August/September Business View Magazine

74 75 in for someone in need. For KW Realty Phoenix, Red Day is all about Sunshine Acres – a local children’s group home that serves 70 to 80 kids a year. It has multiple homes on campus, like a huge subdivision. Each home has a set of parents who look after up to 10 children. The houses are well built and beautifully decorated, and there is also a mini-skatepark and a pool on campus. Un- fortunately, after the initial donations, Sunshine Acres finds itself in need of a regular revamp. In that respect, Red Day is a true blessing. “We do other community events throughout the year,” says Henderson. This year, we did a prom dress drive for a local organization called The Cinderella Affair.We do quarterly blood drives, Adopt-A-Family for the holidays, and canned food drives. A lot of our involvement directly bene- fits the people in our agent community.We had an agent diagnosed with a brain tumor and the office rallied and helped him adapt his business, but still gave him 100 percent of the profits.We also did a fundraiser to help pay for chemo and radiation.” Housing inventory is low across the country, and Phoenix is no exception. They’ve been at about 2.6 months’ supply for seven years – a KELLERWILLIAMS REALTY PHOENIX solid sellers’ market –but the Phoenix office is now preparing its agents for the inevitable shift. “At KW, we believe By Agents, For Agents,” states Henderson. “Our ownership group is entirely comprised of producing real estate agents. They bring in their resources by teaching and training and coaching.We find that while there is extreme value in partnering with our phenomenal spon- sors and preferred vendors to bring our agents a high level of service, the width we have in our in- vestor group and the depth they provide is really impressive.” Also impressive is the new technology Keller Williams has been rolling out based on data ac- quisition. The company built its own referral net- work– a website platform that can, for example, quickly narrow a search for a specific agent from 3000 down to 10. Processes are rolled out one section at a time, as they are approved by agents. A product might start with 50 agents that work on it until it’s good, then go to 500 agents, then 10,000, then two different states, and be expand- ed out from there. Henderson reports, “KW is also labbing the idea of owning our own mortgage brokerage, so we can control the overhead fees our buyer clients