Proptech Pulse: David Voorhees on KW Labs and Agent Success

Discover how one of the world's largest real estate companies builds technology from the ground up to empower its agents. In this episode, we're joined by David Voorhees, Executive Director of Labs at Keller Williams Realty, to explore the intersection of technology, training, and agent success. You'll gain a unique perspective on how to create tools that solve real-world problems and drive business growth for real estate professionals.

David shares the evolution of Keller Williams Labs, from an internal activity to a core department focused on agent needs and innovation. We discuss the critical process of evaluating and integrating partner technologies, the challenges of scaling solutions for a massive international user base, and the importance of aligning technology with proven business models. This conversation offers valuable insights into building a robust proptech ecosystem that delivers tangible results.

As a licensed agent and corporate leader, David provides a rare dual perspective on the industry's most pressing challenges. With the rapid advancement of AI and constant market shifts, understanding how to effectively leverage technology is more critical than ever for agent productivity and retention. Tune in to learn how to stay ahead of the curve and subscribe to Proptech Pulse for more discussions that keep you at the forefront of real estate innovation.

https://www.lwolf.com/podcast

Transcript

00:00:00:20 - 00:00:27:01
Speaker 1
From the entrepreneur's desk to the industry front lines and into real world operations. I'm Erin Cordell, joined by Kyle Hunter and Jake Hamilton, and we're here to take the pulse of real estate technology in just 20 minutes. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Proptech pulse. Very excited today to have, David Voorhees here with us. David is the executive director of labs at Keller Williams Realty, which has a really cool program.

00:00:27:03 - 00:00:49:15
Speaker 1
I've been lucky enough to get to know David through, just some of our meetings and different engagements over the past few years. And so very happy to have him on the pod today. So, David, I'm going to start out and let you, really explain a little bit about your career and what you've done and kind of what you do today, and then, you know, we'll dive into kind of what labs does.

00:00:49:17 - 00:00:50:08
Speaker 1
Perfect.

00:00:50:10 - 00:01:11:21
Speaker 2
Thanks for having me, Kyle. I really appreciate it. I've seen the, the guests you've had, before me and so. And, I feel like I'm in fantastic company based on, what you guys have already put out there. So thanks for having me. My career up to this point. Also, I'll say, like many folks, I found I failed my way into real estate, a decade ago.

00:01:11:23 - 00:01:32:03
Speaker 2
And, found myself at a point in my career in my, in my kind of early to mid 30s, that I needed to make a change and was in a relatively low ceiling job before that. And and on my way into real estate, like, I think, like a lot of folks do, with the dream of working for myself and making an unlimited amount of money and and having all this free time.

00:01:32:05 - 00:01:50:10
Speaker 2
I think only to realize shortly after getting into real estate that that probably wasn't a reality. However, I did really well. I was the runner up for two year in my office. Built a team pretty quickly, and, I'm still a licensed, selling agent. My wife and I are here in Austin, Texas. We still have a real estate sales business.

00:01:50:10 - 00:02:07:13
Speaker 2
Now, given that, seven years ago, I came over to the corporate office at Keller Williams was kind of recruited over here to when we started our technology journey as a company. The amount of time I spend on the real estate activities now is limited to nights and weekends. However, we still find a way to, to stay in the business.

00:02:07:13 - 00:02:16:11
Speaker 2
And I think hopefully we'll, you know, I think we'll get into this later. That's been really important for me to be effective in my job inside this building, too.

00:02:16:13 - 00:02:56:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, I appreciate it. And I mean, the way that, you know, Keller Williams and obviously Gary leading that charge for many years, you know, being a technology leader and really making that investment and understanding where kind of future is going, is important. And I think, you know, when I started engaging, in, you know, working with Keller Williams, you know, 4 or 5 years ago, six years ago, it was, just a, you know, different concept from some of the other, you know, brands and other, you know, large companies that I've worked with in that there's such a focus on understanding the needs of the agents and then just the

00:02:56:04 - 00:03:28:15
Speaker 1
cool, you know, way that we brought it about by having an actual producing, high producing team to kind of lead that. And so, you know, you know, obviously this is about that pulse. So we love to understand that technology. I think you're perfectly suited for it. So with that I mean I'd love to have you share with the audience a little bit about what labs does, like what what was your, you know, why did it start and and what is your day to day marching orders and what you need to bring, to make it successful?

00:03:28:17 - 00:03:44:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. I think it's a really good question. And so I'll try to break it down into a few kind of maybe the timeline of how this happened. Right. I think, labs I'm using air quotes here. We're kind of first thought of as activities, right? They were the activities we did to learn about what we should build.

00:03:44:00 - 00:04:03:11
Speaker 2
Right? Unlike a traditional kind of waterfall technology company, we literally flew agents and top producing agents three times a week and would spend all day with them in the lab. I use air quotes again, which is one of the rooms. Kyle, you've been in the room here in, in in our, corporate headquarters in Austin where we did those.

00:04:03:12 - 00:04:24:16
Speaker 2
We would literally fly in, you know, 8 or 10 agents, different ones, three times a week for probably a year. And. And when you talk about Gary being involved in this, using every one of those meetings all day and all, we were trying to figure out where, obviously, if we're going to go down this path of solving the technology challenge by building it ourselves.

00:04:24:16 - 00:04:58:15
Speaker 2
Right up until seven years ago, Keller Williams rented its technology, at least it from companies like Lone Wolf. And and still do in some scenarios. But but Gary wanted to go build it. And that kind of started a domino effect in the industry of many other companies following suit. And, and some are still in that game, however many have gotten out of it, but so having it first or labs was an activity and then kind of moved its way into a department of how do we help all of the people in this building build things for our users?

00:04:58:17 - 00:05:16:12
Speaker 2
Our associates will be who would be agents and our franchisees such that we're having the greatest effect on them. And we can, at the end of the day, give them back as much time and help them make more money. Like those would be the end goals right now. The hard part is, if we were Starbucks, everyone in this building would drink the coffee.

00:05:16:12 - 00:05:33:18
Speaker 2
They would all understand and know exactly what beans were their favorite and what temperature they liked the water and and what kind of milk they liked in it. But but all the people that build the technology in our company, and obviously a lot of other real estate companies will never be end users of it. And so that makes that last bit of translation hard.

00:05:33:18 - 00:06:09:21
Speaker 2
And as you well know, and I'm sure any of your listeners know, real estate agents and franchisees are fickle people. And and something is understood one way and interpreted a very different way. And so I think what that's evolved into over time is now the labs team that I'm so lucky enough to, to lead is a group of a dozen humans that literally wake up every day and try to figure out what are the biggest problems that we can solve for the most amount of people in our world, such that they get back as much time as humanly possible and are allowed and hopefully empowered to to make more money in their businesses.

00:06:09:21 - 00:06:13:02
Speaker 2
Be that an agent business or one of our franchisees.

00:06:13:04 - 00:06:37:03
Speaker 1
Yeah. So that's cool. I mean lapping it. So yeah, I mean I'm sure that term is like, hey, let's just lab it. And then it turned into an actual thing and a whole, you know, whole process. And that's, that's pretty interesting. The other thing is, I know, you know, in their past conversations, you, typically invite high producers and, and so in many cases, it's like, well, let's get a diverse group.

00:06:37:03 - 00:06:59:12
Speaker 1
And it is important to get a diverse group, but they need to actually be in the business and working hard. And so I think that that really is a testament to say, like we're we're trying to make people successful. And and your role, you know, that living day in and day out and getting up and thinking about how you can improve the life of agents and brokerages?

00:06:59:13 - 00:07:11:00
Speaker 1
I mean, I think that's a key pillar to what makes, you know, lab so successful and has been over the years. So, you know, that's, obviously we mentioned.

00:07:11:00 - 00:07:28:10
Speaker 2
Real quickly, that, you know, I'm being honest, if I were to look back and I would say that's also one of the mistakes we made early on. Right? If I were to go back and, like, we invited top producers because we know that every agent, whether they ever get to show 100 or 1000 or in some cases today 5000 homes are always aspiring to do more.

00:07:28:12 - 00:07:45:22
Speaker 2
But I think in the early part of this journey, you know, we had a lot to learn. And I think it had we have gone more diverse because now we do, and we're very intentional about talking to agents that just started with our company in the last three months and talking about people that have been with our company a long time, but maybe aren't selling many hundreds of houses a year.

00:07:45:23 - 00:08:19:04
Speaker 2
They're selling a dozen or 18 or 7. Right. Like we've been chartered by Gary to go build technology that helps every agent in our company have an unfair advantage, whether they got their license yesterday or they're in the top one tenth of 1% of agents in our company and everyone in between. And so I think early on, that was one of the mistakes, or one of the things we could have done differently was we could have had a, a larger group of, of different producers, always building to solve the biggest and hairiest challenges for our highest producing agents.

00:08:19:06 - 00:08:26:16
Speaker 2
But understanding that our, our, our lower producing agents also needed to find value in the tool as well.

00:08:26:18 - 00:08:39:12
Speaker 1
And I think, you know, that's that's very important to getting someone from, you know, seven deals a year to, you know, 12 year deals a year is just as important as somebody that doing 50 and, you know, getting up to 100 times, you know.

00:08:39:14 - 00:08:56:13
Speaker 2
And frankly, for a lot of us that got into the real estate industry as agents, getting that 1 or 2 extra deals a year might be the difference between me getting to continue to live my real estate dream. Right? Like, we all get into this for the same reason, everyone wanted to make 100 grand and and wanted to work for themselves.

00:08:56:15 - 00:09:13:07
Speaker 2
And in that first three, six, nine, 12 months, the difference between getting to do this another month or another quarter or another year might be that one deal or that or that that second deal to to make sure you have enough money to, to keep living this dream. Right?

00:09:13:09 - 00:09:36:15
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, absolutely. I know I mean, the term obviously is very high. We all battle that. And, you know, whatever you can do to retain, you know, good agents and continue to bring them on, you know, you know, that's what you guys doing day in, day out. Yep. Pivoting a little bit. You know, you mentioned that obviously, command, was a was a huge initiative and and still is today.

00:09:36:15 - 00:09:58:09
Speaker 1
And I think that, you know, has had, you know, tremendous success and been recognized. With that said, in the past, prior and in some cases, you know, you know, I'm obviously with the technology company and, you know, technology's hard as soon as you want something, the agent's going to say, great, but what about this, this and this or, you know, maintaining.

00:09:58:09 - 00:10:22:06
Speaker 1
And so there's a lot there. So while you have a core, I'd love to understand how you approach, partnering technologies, evaluating understanding the ability to work with a company, the size and scale, you know, of Keller Williams, because obviously there's there's some smaller niche and there's different ones. But how do you approach someone that you know would work?

00:10:22:06 - 00:10:25:02
Speaker 1
Well, within the Keller Williams network?

00:10:25:04 - 00:10:45:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a really good question. And, you know, obviously we worked well with, with you guys for a long time, but I think, you know, that's another one of the things I think we've pivoted over time. Right. When we first started on this journey, I don't think it's a secret that we had a kind of a build by us right at the time, the leadership, was really marching down this path of building a lot.

00:10:45:06 - 00:11:04:19
Speaker 2
And so we built a really broad and relatively shallow ecosystem which which turned out to be an advantage, later, I think in the last 3 or 4 years, we've made a pretty significant pivot to understand that, you know, having a piece of technology here that's ours. There are certain things that we can do that are going to be proprietary.

00:11:04:19 - 00:11:23:06
Speaker 2
They're going to be unique because of our size, scale, amount of data, a number of agents, any number of those things. However, as you all know, and I'm sure many of the people listening, there's there's a lot of cool stuff in the market and you can't chase it all and you certainly can't go build it all. And so I think now we, we, you know, I think this is where labs really comes into play.

00:11:23:06 - 00:11:44:01
Speaker 2
We wake up every day and try to identify problems first. And then once we've identified a problem that we think is is important to our associates and worthy of solving, we're looking at a variety of things. Is there someone already doing this right? Is is there someone is this something that's unique or is it is it more of something that we could go by?

00:11:44:01 - 00:12:06:17
Speaker 2
Right. Is it a commodity? And we're evaluating on that scale, which wasn't always a muscle. We were great at flexing early on. And so your questions are really good. One, I think I try and that's one of the roles I specifically sit in. Right? I we get a ton of inbound, people, obviously when you have the number of agents we do, it's nice to look up and say, I would love someone to buy 150,000 of my widgets.

00:12:06:19 - 00:12:22:08
Speaker 2
You know, and so I get a lot of inbound, but we also do a lot of outbound and try to be proactive and understand what's going on in the market. And so I think I'm constantly kind of looking at it, if I were to think about it as I kind of really old, due diligence is trying to understand what problem this piece of technology solves.

00:12:22:10 - 00:12:45:02
Speaker 2
Do I think that that's a problem that our associates have, right. Because because our problems aren't the same as necessarily every other real estate agent company or real estate brokerage in the industry? If do I think that this company is capable of solving that problem? And then to your point, the scale, right, like it's one thing to have a thousand or even 5000 users, which is a tremendous user base.

00:12:45:04 - 00:13:01:08
Speaker 2
We've got 150,000 and our technology stays. You know, it's really clearly around 120,000 130,000 monthly active users. That brings all sorts of challenges between onboarding and support and all sorts of things. And so.

00:13:01:10 - 00:13:02:04
Speaker 1
And and with.

00:13:02:08 - 00:13:29:21
Speaker 2
Everything. Right. And so I think we're constantly trying to evaluate on that relatively simple matrix. And if we can get to a place that, okay, we think that this is a good product that solves a real problem that we believe is worthy of solving in our in our short or medium term roadmap. And even if a company can't, isn't there today, which most aren't, by the way, if we can see a path to get there, I think it's always worthy of us spending time with them to see how we can partner together.

00:13:29:21 - 00:13:54:05
Speaker 2
Because again, to your point, there's a lot of stuff in the market and the agents want a lot of things, and there's a lot of they love to chase shiny objects. I can say that I'm one of them. And I think, as you'll see, I think if you were to wave a magic wand and say, how does Keller Williams add value to the ecosystem moving into 26 and beyond, I think you'll see us lean really heavy into choosing the right integration partners.

00:13:54:07 - 00:13:59:15
Speaker 2
And probably building large because we feel like we built a really good solid core foundation.

00:13:59:17 - 00:14:18:07
Speaker 1
Yeah. I mean, it's important to, you know, to your point, shiny objects, there's always new stuff out there. You know, I go to a lot of the conferences as the new. Yeah. And, you know, there's always vendor hall or startup alleys. There's all of these things. Just have a ton of, you know, new things that I get in there.

00:14:18:12 - 00:14:41:11
Speaker 1
I mean, that's that's really cool. But, you know, you start evaluating it and in some cases it is. But in many cases, you know, you look at it and, and it's, either a need to have or it doesn't have the ability to, to scale. And somebody to your point, if you have 190,000 agents, you have to have the ability and international I mean, I don't know how many countries where you guys are now.

00:14:41:11 - 00:14:41:17
Speaker 1
I mean.

00:14:41:21 - 00:14:57:20
Speaker 2
My, some our our worldwide folks catch me if they hear this. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 63, 64, 65. So, yeah, I think it's a really good point. Right? I and I'm not going to name names, but we've gone down pretty deep down the path with a company recently that we think does all of the things I mentioned.

00:14:57:20 - 00:15:20:04
Speaker 2
They solve real problems, they have a great tool. They actually can scale. And we get to the point of like, okay, how much of our user base can you cover? And they they can't cover all of the places we have agents. And that's no one's fault, by the way. That's just we were in all of the US, all of Canada and 60 countries around the world, such to the point that we've built our technology out is native in 24 languages.

00:15:20:06 - 00:15:33:13
Speaker 2
And then we've done that because out of necessity, right. We can't just provide our tool to portions of our agent base if we're talking about enterprise level stuff. Right? If we're talking about optional pieces, it's a totally different story, you know?

00:15:33:13 - 00:15:46:00
Speaker 1
I mean, and that's important. I know you obviously have a large presence in Canada, which, you know, we obviously are familiar with, but having that worldwide presence is good, but it creates just a whole nother unique set of challenges.

00:15:46:01 - 00:16:09:07
Speaker 2
But yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I think because there's currencies, there's, feet to meters, there's just so much regional growth, the regional nuances. And again, we're lucky. I think the culture that that Gary and Keller Williams created 40 years ago when you started a company, has helped us on our journey because our agents are so willing to share, and so we can easily reach into that group.

00:16:09:07 - 00:16:26:20
Speaker 2
I think that's one of the things that's made labs so successful is it's really easy for us to reach into our ecosystem of agents and find a group that are willing to help us, whether they're in the US or they're in Spain or Portugal or France or any of the countries around the world, they lean in to helping us make the tool better for them.

00:16:26:22 - 00:16:49:02
Speaker 1
The last thing, I want to touch on today is something that I just, you know, from an outsider or someone you know, that works with you, but, you know, not obviously end is the, impact that our training has and how it relates to adoption. And I think that's always an issue in the technology space. You know, we deal with it with Lone Wolf.

00:16:49:04 - 00:17:08:18
Speaker 1
Others do. But, you know, you can build a great product. But are the agents actually adopting and using. And it could be really good if they do that. I'd love to hear, you know, just some of the things that you guys do to ensure and continually make sure that agents are adopting and measuring how that adoption works.

00:17:08:18 - 00:17:29:11
Speaker 2
Yeah. Lean behind me because I think we have an advantage that I'm not sure we we realized immediately on the outset, but has turned into a bit of our North Star, right, as certainly in our North Star. So Gary wrote this book, The Millionaire Real Estate agent, just over 20 years ago now. And for those that haven't read it, I'm sure many have.

00:17:29:11 - 00:17:50:19
Speaker 2
It sold millions of copies. It's kind of a blueprint of how you would build a great real estate business. Right. And and it's tactical and we look at this, this should be the operations manual to our technology. And you should be able to read this book and then go and do all of the things that, that you've been that you've learned from the book inside and with our technology.

00:17:50:19 - 00:18:10:02
Speaker 2
And so I think, that's probably superpower number one, this at the very core, Gary built this company as a training and education company, and that's how we recruited agents. That's how we started offices. And that that was his superpower. And frankly, still is his superpower. We try to harness that by making obviously, you've got to make it easy to use.

00:18:10:02 - 00:18:37:07
Speaker 2
Everyone wants we got to do less clicks. It's got to be super intuitive, but it also has to line up with the systems and models that make Keller Williams who they are. And I think that's the balance we've tried to direct. We also have an incredible amount, of really talented folks in the field, I'll say, both at the regional level and at the market center level that have embraced this journey with us and are out there teaching it in market centers and regions every day of the week.

00:18:37:09 - 00:18:55:09
Speaker 2
And so that's the other way, right? We know and we've been able to thankfully, glean from a lot of the insights we have, that when agents perform certain activities in our in our technology, they're going to be more successful and age just three times more likely to cap in our world if they have 200 contacts in their database, like, well, that's a no brainer, right?

00:18:55:09 - 00:19:12:07
Speaker 2
A database, a bigger database equals better production. But knowing the people that don't have that, so then our marketers can go target them and help them build that database through and using our technology allows them to be more successful. So I hope that answers the question, but I'm glad you touched on it because it's a no.

00:19:12:10 - 00:19:36:04
Speaker 1
Does that mean, you know, I've been lucky enough to go to a family reunion and make camp and, you know, just the, you know, the classes, the training, just the, intense focus on that, I think is just really, you know, again, attachment going back and growing and making agents successful by repetition and adopting the tools that you guys make up every day and, you know, try to put in place.

00:19:36:06 - 00:19:38:05
Speaker 1
So, I love that.

00:19:38:07 - 00:19:54:03
Speaker 2
Here's the simple framework kind of in two sentences, I think are three that that we think about in the right agents wake up every day with pain and problems, and they look for a way to go solve them. And we think it's for systems and models, which would be this book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. Then it's technology and then it's people.

00:19:54:05 - 00:20:19:18
Speaker 2
And you're and you need some combination of all three likely to solve whatever problem you're looking for. I think I think part of the problem that agents find is they rush to find a person to do the job. They're the hardest and most expensive solution. And so if we can give them the other two, the systems, the models and the technology, as well as a way to train, organize, hire or recruit their people, including themselves, they can put all three of those things together to solve.

00:20:19:18 - 00:20:22:08
Speaker 2
Hopefully whatever problem they have in their business.

00:20:22:10 - 00:20:37:03
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. Last question. We're, you know, really quick, don't want to get out of here with asking you about the future. And, you know, is I, involved. You know, I hate bringing that up because you hear it everywhere. But you know what? Your take on that.

00:20:37:05 - 00:20:54:03
Speaker 2
Is just the part where I get to say it. I won't replace agents, but agents that you say I will. You know, I think that's kind of. If you like the theme through everyone, I talk to you in the real estate space, there's. I don't think there's any way around it that AI is going to change how agents operate.

00:20:54:05 - 00:21:15:05
Speaker 2
I think we are continuing to lean into the idea that the agent remains at the center of the transaction. I do believe that those that lead into new tools, built, AI or otherwise, are going to have an advantage. And I think you'll see that as you watch our journey from a technology perspective over the coming months and quarters and years, you'll see us lean pretty hard into that where we can.

00:21:15:06 - 00:21:31:12
Speaker 2
Right? We want to make sure we're making an impact in the right ways, and not just throwing AI at the world to say we've got AI. And I think agents are still very, very most of them are still very, very green when it comes to how to use it effectively in their business. I think that goes back to the training piece you mentioned.

00:21:31:14 - 00:21:37:04
Speaker 2
We've got to not just give them the tool, we've got to train them what to do with it. Once they have.

00:21:37:06 - 00:21:41:14
Speaker 1
David, very much a pleasure for having you on today and thanks for the conversation.

00:21:41:16 - 00:21:43:12
Speaker 2
Thank you sir. Appreciate it.

00:21:43:14 - 00:21:49:01
Speaker 1
That's our pulse for today. Keep innovating, keep implementing and keep moving real estate forward.