eXp, Compass take top spots in sales volume and sides
Amid shifting conditions, the brokers in the 2025 RealTrends Verified Broker Rankings still found ways to grow — gaining market share, attracting talent, and refining their value propositions to stay competitive.
For the third year in a row, virtual brokerage eXp Realty, led by CEO Glenn Sanford, retains the No. 1 spot by transaction sides in the 2025 RealTrends 500 rankings, based on 2024 data. eXp had 350,119 sides in 2024, down slightly from 2023 when they had 355,052 sides.
Compass held on to the top spot in sales volume, ranking No. 1 for the third year in a row with a sales volume of $321B, compared to $184B last year. When asked about what drives the success of Compass, CEO Robert Reffkin said, “I saw the challenges [my mom] faced and wanted to create a company that would give agents the tools and support they need to succeed. As Compass has grown, my passion for empowering agents has as well. Agents are our clients, and we work for them, not the other way around. We exist to give them an edge with their clients and will continue to invest in programs, offerings, and technology that help them.”
The fab four: eXp Realty, Compass, Anywhere Advisors and HomeServices continue to excel in the top four spots by sides and sales volume.
The Real Brokerage, LPT Realty shine with triple-digit growth
Some other notable firms are The Real Brokerage and LPT Realty, with one year growth by sales volume at 100% for Real and 197% by LPT Realty.
The Real Brokerage, which grew its volume by $28 billion, jumping from 10th place in 2024 to 5th place this year at $42B.
When discussing how the firm will continue to grow, The Real Brokerage CEO Tamir Poleg, In an exclusive interview with HousingWire, said, “We still have a long runway before we get to the point of plateauing in our growth. Some of the top companies focus on business model innovation, but we are focused on pure tech innovation.”
For Poleg that means, “I think that there is a real opportunity to create a giant in the industry by thinking about tech innovation and changing the consumer experience. We’re thinking of the next generation of real estate agent and consumer.”
Another notable mention: LPT Realty, which moved from No. 28 by transaction sides last year to No. 10 this year, due to its flexible compensation structure. Founded only three years ago, the firm — privately funded by CEO Robert Palmer — has seen incredible growth both in sales volume and transaction sides. In an exclusive interview with HousingWire, when asked why he thinks the firm’s growth has skyrocketed, he says, “I think the agent choice is the big one. We have multiple comp plans because we have this belief that agents are entrepeneurs, so we have individual definitions of success.”
That individuality and agent choice extends into how he views mortgage as an ancillary service, as well. Palmer founded mortgage refi and servicing company RP Funding in 2008. “I do not believe single-entity national brokerages should get involved in mortgage or title,” he said. “Title and mortgage is at the local level, and I am happy to teach our agents how to open their own JVs or do their own thing, but corporately [mortgage] is not in our projections for Wall Street and n where in my financial modeling for LPT.”
Low-fee or flat-fee firms continue to grow
In the flat-fee model, the traditional commission-based structure takes a backseat. Instead, agents are charged a fixed fee or a flat monthly rate, which allows them to retain a more substantial portion of their commissions from transactions.
We continue to see the same flat-fee brokerage firms take six spots in the top 20 by transaction sides. Those firms are: Redfin (8), United Real Estate (9), Fathom Realty (10), HomeSmart (12), Realty ONE Group (17) and Samson Properties (19).
As brokerages of all models navigate competitive market conditions and adapt to structural changes in agent compensation, RealTrends data continues to spotlight the compensation and business models, such as low-fee, virtual brokers and platforms, that are gaining market share and supporting top-producing agents.
About RealTrends Verified: After 35 years of excellence in verifying and evaluating real estate performance data, RealTrends is proud to unveil a new chapter in our journey: RealTrends Verified – a brand that stands for ambition, achievement, transparency and trust. We’re on a mission to highlight and recognize the achievements of top-performers in real estate – while also making this data discoverable and powerful. In addition to rankings for top performers by sides and volume, the program identifies and recognizes the fastest movers, top independents, top affiliated services models and other categories for benchmarking and recognition.
