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Keller Williams is teaming up with education giant Kaplan to create the KW School of Real Estate, or KSCORE. The school will be a fully digital real estate training program that will provide a state-approved prelicensing curriculum through Kaplan Real Estate Education system. It will help train new real estate professionals and provide continuing real estate education credits for existing agents. It’s expected to fully open in early 2022.
The program will mix home study and live online courses to accommodate flexible schedules.
Keller Williams hopes that by making training more accessible, it will help bring the industry’s real estate agent population more in line with the demographic breakdown of the U.S. population. Six percent of all real estate agents and brokers are Black compared to 12% of the U.S. population; 8% of agents and brokers are Hispanic compared to 12% of the U.S. population; and 4% are Asian American compared to 6% of the overall population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“Through financial assistance opportunities offered via our market centers, we’re seeking to balance the racial makeup of our industry with that of the general population,” says Marc King, president of KW. “We see this deliberate effort as crucial to closing the homeownership gap for historically marginalized communities in our country.”
Beginning in 2022, KSCORE expects to add more than 15,000 new agents annually to Keller Williams and the real estate industry.
“KSCORE represents our most forward-looking and aggressive step we’re taking as a brand to match our actions to the strong commitment we’ve made to our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals,” says Molly de Mattos, co-owner of The Matt & Molly Team in Asheville, N.C., who has been tapped as the dean of KSCORE.
More than 250 Keller Williams market centers, so far, are participating in KSCORE. Officials expect that number to increase to more than 500 market centers by early 2022, when the school is expected to be operational in 24 states.