Proud To Announce Keller Williams Palmetto To Columbia, South Carolina!

Not long ago Amanda Payne, Elizabeth W. Ross, and Amy Ackerman Cartin and I opened our eyes, spread our wings and jumped to what we thought was simply a better model and opportunity for our little team.

Well, that was the first of many dominos to follow, and if you’ve ever read The One Thing, you know what I mean by that.

As you may have seen on social media outlets, I’m ecstatic to announce the Columbia, SC residential real estate brokerage landscape officially changed this week. 

What’s Going On:
Franchise: Keller Williams – Austin, Texas. On December 28, 2018, we received the email from the #1 real estate company in America. We are officially and forever Keller Williams Market Center #1128. 

Location: 1523 Huger Street (The former Cyberwoven location). We are located at the corner of Huger and Taylor Streets, which is one of the busiest corners in-town and one of the main thoroughfares into Columbia. 

I would argue that the office is the best and most beautiful real estate office in the Midlands. Further, it will be THE most recognizable real estate brokerage in the Midlands (the minute we put our signs up) as the traffic count is in the tens of thousands.  

Further, the location is super accessible to anything Downtown/Forest Acres, Lexington via US1/378/I-20, Lake Murray/Irmo/Chapin via I-26, and NE via I-77. 

Franchise Name: KW Palmetto. This part of the process experienced a lot of back and forth. Most of our REALTORS didn’t love a geographical stamp such as “Downtown,” or, “Midtown,” as our agents work the entire Metro area. They also didn’t prefer terms such as KW Legacy and/or KW Professionals. 

That all said, since “KW Columbia, SC” was already taken, respectively, we simply took the broader/statewide route. 

As we traveled around the country we loved, “KW Bluegrass,” and, “KW Keystone,” which are named for their respective state nicknames, and thought the concept was very applicable. After all, we are the KW Market Center that sits in the shadow of the statehouse dome (we can see the dome from our parking lot).

Launch Leadership Team: Operating Partner (OP) – Scott Taylor, Team Leader (TL) – Matt Carroll, Broker In Charge (BIC) – Peggy Fowler, Market Center Administrator (MCA) – Brenda Meyer

Agent Leadership Council (Voting Members) – Eric Simons, Penny Broach, Peggy Fowler, Matt Caroll, and me. (Anyone and everyone is encouraged to attend and participate in ALC meetings and discussion, BTW.)

I’m proud to post on this blog that KW Palmetto will be opening with somewhere between 40 and 55 REALTORS. A lot of the timing will depend on individual agent’s contracts with banks, other lending institutions, property management companies, and foreclosure management relationships, et al. Others REALTORS will be joining soon as they didn’t want to have to transfer their license twice. I don’t blame them.

Check out who is already part of this new Market Center (in no order) – Eric Simons, Peggy Fowler, Penny Broach, Liz Gaymon, Alex Roberts, Dale Roberts, Amanda Q. Payne, Renee Royall, Daniel Furtick, Kendall Walsh, Brad Dampier, Bethany Way, Sarah Penn, Shane McCormack, Katherine Wrisley, Eric Tucker, Paige Haas, Elizabeth Literati, Richard Pollard, Joanie Hart, Elizabeth (Liz) Black, Madison Gantt, Amy Peterkin, Susie Watts, Victoria (Tori) Elmgren, Candy Limehouse, Mike Tredway, Lona Tredway, Laura Hooper, Matt Carroll, Peggy Downie, Sallie Pierce, Anna Smith, Tricia Fowler, Paula Cooper, Kaylyn Fowler, George Wrisley, Craig Augenstein, Brenda Meyer, Amy Ackerman Cartin, Shannon Nilson, Jason Fields, Scott Taylor, Elizabeth Woodring Ross, and me.

Matt Carroll did some math, and to give a big picture of what is happening right now, if the REALTORS in the room for our inaugural meeting on Tuesday were our own brokerage last year (2018), we would have closed $190,000,000ish in sales volume, ranking this office #3 in the Midlands.

I’m going to let that soak in for a minute…

…#3 and we haven’t even installed our signs on the door.

We will be the #2 office in the Downtown area in agent count and sales volume – Day 1. 

This all said, I want to extend a visual/metaphor I got from a panel from a national KW event I attended last year. On the panel were Bob Lucido, Lance Loken, and Ben Kinney…whom all service between 1,500 and 2,500 families per year. As they were leaving the stage, Ben Kinney stood up and shook Gary Keller’s hand and with the microphone still on his lapel, said (paraphrase), “Thank you for providing the highway that we can drive our big trucks on….”

This week, with the opening of MC#1128, the Keller Williams highway has been extended a little more. Whether you want to be a chevy, a tank, a team bus, an 18-wheeler, or a damn kick-n-go, the highway has been extended and the lanes of real estate technology, training, and growth are open to change more lives through real estate.

A THANK YOU to our clients and related service industry partners such as lenders, insurance agents, inspectors, contractors, and closing attorneys for making this all happen!

A gigantic SHOUT OUT to Keller Williams – Columbia, SC (MC #684)…which is the highest producing office in the Midlands, by far, BTW. The awesome leadership and fantastic REALTORS of the Irmo office could not have provided a better professional and real estate selling experience as we fly off from their nest.

Thank you and Grand Opening plans at our new Market Center are underway!!!

It’s amazing what can happen if we will just push the first domino…

Franklin Jones