Chicago’s top 20 residential agents and brokers pulled in a collective $2.8 billion in sales volume across 3,435 deals in the past year, back to 2022 levels after a slow 2023. They did this all while navigating high interest rates, broker commission policy changes and low inventory.
Matt Laricy’s team at Americorp Real Estate moved up from second place to top the chart this year with $269.5 million in sales across nearly 500 deals, an increase from 423 deals totaling $216.6 million last year.
This past year was all about “chasing business rather than business chasing me,” as it did in 2022, Laricy said. That year, January “started off like a bullet,” with strong home sales throughout much of the year, but moving into 2023 was “crickets” by comparison, he said. This challenged him to court more buyers and grind out more deals at lower price points in 2024, he said.
“This is what it feels like when you go from one market to another,” Laricy said. “You went from like 2 percent to like 6 percent rates pretty quick, and you felt that.”
As someone who does half of his business downtown, the fall of downtown condo values also heavily impacted how Laricy approached his practice this past year as his clients became frustrated that their homes were sitting on the market for longer.
“We got fired more than I think I ever got fired in my life,” Laricy said. Downtown markets just weren’t moving. “It was a tough year of learning how to continue to improve in really tough markets.”
Laricy, a self-proclaimed “workaholic” who expects the same from the rest of The Laricy Team, had to up his game, he said. He works six or seven days a week, asks for feedback from any client he doesn’t land and offers them a second opinion if they ever need it because “you don’t just play for today, you play for tomorrow.”
“This year was a good year for people who came out of a really shit year in ’23 to go into ’24 realizing that the business has changed,” Laricy said. The biggest transformation came with the National Association of Realtors’ settlement of a class action antitrust lawsuit that ushered in policy changes requiring buyers’ brokers to sign written exclusivity agreements with their clients, among other things.
“It was a tough year of learning how to continue to improve in really tough markets.”
The ones who did well, as Laricy did, improved their online advertising, had well-staffed, specialized teams that provided a high level of service, and didn’t shy away from proving themselves to buyers and transacting at lower price points, he said.
The total volume of deals for the entire list was 24 percent higher than the previous year’s — from $2.27 billion to $2.8 billion. This past year’s total sales volume also topped the total for 2022, which came out to just over $2.7 billion in volume.
The Real Deal’s ranking counts both buy- and sell-side deals recorded on the Chicago-area Multiple Listing Service from July 2023 through July 2024. Only deals that were on the market are included, with no off-market transactions counting toward the ranking. In addition, the ranking includes only Cook County residential properties over $100,000.
Laricy was followed by Jeff Lowe of the Lowe Group at Compass, who claimed the No. 1 spot in The Real Deal’s last two rankings. This past year, Lowe reported a total sales volume of $247.6 million across 211 deals, up from $225.9 million in volume across 182 deals during the previous ranking period.
“We got some interest rate relief, and people who, the prior year, stayed in an uncomfortable situation, or homes they didn’t really want anymore, finally decided to move,” Lowe said. His team has been reaching out to other past clients that want to move and often hear: “next year.”
Lowe is a big name in Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Bucktown, all neighborhoods that have been major hotspots for residential real estate in recent years as Chicago’s top brokerages expand their footprints on the North and Northwest sides.
In the No. 3 spot was Emily Sachs Wong of ESW Chicago at @properties Christie’s International Real Estate. Sachs Wong saw $196.6 million in sales volume across 144 deals, also up this year from $145.7 million across 103 deals.
Sachs Wong has long dominated the Lincoln Park market, a major area of focus for residential deals with a total of $2.1 billion in dollar volume brought in by all Chicago brokerages in the area this past year.
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Laricy, Lowe and Sachs Wong have consistently ranked within the top five in recent years, but this year’s list of Chicago’s top brokers saw significant shake-up further down the list of the top 20 agents.
Tim Sheahan of The Sheahan Group at Compass, for example, rose from No. 19 in 2023 to No. 4 this year, in large part due to selling at the Embry, a luxury West Loop condo building. Mark Icuss, also of Compass and selling Embry listings, rose up to No. 8 in the ranking this year after he did not make the top 20 in the previous ranking period.
Higher interest rates affected more than buyers with mortgages, Sheahan said. Rates on construction loans increased, as did the cost of construction materials themselves, driving up the cost of new development.
This “makes it a little tougher and makes prices go up as well,” but demand for new construction homes has been particularly strong since the pandemic, he said. The Embry, for example, finished construction this year and is already 85 percent sold.
But perhaps the most defining event for residential real estate this past year was NAR’s landmark settlement of the Sitzer/Burnett case.
The announcement of the settlement was met with uncertainty among brokers who predicted it could lead to a decline in commission rates for buyers’ brokers, force newer or part-time agents out of the industry or lead to more buyers forgoing professional representation. But Chicago’s top brokers said many of these fears have not come to bear in the first few months since the policy changes went into effect in August.
Most brokerages rushed to provide training and resources to coach agents on how to demonstrate their worth to buyers who would now have a more explicit, upfront understanding of brokers’ rates. Many in the industry came to see the changes as positive, a challenge to buyers’ brokers to show their worth.
Grigory Pekarsky of Vesta Preferred, who took the No. 5 spot with $193.7 million in sales across 370 deals, did this by looking at data to tell prospective buyers what their estimated equity gain could be if they choose to work with his team, he said. Their average? About $45,000.
“If a consumer sees you as a liability, you’ll never get that contract. If they see you as an asset, then they don’t even blink at your fee,” Pekarsky said.
Showing them the data made them treat the relationship to him — and to their homes — differently.
“They understand that this is an investment. Yes, it’s my house, but [you] are my investment advisor.”