Compass, Sotheby's International Realty, and Douglas Elliman lead the inaugural EPR ranking of the 10 luxury brokerages winning the earned media war post-NAR settlement.
The commission crisis didn't kill luxury real estate PR. It rewired it.
In Q4 2025 — the final quarter before commission practices fully reset across the industry — luxury brokerages spent record budgets fighting for share of voice in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Mansion Global, The Real Deal, and Inman. The winners aren't always the biggest. They're the ones who built citation infrastructure before the crisis — not during it. The post-NAR settlement is itself a crisis story, and the brokerages that defined the narrative early are still capturing the citations months later.
EPR analyzed Q4 2025 earned media coverage across 12 tier-1 business, real estate, and luxury publications, scoring each brokerage on four dimensions:
- Coverage Volume — tier-1 articles citing the brokerage
- Authority Quote Share — percentage of luxury-market stories where the brokerage was named as the source
- Sentiment Index — favorability tone across coverage
- Reporter Reach — unique tier-1 reporters citing the brokerage
The composite is the Brand Authority Score. Maximum 100.
The Top 10
1. Compass — 87
Coverage advantage built on size — the largest U.S. residential brokerage by gross transaction value — plus the Christie's International Real Estate acquisition giving Compass dual brand surface area. CEO Robert Reffkin remains one of the most-quoted luxury real estate executives in tier-1 financial press.
2. Sotheby's International Realty — 82
Owns the global luxury narrative. Strongest international coverage footprint, deep presence in Financial Times, Mansion Global, and Robb Report. The auction-house brand halo continues to do unpaid lifting in editorial.
3. Douglas Elliman — 76
New York's tier-1 default citation for Manhattan and Hamptons market data. The quarterly Elliman Reports continue to anchor reporter relationships across the financial press.
4. The Agency — 71
Mauricio Umansky's media presence and Buying Beverly Hills on Netflix translate directly into earned coverage. Strongest cross-vertical reach in the index — coverage spills into entertainment and lifestyle press.
5. SERHANT. — 68
Ryan Serhant's personal brand drives nearly all of SERHANT's earned coverage. Highest social-to-earned conversion in the index. Built differently than legacy brokerages — and the data shows it works.
6. Christie's International Real Estate — 65
Now operating inside Compass. Luxury-only positioning preserved. Mansion Global and international financial press remain core surface area.
7. Corcoran Group — 61
Pamela Liebman's NYC market commentary remains a reporter staple. Concentration risk visible: more than 40% of Q4 mentions came from five reporters.
8. Coldwell Banker Global Luxury — 58
Strong scale, modest authority share. The brand is mentioned often but rarely quoted as the source — a classic mention/citation gap.
9. Brown Harris Stevens — 54
Bess Freedman is the most-quoted female brokerage CEO in tier-1 luxury coverage. Highest sentiment score in the top 10.
10. Engel & Völkers — 49
European authority footprint, weaker U.S. tier-1 share. The opportunity is obvious.
What the data shows
Three patterns from Q4 2025:
The CEO is the brand. Eight of the top 10 brokerages have a single named executive driving the majority of earned coverage. Brokerages without a media-trained, quote-ready CEO struggled to break tier-1 — regardless of size.
Concentration risk is mispriced. Six of the top 10 had more than 35% of Q4 coverage come from fewer than five reporters. One beat change, one buyout, one beat reassignment — and the citation engine resets. Reporter diversification is the most underweighted variable in luxury real estate PR.
The commission story isn't over. Post-NAR settlement coverage continues to dominate the category, and the brokerages that defined the narrative early — Compass, Sotheby's, Elliman — are still capturing the citations months later. Authority compounds.
What this means
Earned media in luxury real estate is no longer a press release engine. It's a citation infrastructure problem. Tier-1 reporters now write for an industry in transition, and they cite the same five to ten brokerages repeatedly — because those brokerages have built the relationships, the data feeds, and the named-spokesperson reliability that beat journalism actually requires.
The 30 brokerages outside the top 10 are not invisible. They're just uncited.
The Q2 2026 update of the EPR Luxury Real Estate Brand Authority Index will publish in July.
Submissions and methodology questions: [email protected]. More research from Everything-PR.
