There’s one thing that makes Top Agent Network truly unique:

Only the top 10% of real estate agents are offered memberships.

This characteristic defines what TAN is all about. By building trusted local communities of top agents, TAN members are able to help each other attract, serve and impress clients. This article goes into more detail about why we restrict membership to just elite agents.

And because this exclusivity is so important, we want to be 100% transparent on how we determine who does and doesn’t get into Top Agent Network. So here are the facts:

We turned down 68% of applicants in 2015

We received 1,352 applicants across all chapters in 2015. Of those, only 432 of them qualified as the top 10% in their market.

Here’s a breakdown of membership requests in 2015 for our largest chapters:

Despite the top 10% requirement being clear, membership in TAN is so valued that unqualified agents consistently apply for membership. That’s why our acceptance rate is so low.

How we determine who the top 10% is

To become a member, an agent must be in the top 10% of the geographic area covered by their TAN chapter based on their past 24-month closed home sales. We also require a minimum of four sales in the local area to be considered.

On top of that, we only consider “producing” agents to pick the 10% from. We define a “producing” agent as someone who has at least one closed sale in the local market.

Although we go through each application manually, a proprietary algorithm is used to determine who meets the criteria to join. It factors in MLS sales data, properties in closing, and documented off-MLS sales to rank and qualify agents.

And just to be clear: the ranking is based purely on objective sales data. It’s not possible for any agent to buy their way into TAN. In fact, TAN founder/CEO David Faudman has turned down multiple requests from agents he is friends with who do not meet the membership requirements.

But as long as an agent stays in good standing with Top Agent Network, we do not re-evaluate their sales performance. We do this because our goal is to build trusted communities and we know that TAN members value other TAN members. This article covers the topic of eligibility in more detail.

The one exception to the rules

There is one minor exception to the 10% rule. We allow some members to qualify based on sales in more than one chapter, in certain scenarios. Here’s a hypothetical example:

Chapters A and B are next to each other. The minimum amount of closed sales that agents need to be in the top 10% is $13 million in A and $17 million in B.

Now, let’s say there is a member who splits her business between both chapters. She has $11 million in chapter A and $15 million in chapter B for a total of $26 million.

This person is clearly a top producer, but technically doesn’t qualify for either chapter because of how the boundaries were created. But she can still get into TAN.

We created a special algorithm for those agents to qualify based on their sales in both areas. It’s a fair way to recognize the agent’s performance while still maintaining TAN’s high admission standards.

What happens when top agents move

This is a tricky one.

Unfortunately, when a TAN member moves from one market to another, they may not immediately qualify for membership in that specific chapter until they close enough homes in their local area.

We implemented this policy to make sure that every TAN member isn’t just a top agent — they’re a top agent in their local market.

You might be the biggest producer in the U.S., but if you don’t understand the San Fernando Valley market (for example), you’re not going to have the local knowledge needed to contribute valuable TAN posts.

A big difference between the top and bottom 10%

You’ll often hear us say: The top 10% of agents do 90% of the business in their local markets.

But what we don’t usually talk about is difference between those who rank within the top 5% and those who rank in the 6-10% range. Sales data shows that agents ranked at the very top do significantly more business than other TAN members.

This often means that some agents who qualify for TAN memberships, especially in larger chapters, may not always be well-known in the local community. You may not even recognize some of their names.

However, they are still top 10% producers according to the sales data.

The data doesn’t lie

By sticking to our “by the numbers” approach, TAN is able to objectively determine who is a top 10% agent and who isn’t.

We don’t weigh subjective factors like an agent’s negotiation skills, how they treat their clients or how well they are liked by other agents —  those are virtually impossible to measure.

So we stick to analyzing sales data and we apply the rules to everyone equally. We believe that this approach is one of the main reasons why Top Agent Network continues to grow its membership every year.

We’re proud to work with some of the most talented, hard-working real estate agents in the country. And we’ll continue to do our best to help them succeed.