Keller Williams, founded by BU grad, claiming spot among nation’s top real estate franchises

In 1979, Gary Keller graduated from Baylor with a degree in marketing. Four years later, he and a business partner formed Keller Williams Realty. In the nearly three decades since then, the company has grown from a single office in Austin to, it was announced earlier this year, the second largest real estate franchise in the United States based on total number of sales professionals.

The names Keller Williams has passed in recent years are big ones, companies such as Remax and Century 21. As Gary Keller explains in this video, the company’s success comes from its business model — which was formed based on Keller’s education at Baylor and his experiences fresh out of school. The company has earned other honors in recent years, as well, earning top honors among real estate franchises from Entrepreneur magazine and the highest overall satisfaction ratings from home buyers according to J.D. Power and Associates.

Since his graduation, Keller has remained connected to Baylor, speaking on campus and contributing to the Baylor Business Review, but his most notable contribution came in 2007 in the form of a $5 million gift that established the Keller Center for Research in Residential Real Estate and Marketing within the Hankamer School of Business. The Keller Center studies the little-addressed area of buyer-seller relationships, engaging Baylor students in innovative research that benefits both the students and the real estate industry.

Sic ’em, Gary!