Homeowners looking for a real estate agent to handle their listing want to know the agent’s track record. But getting a reliable read on listing agent performance can be challenging.
“A homeowner trying to hire a listing agent usually leans on the information provided by a mix of postcards, team billboards, ‘top agent this month’ claims, career totals, and a neighbor’s recollection,” Chris Dold, founder and CEO of Agent Arena. “Very little of that answers the only questions that matter at the start: what did they close, in your market, on the listing side, in the last 12 months.”
Dold founded Agent Arena to create a more objective and transparent approach to Realtor rankings. Unlike systems that depend on agents or brokerages to self-report their production, Agent Arena uses MLS-verified sales data and doesn’t require agents to submit information or pay to appear in the rankings. The platform updates its rankings monthly, providing consumers with a current view of top-performing listing agents in their local market.
Agent Arena is an example of an innovative type of property technology that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to solve problems in the real estate market. By translating MLS property data into actionable insights, proptech platforms give reliable rankings that help homeowners identify the best real estate agents and brokers for their particular listing.
How AI tools help uncover the right real estate agent for a listing
The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was created over a century ago to encourage cooperation between real estate professionals by giving them a centralized home sales database. As the real estate industry expanded, the market data contained in the MLS grew considerably.
Today, MLS data offers insights to a wide variety of people, from real estate teams and investors to journalists who use market analytics to support their reporting. But mining the MLS data platform for current market trends has become more challenging as the volume has grown. Innovators like Dold are showing how AI can be used to tame MLS data. Using AI to manage market analytics allows more data to be included and generates results much more quickly.
“AI mainly helps us handle the volume,” Dold says. “Florida, which is the market where we launched our service, has multiple MLS systems and a lot of transactions. AI lets us pull in the data, clean it up, match agent records, and get everything ready so we can rebuild the rankings every month. Compiling the agent rankings themselves is just math — verified sales volume, prior 12 months, primary agent only, residential only, same rules for everybody. AI is what makes it practical to do that consistently across the whole state instead of it being a manual mess.”
How real estate AI is making market analysis more impactful
By expanding capacity for data analysis, AI improves both the quantity of information that can be assessed and the quality of the output. The best AI platforms act as an assistant for today’s homeowner, helping them zero in on agents selling properties in their area with similar characteristics.
“Speed is a big part of the value that AI brings to residential real estate rankings,” Dold says. “Without the automation it empowers, the platforms couldn’t regularly refresh rankings with the latest closed sales and still cover every ZIP and city. But the power of AI also helps with quality, allowing for better matching of agents, fewer missed or double-counted deals, and more consistent application of the rules.”
When an agent knows the homeowner’s micro-market and has recent sales there, they can provide a hyper-accurate pricing strategy that targets the current top buyer persona. That agent also likely knows the hidden barriers that can delay a sale and how to overcome them. AI gives homeowners the power to find those agents so they can streamline the journey from listing to sale.
“With AI’s help, the data ends up more current and more reliable than if we were trying to compile it the old way,” Dold says. “That’s the real improvement for homeowners and agents, giving them rankings that are based on more and better data points.”
AI tools are impacting the real estate market for 2026 and beyond
Homeowners who enter the real estate market today without seeking guidance from AI platforms are operating at a disadvantage. And the gap will likely only widen as tools like Agent Arena provide consumers with more capabilities to access impactful data in real time.
“AI-powered platforms are already making it easier for homeowners to see actual results instead of just the marketing agents and teams are mailing out,” Dold says. “I think that, as that continues, better and more timely data will make performance clearer, and agents who consistently close will stand out more. The platforms that keep the methodology straightforward and the data verified will be the ones people trust. That’s good for everyone involved in a transaction.”
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