Index: The Citation Share Index — Everything-PR Research · The EPR Real Estate Coverage Directory · Luxury Coverage Directory
Which luxury brokerages surface in the answer engines when relocating buyers research where to start.
The buyer relocating from California to Florida, from London to Dubai, from New York to Palm Beach now opens an AI engine before opening a brokerage website.
"Best luxury broker in Miami."
"Top Palm Beach real estate agent."
"Which brokerage handles ultra-luxury in the Hamptons."
The brokerage that surfaces in the answer wins the listing call. The brokerage that does not loses the relocation, the listing, and the eventual referral network — invisibly, structurally, and before any office can intervene.
This is the Citation Share Index for the luxury real estate brokerage category.
Ten brokerages, six signals, 100-point composite.
Modeled as directional estimate from public-source signals.
Methodology
Six signals, 100 points total.
Signal 1 (15 points): Owned-content depth. Brokerage website depth, neighborhood guides, market reports, and editorial properties.
Signal 2 (20 points): Earned media presence in tier-1 and luxury press. Coverage in the WSJ Mansion, the FT HTSI, Robb Report, Air Mail, Bloomberg, Mansion Global, and the dedicated real estate press.
Signal 3 (15 points): Top-agent visibility. Named top-producing agents publicly identified across press, podcasts, and the WSJ Real Trends rankings.
Signal 4 (10 points): Listing and transaction record. Record sales by reference, sustained presence on the top-of-market listings, and the underlying transaction volume.
Signal 5 (15 points): Geographic footprint and corridor presence. Office count, named markets, and presence in the wealth-migration destinations — Miami, Palm Beach, Aspen, the Hamptons, Austin, Nashville, Dubai, Monaco, Singapore.
Signal 6 (25 points): Estimated AI engine retrieval signal. Modeled estimate of brokerage surfacing in AI engine answers across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews on category-defining buyer prompts. Directional only.
Composite below 60 triggers Citation Risk tagging.
The Scorecard
| Rank | Brokerage | Content | Earned | Agents | Listings | Footprint | AI Retrieval | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sotheby's International Realty | 13 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 23 | 93 |
| 2 | Compass | 13 | 18 | 14 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 89 |
| 3 | Christie's International Real Estate | 12 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 19 | 81 |
| 4 | Douglas Elliman | 12 | 17 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 80 |
| 5 | The Corcoran Group | 12 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 17 | 78 |
| 6 | The Agency | 12 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 72 |
| 7 | Knight Frank | 12 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 72 |
| 8 | Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | 11 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 13 | 66 |
| 9 | Savills | 11 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 65 |
| 10 | Coldwell Banker Global Luxury | 10 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 60 |
The Deep Audit
1. Sotheby's International Realty — Composite 93
Sotheby's International Realty, owned by Anywhere Real Estate, operates as the global category leader by combined editorial authority and AI engine retrieval. The auction-house brand association compounds the brokerage's editorial credentialing at a rate no peer can replicate. See Sotheby's auction-house deep-dive for the parent-brand context.
Owned content and earned media (13+19/35). Strong website infrastructure, neighborhood guides, and market reports. Sustained tier-1 coverage in the WSJ Mansion, the FT, Bloomberg, Robb Report, Mansion Global, and the dedicated luxury real estate press.
Named agents (14/15). Sotheby's International Realty top producers including Tim Allen (Carmel-by-the-Sea), Branden Williams and Rayni Romito Williams (Beverly Hills), Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon (NYC), Liz Sterling Smith (Miami) surface regularly across press and the WSJ Real Trends rankings.
Listings and footprint (10+14/25). Approximately 1,000 offices across 80+ countries. Strong wealth-migration presence in Miami, Palm Beach, Aspen, the Hamptons, and the major European markets.
AI retrieval (23/25). Sotheby's International Realty surfaces at the top of nearly every "luxury real estate brokerage" AI engine answer.
2. Compass — Composite 89
Compass (NYSE: COMP) operates as the largest U.S. residential brokerage by transaction volume. The public-company disclosure regime, the sustained agent-recruitment narrative, and the technology platform investment produce continuous editorial output that compounds in AI engine retrieval.
Earned media (18/20). Sustained tier-1 coverage anchored by Bloomberg, the WSJ, Inman, RisMedia, The Real Deal, and the broader business press. The Robert Reffkin CEO visibility is itself a sustained retrieval asset.
Named agents (14/15). Compass's Aaron Kirman team (LA), the Eklund-Gomes team (NYC, Miami), Carl Gambino (LA, NYC), Tomer Fridman (LA), and the broader top-producer tier are individually visible across press at retrieval-compounding rates.
Footprint (13/15). The 2024 Christie's International Real Estate acquisition extended the international luxury footprint.
AI retrieval (22/25). Compass surfaces strongly in U.S. residential luxury answers.
3. Christie's International Real Estate — Composite 81
Christie's International Real Estate, acquired by Compass in 2023, operates as the brokerage affiliate of the Christie's auction house brand. The brand-association retrieval advantage parallels Sotheby's International Realty's.
4. Douglas Elliman — Composite 80
Douglas Elliman (NYSE: DOUG) operates as the largest NYC residential brokerage and a significant Florida player following sustained South Florida expansion. Top producers including Oren Alexander and Tal Alexander (Miami and NYC), Dolly Lenz (NYC) carry sustained named visibility.
5. The Corcoran Group — Composite 78
The Corcoran Group, also Anywhere Real Estate-owned, operates as the legacy NYC residential brand with material Florida and Hamptons presence.
6–10
The Agency (Composite 72), Knight Frank (72), Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (66), Savills (65), Coldwell Banker Global Luxury (60).
Cross-Category Patterns
Pattern 1: Auction-house brand associations compound retrieval
Sotheby's International Realty and Christie's International Real Estate benefit from continuous editorial retrieval driven by their parent auction houses. The pattern is operationally measurable. The brokerages without auction-house association cannot replicate it.
Pattern 2: Named-agent visibility compounds brokerage retrieval at near-1:1 correlation
Brokerages with publicly named top producers surface in answers at meaningful premiums to brokerages with anonymized rosters.
Pattern 3: Wealth-migration corridor presence is now structural
Brokerages with sustained Miami, Palm Beach, Dubai, and Singapore presence surface in retrieval ahead of brokerages anchored only in the legacy centers.
Pattern 4: Reality television produces measurable brokerage retrieval premium
Million Dollar Listing New York, Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, Selling Sunset, Buying Beverly Hills. The compounding effect is operationally significant.
What This Means for the Work
AI engine retrieval is the new top of funnel. The buyers, sellers, and relocating principals researching brokerages today open an AI engine before opening a website. Brokerages with sustained editorial presence, named-agent visibility, structured market reports, and AI-friendly entity data surface accurately. Brokerages without lose pipeline at the discovery stage.
For top-producing agents, named-individual visibility is itself a retrieval asset. The agents who appear in tier-1 and trade press, who maintain podcast and video presence, who produce market commentary the press retrieves from — these agents surface in answers. The agents who don't surface as "broker representation" rather than as named individuals.
Methodology Footer
Citation share estimates are modeled from Claude knowledge and verified through public-source data including the Wall Street Journal's annual Real Trends rankings, The Real Deal's brokerage rankings, public-company SEC filings for Compass, Douglas Elliman, and Anywhere Real Estate, and the broader real estate trade press. AI engine output sampled across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Sister Citation Share Indexes (2026)
- The Auction House Citation Share Index 2026
- The Private Aviation Citation Share Index 2026
- The Beauty Citation Share Index 2026
- The Defense Citation Share Index 2026
Related EPR Coverage
- The Citation Share Index — Master Research Series
- The EPR Real Estate Coverage Directory
- Luxury Real Estate Brand Authority Index Q1 2026
- Who Controls AI Answers in Real Estate?
