The 2018 REAL Trends List, just recently published, tells us which brokerage firms are doing the most deals based upon the number of closed transactions. Remember…which firms had the most closed transactions, not the most volume.
Let’s take a look at the Top 10 among the Top 500 brokerages on REAL’s Trends List…
Firm Sides Transaction Volume
- NRT 346,942 $178.20B
- Home Services 328,355 125.40B
- Hanna Holdings 90,468 17.40B
- KW – GO Management 34,077 9.33B
- Homesmart 33,601 10.40B
- Crye-Leike Realtors 28,699 5.85B
- eXp World Holdings 24,655 5.90B
- Real Estate One 24,589 5.64B
- RE/MAX Results 24,397 6.49B
- Allen Tate Cos. 22,273 5.67B
Let’s define “sides.” There are two sides to a real estate transaction…a buyer’s side and a seller’s side. A brokerage firm may handle one side of the deal or both sides of the deal…thus, sides.
Let’s also reiterate how REAL ranks the brokerage firms…it ranks by the number of sides a firm represents. You’ll note that the “sides” column ranks in descending order whereas the “transaction volume” column does not rank in descending order. REAL puts more weight on the number of sides a firm handles than on the amount of volume the firm generated.
The top 500 residential brokerages closed a total of 3.2M residential sales transactions in 2017. Those 3.2M sales transactions translated into $1.1T in 2017. This amount represents approximately 1/3 of all new and resale transactions in the country. You’ll note that 1/3 of all residential transactions in the country were generated by less than 0.5% of all the brokerage firms in the US.
NRT is known as the Realogy Franchise Group that consists of the brand names Sotheby’s, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Better Homes, ERA Real Estate, and Century 21. NRT has held the number position in this REAL Trends List for 20 years.
Pay attention to #2 Home Services in this 2018 REAL Trends List. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate bought Home Services in 2000. In 2017, Buffett’s Home Services acquired its chief rival Long and Fosters, LLC. This acquisition catapulted the volume of Home Services by 80,000 sides, a 34% jump from the year before.
Needless to say, Warren Buffett is thrilled about this jump AND he wants to be thrilled even more next year. Buffett wants Home Services to be #1. He said as much to his Berkshire shareholders in his annual letter. “Despite its recent acquisitions Home Services is on track to do only about 3% of the country’s home brokerage business in 2018. That leaves 97% to go.”
