After graduating with a 5-year degree in landscape architecture, with an emphasis in urban planning from Syracuse, NY, Rick went on to pursue the MBA curriculum at the University of Georgia. With opportunities leading him out to California, Rick found immediate success in real estate on the Westside.
Within his first year in real estate brokerage, Rick was among the seven core agents to open DBL Beverly Hills (now Sotheby’s International). While at DBL, he was recognized for outstanding production and achievement three years in a row, and was acknowledged as one of DBL Beverly Hills’ Top 10 Agents.
Rick was recruited by Keller Williams Realty as the first core agent/investor of the Hollywood Hills office, where he founded The Cunningham Group, a real estate team with Keller Williams, and subsequently went on to become the Top Listing Agent for that year; that same year, the Hollywood Hills Market Center became recognized
at the Homerun Market Center Launch in the Keller Williams franchise system.
Rick subsequently co-founded two Keller Williams Realty Market Centers — Los Feliz and Santa Monica. As the Owner and Operating Partner for Keller Williams Santa Monica, he oversaw rapid growth from a small start-up to a full-service, 250-plus-agent residential and commercial brokerage; quickly becoming the dominant real estate office in market share on the Westside of Los Angeles. Not only is the success noticeable locally, but the office ranks as one of the most profitable organizations in the KWRI system.
Between 2008 to 2011, Rick continued new expansion and takeover opportunities as Operating Principal/Owner/ Investor of Keller Williams Marina del Rey, Westside/LA, Newport Estates, Brentwood Estates, and the Pacific Palisades/ Malibu Estates Business Center, amassing an agent base of over 850 residential and commercial agents. Rick has demonstrated the skill set to take underperforming market centers and turn them around through increased productivity and profitability.
Within the last two years, Rick has also gained International recognition as one of the pioneers and predominant leaders for KW Commercial, boasting a division with the highest producing commercial agents, in both deal size and deal volume. Rick has been instrumental in developing many of the KWC systems and is in demand to participate at a leadership level nationwide.
Along the way, Rick has co-founded, invested and/or partnered in numerous real-estate-related core service ventures in Southern California, including strategic partnerships and joint affiliations with mortgage, settlement services/escrow, attorney services, and real estate staffing.
As one of the strongest multiple Market Center operators in the Keller Williams franchise system, Rick’s companies have become a “growth model business” on a national level. The entire leadership team was recognized
as the Featured Leadership Team for all of Keller Williams at KWRI’s 2010 National Convention and Rick was named the Featured Operating Principal of all KWRI operators at the 2010 Mega Leadership Camp.
Rick points to three tangents that have unequivocally propelled his success: (1) The perpetual focus on agent production through agent support — this mainstay has catapulted Per-Agent-Productivity across-the-board in each and every Market Center Rick has been involved in; (2) Working with and through people – the belief that
Riding on the momentum of past successes, Rick is now poised to take a stronghold of the Northern California real estate market with the launch of Keller Williams/KW Commercial Market Centers in the San Francisco Bay Area – both City Center & Peninsula.leveraging long-term partnerships is about creating opportunities for talented leadership, which in turn creates loyalty, leading to others being attracted to be in business with the best; and (3) A thorough understanding of the KW models at work, and the ability to refine and pioneer the systems to function at a divisional multi-Market Center caliber.
This Investor Presentation strives to lay out some of the core concepts, strategies and timelines involved in the planning, investment and expansion to the Bay Area from 2011 to 2015.
