The KW Profit Share and Growth Model

In most real estate companies, associates pay a portion of their commission to their office and their region in exchange for services. The office and region use that income to pay their bills and what’s left over is profit. Every real estate business is in business for profit, and usually the owners keep all of that profit. This practice makes sense: Owners invest in businesses with the hope of seeing a return.

In the Keller Williams Profit Share model, each month every Market Center splits its owner profit between the owners who risk their investments and the associates who help grow the company. Though owners receive a slightly larger percentage of the split, associates have enjoyed the significant benefit of more than $94 million so far this year

The only difference in the Growth Share model is the origin of the money going into the system.

In the Growth Share model, associates who help to grow the company will enjoy a portion of their Region’s bottom line, rather than that of the Market Center. The broader perspective of both systems was—and remains—the productivity and profitability of real estate agents.

Though owner profit was and is critically important, these systems were crafted by real estate agents for real estate agents. Therefore, the first step was to create a stable environment in which agents could readily build thriving businesses. The belief was that when agents were flourishing, they would tell others about the opportunity and the company would grow, thereby increasing owner profit.

With this critical insight, Keller Williams Realty acknowledged the essential responsibility the leadership has to agents in creating tools, materials, and programs to help them grow their businesses, and they decided to reward associates for the one activity that has the greatest impact on growing an office: referring associates.