The #1 independent brokerage in St. Louis, Missouri, RedKey Realty Leaders is a women-owned company that values diversity among its team members and within the communities they serve.

Despite only being in business for about 10 years, RedKey Realty Leaders has made a name for itself as the #1 independent brokerage in the St. Louis metropolitan area. 

After years of working for different companies, CEO Jill Butler wanted something she could call her own, so she decided to take a risk. She recalls starting up the business from a hotel room back in 2012 before opening the firm's first office.

"We started about 10 years ago, and I had worked for different franchises and had lots of good things at the different companies I had been at," Jill says. "And then I just thought, 'Okay, I want to try this on my own, and if it doesn't work, I can always go sell real estate or go get a job.' And so we opened. It was in 2012, and we actually started in a hotel room because I really didn't want to do this out of my basement. So we just started in a hotel room and then agents started coming and joining us."

Today, RedKey Realty Leaders has two offices, one in St. Louis on Clayton Road and another just outside the city in Chesterfield. They have over 175 agents, representing many different cultures and parts of the community. Their agents collectively speak over 14 different languages. 

Different Perspectives

Having a diverse set of agents from different walks of life and geographical locations is extremely important to RedKey Realty Leaders. Having this level of diversity within the organization and the ability to speak many languages is particularly valuable for their clients relocating to St. Louis from various countries around the world.

"We always hope we're attracting people from other cultures, from other places to St. Louis and we want to be good ambassadors," says Jill. "So having people who either speak foreign languages or who are from other countries makes us better able to serve clients."

When someone is moving to St. Louis, the relocation team at RedKey Realty Leaders is there to help them find a home in the area that's right for them. Having agents from each of the different communities, with different backgrounds helps them to identify and match up each customer with the right person. With their agents being from or living in the communities they are representing, they are far more knowledgeable and better suited to serve clients in that area.

"Having such a diverse group of agents allows us to hit all the different unique areas within St. Louis when someone's coming in," says B.J. Sonderman, Director of Agent Success. "One of the things our relocation team does is identify if someone's coming in and going to move to a specific area. We try to find someone that works at a high level, produces a high level for that area, and knows the culture and the fibers of that area, and then we identify who that best fit is."

Lastly, having a diverse group of agents who each bring in a unique perspective helps them be more innovative. It allows them to envision and prepare for what's ahead.

"I think we see things from our own perspective," says Jill. "It's just the way we're kind of building. And so sometimes we can't see what's around the corner. So we need people who have different lived experiences than we do, and that helps us be more innovative."

Creating a Culture

At RedKey Realty Leaders, they have created a one-of-a-kind culture built around their core values: love, service, and fun. "Love is building relationships, service is solving problems, and then we try to make it fun whenever we can," says Jill.

These core values are how they recruit new agents and determine whether or not they are the right fit for the company. They want people who are going to care for their fellow agents as well as their community and who are motivated to perform at a high level and be productive members of their team.

"I don't think people really get it until they actually work with a group of people," says Jill. "It's something that's hard to define, but we have a set of core values. We hire, we fire, and we promote based on core values. It's about production, but it's also about being the right fit for the rest of the team. So we always look for very productive professional agents who want to do things at a high level and that also really care about their clients, care about the community, and care about each other. So we want it to be high achievement and high support."

Recognized in several local publications, RedKey Realty Leaders is known throughout St. Louis as being one of the top places to work. According to Marketing Director Jenn Cloud, a collaborative work environment is just one of the many reasons RedKey Realty Leaders has become a sought-after workplace in the St. Louis area.

"RedKey is a great place to work because of the culture that we've built," she says. "We're consistent in the messaging that we're putting out to attract the people that we bring in. And we have a really great formula for making sure the right personalities and the right people are here to support each other. We offer a ton of marketing support to our agents and we do top-shelf training. It's the best training in the area that you can get to grow your business."

Making the Switch to Delta Media Group®

RedKey Realty Leaders is one of Delta Media Group's newest clients to come on board. After joining RedKey as a Director of Agent Success, one of the first areas that B.J. noticed needed improvement was their technology. So, he took it upon himself to find the best possible technology provider.

"When I came to RedKey a little over a year ago, one of the first things I noticed is I felt like the technology we had, while adequate, could be better, and a passion of RedKey is providing the best tools to our agents we possibly can," says B.J. "I went on this kind of journey and interviewed. It was over 40 different CRMs that I really vetted and went through on lengthy calls. And then I brought my top five into our leadership group and we all sat and listened to what was provided with them. I worked with Franklin [Stoffer] at Delta, and he was amazing and answered every question, and had great follow-up."

He says that when speaking with some fellow LeadingRE (Leading Real Estate Companies of the World) members who had already been working with Delta, they all had great things to say — making the decision even more clear.

"Talking to some other counterparts throughout LeadingRE companies, they just had glowing reviews of Delta," says B.J. "While they wouldn't say anything negative about the other contenders, the final answer from everyone was like, 'You will not regret that decision.' And so the more we looked into it, it just became a very obvious choice for us, and I think it's going to be a great alignment for us."

Feeling Optimistic

While their site only recently launched, RedKey Realty Leaders is looking forward to seeing what DeltaNET® does for their agents and their business.

"There is so much optimism already from agents now that are starting to lean in to do things that we could not get them to do before," B.J. says. "I'm excited to see what it can do, but it's already getting more engagement, and at a time of the market shifting, it couldn't be coming at a more perfect time for them to dive back into the business and get into the things that, frankly, they weren't doing with our old CRM."

Along with all of the tools they will have to help them become more engaged and grow their business, they are also excited about how the technology will help them become more organized. 

Jenn says, "We're working on getting everything out of our head, into a document, into a system, into a platform, and we're very excited about Delta Media specifically and what that's going to do to help us organize several different tools and avenues and communication channels that we've just been chasing around individually before."

Excited For Expansion

Along with upgrading their technology, RedKey Realty Leaders is preparing to open up their third office location in Lake St. Louis this spring. Adding a new site will allow them to expand to more communities and continue to grow.

"We're getting ready to open another office, so we're really focused on that and excited about the growth," says Jill. 

With this new office location and the top tools and technology available in the marketplace, RedKey Realty Leaders is on its way to continued growth and expansion. Great things are on the horizon as they continue making an impact in the St. Louis real estate market!