The short answer
RealTrends Verified, the real estate industry's independent third-party performance ranking, just named Jill & Co. Realty Group the number one real estate team in New Hampshire on its 2026 list, which scores 2025 production. The team ranked first in the state by both transaction volume and transaction sides, the two measures that matter, closing 343 sides and $199.18 million in volume at an average sale price of $580,700. Those same numbers placed the team 92nd in the nation by volume and 124th by sides, out of more than 50,000 ranked agents and teams. Karyn Emerson is an agent on that team, working out of the Salem office. Here is what the ranking measures, why it is hard to game, and what a state-leading team actually buys a buyer or seller.
The headline: first in the state, by both measures that count
RealTrends Verified released its 2026 rankings, scored on 2025 sales data, and Jill & Co. Realty Group came out first in New Hampshire. Not first by one cherry-picked metric. First by both of the two numbers the industry actually tracks: total transaction volume and total transaction sides.
The team closed 343 sides and $199.18 million in volume across the year, at an average sale price of $580,700. That is the production that earned the number one state rank on both lists, plus two of the program's team badges: RealTrends Verified Top Team by Volume and RealTrends Verified Top Team by Sides.
The same year of work landed the team 92nd in the nation by volume and 124th by sides. That is out of more than 50,000 agents and teams ranked across the country. A Salem-based team, sitting inside the top 100 in America by volume, and first in its home state on every measure the program publishes.
Why does first on both lists matter more than first on one? Because the two lists reward opposite things. A team can top the volume list on a handful of luxury closings. A team can top the sides list on a high count of starter-home transactions. Leading both at once means the production is broad and deep at the same time. Source: the Jill & Co. RealTrends Verified team profile.
What RealTrends Verified actually is, and why it is hard to fake
There are a lot of real estate badges. Most of them you can buy, vote for yourself, or earn by paying a membership fee. RealTrends Verified is a different category of thing, and the difference is the whole point.
RealTrends has tracked and ranked real estate production for decades, and the program now runs under HW Media, the company behind HousingWire. The 2026 rankings score more than 50,000 agents and teams nationwide on a single currency: closed transactions in the prior calendar year. Source: HousingWire's 2026 RealTrends Verified coverage.
The word Verified is the load-bearing part. Teams submit their production, and RealTrends verifies that production against brokerage records before a single ranking publishes. It is a third-party audit of how many homes you actually closed, not a marketing claim an agent prints on a yard sign. When this ranking says first in the state, an outside party checked the math.
So when you see the number one badge on a New Hampshire team, you are reading independently confirmed sales data, not a self-awarded title. That is rare in this category, and it is the reason the ranking is worth a blog post in the first place.
Sides versus volume, in plain English
Two words run through every line of this ranking, and they are worth thirty seconds of explanation, because they tell you two different things about a team.
A side is one side of a transaction. Every home sale has exactly two: a buyer side and a seller side. When the team represented the buyer on a Windham colonial, that is one side. When it represented the seller, that is another. 343 sides means the team stood at the closing table 343 times in a single year, on behalf of real families in towns like Salem, Derry, and Hampstead.
Volume is the total dollar value of everything closed, added up. $199.18 million is the sum of every sale price the team touched in 2025. Divide volume by sides and you get the average sale price, $580,700, which is a fair snapshot of the Southern NH market the team works in every day.
Read together, the two numbers describe range. Sides tell you how many transactions a team can actually carry without dropping the ball. Volume tells you the dollar weight of those transactions. First in the state on both is the version of this ranking that is genuinely hard to pull off.
Why a number one team matters at your kitchen table
A ranking is not a personality, and it is not a promise that your specific closing goes smoothly. I want to be straight about that. What a state-leading team gives you is not bragging rights. It is a set of concrete advantages that show up in your transaction.
Pricing that comes from data, not a guess. When I price your house, I am pricing it against hundreds of real local closings the team handled this year, in your town, in your price band. That is the difference between a number I can defend to an appraiser and a number I hope holds.
Negotiating reps. A team that stood at 343 closing tables in one year has seen the inspection fight, the appraisal gap, the financing wobble, and the last-minute title snag more times than a solo agent sees in a decade. Pattern recognition is the entire job when a deal starts to go sideways.
A deep bench and a wide referral network. If your buyer needs a lender on a Sunday, or your sale in Salem connects to a purchase in another state, the reach of a top-100-in-the-nation team is behind every introduction. Local hands on your listing, state-leading data and a national network behind every decision.
Where I fit in
Here is the honest version. I am one agent on this team. When you call me, you get me, in your driveway, reading the P&S line by line, texting you back at 9pm. The boutique, place-first service is the part I will never hand off.
What the ranking adds is the engine behind that service. I price your home against 343 verified closings instead of a hunch. I negotiate with the pattern library of a team that closed nearly $200 million last year. And the brokerage platform underneath all of it keeps getting bigger, which I wrote about separately when Real Brokerage acquired RE/MAX.
If you have been wondering whether now is the right time to sell, or whether your Salem house is worth what you think it is, let's put the state's number one team's data to work on your actual address. Book a free 15-minute consultation on the calendar below, and bring your questions.
