Ben Caballero is setting the bar high. In May, the 70-year-old agent and owner of Addison-based HomesUSA.com earned a Guinness World Record for having the most annual home transactions through MLS by an individual sell-side agent. According to research conducted by REAL Trends, Caballero sold 3,556 homes in 2016. His next closest competitor sold 467.
Before proclaiming him the winner, the Guinness team reviewed evidence and enlisted the help of a CPA to verify his information. An international research team then worked to confirm that nobody else could claim a higher number
“They don’t mess around,” Caballero said regarding the drawn-out process. He credits a web-based platform he designed about 10 years ago for much of his success. The system caters to homebuilders in the Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio markets. It is able collect and process vast amounts of information very quickly, facilitating a much higher transaction volume.
According to REAL Trends statistics published in the Wall Street Journal, Caballero has been the top-ranked real estate agent in the country since 2013. Between 2010 and 2016, his individual sales volume was $7.2 billion. He was also the first agent to amass $1 billion in home sales in a single year.
“It could not be done in a traditional way because it would be just too much paperwork and too much back and forth,” he said. “Also, if I wasn’t in Texas, I wouldn’t be able to do it either because Texas is the largest home building market in the nation.”
Caballero has been involved in some form of real estate his entire adult life, including 18 years as a homebuilder. He recognized the potential for technology to transform real estate early on. However, not everyone was on-board, and early IT systems actually caused more headaches then help. Then things began to change
“As computer technology crept into the homebuilding business, and builders started to put computers into their models and sales centers, I saw that it would be feasible to do the platform because then we could get that information directly from the field,” he said.
Caballero insists he has no plans to slow down. The challenge of finding creative solutions to problems keeps him motivated. He enjoys working with his 11-person development team to constantly refine and improve the platform. Plans are in the works to soon expand to other states. And on June 29, Caballero expects REAL Trends to officially announce that he has already broken his own sales record.
“Unless something extremely drastic happens, we expect to continue to better every year,” he said. “I really see this working out to be an integral part of the new home building business more as we progress. I’m optimistic and pleased with how things are going.”
