Is there a way you can find out ALL the homes a realtor has sold?

Question

Is there a way you can find out ALL the homes a realtor has sold? Does Zillow tell you all of the homes a real estate agent has sold in the past? If not, is there a way to find out how many homes a real estate agent has sold and at what price?

Chris Mason · Answer

One of the agents I work with has a cell phone app that ties directly into the MLS, that does this. She uses it to poach clients from agents overstating their experience. Her honest 15-20 a year sounds bad next to the agent claiming 5 a month, but most of the time her honest 15-20 a year is real and that 5 a month is more like 5 a year.

IRL if an agent sells 10+ homes a month, and isn't a builder's in-house agent, you will know because they will be one of the "Big Names" in the market. It's not unusual for a seasoned agent making a decent income to only sell 10 homes a year.

The hierarchy from "most transactions per year" to least transactions per year is: escrow (lawyer if you're in a lawyer state), appraiser, lender, real estate agent. It's in the neighborhood of 5x as much current relevant experience (measured by closed transactions) at each level. It's actually quite interesting that typically the folks with the most transactions under their belt are the folks that you as a consumer have the least contact with, and the least experienced folks are the ones you have the most contact with. Assuming similar levels of success/experience/etc, an escrow officer looks at 5x as many transactions as an appraiser appraises homes, who in turn appraises 5x as many homes as a lender lends on, who does 5x as many mortgages as a real estate agent sells homes. This is ballpark (meaning there are cases where it's 3x or 10x) holding ballpark constant years in the industry and success, and excluding outliers.

EDIT: Actually now that I think of it, appraisers are probably kill my little 5x theory. I'll leave them in because ninja edits are rude, but it's probably more like 30x for them.

Russell Brazil · Answer

If they sold 100 homes in a year, then they will likely be on the Real Trends list for top agents in the state.  To make the list, an individual agent needs to sell 50 homes/$20 million in volume, or a team needs to sell 75 homes/$30 million in volume.

Im in the top 1% of agents nation wide, and one of the top agents in the DC metro area, and I do not even qualify to make the real trends list.  100 homes in a year easily makes their list.  Now the list is not 100% accurate as you need to report your numbers to Real Trends, and then they verify, but Id say greater than 90% of the people who qualify, report to Real Trends.  Im pretty skeptical when someone says they do enough transactions or volume to qualify and are not on the list.

Redgy Saint-Germain · Answer

@Tom Smith

Im curious why are you trying to find out this information? This is my assumption It sounds like you may not trust your realtor and if thats the case I would say just make sure your solving the right problem.

Trust is important in every relationship and if you don't trust your realtor your relationship is off to a rocky start.

As Russel stated if they've sold off market deals it may be impossible to track.

Good luck

Mike Cumbie · Answer

It's not really something that is available.

With non-MLS properties, there isn't a record so if someone is selling 2 or 3 off market properties a month it would never show up. The other issue is "teams" some agents that show selling 20 a month off the MLS, really only sell 6, but have a team of people buying and selling under them. So all of the people under them are each showing 0 and the lister is showing 20.

So if someone made that claim (and I cared enough to check it) I would ask them for a list of MLS numbers to verify. In our MLS it would take me about 30 seconds to run a report on an agent. But again, the data only tracks on-market properties that have their name attached, not the name of a team member/leader.

Hope it helps and good luck

Miguel Dormany · Answer

@Tom Smith no sorry there is no way of knowing ALL homes the realtor has sold. MOST of the homes yes, but not every single one.

Russell Brazil · Answer

Not really. MLS should give you most of the homes...but if they deal with off market properties, there is no way to track it.

Chris Mason · Answer

As a consumer I'm not sure what resources are out there. For industry insiders there is the MLS, various paid services, and calling in a favor from an escrow officer you give a bunch of business to. Your lender might be able to help you.

Tom Smith · Answer

That's great information, Chris. But can you actually verify/confirm the # of houses any real estate agent claims to have sold in the last month, year, or lifetime? For example, if an agent says they sold 100 homes last year, is there any way to confirm this?

Tom Smith · Answer

Okay, how do you find out how many MLS listing homes a realtor has sold or helped a buyer purchase? Does Zillow give you all of these listings?

Let's say a real estate agent tells you they sell 10+ homes a month. Is there any way for you to confirm that this is true? What if they said they sold 50 homes in X area. Again, is there any way to confirm that this is true?

Is there a way you can find out ALL the homes a realtor has sold?

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