Keller Williams Loses Another Houston Team to Real Brokerage

Real Brokerage lured another high-producing Houston-area team, marking its third in the Lone Star State so far this year.

The Garcia Group, based in The Woodlands near Houston and led by founder Haley Garcia, joined Real after three years with Keller Williams, according to a press release. The five-agent team said in the release that it annually completes about $200 million in sales, though last year it completed $87 million, according to RealTrends.

The Garcia Group ranks 19th among medium teams in Texas based on sales volume, according to RealTrends. In The Woodlands, the team ranks second behind The Kink Team, a Keller Williams group.

It’s not the first time the Garcia Group has changed brokerages. In 2018, Haley Garcia joined Compass Houston as a founding member of the office, bringing her team with her. The Garcia Group left Compass for Keller Williams in 2023, citing KW’s partnership with Mansion Global and the Wall Street Journal as attractions.

The team handles luxury transactions, though not exclusively. Many of the group’s current listings are priced below $1 million, its website shows.

Garcia had the listing for the 12,000-square-foot home at 2 Grand Colonial Drive in Spring last year. With an asking price of $13.6 million, the home was one of the most expensive new listings in Texas in June, according to the Houston Association of Realtors, but the sellers lowered the price to $9.4 million in September and then took the home off the market in November, Redfin shows.

The Garcia Group is the third Texas team to join Miami-based Real Brokerage this year, and the second from a Houston-area Keller Williams franchise. The Houston Properties Team, founded by Paige and Bob Martin, joined Real from Keller Williams last month. This month, the 65-member Bachman Group, based in Denton, joined Real from Fathom Realty.

Real presents itself as a technology-focused brokerage, and the company’s proprietary software for agents was a contributing factor in Garcia’s decision, the release said. In addition, Garcia’s agents stand to profit more at Real. Keller Williams has a 70/30 commission split for all agents, while Real Brokerage has an 85/15 split, according to their websites. The most expensive homes in the Houston area are generally in the Memorial and River Oaks neighborhoods within city limits, but top deals occasionally take place in suburbs like The Woodlands, Magnolia and Sugar Land. The third-priciest home sale in the area in 2024 was a 21,300-square-foot estate at 51 Grand Regency Circle in The Woodlands.