Above, from left, Shane McCullar, CEO and Operating Principal of KW Metro Center and Kate Papkin, general manager.
Shane McCullar is on a mission. As CEO and operating principal of KW Metro Center in Northern Virginia for nearly two decades, McCullar has grown his brokerage from 35 agents in one office in 2007 to over 880 agents in four offices with more than $2.1 billion in sales last year—no small feat in that he took the reins of the company just as the country plunged headlong into the worst slump in recent history, not to mention a global pandemic.
But McCullar used passion and strategy to defy and overcome troubled times, and now he aims to do it again.
McCullar
“The biggest obstacle to industry growth today is lack of inventory,” McCullar notes. “Back in ’07 and ’08, when whole blocks were in foreclosure, hundreds of thousands of homes were bought up by corporations that are still renting them out and taking depreciation. We owe them a debt of gratitude as they saved many homes and in some cases, neighborhoods. Now, times have changed, and they need to be in the hands of individuals and families. The demand for housing and especially affordable housing is the key element.
“Renting is not the American Dream,” he points out. “As I see it, the goal now should be getting these homes back in the marketplace so that more Americans across the country can fulfill their dream.”
In pursuit of that, McCullar is gathering support, lobbying elected officials and urging proposals to Congress with a path of offering corporations a federal tax credit to move these assets off their books and put them back in housing
circulation.
Inventory would go up, he reasons, and more homes would be available, especially for first-time buyers—and the transfer of taxes on both sides would help individual cities and states build much-needed roads and schools, and reinforce our national infrastructure.
“Even in these polarized times,” he says, “real estate associations are working on both sides of the aisle to get traction on the issue. While more attention may be focused on it after the election, there is an advantage on both sides; for Republicans, it’s the chance to reward corporations for good behavior and sound business decisions that benefited all. For Democrats, it is more available housing and an opportunity to benefit home districts with recurring revenue. For all Americans, it is the American Dream.”
This is not the first time McCullar has looked ahead to a better, more promising future. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, he left a lucrative job as an investment broker and corporate executive to take on the challenge and potentially unlimited rewards of real estate—and he was promptly named Rookie of the Year for Coldwell Banker in Chicago’s Gold Coast in his first year as an agent.
Moving quickly into management, McCullar opened Chicago and Northern California offices for Keller Williams Realty International before launching his KW brokerage in a single office in Virginia.
“It wasn’t easy,” says McCullar. “We came in at a time in 2007 when the bottom fell out and agents were leaving the business in droves. The days on market were climbing, REOs were the norm with people just walking away from the homes they grew up in. I did not have a salary for over six months, and I was a lucky one.”
But he pursued his business goals, nonetheless.
“It took persistence and innovation and a will to make it work,” he says. “But we had KW’s marketing support and an agent-centric training model in our favor, and a fierce determination to capitalize on local opportunity.”
In 2014, with the acquisition of the brand’s Arlington and Tyson offices, McCullar created KW Metro Center, with locations in Alexandria Old Town, Arlington, Tyson and later Midlothian, Virginia.
Today, McCullar oversees the fifth-largest real estate company in the competitive Washington, D.C./Maryland and Virginia area, per the Washington Business Journal, on track to close more than 3,400 transactions this year. The luxury market, with properties beginning at $1 million or more, makes up more than a third of the firm’s sales and continues to grow annually.
“We must be doing something right,” McCullar says. “We made it through high interest rates, soaring prices, inflation and a see-sawing market with 10 years of incredible growth.”
McCullar credits that increasing growth to four basic factors: an agent-centered culture; a real-time market strategy; the judicious onboarding of agents; and the resourceful use of new technologies, including AI, to make work easier and better for agents.
Papkin and McCullar in their Virginia headquarters.
An agent-centric approach to success
From McCullar’s standpoint, Keller Williams Realty International’s agent-forward culture and philosophy is at the very heart of their success.
“It begins with our training model, which is second to none,” he says. “Our new agents get productivity coaching from dedicated multi-million-dollar agents who actively coach them from day one. It’s a program that mixes real-world experience and motivation with a call for professionalism and high accountability.”
But the overall goal is more than just career success.
“The firm’s BOLD program,” he says—standing for Business Objective: Life by Design—“is a customized proprietary course created to help our agents develop the habits that can lead to fulfillment of their life goals in addition to receiving an ‘MBA in business practices.’”
At the same time, he says, the KW Cares program, operated at both the local and national levels, provides a financial safety net to help KW agents and their families who face hardships both personally and by natural disaster.
“This supports the culture of KW, the foundation upon which we were born and live today,” says McCullar. “Our belief is God, family then business. We strongly believe in community involvement and philanthropy. With the approval of our Agent Leadership Council, where local agents serve as a board, we can respond to a crisis within hours.”
A firm belief in these value-added agent programs is woven into the fabric of the company’s culture, McCullar notes.
“World-class training is what attracts new and seasoned agents,” he says, “but our culture is what keeps them loyal.”
Real-time market strategy
Having your pulse on finance and the market is critical to strategic planning, McCullar stresses.
“We want to know what’s happening now, to be able to serve our customers and clients today,” he says, “not quarterly or semi-annually, or yearly.”
With that in mind, the firm’s director of finance does complete market and financial reviews monthly, down to an income statement and balance sheet accurate to the penny.
“It tells us in real-time what we need to know,” says McCullar. “It helps us see trends faster. It tells us when to put our foot on the gas and when to put on the brakes.”
McCullar pointed to all the pre-election chaos at press time as an example.
“There is so much political noise out there now that people are positively whiplashed,” he says. “We need to know how that’s impacting the market in real time and what it means to our business, but most importantly, the individuals and families we consult on the most important financial move of their lives.”
Thoughtful agent onboarding
“Agents are our lifeblood,” says McCullar. “So, we keep a careful eye on our agent count. We have an open vetting process, and we love to bring in dedicated people who will thrive in our collaborative culture and customer-first philosophy.”
KW means business when they say, “collaborative,” he adds.
“We expect our agents to work with, rather than compete with, each other—a big reason why, in 2018, Forbes named Keller Williams the Happiest Place to Work in America.”
The four locations of KW Metro Center brought on 476 agents in 2023, says McCullar, and as of June 2024, had onboarded 220—a slight decrease the firm expects it will make up once the political noise of the election and national lawsuits in real estate subside. The idea of hunkering down in a time of crisis is not lost on agent migration.
Papkin and McCullar are guiding KW Metro Center into the future with new AI solutions and green rooms for video production.
At the forefront of tech trends
In 2019, Gary Keller, the co-founder of Keller Williams, made a $1 billion investment in technology, McCullar notes, giving KW agents access to an advanced slate of tools and data-driven insights. The end-to-end platform, including a cloud-based CRM, was designed to put the agent in the center of the transaction while providing the ultimate customer experience.
Recent upgrades to KW Metro Center’s technology include green rooms for producing in-house training media and providing agents with a perfect space to make and edit in-house videos and podcasts.
“Everything changed for me when I saw the power of artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrated at industry shows in Nashville and Las Vegas,” McCullar notes. “I loved the idea of it from the get-go. I could see that the uses are endless.”
With that in mind, McCullar sent a tech guru to school for six weeks to nail down how AI could best relate to their brokerage business, and wasted no time implementing programs.
“ChatGPT is making us more efficient every day,” says McCullar. “While agents are cautioned to use AI judiciously, they use it every day to create charts from numbers, write better-informed property descriptions and produce more professional listing presentations.”
The firm also uses AI frequently to create multi-language documents and to facilitate communication.
Despite his typically bullish outlook, McCullar is making no big business moves in the last quarter of the year.
“There is always opportunity to grow,” he maintains. “Yet, I am holding tight until after the elections, as there is so much at stake, and such a severe difference in the candidates. Other than interest rates dropping, the big impact will be consumer confidence and seeing how the business environment will be impacted by either more regulations or a more pro-business approach.”
When asked why Northern Virginia agents should gravitate to KW Metro Center, McCullar responds, “I could tell you that Keller Williams is the largest, most successful brand worldwide, and No. 1 in gross commission to agents. I could tell you that our capped commission model and our profit-sharing system are valuable for long-term wealth-building. All of that is true. But it’s our personal coaching program and our non-competitive, collaborative culture that make agents feel welcomed, valued and inspired to do their best work. It is the culture of being something more than just about a business deal.”
And McCullar’s best advice to agents?
“That’s simple,” he says. “Remember everything you learned in kindergarten. Be kind. Play fair. Use your manners and show grace.”
For more information, please visit https://kwmetrocenter.com.
