Nicole Kennedy, a broker with Dave Neal & Associates, has bought the agency from Neal and is renaming it Metro Real Estate Group.
Kennedy, 28, has worked for the agency since 2011 as a residential agent and more recently became a broker.
She said she doesn’t have dramatic changes planned for the agency. Susan Tamplin will remain as operating broker.
Kennedy said she is looking to expand the five-person agency to between 10 and 20 agents. The agency will continue to focus on new and existing residential, and, with Neal, commercial sales and land development, she said.
Kennedy grew up in Great Bend. She attended Kansas State University, studying architectural engineering and business management. In 2009, she moved to Wichita. After working as a waitress for a few months, she tried real estate, under Dave Neal’s group at Keller Williams, and found she loved it. She followed Neal when he left to form his own agency. She said she has increased sales volume every year and, last year, was ranked among the top 20 agents in Wichita.
“I didn’t come into this thinking I was going to buy the agency,” she said. “It just kind of fell into place. I tried to be a sponge while working with him. I tried to learn and listen, and every year I about doubled my production.”
“She’s versed in social media and the new technologies,” Dave Neal said. “She’s worked very hard to put herself in that position, to be a student of change. Not just embrace change, but accelerate change.”