Goodbye Roy Wheeler, Hello Keller Williams

Now that its official, I can make the announcement that Cynthia and I have left Roy Wheeler Realty Co and joined Keller Williams Realty in Charlottesville.

We enjoyed our time at Roy Wheeler as well as working with the Managing Broker, Michael Guthrie, and the other agents. Roy Wheeler helped us to reach the next level in our business and we appreciate that very much.

Cynthia and I took a long time to make this decision and interviewed with several companies in the Charlottesville area. We ended up deciding on Keller Williams for a number of reasons. First, they are a national company and believe in the sharing of information and education. This is huge. The company studies the Real Estate Market, trends, and where they need to be to succeed in any market. One step better than that, they show the agents that information and train them on how to succeed in that market. We believe Charlottesville and Central Virginia is trending the same way that Northern Virginia did in 2007. Since we believe this is the case, our market will be driven by REOs and Short Sales in the near future and felt we needed to position ourselves correctly for that market shift. We are excited to work with and learn from (and maybe compete with :)) agents like Steve Bradley, a Short Sale expert and a Keller Williams Mega Agent, and Debbi Gorham, a REO expert and a Keller Williams Mega Agent, in Northern Virginia. Both believe heavily in the Keller Williams model of helping and training other agents to do what they are doing and we are fired up to add their expertise to our current system.

Keller Williams also believes in the same marketing methods that Cynthia and I believe in. We track our statistics very closely and we know what it is working for us when it comes to selling houses. The newspaper ads are returning less than a 1% Return on Investment (ROI). Newspaper advertising is not as effective as it once was. It's no secret that most home buyers are starting their search online and we can reference a number of reports whether that be from NAR, VAR, CAAR, our own brokers, and most importantly our clients. Most traditional brokerage models put that responsibility onto the individual agents to set up websites, create feeds for listing syndication like Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com and other popular sites to gain exposure to your home. Keller Williams has a program just for this that syndicates to every major website that potential home buyers are scouring for homes. What would you prefer? A company that advertises in a newspaper that reaches 38,000 people in an area with a population of 148,000 people (roughly 25% of the population) or the company that gets you exposure to the places that 82% of home buyers start their search?

Lastly, Keller Williams has offered Cynthia a leadership role in the company once she passes the Broker exam. This is the best decision available for her career in the Charlottesville Real Estate Market and her family.

In conclusion, we feel the move to Keller Williams from Roy Wheeler will be better for our business, our clients, and our families. I hope to have your support and patience as we work with Michael Guthrie at Roy Wheeler and Matthew Durbin at Keller Williams to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved.

Rob Alley, Realtor at Keller Williams Charlottesville
540-250-3275 (cell)
roballey@roywheeler.com
http://www.robsellscharlottesville.com/
http://www.forestlakesliving.com/
http://www.charlottesvillevarealestate.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlottesvilleshortsale.com/