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As soon as I was out of the mountains of Kenauk Nature Resort and back in cell service my email and phone started blowing up. Earlier this week at Mega Camp (one of Keller William’s annual conferences) in Austin, John Davis, CEO of KWRI (Keller Williams Realty International), announced the creation of virtual brokerages. Cue questions, confusion, excitement, and general pandemonium. What does this mean for market centers? How does this effect agents? What exactly is Expansion? What does this mean for caps? Will everyone have access to this? How do I get you in my market center? How do I build an Expansion business and take advantage of this? What is a virtual brokerage?
Let’s slow down a second. Expansion (which we originally called Duplication) is when a real estate team owner, who is part of a brokerage, expands their business outside of their local market. Think of Expansion as a team without geographic borders. Gary Keller actually gave birth to this idea 15-20 years ago. Perhaps agents and the industry weren’t ready for it. Perhaps technology wasn’t ready for it. About 5-7 years later, Gary tried again and it failed for a second time! But, in 2011, Gary and I started to have these conversations about Expansion and it clicked for me instantly. You see, I was in a geographically challenged area, where I would always be limited to a certain size business because of the wonderful (and small) state that I live in, Vermont. We have approximately 2,700 real estate transactions per year – yes, you read that right. 2,700 transactions for the entire state. I don’t like to be limited, so when Gary floated the idea of expanding my team beyond the borders of Vermont, I was in.
Hergenrother Realty Group, Gary, a few other business owners, and I have been the pioneers for Expansion over the past 7 years. The first several years was all trial and error and failing forward. We went through several iterations and eventually solidified a model that exemplifies our passion for leadership and leverage. However, in the past 24 months, our competitors caught on to what we were doing and realized that they could provide an expansion model without all the complexities or challenges that Keller Williams has faced due to franchise rights and Market Center territories. We may have created Expansion, but our competitors were exploiting it.
In order to stay competitive and at the top of the industry, we needed to make a global change to the Expansion model. Enter virtual brokerages. Virtual brokerages are something that I have been pushing (rather fighting for) for over 18 months now. Last week in a private board room with Gary Keller, John Davis, KWRI’s legal team, KW’s CTO, and three other Expansion business owners, we were finally able to nail down the virtual brokerage model. Hence the announcement at Mega Camp last week. This doesn’t mean that Market Centers or traditional brokerages and independent agents are dead. They simply need to shift and adjust to the changing landscape of the real estate industry in order to stay competitive. Expansion only adds to the viability of Market Centers. And independent agents who tap into KW technology will thrive.
There are still a lot of details to work out, but here is what we know about how virtual brokerages will work and how they will impact the industry:
So, why Expansion? Why not just join a traditional brokerage or even join Keller Williams as an individual agent? What is the value of Expansion?
Expansion equals execution in real estate. It is the next level of teams. Amazon is awesome. Amazon Prime is even better. HRG executes. We get agents into production – fast – through our models, systems, technology, agent services, accountability, marketing, training, referrals, and exceptional client care, creating customer loyalty and raving fans of our agents and our clients, through both our on-site and centralized services. We have created a culture where high performers come to be pushed and challenged and to grow even more. We back up that culture with our extreme commitment to personal growth through business success through our training and accountability. Ideas come to us to be vetted and the right ones executed on so that we all grow together.
Expansion, with the help of virtual brokerages, are taking the steps to put the agent’s business back in the forefront, not in the hands of Market Center owners. This has been Gary’s vision his entire life. Gary is an agent first, and so am I. Taking care of agents creates an incredible culture for them, and an incredible experience for customers. Expansion is simply supporting this vision from the inside and making it happen faster.
The opportunities with Expansion are endless. One of the elite Expansion teams (and there are only a few) will be then 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th largest real estate companies in the world. The only reason they will not be #1, is because they already operate inside the number 1 organization – Keller Williams Realty. In this case, I’m okay coming in second.
Interested in learning more about Expansion businesses, virtual brokerages, and how you can join forces with one of the elite Expansion teams, right now? Email hallie@adamhergenrother.com and she’ll connect you with the right resource so you don’t miss out on this real estate revolution!
An entrepreneur at heart, Adam Hergenrother is the Founder & CEO of the thriving organization Adam Hergenrother Companies.
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