The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends Announce America's Top 200 Real Estate Agents and Teams

Business Wire, Nov 11, 2006

A New Yorker is America's Top Agent with More Than $244 Million in Home Sales While the Nation's Top Team Sold $539 Million in San Diego-Area Real Estate

NEW ORLEANS -- America's coastal statesCofrom California to Florida to New YorkCoare where America's top real estate agents and teams ply their craft as they claimed top honors in "The Real Estate Top 200," a new national awards event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. The Real Estate Top 200 rankings were announced today at the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Annual Conference and Expo.

The Real Estate Top 200 honored the top 50 residential agents and agent teams in four categories:

* Individual agent - Sales volume

* Individual agent - Transaction sides (in each real estate transaction, there are two sides that can be represented by a real estate agent: a buyer's and a seller's.)

* Agent team - Sales Volume

* Agent team - Transaction sides

The following are the top five winners in each of the four categories in The Real Estate Top 200. Individual Agent: Sales Volume

1. Harald Grant, Sotheby's International Realty, Southampton, NY, $244,901,664

2. Mary Gullixson, Alain Pinel Realtors, Menlo Park, CA, $207,850,628

3. Patricia Choi, Choi International, Honolulu, HI, $200,341,000

4. Cristina Condon, Sotheby's International Realty, Palm Beach, FL, $181,754,920

5. Sean Stanfield, First Team Real Estate, Huntington Beach, CA, $178,726,700

Individual Agent: Transaction Sides

1. Theresa Griffin, ERA Suncoast Realty, Crystal River, FL, 891.5 sides

2. Robert Picciariello, Prello Realty, Chicago, IL, 364 sides

3. C.R. Bankson, ERA American Realty Investments, Homosassa, FL, 308 sides

4. John Diaz, RE/MAX Professionals, Avondale, AZ, 307 sides

5. Ahmad Hage, RE/MAX Team 2000, Dearborn, MI, 303 sides

Team: Sales Volume

1. Team Ruth Pugh, Century 21 Award, San Diego, CA, $539,500,000

2. Team Creig Northrop, Long & Foster Real Estate, Clarksville, MD, $406,000,000

3. Team Ron Rush, Long & Foster Real Estate, Fairfax, VA, $303,459,272

4. Team Frank Liu, RE/MAX Valley Properties, San Jose, CA, $282,000,000

5. Team Mark Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate, Washington, DC, $277,668,448

Team: Transaction Sides

1. Team Ruth Pugh, Century 21 Award, San Diego, CA, 1,676 sides

2. Team Kevin Brach, RE/MAX Premier Realty, Ocala, FL, 1,218 sides

3. Team Dan Frank, DFW Real Estate Group, Dallas, TX, 1,108 sides

4. Team Ronnie and Cathy Matthews, RE/MAX Legends, Spring, TX, 921 sides

5. Team Dan Valentine, Realty Executives, Phoenix, AZ, 766 sides

The winners were chosen from nearly 2,000 submissions from real estate professionals representing hundreds of markets nationwide. A special advertising feature that includes the names of the entire Top 200 appears in today's Wall Street Journal and winners are profiled in lore magazine. Both publications are being distributed at the NAR conference. Information on the winners can also be found online at www.loremagazine.com and www.RealEstateJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal's real estate Web site.

"The Real Estate Top 200 is our way of paying tribute to America's top real estate agents and real estate teams," said Anne Murray-Randolph, publisher of lore Magazine. "It is an honor to be able to team with The Wall Street Journal to highlight the remarkable achievements of our industry's top producers."

"These men and women are the cream of an extraordinarily impressive crop of individual agents and teams from markets throughout the nation who should be quite proud to know, they are The Real Estate Top 200," said Marti Gallardo, vice president of classified advertising for The Wall Street Journal.

About the Real Estate Top 200

The Real Estate Top 200 awards program was developed jointly by The Wall Street Journal's Business Development Group and REAL Trends, a leading source of analysis and information for the residential real estate brokerage industry. The Real Estate Top 200 honors America's elite real estate agents and their companies, many of which have forged longstanding business relationships with The Wall Street Journal. The Real Estate Top 200 is compiled and analyzed by REAL Trends with winners published in a special advertising supplement of The Wall Street Journal, lore magazine and on RealEstateJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal's real estate Web site.