The Swanepoel Power 200 (SP200) list of the most powerful people in residential real estate by real estate guru and consultant Stefan Swanepoel was announced on January 14 by Inman News.

A who’s who of real estate, the Power 200 recognizes all sectors of the real estate industry. In addition to executives from some of the most powerful brokerages in the world, you’ll also find representatives from tech companies like Trulia and Zillow, startups like OpenDoor, media, and real estate associations, both regional and national.

The list isn’t purely scientific. It’s not based on dollars sold or market share, but really tries to measure influence. How does one do that exactly? For starters, it takes a dedicated team and over 400 hours of research. The SP200 editorial team received hundreds of recommendations and reviewed nearly 1,000 contenders before narrowing the list down to 200 by scouring the web, cross-referencing data and using their own decades-long experience along the way.

So who is Swanepoel’s most powerful person in residential real estate?

At the top of the SP200 for the second consecutive year is Richard A. Smith, the chairman, CEO and president of Realogy.

“Realogy is simply residential real estate’s most important company. Period,” stated the authors of the report, Stefan Swanepoel and Rob Hahn. “Richard Smith repeats his tenure at the top of the real estate industry’s power rankings this year, having managed Realogy to a very strong year while making one of the most important-yet little-discussed-acquisitions in recent years: the purchase of ZipRealty.”

With approximately 13,600 franchised and company-owned offices, and over 240,000 brokers and agents worldwide, Realogy touches one out of every four home sales in America.

As a testament to that influence, top executives with Realogy and major franchisors including Coldwell Banker accounted for nearly 20 percent of “the most powerful and most influential leaders in the residential real estate brokerage industry.”

Highlights include:

#1 | Richard Smith, Chairman, CEO and President of Realogy
#5 | Alex Perriello, President and CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group
#9 | Bruce Zipf, President and CEO of NRT LLC
#11 | Budge Huskey, CEO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate
#68 | Greg Macres, EVP of NRT Western Region

See the full list here.

Congratulations to everyone who was recognized for being a top influencer in real estate.