The companies moving up the RealTrends Verified rankings

HousingWire

On today’s episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with Real Estate Editor Tracey Velt about the companies moving up the list in the RealTrends Verified rankings and the latest news on private listings.   Related to this podcast:   RealTrends Verified launches 2026 top brokerage rankings  https://www.housingwire.com/articles/realtrends-verified-brokerage-rankings-2026/  HousingWire | YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q  More info about HousingWire  https://lnk.bio/housingwire   To learn more about Total Expert visit totalexpert.com   The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.

Transcript

00:08Welcome, everyone. My guest today is Tracy Belt, our real estate editor, to talk about

00:12the companies moving up the list in the Realtrends Verified Rankings and the latest on private

00:18listings. Before we start, I want to thank our sponsor, Total Expert, for making this

00:22episode possible. Tracy, welcome back to the podcast.

00:27Thanks for having me. It's been a while.

00:29It has been a while. You know, you're busy doing your own podcast, plus running a whole

00:34team of real estate reporters and editors. So, you know, kind of busy.

00:38Exactly.

00:39Well, let's talk about it. So last week, we released the Realtrends Verified Rankings for

00:462025, right? Listing all of that. So that was pretty a great list. And a lot of stories came

00:53out of that. So I wanted to talk to you about what stood out to you this year, when you

00:57looked at

00:57who took the top, you know, just in general, what stood out to you?

01:02Well, the top four spots are pretty secure at this point. We've noticed that they really

01:09haven't changed in a while. That's EXP, Anywhere, Advisors, Compass, Home Services of America.

01:15Those four are, by transaction sides and volume, have tended to be the fab four at the top of the

01:23rankings. But I think the real story is maybe that the next, the fifth, sixth, seventh through

01:29tenth, what we've noticed is a couple of very fast-growing brokerages. We highlighted one last

01:37year. And actually, the CEO, Robert Palmer, will be speaking at the gathering this month. But LPT Realty,

01:46they jumped from number seven to, or number 10 to number seven in transaction sides. They have been

01:53talking about going public. They've made a real push for teams. And the future, they, you know, really

02:00feel the future of the brokerage is teams. And they offer a model that gives agents choices on how

02:09they want to be compensated in the services that they receive. But what's interesting is LPT is

02:15Robert Palmer cut his teeth with a mortgage company. But he does not believe in affiliated services

02:22with brokerage. He believes, his mortgage company now only does servicing and refi.

02:28So he doesn't attach it to his real estate business at all, which I find really interesting.

02:34So I had him on recently, but it was before the rankings came out. So I'd love to see like

02:39how

02:39much they jumped. I had him on because we know he's fast growing, but I didn't, you know,

02:45we didn't have the actual numbers yet. Yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting. And then the Real

02:49brokerage, they've steadily grown. And Tamir Polig, their CEO is insistent that they are nowhere near

02:58their ceiling. And the truth is most companies do hit a ceiling after they grow fast and hit a ceiling

03:05without any major acquisitions like Compass Anywhere and things like that. But so the middle 10 kind of

03:13are, there's a lot of action going on there. And then there's a new standout. And I'm not sure how

03:20to pronounce it. It's Epic or Epic. It's E-P-I-Q-U-E. And they've jumped the rankings. They're

03:29not in the

03:30top 10. I think they're in the top 15. And I'll be talking to the CEO this week about their

03:36growth and

03:37what they're doing differently. So that'll be an interesting conversation. And then when we talk

03:44about brands, and that is the companies that franchise. And so we add up all of the franchises

03:51that made the list. And Keller Williams is the clear number one behind all of the independents.

03:58If you take every independent office and add those of the brands, they're number one. And then Keller

04:04Williams is so Keller Williams is maintains their number one spot. And but a different one is leading

04:11RE. Leading RE moved up to they were number five. And now they're really number three. So they've moved

04:21up and independent brokerages gained several like I think almost 2% market share in the rankings. So all

04:29this concern over consolidation, which of course, these rankings did not include the Compass Anywhere

04:34consolidation because that happened in 2026. However, there's been a ton of consolidation

04:39in the industry. And independents are still able to gain market share. So you know, that's a notch in

04:47the belt for independent brokerages. No, especially I think there was a lot of concern like, you know,

04:53how does anybody compete against the number one brand and number two brand now becoming

04:57one one company? I mean, how do you do that? But it is exciting to see that. What's your take

05:02on that?

05:03You know, I think what I'm hearing from a lot of brokers is they're excited at the opportunity,

05:09they see an opportunity to up their game, and also to possibly gain franchisees or agents and teams

05:20from those who maybe are looking for a more local or regional brokerage. So a lot of the ones I'm

05:27talking to have been pretty excited about the the opportunity to compete. And there there isn't a

05:35lot of honestly, a lot of negativity out there about it. It's more strategy. Now, you know, what are what

05:43are we doing to compete? And that's really refining their regional or local value proposition. And they

05:50have, you know, they've really gone with that hyper local value proposition to, to encourage agents to

05:57join. I mean, when you think about competition in any market, you hope that the end result is like a

06:04better, a better experience for the borrower, a better experience for everybody involved, right? Like

06:09that, it can be a really good thing. Yeah, absolutely. It can. Let's talk about brands versus

06:15brokerages. And I think for a while we were talking teams versus brokerages a lot has, do you still

06:21think of those? Like, that's the big thing? Or is it brands versus brokerages? I think it's brands

06:26versus brokerages teams. You can run your brokerage as a team, and it's a team rich. But the difference is

06:36really, like Compass, EXP, those are all brokerages, all of the production, they don't do franchises,

06:45franchising. Well, I guess Compass does do franchising now, but they didn't during these

06:50rankings. So all of the, all of the production is rolled up underneath the company. Whereas with a

07:00brand, they're franchising. So all of that production comes within the franchise of the, of, you know,

07:08in the rankings. And so if you add it all up, you can get to where the brand actually is.

07:14And I know

07:15the top 10 brands by sides were, um, Independence, which, uh, I guess they, they categorize it as a

07:21brand. Keller Williams, Leading RE, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, which is different from

07:27the company owned, um, you know, that are in the Coldwell Banker, Remax, and Sotheby's are,

07:35are your top ones. Um, so that'll be really interesting how that, how that changes

07:40with the acquisition of Compass in anywhere as well. What do you say, maybe give us a little

07:46background here on like, what, how, what did you have to sell? What is the entry point to be on

07:52the

07:52real estate, uh, real trends verified listing? Like what, what does that look like?

07:58We had 1,267 firms that met the standards. Okay. So each closing at least 500 transaction sides or

08:06350 million in sales volume. Um, and then we, if you add all that up of everyone on the 500,

08:16they had 2.24 trillion in volume and 3.94 million in transactions. So a lot of money.

08:24Wow. A lot of money. One of the things, uh, that I talked to Robert Palmer about is he, you

08:28know,

08:28he doesn't hate the idea of like, Hey, if you're just going to do one or two loans a year

08:33or three or

08:34four loans a year, like you can, you can still be part of this company. You're still an important

08:40part of the industry. And when I think of, you know, that's not how everyone feels. And one,

08:44one of the things about these rankings is really where we are just recognizing the top of the top

08:49here. Yeah. I think he feels like there's a place for agents like that on a team specifically. So,

08:57um, you know, just because you might want to be a part-time agent doesn't mean you shouldn't

09:02participate in their brokerage that you can join a team and be productive with a couple of sales a

09:08year. And, um, and you know, there are some, it depends on the model, whether that works or not.

09:16Um, for someone like Remax, that doesn't really work for them. They're looking for highly productive

09:22agents, um, for some of the a hundred percent companies like, um, a real or, uh, a United,

09:32you know, they, they want productive agents, of course, but they are also willing to find a place

09:38for those who are newer agents and, and train them up or who may be part-time, but are very

09:46serious

09:46about the work that they do. I think it's one of the most interesting things when, when you look at

09:52the way that, um, real estate firms do this and the very different models. There are different

09:58models, obviously in, um, a production in on the mortgage side, but on the real estate side, it's,

10:04it's really, um, it's pretty complicated. And then when they do more than one, like LPT Realty,

10:09like we were talking about that, you can actually kind of choose your model and that he has been

10:13growing by having that really big tent philosophy. Yeah, I, I think there, it's, it's more subtle at

10:21other, um, at other brokerages. They might take, uh, they might take a company that is on a little

10:30different model than them, compensation model than them and make it work and not make them transition.

10:36So it's not unheard of out there. There are, um, traditional companies that I know one of

10:43them is, um, real estate one with Dan Elsie. He has brought in several, um, acquisitions and he

10:50has left the model to what the original brokerage was. Um, and so they're all under his, the umbrella

10:57of the real estate one family of companies. Um, it's, I say it's an accounting nightmare, but, um,

11:05you know, I think that a lot of brokers like that to offer flexibility like that.

11:09Yeah. What do you think some of the implications for the industry are the fact that, um, you have

11:15those independents taking market share? Um, I, I think that it just goes to show you that real

11:22estate is local and it really depends maybe less on the brand and more on the activity in the

11:30community and the trust and authenticity that the brokerage has in the individual community where

11:36they're at. Um, you know, it also goes to show that you don't have to be a mega broker to

11:45compete

11:45on a local level as well. I think that's one of the things about real estate that like we know,

11:51this is the opportunity that people have in real estate, right? It's like, you don't have to go to

11:56get an advanced degree to be in real estate and you can really compete at that local level by

12:03your own sweat of your brow. If you want to, if you want to think about that, like it is

12:08an

12:08opportunity for people to make a lot of money. We see it all the time. Absolutely.

12:13Well, let's shift a little bit, Tracy, because, um, the rankings are, uh, super important. Love

12:19hearing about those. Some other things are going on in the background, like constantly every day. I feel

12:25like you and your team are reporting about private listings and what's the latest in private

12:30listings. Of course, this is when, um, companies put out like a pre-marketing, um, they have different

12:37plans and they put them out on their own website, but they don't publish them on the MLS. And this

12:42has been the fight really, especially for the last six months. So maybe catch us up to date on what's

12:47happened recently with private listings. Sure. I think, I think most brokers, this all really started

12:54because Compass has developed this three-pronged marketing, um, idea where they will take listings

13:02and they'll publish them in-house first and, um, off the MLS and kind of offer them to Compass agents.

13:10They're really offered to anyone, but you have to go to a Compass agent to find out whether they have

13:15any listings or not. Um, and a lot of, a lot of brokerages don't feel the same way. They like

13:24the

13:24opportunity to do a private listing. If, if it matches what they need, there are, there are a lot

13:32of times that a seller will want a private listing for various reasons, whether it's security or privacy.

13:39Um, and, but they believe in broad listing exposure through the MLS. And so now you've got, um,

13:48companies who are joining the portals for their private listing and you've got like EXP, for example,

13:54does not believe in hiding listings. So they are on several different portals like homes.com and

14:02realtor.com where they're not, they're not an exclusive, like with Zillow preview, you,

14:10you join Zillow preview and that's it. So your listings will be on Zillow, but they do have to

14:17be MLS compliant. So if your MLS says you can keep it for one day for pre-marketing, the next

14:24day it'll

14:24be on the MLS. Um, so they're not keeping it off. And, and then Redfin has the, has the agreement

14:30with Compass. And so those listings will be on, on the Redfin site for, for Compass. So it's just

14:37really, I think it's a preference, um, of what, you know, what do you believe? Do you believe that

14:45consumers deserve full disclosure or not? And are you telling, are you giving them the details they

14:52need to make that decision? That's been kind of the gist of it. It's also the fact that, um,

14:59the person who lists their home and might want it to be private when they're listing it,

15:04when they are on the other side as the buyer, they want to see all of the ones that they

15:07can see.

15:08So, I mean, like, depends on where you are and you're going to be on both sides.

15:13Yeah. And one, one thing that, um, we just had an op-ed on was the fact that when you

15:20do this

15:21pre-marketing and you don't want the price, any price reductions published and you, you know,

15:27you want to keep that information hidden, that it also affects the appraisal and then the,

15:34ultimately the mortgage, um, because the appraiser can't see where that property started and they need

15:41that information in order to make, um, you know, make their appraisal accurate. Um, I,

15:48I don't know how, if that's true or not, because I don't know a lot about how the appraisal business

15:54works, but, um, that was a recent op-ed that they talked about how, um, that could impact

16:01the appraisal as well. I thought that was a very interesting op-ed. Glad that we published that.

16:06I think from a consumer point of view, it's, it's very confusing. It's like, so when I look on Zillow,

16:13am I not seeing everything unless they've signed up for Zillow? And then if I go to my, you know,

16:17agent's website that they're just, they're hosting some things, is that also on Zillow? Is it,

16:22and, and the, especially borrowers, you know, that your regular consumer out there, home buyers,

16:27they don't know what an MLS is and they have no idea why that's governing what's happening with

16:32listings. Yeah. And, and nor do they really care. You know, a lot of the industry issues,

16:38consumers don't know anything about. Um, and I think the, the, the deal with the private listings

16:46is if, if you are, um, and Gary Keller did an op-ed for us on this from Keller Williams,

16:52you know, there are situations where private listing, um, it should happen. Um, and there are

16:59times that you should offer that as something to the seller. However, how you disclose the pitfalls

17:07of doing it, the benefits, the, you know, how that's disclosed is the most important part.

17:14Do these sellers understand that it could help them in certain ways or hurt them in certain ways?

17:21And I think that the industry hasn't really, they don't have a standard on how that information

17:28is passed along. And anytime we don't have a standard, as we have seen in the last couple of years,

17:34uh, there's someone who's probably going to file a lawsuit and say that they didn't understand or

17:39that they were on the bad end of this. Exactly. That is crazy. Well, Tracy, thanks so much for

17:45being on today, running us through that. Of course you host the real trending podcast every Monday,

17:50so people can check that out. Thank you so much for the work that you and your team are doing

17:54to

17:54keep us up to date on stuff that is changing very fast. Well, thanks for having me on.

18:04You're welcome.

18:05You

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