RealTrends is closing in on the submission deadline for the 2023 RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings. How has the uncertain market impacted the top brokers? It’s too soon to tell. However, if you remember, Compass was the disruptor last year, besting Realogy Brokerage Group (now Anywhere Advisors).
Here’s a peek at how companies performed in 2021 for the 2022 RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings, which broke records in market share, closed transaction sides and sales volume.
The top four – Realogy Brokerage Group, HomeServices of America, Compass and eXp Realty – showed a combined 20% market share in the U.S. based on 2021 numbers.
“These four brokerage companies did just over $20 billion in residential gross commission revenue in 2021,” said RealTrends Senior Advisor Steve Murray. “In the 2021 rankings (based on 2020 data), these same firms closed just over $14 billion, so the increase was 43% in one year among just these four firms.”
Some of this growth was due to the increase in the value of the homes sold, but, according to Murray, “A large part was growth through both acquisitions and organic means. I don’t recall seeing this kind of one-year growth ever.”
The Realtrends 500 brokerage rankings are now accepting submissions for the 2023 rankings season (based on 2022 numbers.) The rankings submissions deadline is March 3, 2023, so get your data in today.
Last year’s leaderboard by transaction sides
Since 2018, Berkshire Hathaway behemoth HomeServices of America has taken the No. 1 by transaction sides with more than 388,000 sides. Each real estate transaction has two sides: a buying side and a selling side. Before 2018, NRT, now Realogy Brokerage Group, maintained that top spot.
Last year, Realogy Brokerage Group, composed of company-owned offices of Coldwell Banker, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International firms, was No. 2 with more than 376,000 transaction sides.
Neither of these numbers takes into account the many franchises of either brand.
Cloud-based brokerage eXp Realty continued its meteoric rise in the No. 3 spot by transaction sides with more than 355,000 transaction sides. Led by founder and CEO Glenn Sanford, the company hopes to add former Keller Williams CEO Mark Willis to its leadership team pending litigation with Keller Williams. Willis played a key role in the massive growth of Keller Williams between 2005-2014, when the company grew from 700 agents to 140,000 agents worldwide.
Compass took the No. 4 spot by transaction sides.
2022 shake up in sales volume leader
Perhaps the biggest news of all is that 10-year old, self-proclaimed real estate technology brokerage Compass snuck past Realogy Brokerage Group (RGB) to take the No. 1 spot by sales volume with $251 billion in sales in 2021, ending an almost 20-year run of RBG in that spot. Realogy was a close second with $246 billion.
Compass rose quickly to the top by acquiring agents and teams rather than brokerage firms, which was the primary way to grow quickly for many firms. “When today’s Anywhere Advisors (formerly NRT and then Realogy Brokerage Group) bought Coldwell Banker in 1996, they soon rose to No. 1 for many years. They got there largely through that major acquisition,” said Murray. “Compass got there largely through key acquisitions of top-producing real estate agents and teams, which was a different way to grow.” Compass also had a few key brokerage acquisitions, including Pacific Union International Realty in 2018.
The third-largest firm by sales volume is HomeServices of America, with $199 billion, followed by eXp Realty at $132 billion.
RealTrends has been the undisputed leader in the ranking of real estate brokerage firms, agents and teams. Third-party verification is mandatory to confirm the validity of transaction sides and sales volume submitted by the firms.
The Realtrends 500 brokerage rankings are now accepting submissions for the 2023 rankings season (based on 2022 numbers.) The rankings submissions deadline is March 3, 2023, so get your data in today.