Foothills Insider® is Moving to Keller Williams Southern Arizona.

It was Tuesday, March 9th 2010 and Realty Executives Southern Arizona held its company meeting at La Paloma. Meanwhile, I was on my way to Scottsdale, where that evening was planned an NYU Alumni networking reception. Suddenly the phone rang – “Have you heard the news? – one of my fellow real estate agents sounded somewhat shocked – Realty Executives Southern Arizona has canceled its affiliation with Realty Executives International and entered into a new affiliation with Keller Williams Realty.”

This was a beginning of a very interesting chain of events. In the next few weeks, I received a ton of e-mails and phone calls from known and unknown, large and small real estate companies from all over Tucson. I didn’t know half of them existed! Now, I needed to choose from among different cultures, varying commission splits and scattered office locations, etc.

The three main companies to consider were of course the newly established Keller Williams Southern Arizona; Realty Executives International, whose CEO came to Tucson in a heroic effort to save the Realty Executives brand, agents and presence in Tucson; and rapidly expanding low-office-fee Tierra Antigua Realty. Of course, I had no intention of returning to the extremely high split-commission-fee of Long Realty, nor join some unknown realty on the other side of town.

I’ve been in Real Estate long enough to understand that the company matters little, for as long as it doesn’t ruffle the agent’s business. To me, it was an even choice between inconvenience (having to change my business cards, marketing materials, Internet presence, and established connections) and excitement of change (new opportunities, new actions).

Each of the three companies had its own appeal. After three long weeks of deliberation, I finally decided to move to Keller Williams Southern Arizona. Why? Don’t expect me to give you the common BS reply: “Because it will serve better my clients”. I still have no idea how well it will serve both me and you. When I find out how good (or not), I’ll let you know.

The reason I’ve moved to Keller Williams Southern Arizona is … I have joined the Team of Ledford, Clark & Clark, with whom I was working closely in the last year or so. I found it to be a huge advantage to have the reliable agents whom I can trust with my business and who are ready to step up at any time when I get more business than I can handle by myself. So, when I got an offer from Cheryl, Dick and Karen to join their team, my choice boiled down to one question – is Foothills Insider® a lone wolf or a team player? By now, you already know the answer.