Each Friday, Robbie Briggs, CEO of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, writes about luxury, trends, business and more in the advertising pages of the Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal. Below is his letter of March 11, 2022.
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE
If you’re a numbers person, you’re going to love all this.
Sotheby’s International Realty has just released its 2021 statistics and there are some jaw-droppers. (FYI, it takes a couple of months in our business to tally the prior year’s contracts and figures.)
The network achieved a record $204 billion in global sales volume — a 36-percent jump from 2020 and an outstanding achievement, helped in part by the nearly 400 expert agents that I am proud to know at Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty.
In the U.S. alone, the network’s sales volume grew by almost 34 percent, significantly outpacing the national increase of 20.6 percent reported by the National Association of REALTORSâ. That really underscores the leadership of Sotheby’s International Realty in the luxury market.
Sotheby’s International Realty continues to lead the industry with technology and marketing, too. The superb sothebysrealty.com saw more than 46 million visitors in 2021, an increase of 25 percent and the most visits in its history. Videos produced by Sotheby’s International Realty agents were played nearly 90 million times — a whopping 50-percent increase year-over-year. (Video has become vital.) Our own briggsfreeman.com saw 118 percent more visitors in 2021 than it did in 2020, thanks to a new strategy for digital marketing.
The network continued to expand its presence around the world. In 2021, it opened 86 new offices, bringing its total to more than 1,000 offices in 79 countries and territories, with more than 25,000 agents worldwide.
Those agents, by the way, acted as true global real estate advisors: The sales volume for referrals within the network — one agent entrusting their clients to another, in another part of the country or world — increased by nearly 80 percent last year. It’s head-spinning, isn’t it? Who knows how long these kinds of increases will last. I do know this: One thing that stays steady, in markets that are hot or cool, is the expertise of our professional agents, advising their clients all the way.
Robbie Briggs
CEO
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