Charleston SC Real Estate

Charleston, South Carolina has an overwhelming number of real estate companies. While many are nationally recognized franchises, you will also find many other locally owned companies to choose from. I have included below the top 10 real estate companies in Charleston according to closed MLS sales. These stats include both sides of the transactions - the listing and the sales (or buyer represented) side. These statistics are for the first quarter of the year - from January 1 to March 31 of 2009.

1) Carolina One Real Estate (formerly Prudential Carolina) has been number 1 in MLS sales since 1991. Carolina One is the largest real estate company in Charleston. Carolina One has been locally owned and operated since May of 2008 when they opted out of their national franchise agreement.

Closed sales: 737

Market Share: 27 percent (which means that it was responsible for 27 percent of the homes sold on the MLS)

2) Agent Owned Realty works solely on the selling side of transactions. So, they help sellers list homes (and are quite successful at it), but they do not work with home buyers . Agent Owned is a smaller, more specialized company, but it has been in the top ten spots in MLS sales for years now.

Closed sales: 200

Market Share: 7.3 percent

3) Keller Williams is the largest national franchise in Charleston for real estate. Keller Williams has also been steadily in the top ranked companies for several years now.

Closed sales: 195

Market Share: 7.1 percent

4) Century 21 was the third largest national franchise in Charleston real estate companies. However, the company is going through management restructuring right now and might change business models in the next year.

Closed sales: 139

Market Share: 5.1 percent

5) Coldwell Banker has several independently run franchises in the Charleston area. During the past year, one of these offices was bought out by ERA Tides. However, the other offices continue to run with the Coldwell Banker national franchise.

Closed sales: 129

Market Share: 4.7 percent

6) Centex is one of the largest new home builders in Charleston. Later this year (during the third quarter), Centex will be merging with Pulte Homes.

Closed sales: 120

Market Share: 4.4 percent

7) Remax is another large franchise company in Charleston. Remax started its international franchising in Canada in the late 1980s and has since expanded to 6 of the 7 continents.

Closed sales: 93

Market Share: 3.4 percent

8) Brentwood is another new homes builder. Brentwood was recently bought out by Crestwood, which is the same basic company but with a different investor.

Closed sales: 49

Market Share: 1.8 percent

9) Mickey Durham Real Estate works solely with bank foreclosures. The company has been in this niche market for years. However, with the recent increase in the rate of foreclosures, Mickey Durham has been very successful and is now among the top ten Charleston real estate companies.

Closed sales: 38

Market Share: 1.4 percent

10) Exit Realty has been one of the fast growing real estate companies in Charleston in the past several years. Exit is also independently owned as well. This agency is also known for being a corporate sponsor for Habitat for Humanity.

Closed sales: 36

Market Share: 1.3 percent

Last, I wanted to include the stats for all of the other Charleston real estate companies. If you were to combine all of their sales for this first quarter of the year, they have 994 closings total with a 36.4 percent share of the total market.

Lee Keadle is a Realtor with Carolina One Real Estate in Charleston, SC.