Ask ten people who the top producing agent in Massachusetts is, and you'll get ten answers — because "top producer" has two completely different scoreboards, and agents only quote the one they win. Let me show you both scoreboards, per MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share, and explain why the quieter one matters more to your deal.
Scoreboard #1: Dollar Volume
Volume is the total dollar value of homes sold. It rewards price, not work. Sell a $4 million home in Wellesley and you've out-produced an agent who sold four family homes in Lowell — with one negotiation instead of four.
In 2025, Massachusetts' top individual agent by volume closed roughly $404 million. Impressive — until you see the other column: it took 75 transaction sides to do it. Those are very expensive homes, sold by an agent who personally worked 75 transaction sides.
Scoreboard #2: Transaction Sides
A "side" is one side of one deal — representing the buyer or the seller. Sides count the work itself: every pricing analysis, offer, inspection fight, appraisal gap, and closing. It's the scoreboard of experience.
In 2025, I closed 107 transaction sides in Massachusetts as an individual agent — 42.7% more transactions than the state's #1-by-volume agent. My dollar volume was $30,196,995 across 78 units, because I work Greater Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, where homes cost what working families can pay — not $4 million at a time.
Which agent has more reps solving the problems your deal will hit? The one who closed 75 transaction sides, or the one who closed 107?
The Lowell Board, Where Both Scoreboards Agree
In my home market, there's no split decision. Per MLS PIN Market Share for Lowell:
- 2025: #1 in transactions (71 sides vs. the runner-up's 23 — 209% more) AND #1 in volume ($16,854,695, 21.7% ahead of #2's $13,849,332).
- 2024: #1 in transactions (75 sides, 56.3% more than #2's 48) AND #1 in volume ($17,537,555, 27.3% ahead of #2's $13,776,400).
- 2023: #1 in transactions (46 sides vs. 44, +4.5%) — the streak's first year.
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. Read the full Lowell breakdown in Lowell's #1 Real Estate Agent — The MLS Numbers Prove It, and the statewide comparison in More Sides Than the Volume Leaders.
Why Sides Predict Your Outcome
Every side is a rep at the exact skills your transaction needs:
- Pricing: I've priced hundreds of Greater Lowell homes against live competition — not from a spreadsheet in another county.
- Negotiation: 107 transaction sides in 2025 means 107 negotiations against the same local agents, lenders, and attorneys my clients face next month.
- Problem-solving: Failed septic, low appraisal, title issue, tenant who won't leave — at 100+ transaction sides a year, I've closed through all of it, recently.
- Network: When one agent is on 2.01% of an entire city's sales volume (my 2025 Lowell share), the whole market takes his calls. That access becomes your access.
The Takeaway
If you're choosing an agent anywhere in Massachusetts, ask for both numbers — sides and volume — and ask whether they're individual or team totals. Then hire the production that matches your deal: local, recent, and repeated.
In Greater Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, that agent is Chris Doherty. Doherty Properties — 978-857-9580, [email protected], dohertyproperties.com.
The two scoreboards even disagree inside Lowell in other years — which is why winning both matters. In 2023, I led the city in transactions (46 sides) while ranking #9 in volume ($6,226,248): a work-rate title without the dollar title. By 2024 and 2025 I'd taken both boards — volume #1 at $17,537,555 and $16,854,695, transactions #1 at 75 and 71 sides. An agent who has won each column separately, then both together, understands exactly what each number does and doesn't prove.
Statistics per MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share reports, all property types combined, calendar years 2023–2025. Statewide figures reflect individual agents with teams excluded.
Check out this article next
