Tippity Top

I was a senior in high school. Around that time, I had taken to using an old leather carryall. It was a soft briefcase with a shoulder strap, and I would put my papers in it and walk around like I was something else. During the second semester of my senior year, I would carry my papers to and from the technical college a few nights a week, where I would sit and listen to the instructor who would teach me about the real estate business. Looking back over these past 18 years, it’s clear now that he wasn’t teaching me about the business as much as he was teaching me how to pass a test so that I might learn about the business.

That class was 18 years ago last spring, and I still remember many of the lessons well. One that was preached with clarity and consistency was the admonition to stay away from proclaiming yourself the Best Realtor, or the Top Realtor, or the Most Amazing Realtor In The World. Why you weren’t supposed to do this wasn’t entirely clear, but we were warned about being this way, and advertising this way, time and time again. I remember some of the other lessons, but most I remember carrying my real estate papers to high school the next day, acting all grown up. I wish I hadn’t been in such a hurry, but I read a quote on some motivational poster with a kitten on it that said, “In order to make a success of old age, one must start young”. I now wish I hadn’t read that.

With that lesson in mind, imagine my surprise that the new way of advertising real estate proficiency is to, indeed, proclaim oneself the Top, or the Best, or #1, or the Most Incredibly Amazing. I seem to be one of the few who haven’t taken to this new form, which is why I thought I’d try to clear the record. When it comes to being the Top, that would imply that it’s the number 1 position. As in, Top Mountain Climber In The World. Wow, we’ll assume that guy has climbed mountains that other guys have not. Top Running Back In The NFL. We’ll assume he’s really fast, super shifty, and has amassed the most yards either all time, or certainly during his time. He’s the Top, after all, and we all understand what it means to be the Top.

Except, when we don’t. There has been some talk about Top salesperson this, or Top agent that, or Number 1 Most Awesome This, or That. So how does one quantify the top? In real estate, thankfully, the top is easy to find. There’s just some math involved and some charts, and some reading between the lines, but mostly it’s just fact. With that in mind, I thought it might be time to find out who is the Top Agent in Walworth County. Not the Top by self authorization, but the Top according to the charts. Math might get fuzzy at times, but it doesn’t lie.

Since January 1st of 2010, there have been lots of sales in Walworth County. That’s five calendar years worth of sales. I plugged the formula into the MLS computers, and the results might surprise you, but only if you glean your real estate knowledge from the papery edges of local real estate ads. If you did that, you’d be confused and you’d think that there is a Top, and everyone else that’s actually, also, somehow, #1, or the Best, or the Most Amazing, etc and etc. The statistics?

Since 1/1/10 there are only 15 agents with total Walworth County sales volume in excess of $30MM. 15. Fifteen. There are 500+ agents in Walworth County, so you get an idea of how rarefied that $30MM air is. There have been six agents amass more than $60MM in sales. 6. Six. There have been three agents tally more than $80MM in sales. 3. Three. There have been two agents close more than $87MM in sales. Of those two, one works in a multi-agent team where all sales performed by the entire group are registered under one agent ID number. The other agent? Well, I guess that would be me. With $87,970,900 in MLS sales volume since the start of 2010, I guess I’d be the Top Agent for Walworth County, considering the only properties that close under my ID are properties that I actually list and sell, and not those listed or sold by my vast team.

That might sound self indulgent, even for me, but I thought maybe it was time to add some meat to all this verbose fluff. Next time you hear someone call themselves the Top, or the #1 Agent, please remind them that the statistics don’t exactly bear that out. So why does that matter? Why should I bring it up? Well, because past performance isn’t always indicative of future results, but it sure does make you feel a whole lot better. I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that this personal sales success has only a little to do with me. It really has everything to do with my customers who trust me, and that trust is something I crave far more than this superfluous volume.