Top Real Estate Agent in Massachusetts? Look at Transactions, Not Just Volume

The Two Scoreboards of Massachusetts Real Estate

Every year, MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) — the multiple listing service covering most of Massachusetts — publishes Market Share reports for every agent in the state. Those reports rank agents two ways: by dollar volume (the combined sale prices of everything an agent closed) and by transaction sides (how many deals an agent actually worked — each side representing a buyer or a seller in a completed transaction). Those two scoreboards produce very different "top agents." The volume board is dominated by agents who sell a relatively small number of very expensive homes, mostly in Boston and its highest-priced suburbs — $2 million, $3 million, $5 million properties. The transactions board is topped by agents doing the daily work of the market: pricing, marketing, negotiating, and closing homes for ordinary buyers and sellers, over and over, all year. If you're choosing an agent, the honest question is which scoreboard measures what you actually need. You are not hiring the value of an agent's past clients' houses. You're hiring experience — repetitions of exactly the job you're about to hand them.

The Production Case

In 2025, I closed 107 transaction sides across Massachusetts as an individual agent — more closed sides than Massachusetts' #1 agent by dollar volume, who closed $404 million on 75 transaction sides. 107 against 75 is 42.7% more transactions than the biggest-volume name in the state. In my home market, the production isn't a matter of framing. Per MLS PIN Market Share, I was Lowell's #1 agent in transactions in 2025 with 71 sides — 209% more than the #2 agent's 23 — and #1 in sales volume at $16,854,695, 21.7% ahead of the runner-up. In 2024 I was #1 in Lowell in both categories again (75 sides; $17,537,555, 27.3% ahead of #2 by volume), and in 2023 I was #1 in transactions with 46 sides. Three straight years at #1 in transactions. Two straight years at #1 in volume. That's not a slogan. It's the published record of my market.

How to Choose a Top Agent (Read the Fine Print)

Before you hire anyone — including me — apply three tests. First, separate individuals from teams. Statewide lists are topped by teams whose totals combine a dozen agents' production under one name; ask any "top agent" how many of those deals they personally closed. Second, ask which scoreboard a claim uses. A volume title can rest on a handful of luxury sales; a transactions title means the agent did the work, repeatedly, in markets like yours. Third, check the record in YOUR market. Statewide fame matters less than who actually closes in the town where you're buying or selling. That's the standard I want held up to my own numbers — and it's why this site publishes them.

What This Means for Your Sale or Purchase

One hundred seven closed sides in a single year is a lot of pricing decisions, negotiations, inspections, appraisal fights, and closings — in Lowell, across Greater Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, and into southern New Hampshire. It means pattern recognition your transaction benefits from: which streets are heating up, which condo associations carry hidden costs, which lenders close on time, and how the other side of a negotiation is likely to move. If you're selling, that record is why Doherty Properties listings are priced from evidence, not hope. If you're buying, it's why my buyers' offers are structured by someone who has seen every tactic used against them — this year, in these towns. To talk through your move, call Chris Doherty at 978-857-9580 or visit dohertyproperties.com. One more distinction worth making before you choose anyone: most "top agent" rankings you'll find online are commercial lists — referral networks and directories that feature the agents in their programs. The MLS Market Share report is different. It counts every agent's closed deals the same way, with nothing to sell. When independent, data-driven rankings like FastExpert and Clever Real Estate publish their Lowell results, they land on the same name the MLS record does — because they're reading the same production. Statistics per MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN) Market Share reports, calendar years 2023–2025. Statewide side counts reflect individual agents, teams excluded.