Wooo Hoooo ! From # 15 to # 9 in the USA. Imagine what next year will bring !!!

1. ZipRealty, Howard Hanna rise in
brokerage rankings
500 companies listed by sales volume, transaction
sides
BY INMAN NEWS, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009.
Inman News
Brokerage companies ZipRealty Inc. and Hanna Holdings Inc. took big strides in the latest annual rankings
of top brokerage companies by Real Trends, a real estate publishing and communications company.
The 2009 Real Trends 500 rankings, published this week, feature two lists: one is based on a brokerage
company's closed transactions sides for 2008, while the other is based on dollar volume of sales during
2008. In a real estate sale there are two sides that agents can represent -- the buyer's side and the seller's
side.
The top three real estate brokerage companies in transaction sides held their positions compared to their
rankings in last year's report, and the top six brokerage companies in sales volume held their positions
compared to the previous year (see Inman News).
Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Hanna Holdings, which operates Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, leapt to
seventh in the latest sales-volume rankings, compared to 14th last year, and also moved into fourth for
transaction sides compared to seventh last year, Real Trends reported. Hanna reported last month that it
has 152 offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia, with 5,200 sales associates and staff.
And Emeryville, Calif.-based ZipRealty, a tech-savvy company that offers rebates to buyers and discounts to
sellers, climbed onto the top-10 list in both transaction sides and sales volume. ZipRealty was ranked 10th in
sales volume in the latest report (19th last year) and ninth in transaction sides (15th last year).
ZipRealty, a publicly traded company, posted a $13.3 million loss in 2008 while completing a 10th
consecutive year of growth. According to a recent earnings announcement, its agents handled 17,156
transactions in 2008, up 23 percent from the prior year. And the company added 636 agents in 2008, for a
total of 2,816 (see Inman News).
Parsippany, N.J.-based NRT, the company-owned brokerage arm of Realogy Corp., topped both lists,
followed by HomeServices of America Inc. (based in Minneapolis) and The Long & Foster Cos. Inc. (based
in Chantilly, Va.).
Realogy, with company-owned and franchise brands including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby's
International Realty, and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, among others, reported in February that
transaction sides for NRT operations dropped 16 percent in 2008, to 275,090. And transaction sides among
its franchise group agents declined 18 percent in 2008, to 995,662.