AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 13, 2026--
Keller Williams Realty, LLC (KW), the world's largest real estate franchise, announces its agreement to acquire the Jason Mitchell Group (JMG), a top U.S.-ranked, teamerage-style, independent brokerage and one of real estate's most sophisticated referral and lead conversion platforms.
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"At KW, our job is simple: give entrepreneurs the models, systems, and platform they need to thrive," said Chris Czarnecki, CEO and president of KW.
"Simply put, JMG is the number one teamerage in the US; they represent exactly the kind of entrepreneurial success KW was built to support," said Czarnecki. "Jason has created one of the industry's most effective platforms for connecting consumers with great agents, and we're proud they chose KW for their next chapter of growth."
JMG is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and operates in 37 states with more than 1,200 affiliated agents. According to RealTrends Verified, the brokerage generated nearly $5.9 billion in sales volume across more than 12,300 transaction sides in 2025.
The acquisition brings to KW a proven, highly scalable business that processes consumer leads through relationships with major mortgage lenders and other real estate platforms, including Rocket Mortgage, Mr. Cooper, Redfin, Zillow, New American Funding, and Veterans United.
"We've spent years building a network designed to connect motivated buyers and sellers with great agents and deliver an exceptional experience for both," said Mitchell.
"I’ve admired KW since starting my real estate career; when it came time to select a partner for the next phase of growth, my choice was clear,” said Mitchell. “KW offers the culture, people and opportunity to be part of the most connected real estate platform in the world."
Mitchell will continue to lead the business as president of the JMG Division and serve on KW’s executive team. Jake Kraft, chief revenue officer at JMG, and Ken Friedlander, vice president of operations at JMG, will also join KW as part of the acquisition.
"This transaction represents a win-win for all parties involved; Jason has built an incredible business and has proven that phenomenal client services can be delivered at scale,” said Czarnecki. “Together, we are creating an engine for further growth by providing a worldwide platform for JMG to continue to expand.”
The closing is subject to certain conditions and is anticipated to take place in Q3 2026.
Citizens Capital Markets & Advisory and Buchalter represented JMG. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer served as legal advisor to KW.
About Keller Williams
Austin, Texas-based Keller Williams Realty, LLC is the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count with a global network of offices and affiliated agents. The franchise is No. 1 in units and sales volume in the U.S.
Since 1983, the company has cultivated an agent-centric, technology-driven, and education-based culture that rewards affiliated agents. For more information, visit kwri.kw.com.
KW announces its agreement to acquire the Jason Mitchell Group (JMG), a top U.S.-ranked, teamerage-style, independent brokerage and one of real estate's most sophisticated referral and lead conversion platforms.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Sen. Lindsey Graham’s phone number popped up on his call list, Sen. Chuck Schumer said his heart skipped a beat.
It was shortly after the 2012 presidential election and Republicans had lost badly to President Barack Obama.
Graham was calling with an outlandish proposal — “getting the band back together” — on a bipartisan plan for immigration reforms.
The move was classic Graham.
He has been called the “bridge.” The “dealmaker.” The senator at the center of all the action. And, more recently, “the Trump whisperer.”
Graham embodied a sort of institutional secret sauce that kept the Senate moving — and talking and arguing and laughing — with his hyperkinetic insistence on doing something when the place would otherwise seem destined to grind to a halt of atrophy and dysfunction.
After Graham’s sudden death over the weekend, it is unclear who, if anyone, will fill his role.
“Few have been able to frustrate and anger, amuse and engage me in a single conversation the way Lindsey could,” said Sen. Chris Coons, the Democrat from Delaware, who celebrated Graham’s birthday over dinner after the NATO summit in Turkey just days before the South Carolina senator died.
“I will miss having him as a partner in the Senate.”
Many lawmakers like to see themselves as central to the action, but Graham was among the few actually positioned squarely at the heart of virtually every debate. With his relentless ability to adapt to the political times, he gave voice to issues at home and abroad, and insisted on drawing others into the arena.
There was almost no bipartisan gang in Congress that didn't count Graham as a member — from the gang of eight he hatched with Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to pass immigration reform through the Senate in 2013, to his recent effort with colleagues to impose sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine.
“We didn't agree on everything in our bipartisan immigration proposal,” Schumer said Monday, “but we agreed it was worth trying, because doing nothing was worse.”
At a time when Congress is increasingly broken, with lawmakers unable to carry out its basic legislative functions, let alone act with civility toward one another, Graham played a unique role in bringing the sides together.
The heartfelt statements and stories shared on Graham's passing, from other prominent senators as well as the back benches of the House, reflected the breadth and depth of his partnerships.
“We talked at all hours of the day or night, and traveled through all kinds of weather, meeting dictators and democracy defenders,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who joined with Graham on the Russian sanctions bill.
Blumenthal said their views often differed, “but he listened to me,” the senator said, "and sought to bridge our differences.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opened the day's session noting Graham's empty desk in the chamber, covered with a black drape and white flowers.
Graham's friendship, he said, “made this job richer and its burdens lighter.”
Not that Graham was always successful. There have been plenty of times when GOP senators walked out of their private lunch meetings during a particularly stalemated time in Congress, simply shaking their heads at the latest plan from Graham to break the gridlock.
Graham’s political shapeshifting brought his detractors, to be sure, as did his unbridled pursuit of military intervention abroad.
His bipartisan immigration work with Schumer and the Democrats left Graham almost permanently outcast by the nativist and anti-immigration flank of his party.
And most decisively, Graham’s rapprochement with Trump, after having declared their relationship finished following Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol, damaged the senator's credibility among some would-be partners.
Still, Graham’s proximity to Trump during the president's second term kept him central to the action, the one senators of both parties would lean on to understand the White House's view.
“Many of us consider him the Trump whisperer,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who served as a manager in Trump’s first impeachment. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.
“If we wanted to know what the president’s thinking was, or how he might be moved on something, you would go to Lindsey to discuss it,” Schiff said.
Graham's “voice is going to be really, really missed in terms of the relationship that Senate Republicans have with the president and his team.” Thune said on CNN, because "he was so good and so effective at talking to the president.”
In the chamber of 100 senators, with big personalities and bigger egos, Graham's self-effacing humor made it more bearable, helping to smooth the edges and bridge the divide.
He had “a wonderful sense of humor that he used to cut through the tension,” Schiff said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in her own statement, told a story of seeking Graham’s support for her bill to ensure visas for Afghan refugees.
“I remember standing outside of a little phone booth in the Republican cloakroom last year as he spoke with the Vice President, holding up a sign that said ‘Save the Afghans’ and he put the phone on hold and said ‘OK OK I will go on your bill even if it gets me in trouble,’” she said.
“I will miss him.”
FILE - Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to the media before the CBS News Republican presidential debate at the Peace Center, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt, File)
FILE - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., leaves a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
