Keller Williams, False Hopes v Reality?

[cody]

I am a prospect at Keller Williams, I found them through searches here. They were highly recommended so I decided to give them a visit. I am in school right now and should be taking my real estate license exam in the next few weeks. I am impressed with the great atmosphere at the Keller Williams office and have attended a few meetings and training sessions.

It appears to be a great place to work, however it seems that they are trying to sell me a pipe dream. They keep talking about unlimited goals and making huge money. I have also noticed that everything seems like a Tony Robbins motivational speech. They really try and sell you on the whole idea of making large amounts of money etc, which is great, but I have always been somewhat of a skeptic, and am having a hard time grasping these ideas. I have always been told to expect to not make much money your first year in real estate.

They are telling me that if I want to make a $100,000 my first year to shoot for that as my goal. I'm sure that this attitude would be great, but everywhere I turn around I feel a little uncomfortable with the unrealistic ideas/goals that they speak of. Am I just being too skeptical? I figured that it will be hard to get a straight answer from anyone there, so I came here to hopefully find a truthfull and honest answer. Regardless, I do like the way they work, and think it will be a good begining for me, but I would like to cut throught the B.S. and really get down to work. I don't mind "playing the game" and taking on the persona that they are trying to teach, but I also like to know in the back of my head what the real deal is.

Also they don't have a floor to work, so all clients/leads have to be generated by basically soliciting people, which I'm okay with even though the idea makes me feel like an insurance sales man or something, but I understand you have to start somewhere.

Like I said, I have no problem playing along, and embracing what they teach, I just need to here some info from an outside source. Thanks for any help or ideas from anyone!

[Thesa]

Cody,

10 of 35 of my buyers last year came from floor time and 10 of 30 sellers came from floor time.... just today I received a call from someone I met on floor about 4 weeks ago.... that called me back because of the follow through I provide, they actually had another agent come to find out and switched to me.... and were willing to sign a buyer broker agreement to become my clients.

Not having floor time would not be the end of the world for me... but it would make a huge dent in my business.

Training is huge and Keller Williams from what I hear has good training but it may vary from office to office. There is not one near me.... but I am familiar with them. They typically use several speakers and their educational information along with their own company stuff.

Your first year of business will have a lot of factors... do you have a data base already? If not start one and get it working.... remind people all the time that you are their as their agent...

do you have funds for marketing? and so on.

[HomeSurfer]

People getting recruited for a sales position often feel uncomfortable. It is a totally different, weird, unique kind of world.

There is incredible focus on goals, positive attitudes, plans, and your compensation is not just "given" to you for showing up and going through the motions like with most jobs -- not for "almost" getting a deal -- but only for CLOSING a deal.

That is "foreign" to most people. It doesn't compute. It DOES sound like a damn Tony Robbins seminar.

I agree.

But I've been self-employed or on 100% commission since 1988 and I would never go back.

If you take a 100% commission sales job, you will either sink or swim. MOst sink. You should have a "safety-net" because you don't get paid until a deal closes. All it costs the person hiring you is the cost of a box of business cards and the training time they invest in you.

But if you can swim, and swim well -- it is worth it.

STill, it is "alien" if you haven't done anything like it before. If you're young and right out of school, I generally recommend you get inolved in a related profession first. Title, escrow, lending, settlement, or even insurance. But that is just my opinion. If you've been around the block and can convince people you are helping them and they can trust you, then you're ready.

Learning the job is the easy part. ONce you do that, the real skills you will need are...

(1) Prospect for clients
(2) Qualify the clients to determine if they are ready, willing, and able to buy or sell, and
(3) close the deal.

LIke I said -- that is a foreign concept to most people. They need to sort of "ease" into it, but some of them learn, adapt, then excel.

[cody]

Great replies so far! It doesn't totally feel "foreign" to me, a lot of what they are saying I like and can identify with. Its just this feeling in the back of my head telling me that something seems fishy. I guess I've always been brought up to double guess everything through experience and my raising. I definetly want to play the game so to speak, but I just wanted to get the entire spectrum of what I am learning, and observing.

I am young, out of school, and have never had a sales position before. I believe I will have a natural talent for it, however I also understand that, that is just the begining. I will need to learn much more, and that the talent will just help me succeed, not make me successfull. They are teaching us to not have any fear, which I do have some, but I try to imagine that I will be able to do it. Just like anything else in life, it seems complicated, but once you learn the stuff it will come just like anything. However I just feel like they tell you that you can make all sorts of money just to get you motivated, hoping you will become a top seller for them. I suppose they figure if they can get 2 out of 10 to really believe that the chances will be they will earn good money for the company. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels as if they are just making a crap shoot, and hoping that they can get a few people out of the bunch to do well, which I can understand.

[NobleChitRealty]

Keller Williams was one of the first firms to offer me and my husband an interview after we became licensed real estate sales people. We both found their presentation glitzy and very much like a Tony Robbins seminar. The guy who gave the presentation looked like a classic yuppie - polyester shirt open two buttons, gold chains, the too-wide manic smile and the eyes open a little too wide - rather intense. He made us both uncomfortable. He also stressed the MLM aspect quite a bit - you get a share of the office cut from the commissions of anyone you bring into the company under you, trickling up from several levels down. Is this the "Herbalife" of real estate or something??? :rolleyes: Can you say "pyramid"???

When we took the continuing education class near the end of our first two year license period, the Keller Williams agents in the class circled us like sharks during all the class breaks, each trying to get us to join Keller Williams underneath them when the others weren't looking so they could share our commissions. We thought they should be spending more of their time doing real estate business rather than trying to rope in other agents underneath them and get MLM earnings from other peoples' commissions. We found the Keller Williams high pressure, manic sort of approach rather off-putting. Personally, I think your instincts are correct and your first impression was right on. Trust your intuition.

[cody]

Okay, that is definetly another point of view, I will take that in and think about it. However, I think it would vary office to office, I didn't feel pressured by anyone in the entire office to go under them. I really like this office's atmosphere, can you tell me where you ended uP?

[NobleChitRealty]

can you tell me where you ended uP?

Sure - we first chose a small, clean and seemingly well-run ERA office where the Broker/Owner promised to give us a lot of his personal time in training. There was one other agent in the office, and she was well-trained by him also. Sadly, this Broker became moody and hypercritical and suspicious over the year my husband and I worked under him. The other agent in the office felt the same way and she left him too. I've met two other agents who left this Broker after seemingly getting off to a great start. I think he has personal problems and he sabotages his relationships. After we obtained 10-12 listings and had some sales, other offices kept contacting us and wanting to lure us away. Our next choice was a big Coldwell Banker office - the biggest one in our town. We got some great training there, too. Eventually my husband decided to return to social work because the uncertainty of how much we could make in any one month was too stressful, and the regular paycheck coming in allowed me to pursue my Broker's license. My husband now has his sales associate's license active under my broker's license, and I run my little independant brokerage out of our home office.

First off, I needed the training, but I am happier running my own little independant brokerage now. I only take up to 3 listings at a time so I'm not overwhelmed, and my husband has kept his salaried job, so we have health insurance and a steady income. This helps take the pressure off and I can function without external pressure from a broker, and without desperate financial stress from depending on real estate for our sole income.

I think I made a sale today, too! We should get all the signatures by tomorrow. Then my seller needs me to find her another house, and that will be the second sale this month. Can't count on anything until I'm sitting at that closing table and I collect my commission check, though! The real work continues all during the escrow period when you have to make sure that everything gets done on time... the inspection appointments are made, any repairs are completed, the loan apps are done and the results are in, any spontaneous little "fires" are put out. This can be a lot harder than actually selling the house sometimes. How can you expect some lazy Realtor who doesn't even bother to take pics and describe the house on the MLS to properly watchdog the escrow process? :rolleyes:

Knock, Knock... Who's There?
The Truth About Our First Years
in the Florida Real Estate Business

http://www.lulu.com/content/298187

[klinckphilip]

ok, say you set your goal at 30,000 and you make that in 10 months well the last two months the pressure is off and to get to that 30,000 it didnt really take many hours of work per day. Now say you set a goal of 100,000 for the first year you work your but off because you know what you have to do daily, weekly, and monthly to reach your goal. You do everything they say and you only make 65,000 did you fail or did you give yourself a way to push yourself to the maximum of your potential for the year. Next year your goal should be 15% higher than a 6 month rolling average or more. In other words your 6 month rolling avg is 10,000 then 138,000 next year.

I am a prospect at Keller Williams, I found them through searches here. They were highly recommended so I decided to give them a visit. I am in school right now and should be taking my real estate license exam in the next few weeks. I am impressed with the great atmosphere at the Keller Williams office and have attended a few meetings and training sessions.

It appears to be a great place to work, however it seems that they are trying to sell me a pipe dream. They keep talking about unlimited goals and making huge money. I have also noticed that everything seems like a Tony Robbins motivational speech. They really try and sell you on the whole idea of making large amounts of money etc, which is great, but I have always been somewhat of a skeptic, and am having a hard time grasping these ideas. I have always been told to expect to not make much money your first year in real estate.

They are telling me that if I want to make a $100,000 my first year to shoot for that as my goal. I'm sure that this attitude would be great, but everywhere I turn around I feel a little uncomfortable with the unrealistic ideas/goals that they speak of. Am I just being too skeptical? I figured that it will be hard to get a straight answer from anyone there, so I came here to hopefully find a truthfull and honest answer. Regardless, I do like the way they work, and think it will be a good begining for me, but I would like to cut throught the B.S. and really get down to work. I don't mind "playing the game" and taking on the persona that they are trying to teach, but I also like to know in the back of my head what the real deal is.

Also they don't have a floor to work, so all clients/leads have to be generated by basically soliciting people, which I'm okay with even though the idea makes me feel like an insurance sales man or something, but I understand you have to start somewhere.

Like I said, I have no problem playing along, and embracing what they teach, I just need to here some info from an outside source. Thanks for any help or ideas from anyone!