Realtors on the Move

Market Pro Realty of Rogers merged with Fayetteville’s Keller Williams Realty of Northwest Arkansas last spring, and the new company is making a strong push to earn a bigger share of the market.

Case in point: Keller Williams Market Pro Realty has landed Joseph Hayes, one of the state’s top residential realtors.

Hayes and his support team of two assistants switched from Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney Faucette on Sept. 13.

Realtors switching firms isn’t all that unusual. But this one is a shocker.

Hayes, a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Fast 15 class earlier this year, had been with CBHMF since November 2009 when he began his real estate career.

His 2012 sales volume of $20.6 million was the most of any Coldwell Banker agent in the state, and Hayes said he has total sales of $21 million already this year, including 17 homes under contract.

“I appreciate my time with Coldwell Banker, and I admire George [Faucette] and Pat [Harris] and all they have done for me,” Hayes said. “I just like the business model Keller Williams has for their agents. I really feel like they are going to dominate the market the next four years.”

Veteran real estate agent Nicky Dou and her husband Jerry Dou have also recently left the Rogers office of Coldwell Banker for Keller Williams.

They had been with the company since February when Coldwell Banker acquired Century 21 Exclamation Realty in Rogers.

Nicky Dou was the top Century 21 agent in Northwest Arkansas until the merger, and was ranked No. 28 on the Business Journal’s Top Realtors list earlier this year with $10.37 million in 2012 sales volume.

Dou, a Realtor for 13 years, told us she is at about $13 million in total sales this year. Though not a team, the couple has combined for about $21 million in sales in 2012.

“We both have different business models, and we will continue to do that,” Nicky Dou said.

In 2012 as separate entities, Larry and Jana Robison’s Market Pro franchise generated a sales volume of $45.3 million, and Keller Williams Realty produced $53.6 million for the year.

The combined total ($98.9) would’ve ranked No. 6 on our list of Largest Real Estate Firms.

That’s still well back of market titans Coldwell Banker ($423.9) and Lindsey & Associates ($358.9), but the addition of Hayes and the Dou Duo is another sign Keller Williams intends to fight for a larger piece of the residential real estate market.

 “And there are more [Realtors] like them in the wings,” said Marc King, operating principle of the local franchise, foreshadowing other additions to the Keller Williams team. “It sounds bold, but we know our culture attracts great agents.”

With a new leadership group in place, headed up by Misti Carter, growth in NWA would seem logical. Keller Williams Realty Inc., which opened its first office in 1983, announced in February it had become the largest real estate franchise company in the country by agent count, with about 80,000 associates.

King said the agent count in NWA has doubled since April, up to about 100.