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Keller Williams continued its second-quarter recruiting streak with the addition of Tru Realty LLC, a $450 million independent brokerage that will now operate under the franchisor’s Keller Williams Phoenix market center.
Sarah Richardson
Tru Realty CEO and founder Sarah Richardson’s 60-agent brokerage completed $450.6 million in sales between 2021 and 2022, with 681 transaction sides worth $269.1 million in 2021 and 370 transaction sides worth $181.5 million in 2022. Since its founding in 2011, Tru has expanded from its headquarters in Scottsdale to several more offices in California, Kansas and Missouri.
“The synergy between Keller Williams and Tru Realty is tremendous; we have similar cultures and are aligned across technology and education agent services,” Richardson said in a prepared statement on Thursday. “We [see] the significant amount of value Keller Williams provides to our team as we grow throughout the country.”
In an email interview with Inman, Richardson said her decision to walk away from an independent business model hinged on having access to a larger referral network, a robust tech stack and strong leadership that could accelerate her team’s growth.
“We have been given the ability for our autonomy all while tapping into a global network of agents and amazing leadership,” she said. “The choice to become a franchise model seemed irrelevant when we feel we can have the best of both worlds simultaneously.”
Richardson said other franchisors have attempted to recruit Tru Realty over the years; however, Keller Williams’ agent education, training and tech strategy made it impossible to turn down the offer.
“We have been approached countless times by other companies and with this being a relationship business we felt the leadership and the culture between Tru Realty and Keller Williams were perfectly aligned,” she said. “Furthermore, Tru Realty has always been focused on education and technology. We are very tech-enabled and see the value in leveraging new technologies often.”
She added, “The launch of Open AI and ChatGPT has been a continual topic within our ecosystem, and we are leaning into the power of generative [artificial intelligence] to help with agent marketing solutions and the streamlining of their daily tasks.”
Although Tru Realty is still in the beginning stages of the onboarding process, Richardson said they’re excited about the move to Keller Williams and what it means for their growth this year.
“We are just getting started with the agents transferring over and so far, it has been wildly successful,” she said. “We are getting excellent feedback about the opportunity to have a larger net for all agents to collaborate.”
Tru Realty is the second Arizona-based independent brokerage Keller Williams has recruited in the past week.
The Texas-based franchisor added Infinity & Associates Real Estate to its Keller Williams Integrity First market center in Gilbert, which is 30 minutes outside of Phoenix. Similar to Richardson, Infinity & Associates Real Estate’s founder and CEO Bill Ryan cited Keller Williams’ tech strategy as a main driver behind the move.
“We’re looking forward to a positive company culture, great systems, and a growing network of successful and energized agents and brokers,” he told Inman.
