Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis took to the KW Family Reunion stage in Las Vegas Tuesday as Pitbull’s “I believe that we will win” played over the speakers. Throughout Willis’ “State of the Company” address, he regularly echoed back to the iconic Pitbull song, as he looked to motivate attendees for the coming year.
As he opened his talk, Willis discussed the friendship he cultivated with Pitbull in 2017.
“In our first meeting he shared his inspiring story about how he built his stardom,” Willis said. “Every year he created a theme for himself, and that theme would dictate the priorities, the decisions, the actions and the behaviors for the year ahead.”
Inspired by this mindset, Willis said that he and other KW leaders decided to create a theme of intention to guide them in 2024.
“It is a theme that is rooted in rediscovering who we are as a company,” Willis said.
Before diving further into strategies and goals for 2024, Willis took the time to acknowledge some of the firm’s achievements over the past year, which he felt culminated in the nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement the firm recently negotiated with the plaintiffs in the Sitzer/Burnett and Moehrl lawsuits.
“This is where we really are like, boom — I believe that we will win,” Willis said. “We know this takes an enormous weight off all out shoulders. This settlement will provide the relief, the stability, the freedom from distraction so that we can all do what we do best, running our independent businesses and reaching our full growth potential.”
Despite his enthusiasm over the settlement agreement, Willis was less satisfied with other parts of the business. While KW’s in-house numbers point to the firm being the “No. 1 brand in real estate” with a U.S. and Canadian market volume of $379 billion in 895,000 transaction sides in 2023, Willis noted that the year-over-year changes to the firm’s unit and volume metrics were in line with the market trends reported by the National Association of Realtors.
“In 2023, our growth was flat, and we did not capture additional market share,” Willis said. “I remember a time when we would routinely outperform the industry year in and year out.”
Although Willis noted that the current macroeconomic environment poses many challenges, he ominously warned attendees that “stasis is a killer and stagnation is death.” He told attendees that in 2024, they cannot stop moving if they hope to continue to grow, noting that cultivating a positive culture is key to further growth.
“Our culture is the foundation for everything that we can achieve,” Willis declared.
Top on the list of what Keller Williams would like to achieve is to “topple” Anywhere as the nation’s largest real estate firm by market share.
“Our destiny is that our single brand of Keller Williams will be larger than the seven combined brands of Anywhere,” Willis said. “We are within two market share points of toppling that Goliath that represents seven brand that are household names. Our destiny is to be the largest real estate entity on the planet, and I believe that we will win.”
Chris Cox, KW’s chief technology officer, shared Willis’ belief in the firm and its agents. In his view, KW’s technology offerings, namely its Command platform, will be the key driver of Keller Williams’ success in the future.
“I like to think of Command as an enabler of success,” Cox said. “It’s about giving you the tools to drive success.”
Cox also highlighted some of the advancements and changes KW is making to its technology. This includes the upcoming launch of a new consumer site and mobile application, AI-enabled tools including a chatbot and “likely to sell” and “likely to buy” models in agents’ CRM’s — enabling them to easily pinpoint potential leads.
Although both Cox and Willis may be optimistic about the future of their company, Keller Williams is currently faced with many challenges including a difficult housing market, uncertainty over mortgage rates, and their settlement agreement is still awaiting court approval, all of which will help dictate whether or not 2024 will be a winning year for Keller Williams.
