Keller Williams Jamaica attracts Diaspora and investment clientele under COVID condition
MELDAM Realty International, which trades as Keller Williams Jamaica, has topped 52 other companies in the United States in a regional review of fast-growing companies for the 2020 period. In September, Regional Operating Principal Rory Marsh collected the FAST Award from the University of South Florida which conducted the review. The Jamaican company was placed at number four in the fastest-growing company category, which recognises private companies for their revenue growth over a 12-month period.
Marsh told the Jamaica Observer that the company has leveraged Keller Williams’ proprietary technological platform to grow business into the largest real estate operation in the English speaking Caribbean to date.
The company fields an agent network of 170, all of whom are independent contractors, supported by an administrative team of 20 from three offices in Kingston, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.
Keller Williams Realty is an American technology and international real estate franchise with headquarters in Austin, Texas. It is reputed to be the number one franchise in the United States by sales volume, ranking number one in agents and units sold. Founded in 1983 by Gary Keller and Joe Williams, it grew from a single office in Austin to approximately 940 plus offices with over 180,000 associates worldwide as of May 2018.
Marsh, head of Keller Williams Jamaica, has a background in sales and marketing. He studied organisational communication at the University of South Florida, which he attended after securing a track and field scholarship from Munro College in St Elizabeth.
His first job after graduation was at Carimac, UWI Mona, where he taught organisational communication, then he moved on to head marketing and sales divisions and work in brand management for a distribution company.
In 2015 he was asked to join the family business, Meldam Realty, which was then being run by his mother Joan Marsh. “Keller Williams saw our progress with such a small team,” Rory Marsh recalls. The deal was signed in 2015 and by 2017 the new company was fully operational.
He asserts, “The Keller Williams franchise has a belief system: God first, family second, business third. We start every day with devotion. I have never been to any place like this. The culture is unique because we start the day grounded with God and when you do that, the sky’s the limit.”
Four years down the road, Keller Williams Jamaica is the largest brokerage service in the Caribbean. Real estate is measured by the number of listings for sale, the number of offices and the number of transactions – and by these standards the company, he says, is number one.
“In the English-speaking Caribbean we are regarded as one of the largest. The company has 5,900 listings on its website currently.”
The year 2020, which was the review period for the FAST Award, was a period in which real estate did well globally, Marsh outlined. The trend was the same in Jamaica.
“Because of the pandemic, homebuyers or prospective homebuyers were more open to spending time and focus on their surroundings and appreciating their home, or wanting more space to stay at home. We found people were buying larger properties and people who used to rent were now buying. Also, people who had properties were not distracted so they were able to appreciate a more beautiful home.
“First-and second-time homebuyers were more focused. We also found that people were buying properties in areas that had more landscape. These were properties which were not selling as robustly.”
Marsh said he had one property before the pandemic listed at US$1.9 million which was on the market for over one year. “Last year it sold because of the larger land space. It was a property on the north coast bought by someone living in Kingston,” Marsh said.
Rory Marsh said that the Diaspora, under pandemic conditions, found Jamaica very attractive. “While they were locked away they were watching programmes on Jamaica, which is very attractive in terms of its outdoor lifestyle. They too bought in record numbers, especially in the mid-range between $15 to $25 million. About 40 per cent of buyers are from the Diaspora,” he outlined.