Agent-owned, agent-focused real estate brokerage Key Realty comes to GJ

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Key Realty is new to Grand Junction — and new to Colorado for that matter — and Realtor Megan Powell thinks clients are going to like the way Key does business.

“There was a need in the Valley, in our community, for our clients to have just more of a lower-cost, direct brokerage,” Powell said.

She thinks Key’s appeal extends to real estate agents, too, and she expects more will join the team when they learn about Key Realty, a privately owned, Midwest-based brokerage that recently expanded into Colorado.

In fact, Key Realty’s state broker, Mike Chavez, is part of the new office that opened in the spring at 134 N. Sixth St., in downtown Grand Junction. Powell is the Western Slope broker, and rounding out the five agents who currently populate the office are Hailey Flinn, Wendy Harrison and Brandi Vigil.

Powell said what stands out about Key Realty is it’s agent-owned and agent-focused instead of being owned by a large corporation that cares only about its bottom line.

“A lot of those real estate brands are owned by huge mega companies,” she said. “This brand is owned by a husband and wife in Toledo, Ohio, and they were agents for 40 years themselves, and they just really knew what an agent needed, and so they started an agent-focused brokerage.”

Agents independently contract to work for Key Realty, which allows for some agent freedom and support when they need it.

“It’s a brokerage where agents can come and still do the good business they do,” Powell said, “but without having to … so much split costs with our broker, and they still get all the added benefits of an amazing broker that’s behind them, that can offer them all the marketing and all the tools they need.”

Split costs, she said, are the model of traditional brokerages, where agents pay a split on every commission they earn. At Key, she said, “You just pay a yearly fee, no matter how many transactions you do.”

Just being a privately owned brokerage doesn’t make Key Realty better, as Powell said her previous brokerage had a similar model to Key, but it didn’t offer what Key offers.

“The other brokerage that me and some of the others that have come over to Key Realty were with, they did not have the support, and they were becoming much more of a corporate model,” Powell said. 

Powell continued, “Honestly, they were more concerned with the bottom line than their agents and supporting their agents. So, I wanted to be with an agency that offered the agent independence, get that training support, good branding, good culture.”

Powell said Key Realty is off to a good start in Grand Junction, where it hosted its grand opening July 16.

“We are just now getting our brand out to the community and out to the state and really just to the other agents in the area to see if this is something that they want to come on board with,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of good response. We had like over 100 people come through our grand opening, so that was really fun and awesome.”

Powell said Key Realty is looking to grow its number of agents organically and maintain the personal-touch, customer service that clients appreciate.

“We’re shooting for that small, authentic feel, but not too small,” she said.

Chavez said Key Realty currently has 25 real estate agents in Colorado, including the Grand Junction office. He said the goal is to have 250 agents in Colorado and “get into all parts of the state.”

“Our goal is to keep growing and offer genuine and personal service,” he said.