RISMEDIA, April 13, 2010—Keller Williams Realty Inc. announced that Joe Rothchild, formerly a top ranked RE/MAX franchisee and the leader of Houston’s #1 selling real estate team in dollar volume and number of closed transactions in 2009 (Houston Business Journal, March 2010), is now at the helm of the Keller Williams Signature office in Houston, Texas, the company has announced. The Joe Rothchild Team closed 779 transactions for $155 million in volume last year.
“Keller Williams Realty has shown that their model can adapt to any market, which was one of the driving forces in my decision,” said Rothchild, who has left RE/MAX after 20 years as a franchisee. “I have been researching and contemplating for more than two years, and I discovered that I needed to reinvent my business to revitalize it. We were implementing some of the same philosophies and mirroring the Keller Williams system, so finally, one day we said: why reinvent the wheel? And, the answer was clear.”
Rothchild added, “KW’s philosophy of putting agents and ownership on the same side of the table and training on the most critical issues facing us in today’s market were also incredibly important to us.”
“We are thrilled to be in business with a talent like Joe. For the last 15 years, Joe has been one of the top 10 teams in RE/MAX, and was number one worldwide for three years in a row! When a top franchisee from one of our competitors chooses to join us, we consider it a true honor and confirmation that we have unbelievable momentum behind our growth,” said Mark Willis, CEO of Keller Williams Realty.
Many of Rothchild’s current associates will be joining him at the Keller Williams Signature office. Among them, Dale Ross, an industry veteran with 29-years of experience under his belt, 25 of which have been with RE/MAX. “When I factored in the Keller Williams Realty systems, training and support, and realized it was the place I needed to be,” said Ross.
This announcement comes on the heels of a year of positive growth for Keller Williams Realty throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company outpaced the downward trend in the real estate market and grew in every category–opening 30 new franchises, ending the year with a 16% year-over-year increase in the number of contracts closed per agent and more than 76,879 associates across North America (up 3%). In addition, the company gave back more than $32.2 million in profit share to its agents.
In addition to recently becoming the 3rd largest real estate company in the U.S., surpassing RE/MAX, according to Steve Murray at REAL Trends, Keller Williams Realty received the highest overall satisfaction ratings from home buyers among the largest full-service real estate firms from J.D. Power and Associates for the second year in a row, and was ranked as the No. 1 real estate franchise on the 31st Annual Franchise 500 list by Entrepreneur magazine.
For more information, visit www.kw.com.
