Each year, T3 Sixty spends hundreds of hours to create a definitive ranking of the industry’s most powerful leaders. Why?

First and foremost, it’s about having quality data, which we all need to make the best, most productive decisions.

In fact, this motive drives much of what we do at T3 Sixty, from our consulting work to the Swanepoel Trends Report, and the four other components that make up the inaugural Real Estate Almanac: the nation’s largest Realtor associations and MLSs (publishing in February), the industry’s most important technology services (publishing in March), the nation’s largest franchisors, networks and holding companies (publishing in April) and the nation’s largest brokerage companies (publishing in May).

As with all of our research, the SP200 centers on a desire to chronicle and understand the real estate industry, because without a bedrock of solid information neither we or anyone else can chart the best path forward. We all need something solid to push off of.

The SP200 is but one small slice of that information and, with it, T3 Sixty strives to provide the most accurate mirror of the people who drive and shape the industry. Of course, it only reflects 247 people (including those on the Watchlist, the Outsiders list and the leadership teams included in the rankings) and, obviously, does not include the thousands of brokers, teams and agents who also shape the day-to-day experience of millions of consumers each year. But for those piloting the industry’s current and future course, the SP200 gives us a snapshot of who has the power, the influence and the immense responsibility to make good decisions on behalf of many.

The SP200 process

We take compiling the SP200 incredibly seriously. It involves a sincere and systematic effort to objectively rank the industry’s leaders by their relative power. Facts – org charts, company size and trajectory, and company performance – influence a significant part of the research and ranking; we then fine-tune this research with substantive debate on each leader’s impact and trajectory.

Given the unavoidable subjective nature of this process, many can, of course, debate who ends up on the list and in what order. In fact, that is exactly what we do, internally for weeks before locking the list. You may debate a few positions here and there but, if you analyze the list carefully, we think you’ll agree that it is a fair representation of the industry’s power and influence. T3 Sixty always welcomes suggestions for improvement; internally, we constantly polish our mirror as, each year, we strive to create an even more accurate reflection of our industry.

What the 2020 SP200 mirror reveals

The large franchisors and real estate holding companies continue to dominate the list with Realogy leaders occupying four slots in the top 20 and 13 slots overall with Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary HomeServices of America leaders occupying two slots in the top 20 and 13 slots overall. The list has been out for two weeks now, so we know the headlines, and who sits at the top, so we introduce some other insights the list reveals.

Women are gaining power. While too few women lead our industry at the highest level – especially since women predominate the agent population – the SP200 reveals better representation in 2020 than in years past. The 2020 SP200 saw more women leaders – 46! – than in any of the seven SP200s to date, and six more than in the 2019 report.

The 10 most powerful women in the 2020 SP200 are:

1. Helen Hanna Casey, Chairman & CEO, Hanna Holdings
2. Jill Jacobi Wood, Principal, Windermere Real
3. Sherry Chris, President and CEO, Realogy Expansion Brands
4. Pamela Liebman, President and CEO, The Corcoran Group
5. Pam Alexander, CEO, RE/MAX Integra
6. Joan Docktor, President, BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors
7. Tami Bonnell, President and CEO, EXIT Realty
8. Katherine Johnson, SVP and General Counsel, NAR
9. Merrily Hackett, Managing Partner, Sutton WestCoast Realty
10. Susan Yannaccone, Regional EVP, NRT LLC

The SP200 also shows some leaders of companies with newer business models establishing themselves higher on the list. Some noteworthy ones include:

• Glenn Kelman (No. 5), CEO, Redfin
• Robert Reffkin and Ori Allon (No. 8) Compass
• Eric Wu (No. 13), co-founder and CEO, Opendoor
• Glenn Sanford (No. 15), founder and CEO, eXp Realty
• Kuba Jewgieniew (No. 18) Realty One Group
• Matt Widdows (No. 19) HomeSmart International
• Scott Nagel (No. 67), President, Redfin
• Dan Duffy (No. 83), CEO, United Real Estate
• John Berkowitz (No. 85), co-founder and CEO, OJO Labs
• Sean Black (No. 90), co-founder and CEO, Knock
• Brian Bair (No. 95), co-founder and CEO, Offerpad

The 2020 list also shows the immense power Zillow Group has achieved in the industry. Of course, its co-founder and CEO Richard Barton took the No. 1 spot – but three other executives join him among the 40 most powerful industry leaders in 2020: Jeremy Wacksman (No. 21), Arik Prawer (No.23) and Errol Samuelson (No.38). These four also occupy the top four spots in the list’s technology category; leaders from CoreLogic, Black Knight, MoxiWorks, OJO Labs, FBS and Inside Real Estate round out the industry’s 10 most powerful technology executives.

Jump into sp200.com and see what reflections you uncover.