A century in business doesn’t happen by accident. The Keyes Company survived the Great Depression, witnessed the rise of the MLS, embraced the internet revolution and navigated countless market cycles. According to President Christina Pappas, the secret isn’t resisting change; it’s embracing it while staying true to a core set of values.
In the latest episode of the REALTOR® News Change Agents podcast, Pappas discusses how one of the nation’s largest independent brokerages has remained relevant for a century while continuing to grow across South Florida.
“We’ve been around for a hundred years—pre-internet, pre-MLS, pre-everything—and we’re still here,” Pappas says. The secret? “We’ve always stayed very true to our values.”
Those values date back to company founder Ken Keyes, who built the business around a simple philosophy: “Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.”
That belief continues to guide the company today.
“We often say we have a Main Street mindset, not Wall Street,” Pappas says. “I’m here to serve our people, and we’re still a local company as big as we are.”
Today, The Keyes Company and Illustrated Properties, a 50-year-old company that merged with Keyes a decade ago, have about 4,000 agents across South Florida, completing approximately 20,000 transactions annually. But growth, Pappas says, only matters if it remains connected to the people the company serves.
“We’re always putting our agents, our employees and our consumers at the forefront of everything that we do,” she says.
Evolving With the Market
That people-first approach extends to Keyes’ clients. Having served South Florida for nearly a century, the brokerage has witnessed Miami’s rise from a tourism-driven market to “an incredible financial center,” Pappas says, pointing to growth fueled by domestic migration, international investment and major new developments.
For agents, succeeding in that environment today requires more than understanding inventory. They need a clear understanding of consumers’ goals to help them navigate increasingly complex decisions.
“It has nothing to do with price,” Pappas says. “It has everything to do with what the consumer is wanting for themselves and for their future.”
In South Florida, that means educating buyers on costs beyond the purchase price.
“We talk a lot more about payments than price,” she says. “Your payment includes your HOA fees, your insurance and your property taxes.”
To support those conversations, Keyes encourages its agents to gather information early and provide buyers with a full financial picture before they make an offer.
“Our goal is that a customer walking into a showing [understands] the full costs that would be associated, prior to seeing it,” Pappas says.
That consultative approach has become increasingly important as consumer expectations evolve.
“A main pressure point for our agents right now is keeping up with all of the information, all of the technology and understanding how to continue to hone their value proposition,” she says.
Pappas believes these recent industry changes have pushed agents to become stronger advisors. Buyers are now more intentional about who they choose to work with, she says, and they increasingly evaluate agents based on their value proposition and ability to guide them through important decisions.
Technology plays an important role in delivering that value. Pappas points to customer relationship management systems as one of the most critical tools available to agents today.
“If it wasn’t in your database, it didn’t exist,” she says. At the same time, technology should support relationships, not replace them.
“We want our tools to be speaking to their customers while our agents are nose to nose, belly to belly, toes to toes,” she says.
Leadership Through Service
Beyond technology and transactions, Pappas believes community involvement remains essential to long-term brokerage and agent success.
“We believe our managers, our agents, our employees should be leaders of leaders, and that we champion communities,” she says.
That philosophy includes involvement in REALTOR® associations as well as charitable giving and local service initiatives.
“Without community, we have nothing to sell,” Pappas says. “And if we can’t give back to the community that’s given so much to us, then what are we doing?”
As the industry continues to evolve, Pappas sees adaptability as one of leadership’s most important responsibilities. For agents looking to grow their businesses, her advice is straightforward: “If you don’t have a business plan from day one, and you don’t have a system, you’re set up to fail.”
Just as important, she says, is remembering what the profession is really about.
“We are here to help people find solutions every single day.”
For Pappas, that lesson has sustained her brokerage for a century—and one that will likely carry it into the next hundred years.
