Texas-based real estate agent Ben Caballero just broke his own record for home sales volume by individually selling 6,438 homes worth more than $2.46 billion in 2020. A current Guinness World Record title holder, Caballero has been ranked the No. 1 real estate agent in the U.S. since 2013 by RealTrends.
Caballero, who heads the Dallas-Fort Worth-based firm HomesUSA.com, was originally recognized as a Guinness World Record holder in 2016 when he sold a total of 3,556 homes. He then broke his own record in 2018 when he sold 5,801 homes; he received another Guinness World Record for this achievement for the “most annual home sales transactions through MLS by an individual sell side real estate agent.”
Although he hasn’t been awarded the Guinness World Record for his 2020 sales, Caballero plans to formally apply for a third record title.
Caballero told Houston Agent Magazine that he specializes in working with home builders directly to sell homes rather than with home buyers and homeowners who are looking to sell. After working as a home builder himself for 18 years, he developed a platform in 2007 that allows him to automate much of the repetitive processes of updating new build information. His staff enters new homes and updates information into their appropriate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in order to help builders sell homes.
“I go where the activity is and where the builders go. The builders who need me are the ones who do a lot of business,” Caballero said in regards to where he sells homes. “Using our technology, we get about 23 hits per listing. Say a builder has 500 homes to sell in a year. We will get over 10,000 hits for those homes efficiently, accurately and quickly. Agents benefit from this because they can rely on this information to sell more homes.”
Caballero works with over 60 builders in Texas and is currently a member of eight Texas MLS’s including Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Tyler, Longview and Central Texas. He is also about to join the MLS for San Angelo. The verified data for his individual sales comes from these listing services.
Last year, Caballero sold an average of over 120 new homes per week, or 17 new homes a day. Between 2004 and 2020, he was responsible for 42,265 new home sales totaling $15.6 billion in volume.
Caballero was the first real estate agent to exceed $1 billion in residential sales transaction in a single year; he is also the first and only agent in the world to exceed $2 billion in annual home sales and he’s done this three times in a row: in 2018 with $2.27 billion, 2019 with $2.25 billion and 2020 with $2.46 billion.
“Looking at the market today, this record is going to stand for some time,” Caballero said. “What’s most incredible is I get to do something I love every day and get paid for it. I built homes or 18 years and truly enjoy working with builders.”