Dear Keller Williams Family,

There is a success story in today’s real estate market despite what you may be reading in the headlines. Keller Williams Realty is more strongly positioned than ever to fulfill our destiny of becoming the #1 real estate company in North America! 

Take a look at how we are outpacing the industry!

• While the National Association of REALTORS® has shrunk by 6 percent, Keller Williams has only experienced a 2 percent adjustment in agent count!
• While other companies and offices are selling out or closing their doors, we opened 25 offices in the last 12 months!
• While other companies are raising fees and charging their agents more in order to keep the doors open, the vast majority of our offices are profitable!
• And, while agents with other companies worry about their financial security, we have given back more than $32 million in profits to our agents over the last year!
  
  

As we watch our competitors, particularly those that answer to Wall Street, take on billions of dollars of debt, we are proud to say that our company has not one dollar of financing debt and we remain strongly, soundly profitable. 

Our strategy is no secret. We faithfully follow the sound financial model of leading with revenue – the same model our market centers follow – and we are experiencing the unprecedented payoff this discipline delivers! 

We urge each of you to do the same in your real estate business. If you zero in on building your lead generation skills and reducing expenses, you WILL power through this market and experience greatness and expansion while others experience contraction and fear. 

Remember that the 12 tactics outlined in Gary Keller’s book, SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, are crucial to your business. Implement each of these tactics right now! We ask that you commit to sharing SHIFT and the Keller Williams opportunity with as many people as possible! Show others how to get the skills they need and the environment they crave. Bring them home…to Keller Williams Realty! 

Not a day goes by that we do not receive emails and phone calls from many of you across North America concerned about the state of the real estate industry and the state of our company. We want to assure you that Keller Williams Realty is thriving and we will continue to power through this shift in the real estate market. 

As always, we admire your spirit, your tenacity, and your dedication to your businesses and this company. It’s because of you that we are succeeding and we thank you for all you do. We are honored to be in business with you. 

Yours in seizing this opportunity,

Gary Keller Chairman of the Board	Mo Anderson Vice Chairman

Mark Willis CEO	Mary Tennant President and COO

Other Keller Williams NEWS:

 An Emerging Story Beneath The Headlines - Real Estate Market Becoming a Suprise Safe Haven For Savings!

Keller Williams Family Reunion 2009: Kevin Carroll Announced As Guest Speaker

The Keller Center Research Report - Cash In with Clients: Know What Customers Really Value!

Luxury Homes By Keller Williams Opens Doors To New Members and Hot Leads

 Top Takeaways From Mega Camp and Lead Generation - What Really Works?

Why Choose A Real Estate Career At Keller Williams Realty?

Need Help with the Licensing Process?

Read The Dozen Secrets Every Real Estate Agent Should Know

By Dave Jenks, Vice President of Research and Development and Jay Papasan, Vice President of Publishing and Executive Editor, Keller Williams Realty

Amidst fears of a financial market freefall, the real estate market is emerging as a bright spot. Indicators are pointing to an end to the bust; in fact, real estate may be poised for a bounce.

While consumers are scrambling to diversify their saving and investment accounts and retreating from paper assets (e.g. stocks) into hard assets (e.g. gold), the savviest among them are looking deeper than morning’s headlines and realizing that real estate is a solid investment option in the current market.

Home prices have corrected and fallen back into alignment with historic trends. The inventory of homes for sale is finally shrinking from the June 2008 peak. Also, based on year-over-year comparisons, housing affordability is now higher than it’s been for the past five years. All signs point to the real estate market turning the corner. So for investors seeking a safe haven in this financial storm, housing emerges as a surprisingly good choice—an undervalued hard asset with upside potential.

As the following chart illustrates, the unsustainably high run-up in home prices between 2001 and 2005 is coming back in to alignment with the historic 4 percent trajectory in home price appreciation. Indeed the market has corrected. While it is quite possible that the market will continue for a time to “over correct,” the important point to realize is that no one can ever predict or time the floor—until after the fact when opportunity has been lost.

Now is the time to buy and the reasons are many:

• Real estate remains one of the most stable long-term investments with relatively modest fluctuations in annual gains.
• The extensive housing inventory in most markets is providing great choices for investors.
• Mortgage money is available to financially stable buyers and interest rates remain attractively low.
• Real estate investments tend to bring a greater annual return on investment (ROI) than stocks, gold or commodities, because they are leveraged (buyers put 20 percent down, and receive appreciation on the entire value of the property).
• Just as the late 1980’s and early 1990’s provided a massive opportunity for real estate investors to make great buys and build wealth, the current market will do the same. Smart money is already back in the market buying up the distressed properties.
• There is a simple formula for investing in real estate – Criteria, Terms and Network. That formula and the step-by-step process for using it are clearly described in the best-selling book, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor.

Why Run YOUR Real Estate Business At Keller Williams Realty?

Need Help with the Licensing Process?

Read The Dozen Secrets Every Real Estate Agent Should Know

The Keller Center Real Estate Research Report 

Cash In with Clients: Know What Customers Really Value!

As an agent, you have a relatively short window of time to impress potential customers. As a result, it is vital to know what is truly important to your clients.

Increase your business by gaining a deeper understanding on what your customers truly want and need by reading “Want to Convert More Leads into Clients? Dig Deeper into What Customers Value,” in the inaugural edition of the Keller Center Research Report on Agent Mountain.

Rave Reviews: SHIFT Touted as a “Handbook For Survival”

REAL Trends and RISMedia.com weigh in on SHIFT

As SHIFT continues to make waves throughout the real estate industry, interest among notable media outlets continues to grow. 

The August Issue of REAL Trends reviewed SHIFT, highlighting three tactics: “Get Real, Get Right;” “Re-Margin Your Business;” and “Do More with Less.” In the article, REAL Trends states that the book is useful for “all real estate professionals at any level,” and that it “covers significant ground” focusing on the real estate business as well as new markets such as short sales. The article goes on to say that SHIFT is “a realistic look into the future of residential brokerage and sales management from someone who has lived through such times before. We highly recommend it as a well-written and organized handbook for survival.”

SHIFT was also featured on the front page of RISMedia.com in an article entitled “New Book Empowers Real Estate Agents with Proven Tactics for Success in Tough Times.” To read the full article, click here.

SHIFT Excerpts:

Tactic 5: Get to the Table - Lead Conversion

Tactic 4: Find the Motivated — Lead Generation

Tactic 3: Do More With Less - Leverage

Tactic 2: Re-Margin Your Business

Tactic 1: Get Real, Get Right - Mindset and Action

 Make The Law of Equilibrium Work For You

The Cyclical Nature of The Real Estate Industry

MAPS Coaching & Masterminds:  SHIFT Coaching

Brought to you by The MAPS Institute and led by Tony DiCello, SHIFT Tour speaker and renowned MAPS coach, this accountability-driven, skills-focused program will solidify your long-term success with:

• Weekly group calls for six-months focusing on your business needs – that’s 24 calls
• Continued lessons to help you master SHIFT’s 12 tactics for success
• Training with new scripts and dialogues to move you forward and past your barriers
• Coaching assignments that will get you and your career to the next level

 
The foundation you create for your business today will propel you beyond what you ever thought possible, and with this exclusive SHIFT program you will master the skills you need to power through this market and stay on top when the market rebounds.

Channeling the best minds in real estate

In the know with Dave and Jay

Knowing the market and being the “economist of choice” for your clients is more important than ever in your business.   That’s why Keller Williams Realty is bringing you a new monthly video series: The North American Real Estate Update with SHIFT co-authors Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan. This duo’s expertise, energy and up-to-the-minute insights inform your clients about what’s going on in the real estate market and give you another powerful “touch” for your database.

September 2008 North American Real Estate Update 2008

• The state of the economy
• The buyer’s market
• The future of the Canadian market
• Getting your home Sold

Read more about “Making the Most of Website Advertising,” in Baylor University’s Keller Center Research Report  for real estate professionals.

Keller Williams Realty Ranks Among Fastest Growing Companies In America

Emphasizing that “business ingenuity and economic leadership still start with entrepreneurs,” Inc. magazine recently published its 2008 list of the fastest growing private companies in America.  Not surprisingly, Keller Williams Realty made the list and was the only leading residential real estate franchise in North America to do so.

Quoting Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis, Inc. magazine cited key reasons for the company’s growth:

Considerable resources are devoted to educate and train associates to be good business owners, not just sales people. “The public does business with the agent, not the company.”

Click here to read the full article.

More KW News:

Top Takeaways From Mega Camp and Lead Generation - What Really Works?

Keller Center for Research in Residential Real Estate Marketing Launches Ground Breaking Initiatives

Keller Williams Realty Case Study now part of Stanford and Yale’s core MBA curriculum

 Five Keller Williams associates named to REALTOR® Magazine’s 30 under 30

Why Run YOUR Real Estate Business At Keller Williams Realty?

Need Help with the Licensing Process?

Read The Dozen Secrets Every Real Estate Agent Should Know