Size matters...at least in real estate.

The 2008 Real Estate Company Ranking for the U.S. are out in the latest Realtor Magazine (the trade magazine of the National Association of Realtors (NAR)) and I couldn’t help but report the results to you. Real estate companies are ranked by two different metrics –the number of sides (transactions) that they close in a year and the dollar volume of that business. Those two numbers often result in different rankings, since a company could close lots and lots of very cheap deals and end up ranked high in transaction sides and rank lower in dollar volume. That happened to Real Estate One this last year, due to the unusually high percentage of sales of foreclosed homes in Michigan.

Across the United States Real Estate One ranked 13th in transaction sides, with 14,851 closed transactions for 2008. AT the same time we ranked 38th in dollar volume with $1.986 Billion in sales. That’s pretty darned good in the current Michigan economic environment. The report, which ranked the top 100 real estate companies in the U.S. had only three other Michigan companies included in the report – Coldwell Banker Schmidt of Traverse City was ranked 44th in transaction sides and Greenridge Realty, Inc. of Grand Rapids ranked 71st in transaction sides. In the dollar volume ranking Coldwell Banker Schmidt of Traverse City also ranked number 90.

And what of the other local franchise operations in Southeastern Michigan? They didn’t make this report because they are all fairly small operations. While some of them like to try to trade on a national franchise name, most do relatively small amounts of business when compared with the companies that make the top 100 list. Same make inflated claims of about selling more real estate than others – it’s all hot air. Reports like this one put those claims into perspective. No other company in Michigan sells anywhere near the amount of real estate as Real Estate One does, no matter how you measure it.

And what does this mean to you if you are trying to buy or sell a house? Well it means more agents and more programs and bigger advertising budgets and wider Internet exposure and lots of other things that come along with being the biggest, no matter how you look at it. Size does matter. Size means leverage. Leverage with the media and leverage with the providers of tools and marketing materials for our agents. It means getting the best deals on ads in the papers and the best deals with Internet sites. It means having a relocation staff and a foreclosed property staff. It means being able to offer our clients special deals on things like storage or moving or security systems or other things that surround the real estate transaction. It also means being able to offer buyers one of the best search sites on the Internet for finding a new home and having the mortgage resources available in-house to help with the financing of that new home and the title company in house to help with the closing.

So think about it when it comes time for you to list your home or to find a new home. Ask yourself, “Why would I not go with the number 1 real estate company in Michigan?” Maybe you have an answer that makes sense to you, but I certainly can’t think of one. In real estate bigger is better and we are the biggest in Michigan. I’m proud to be a part of that.