possible, not probable.

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Life is made up of moments, ranging from joyful to painful or tough. How you respond to these moments will directly impact your success. Emerging from a low point in his life, both personally and professionally, Gary Keller reevaluated, reprioritized and let go of fear, allowing him to take a leap of faith and create […]

Mortgage rates
have dropped since late last year, and that’s good news for consumers. Lower
rates mean consumers pay less over the life of their home loan.

For agents, taking
the time to understand how mortgage rates work is key. As you guide your clients
through the homebuying or selling process, it’s a tool you can use to drive
informed conversations and help them better weigh their options.

So, what’s
important to know about mortgage rates? First off, let’s talk about a common
myth out there, that the Federal Reserve, also referred to as “The Fed,” sets
mortgage rates. That’s not entirely true.

What’s the Federal Reserve?

It’s the central bank of the United States, and it
controls our money supply. If you think about the U.S. economy as a person, money is the blood,
the banking system is the heart, and the Fed is our cardiologist. Congress has
tasked the Fed with keeping tabs on two of our vital signs – inflation (how
fast prices go up) and employment, specifically keeping the economy at the
maximum level sustainable.

The
Fed keeps its eye on that big picture. When Fed members meet eight times a year
to talk about how the economy is doing, they’re not specifically setting
mortgage rates. Instead, they’re deciding how to manage the supply of money in
circulation. They do this by buying and selling short-term Treasury bills. 

Here’s
how the Fed operates.

If it thinks
the economy is sluggish, it will buy Treasurys, thereby injecting cash into the
economy. In response to the increased demand for Treasurys created by the Fed,
their price goes up and their yield, or their rate of return, goes down. When that
rate is low, it’s cheaper to borrow money, so consumers and companies spend
more. That boosts the economy.

On the
other hand, if the Fed thinks prices are beginning to grow too rapidly, they
will start selling off the Treasurys on their balance sheet in an effort to
reduce the supply of money circulating in the country. Less demand means lower
prices for the bonds and their rate goes down. Higher rates mean people are
less likely to take out loans and spend. The goal is to keep prices in check
without slowing the economy down too much and creating a recession.

Mortgage
rates are very much tied to Treasury yields, but here’s the rub.

They aren’t the same Treasurys that the Fed normally buys and sells to manage
the money supply. The Fed uses short-term Treasurys while mortgage rates track
with longer-termed Treasurys that are assets much more comparable to a mortgage.
That’s why mortgage rates don’t always move in lockstep with Federal Reserve
policies. The best proxy for mortgage rates is generally the 10-year Treasury,
and because these bonds span a bigger chunk of time, their prices are impacted
by more than just what the Fed is doing.

Long-term
Treasury rates are impacted by a lot of things, ranging from people’s
expectations about the future health of the US economy to global, geopolitical
events. When people think things are risky in the world, you will often see
money move into these bonds and drive down their rates.

The
trick to learning and following mortgage rate movements is often to read the
news and look at how yields on 10-year Treasury rates respond. Often, you’ll
find that within a week mortgage rates will follow changes in the 10-year Treasury
almost to a tee.

So,
what does all this mean for real estate agents?

All
other things being equal, we know that when mortgage rates go up, home sales go
down. And when mortgage rates fall, home sales should go up. All other things
are rarely equal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use this information to
create valuable insights about the direction of mortgage rates and home sales
in your market. You can have better conversations with your clients and
demonstrate your value, not only as an expert on the local market, but as
someone who can see the big picture.

About Ruben Gonzalez

Ruben Gonzalez is the chief economist at Keller Williams. He leads in-depth research efforts and tracks leading indicators that impact the housing market.

Gonzalez creates ongoing housing forecasts and regularly provides commentary on real estate market trends to a range of national business, real estate and financial news outlets.

Gonzalez received his undergraduate degree and earned his master’s degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin.

Mortgage rates have dropped since late last year, and that’s good news for consumers. Lower rates mean consumers pay less over the life of their home loan. For agents, taking the time to understand how mortgage rates work is key. As you guide your clients through the homebuying or selling process, it’s a tool you […]