Today’s HousingWire Daily episode features a crossover episode of HousingWire’s Housing News podcast. This week, HousingWire’s Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews RealTrends‘ client services manager, Liz Smith.

During the episode, Smith discusses the 2021 RealTrends + Tom Ferry the Thousand and America’s Best Real Estate Professionals rankings.

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Sarah Wheeler:  I would think because RealTrends has been doing this for years and years now, that some of the greatest insights are not just from what happened this year but in comparison to previous years. So, can you tell us a little bit about what you found when you were looking at the numbers this year and how that compared to other years?

Liz Smith: We grew in the RealTrends’ rankings by over 4,000 agents and teams, which is just crazy. The year before, I think we grew, maybe by 1,000. I think it was just shy of that. So, to jump that significantly is just huge. It really goes to show that in 2020, volume was just out of control and bonkers, and people could hit that volume number a lot easier. RealTrends also did see that while sides were about the same, we definitely saw that volume uptick. And for some of the areas where transaction uptick did happen, we saw new homes being built. So, it was really interesting to see that data.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories from across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Jones.