To all the agents in the house,
The sun never sets on Keller Williams. The brokerage trotted out an announcement this week it is planning to expand into Guyana, a country just north of Brazil where people speak mostly Guyanese and English and largely live amid a rainforest. The country is one of the poorest in South America, according to the World Bank, and has one of the world's highest emigration rates. It also has fewer people than Indianapolis.
Nonetheless: Keller Williams touted the franchise, KW Guyana, because, "The real estate industry is growing bigger than any other industry besides oil and gas in Guyana," according to Stefan John, who will lead the new franchise. John added that Guyanans, 6% of whom have access to broadband and 38% who use the internet, according to the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, will come to see that Keller Williams' technology and marketing services "are far superior to what is offered by other brokerages in the country."
Keller Williams now has offices in nine South American countries, from Brazil to Suriname, and a presence in five continents. As my colleague Brooklee Han noted in her report on the Guyana news, Keller Williams self-reports $12.1 billion in international real estate transactions in 2021, which the company says is an 89% jump from 2020. That's a few billion dollars less than the sales volume of major regional brokerages in the U.S. such as William Raveis, according to RealTrends figures. In other words, it seems a significant but minor component of Keller Williams' vast franchise network. The company, which is private (for now), does not report revenue and profit numbers internationally.
Keller Williams is not the only brokerage to declare international expansions with unclear impact. Beverly Hills brokerage The Agency, perhaps best known for its ubiquity on Bravo's "Million-Dollar Listing," said this week that it is expanding into Ottawa. HomeServices of America and eXp have also publicized their international expansion in the past year.
There's an obvious point: global expansion seems to mostly be a peripheral part of brokerage's business. The (slightly) more interesting point I have is that expansions are somewhat shrouded in mystery. If Keller Williams were for some reason not already in Indianapolis (they very much are) and announced a new franchise there, I'd have some sense of the agents they might hire, what splits and resources those agents would get, and what might be the costs and benefits. The Guyanese, or even Brazilian, market is different.
One thing Glenn Sanford, CEO of eXp has mentioned, is that international expansion is appealing because real estate agents may expect smaller splits. On the other hand, the total commission might be smaller in other countries.
Agents: What do you make of this? Do you care when your brokerage announces moves to other countries? Have you ever done deals in other countries, or does the thought tempt you?
Please let me know your thoughts anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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