Franchise real estate brokerage Keller Williams announced Tuesday that it is partnering with educational and test prep services platform Kaplan to create the KW School of Real Estate (KSCORE).
KSCORE is a fully-digital real estate training program that will offer state approved pre-licensing courses, as well as continuing education opportunities for existing agents. It combines the current KW Prep program, which focuses on the skills and tools that are not taught in traditional real estate classes, that experienced agents feel are essential to their success in the field, and the current Kaplan Real Estate Education program. While Kaplan has had their own program for years now, this is the first time they have partnered with a real estate brokerage.
“When you get your real estate license, you don’t necessarily know everything you need to know to be the best fiduciary you can be for your clients,” said Marc King, the president of KW. “Through our programs we teach agents how to stay in touch with clients and how to serves them at the highest level. We also help with their lead generation model, their budget model and their organizational model.”
Through KSCORE, prospective and existing agents can enroll in a variety of class formats including home study, asynchronous online and live online classes. Users will also have access to personalized coaching.
One of the brokerage’s biggest goals for the new program is to use it to address the lack of diversity in the real estate industry.
“This industry hasn’t always had the same accessibility to people of all communities and part of our efforts here is to help those in marginalized communities have a hand up in creating a career that could change their lives,” King said.
According to U.S. Census Bureau and Data USA, 6% of all real estate agents and brokers are Black, compared to 12% of the U.S. population that identified as Black; 8% of agents and brokers are Hispanic, compared to 12% of the U.S. population; and 4% are Asian, compared to 6% of the population.
“Through KSCORE we have enabled our local leaders, the brokers running our office franchises, to provide scholarships as they see fit,” King said. “Our local leaders are the ones that can impact their communities at the highest level.”
Users who enroll in the KSCORE program do not have to sign on with Keller Williams once they pass their licensing exam and are free to work at their brokerage of choice.
“We currently educate agents from all companies,” King said. “We believe the consumer benefits when there is a professional well-educated fiduciary at the center of the transaction. If we help educate and improve agents from other companies, it helps protect the industry and is for the better of the entire industry.”
More than 250 KW markets are part of phase-one of the Keller Williams Kaplan KSCORE roll-out and the brokerage hopes to open the program to more than 500 KW markets by early 2022. The program currently operates in 24 states including New York, California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, Texas and North Carolina, with hopes of eventually making the program available nationwide.
According to Keller Williams, the cost of pre-licensing and continuing education classes for a KW brokerage varies state to state and ranges from $199 to $599 depending on location and the number of programs purchased. Once a KW brokerage enrolls in KSCORE, the brokerage can enroll an unlimited number of students in the program.
“A large portion of people who get into real estate aren’t in the industry 18 month later,” King said. “We really want to try and bridge that gaps and help people get through their training faster and better equipped so that they have a better chance of succeeding and sticking in the business.”
