I need to know how which single real estate agency (one office, not
the national brands like ERA, CB, Prudential, etc.) sold the most
properties to people who found them through the internet in 2002 or
2003 and how much they sold. Something like a "top-selling internet
realtor of 200x sold xx million dollars worth of property to buyers
who found them on the internet" would be
great. I need this to use on a web site as an example of a real estate
agent or agency who has been successfull reaching customers using the
internet.

Hello.

I've located a number of examples of top-selling real estate
brokers/agents using web sites to generate huge sales.

The biggest internet-generated sales total that I could find from a
single real estate brokerage is from New York City-based The Corcoran
Group which claims that its web site generated $350 million in sales
in 2002.

"Olson has racked up eight awards in his trophy case, plus 'The Best
Real Estate Website' from the Web Marketing Association. The website
was responsible for $350 million in sales last year, according to
Corcoran. Up from $50 million four years ago and $5 million seven
years ago, when the site first launched. "The Internet now outpaces
classified advertising for attracting buyers to properties," according
to Barbara Corcoran."
From:
"Real estate websites become the number one source for customers and brokers"
Publication: The Real Deal
Date: 4/3/2003
Article: "New York?s top agencies compete with their websites"
Author: Stuart Elliott, reproduced on corcoran.com
http://www.corcoran.com/company/press/readarticle.asp?pub_id=887


Other internet success stories:

" The site is paying dividends for Greene who, along with Nelson and
another agent, cleared $51.4 million in sales in 2002, double her
volume the year before."
From:
"Web site helps add to real-world sales", San Francisco Business Times, 5/12/03
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/05/12/focus5.html


"Web Site Responsible for $28 Million Closing"
From realtytimes.com:
http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/printrtpages/19980610_peckham.htm

"A Web Novice Closes Internet Sales Like A Pro"
From realtytimes.com:
http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtapages/20010309_closes.htm

"How Broker/Realtor Debbie Ferrari Conquered the Internet"
From realtytimes.com:
http://realtytimes.com/printrtpages/19990506_ferrari.htm

"Agent Has Unexpected Success With Web Site"
From realtytimes.com:
http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20020820_success.htm

"Our average client reports gross sales of $2.75 million from their web site"
from: "Best Image Guarantees 200% On Site Investment"
From realtytimes.com:
http://realtytimes.com/rtnews/rtapages/20020131_bitbest.htm

"Reportedly McCutchin's Web site earned $12.8 million in sales last year"
From: "Who Says You Shouldn't Talk About Yourself On Your Web Site?"
http://realtytimes.com/printrtpages/20000928_talk.htm

----------
search strategy:
"real estate websites", "million in sales"
"real estate", "web sites", "million in sales"
"sales of * million", "real estate" "web sites"

I hope this helps.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by alpacaherder-ga on 17 Jan 2004 08:35 PST

Thanks, juggler,

Thats useful info and worth ten bucks but I'd still like to know:

"which single real estate agency (one office, not
the national brands like ERA, CB, Prudential, etc.) sold the most
properties to people who found them through the internet in 2002 or
2003 and how much they sold."

You've given some good anecdotes of top agencies, but none of them
says who "sold the most".

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 17 Jan 2004 12:01 PST

Well, after an exhaustive search, including in magazine and newspaper
databases available via my local public library, I must conclude that
you're asking for a statistic that simply does not exist.

There is no ranking of single real estate brokerages in terms of
internet-generated sales. No one compiles such data.

My hunch is that it is highly unlikely that any single real estate
agency could top Corcoran's claimed $350 million in internet-generated
sales.  Why? Well, because Corcoran is the largest residential
brokerage in the nation's most expensive market (New York City).
" The Corcoran Group is New York City's largest private Real Estate Firm."
http://nyc-realestate.com/topten.html

Corcoran literally sells $40 million penthouses. 
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3601/50_49/106084725/p1/article.jhtml

Okay, now when a firm like that also is 'The Best Real Estate Website'
according to the Web Marketing Association, and is claiming $350
million in internet-generated sales, I highly doubt that you're going
to find something bigger. Indeed, Corcoran claims to have "leading
internet sales" and be "one of the industy's most successful on-line
brokers."
http://www.corcoran.com/homevalue/whyShouldIList_fr.asp

You wrote:

 'Something like a "top-selling internet realtor of 200x sold xx
million dollars worth of property to buyers who found them on the
internet" would be
great.'


I believe that you would be perfectly justified in saying:

"The Corcoran Group, a top-selling internet realtor of 2002, sold $350
million worth of property to buyers who found them on the internet."


Again, I'm very sorry that a ranking doesn't exist, but to tell you
the truth, I'm not all that surprised that it doesn't exist.  The
nature of the real estate business is such that even if someone were
claiming to have compiled such a ranking, it wouldn't necessarily be
very reliable. Why?  Well, because it'd be self-reported.  The brokers
would have to carefully keep track of which sales were
internet-generated and which were not.  All of a broker's sales people
would have to carefully document whether customers were finding them
via the web or not.  Corcoran is apparently doing this. Many other
firms, though, are probably not keeping track of such information in
an organized way. Thus, there would be inherent problems in trying to
come up with the sort of ranking that you have in mind.

I hope this helps.

I feel I got my money's worth. Thanks!