Gino Blefari ranks number 1

President and CEO, HomeServices of America | 2023 Rank: 1

Original article can be found here.

As the market began to slow in 2022, Gino Blefari at the helm of HomeServices of America (HSA), kept the company on its understated, yet consistently profitable track. In fact, HSA, with a 6.2 percent net profit margin in 2021 (latest data available), is one of, if not the nation’s most profitable national real estate brokerage company.

As leader and executive of the company, Blefari runs a behemoth. HSA owns the nation’s third largest brokerage and its fifth largest franchise brand in Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Combined, the company ranks as the nation’s fourth largest holding company with 2021 production of $291.8 billion in 2021 sales volume, 622,732 transaction sides and over 76,500 agents.

Since taking the helm at HSA in 2019, Blefari has implemented his thorough management style as he leads the company’s efforts to modernize its technology platform and to bring the large firm’s disparate brokerage brands closer together. (For more insight into both, read the 2023 Swanepoel Trends Report feature on HSA, “Inside the Nation’s Largest Most Profitable Brokerage Company.”)

There are two primary reasons we have selected Gino Blefari for the top spot.

One, as part of Berkshire Hathaway, HSA has the strongest capital partner in the industry, and continues to operate a sustained profitable business. If big opportunities arise, Berkshire Hathaway has a huge war chest it can deploy for HSA.

Two, as the market has turned south and profitability gets prioritized over rapid growth and newer business models, HSA has some of the most respected and beloved managers of any company in the United States. The company’s growth model allows local and regional managers longevity. People like Jeff Detwiler of Long & Foster, Rosey Koberlein of Long Companies and Joan Docktor of BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors are icons in the industry themselves.

As the market becomes more turbulent, and agents and smaller brokerages look for stability, longevity and quality, HSA is in a very strong position. Blefari’s decades of experience in good and bad markets is invaluable as HomeServices of America navigates a strange housing market and affirms Blefari as our choice for the most powerful person in residential real estate.