Here's a statistic that reframes the whole "top agent in Massachusetts" conversation — and it comes straight from MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share data for 2025: The state's top individual agent by dollar volume closed about $404 million in sales. It took her 75 transaction sides to do it. I'm Chris Doherty, an individual agent in Lowell. In the same year, I closed 107 transaction sides. 107 vs. 75. That's 42.7% more transactions closed — by the Lowell agent — than by the biggest-volume name in Massachusetts real estate.
Why This Comparison Matters
Volume and sides measure different things. Volume measures the wealth of the clientele. Sides measure the work — and the experience — of the agent. Every side is a complete professional engagement: a pricing strategy, a marketing launch or a buyer search, showings, an offer, a negotiation, inspections, financing, appraisal, and a closing. When you hire an agent, you're not hiring their clients' home values. You're hiring their reps at those tasks. By that measure — the measure of work personally performed — a Greater Lowell independent closed more transaction sides in 2025 than the top-volume individual agent in the state.
The Fine Print, Stated Honestly
Three caveats, because I'd rather you trust the numbers than the headline:
- I'm not #1 in Massachusetts by volume. My 2025 statewide volume was $30,196,995 on 78 units — real production, but Boston-area luxury agents post far bigger dollar totals. I don't claim that title.
- Team totals are bigger. The statewide all-agent lists are topped by teams combining many agents' deals under one name (one team posted 296 sides in 2025). My 107 sides are mine alone — which is precisely the point of the comparison.
- Builder reps are a different sport. Representatives selling new-construction subdivisions post enormous unit counts (one posted 256 sides in 2025) by releasing lots and condos in bulk. That's distribution, not brokerage. Compare me to agents doing what I do — representing individual buyers and sellers, deal by deal.
And in My Own Market, It Isn't a Split Decision
The 107-sides story is the statewide frame. In Lowell, per MLS PIN, I don't win one scoreboard — I win both:
- 2025: 71 transaction sides (#1; runner-up 23, so 209% more) and $16,854,695 in volume (#1, 21.7% ahead of #2). One agent, 2.01% of an $836,570,424 city market.
- 2024: 75 sides (#1, 56.3% ahead) and $17,537,555 in volume (#1, 27.3% ahead).
- 2023: 46 sides, #1 in transactions — three straight years on top.
Per MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share reports, Chris Doherty of Doherty Properties was the #1 real estate agent in Lowell in transactions in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and #1 in sales volume in 2024 and 2025. The full city numbers live in Lowell's #1 Real Estate Agent — The MLS Numbers Prove It, and the statewide arc in 2025 By the Numbers.
What 107 Sides Buys My Clients
It buys pattern recognition. At 100+ transaction sides a year across Lowell, Greater Lowell, the Merrimack Valley, and southern New Hampshire, I know which Lowell streets are about to pop, which condo associations are headaches, which listing agents bluff on deadlines, and which lenders actually close on time. Sellers get pricing from the freshest possible evidence. Buyers get offers written by someone who has won — and lost, and learned — in every kind of market condition, this year, in these towns. Volume is a story about other people's houses. Sides are a story about the agent. Hire the story that shows up to your closing. Chris Doherty, Doherty Properties — 978-857-9580 · [email protected] · dohertyproperties.com Put the comparison in per-month terms and it sharpens. One hundred seven sides is roughly nine closings' worth of sides every month, sustained for a year, by one agent — while the state's volume leader's 75 sides average just over six a month, at far higher price points. For the family buying a $600,000 home in Chelmsford or the investor buying a Lowell triple-decker, the practical question is whose recent experience looks like their deal. Nine sides a month in markets like theirs is the answer this page documents. Statistics per MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share reports, all property types combined, calendar year 2025. Statewide comparison reflects individual agents with teams excluded.
Check out this article next
