The Foundation
The Keyes Company.
Since 1926.
Blackburn Realty Group is a division of The Keyes Company — Florida's #1 independent brokerage, family-owned for nearly a century, with a statewide footprint no boutique can match.
Since 1926
in Florida
Statewide
Across Florida
When you work with Blackburn Realty Group, you are not working with a small boutique that hopes to find you a property. You are working with the infrastructure of the largest independent brokerage in the state.
The Keyes Company was founded in 1926 by Kenneth Keyes Sr., a young Miami real estate broker who believed that local knowledge, family stewardship, and unwavering service would build something that outlasted him. Nearly a century later, the Keyes family still owns and operates the company — one of the only independent brokerages in America to have remained in family hands across four generations.
That continuity matters. While national chains acquire, rebrand, and downsize, Keyes has built and reinvested in Florida year after year. Sixty-plus offices stretch from Key West to Jacksonville. Four thousand licensed agents serve every county. And the back-office infrastructure — legal, marketing, technology, training, compliance, and transaction management — supports every single closing as if it were the most important one.
Founded in Miami
Kenneth Keyes Sr. opens the doors of The Keyes Company in downtown Miami, focused on serving the rapid growth of South Florida during the original Florida land boom.
Statewide Expansion
The company expands beyond Miami-Dade into Broward and Palm Beach, establishing the regional presence that defines the modern Tri-County market.
Recognition as Florida Leader
Keyes becomes one of the largest privately-held real estate firms in Florida, earning consistent recognition as a top brokerage and trusted advisor to international buyers.
Multi-Generational Stewardship
The Keyes family transitions ownership across generations, maintaining the firm's independence while expanding to 60+ offices and a 4,000+ agent network across the state.
Blackburn Realty Group Launches
Olga Blackburn establishes Blackburn Realty Group as a division of The Keyes Company — the first international team within Keyes specifically built around 50 languages, 50 cultures, and 100 vetted bilingual agents serving global buyers entering Florida.
Four Generations of Leadership
A century in the family.
The Keyes Company has been led by the same family lineage for nearly a hundred years — passed down, generation to generation, without ever leaving family hands.
It began with Kenneth S. Keyes, who founded the company in 1926. Leadership then passed to Theodore J. Pappas, who served as Chairman. From him it continued to his son, Mike Pappas, and today carries forward through his daughter, Christina Pappas — four generations of stewardship of Florida's largest independent brokerage.
Pictured: Keyes leadership holding the framed portraits of founder Kenneth S. Keyes and Chairman Theodore J. Pappas.
Why a division, not a startup.
Blackburn Realty Group could have launched as a standalone brokerage. We chose not to. Here is why.
International buyers entering the Florida market are not looking for a brand new boutique with promising marketing. They are looking for institutional credibility, legal protection, marketing reach, MLS access, transaction infrastructure, and the assurance that the firm they trust today will still exist when they sell in fifteen years.
By operating as a division of The Keyes Company, Blackburn Realty Group inherits a century of institutional weight — the legal department, the compliance team, the marketing engine, the statewide office network, and the operational discipline of one of the most respected independent brokerages in the United States.
Olga Blackburn brings the international vision, the language infrastructure, and the agent-recruitment standard. The Keyes Company brings the foundation that has been quietly serving Floridians since the year Henry Ford's Model T was still rolling off the line.
Together, this is what Florida real estate should look like for the global buyer.
Welcome Home
A century of trust. 50 languages of welcome.
Whether you are buying your first Florida property or your fifteenth, you are backed by the infrastructure of Florida's #1 independent brokerage.