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AI Is Naming “The Best Agents” in Your Town. Here’s How to Be One of Them.

ByElizabeth Nolan

Last Updated on November 4, 2026 by Elizabeth Nolan

Here’s the answer up front: your next client may ask an AI “who are the best agents in town?” — and stop there. They won’t click the sources. They won’t cross-check. They’ll call whoever was named.

That’s good news if you’re already a top producer. The AI is reading years of public proof about you. If you’re not there yet, build the same kind of public proof, starting with a niche the AI can match you to.

This is a companion to How People Actually Search for Homes in 2026. That post covered where the search starts. This one covers who gets named once it does.

What I saw when I asked AI for the best agents

Why I ran this test: Google now shows home listings right in its search results, through its partnership with HouseCanary. It started as a pilot in late 2025 and went national in June 2026. It’s still mobile-only, and only includes listings from participating MLSs. Brokerages keep signing on — Keyes added 4,000+ Florida agents in late October.

Google already answers “what’s for sale?” I wanted to see what happens when a buyer takes the next step and asks “who should I call?”

Here in Connecticut, SmartMLS isn’t participating yet, so our listings don’t appear in that carousel. For now, the portals and the AI answer are where Connecticut buyers meet agents.

I searched the same way a buyer would: “homes for sale in New Canaan CT.” Then, I asked Google’s AI who the best agents in town are.

It named established top-producing teams at major brokerages. Each came with a “vibe” and a “best for” line — luxury estates, full-service team, and so on. Honestly? Good picks. These are agents any local would recognize.

When I asked how it chose, it pointed to transaction volume, years in the market, local awards and reviews. It cited RealTrends rankings and brokerage top-producer lists.

Two things stood out:
  • It rewards a long public track record. Rankings, award announcements and years of reviews are all things established agents already have.
  • It sorts by specialty. It didn’t just list the biggest names. It matched agents to niches. That’s the opening for everyone else.

Why this drives even more business to established agents

The AI doesn’t interview anyone. It reads what’s public and repeats the names that show up most, in the most credible places. Established agents win that contest by default.

By the numbers
Here’s the loop:
  1. The AI names the agent with the deepest public footprint. Rankings, press releases, hundreds of reviews, years of credited sales.
  2. The client takes the answer at face value and calls that agent. No comparison shopping.
  3. That agent closes more deals and collects more reviews, rankings and awards.
  4. Next year, the footprint is even deeper. The AI names them again.

The old version of this was referrals and yard signs. The new version is faster and wider. One AI answer reaches every buyer who asks the same question.

The catch for everyone else: ranking on page one of Google isn’t enough. The AI reads a broader, different set of pages — and it has to find you in them.

What Everyone Else Can Do

You won’t out-volume the top team in town this year. You don’t have to. The AI sorts by specialty, so be the obvious answer to a narrower question.

Own a Niche

  1. Pick a niche and say it everywhere. Mid-century moderns. Downsizers. First-time buyers under $800K. Condos near the train. Put it in your Google Business Profile, Zillow bio, website and social bios — in the same words.
  2. Test the narrow prompts, not just the broad one. Ask Gemini and ChatGPT “best agent for selling a mid-century modern in New Canaan” or “agent for first-time buyers in Norwalk.” Those are the questions you can win first. Repeat monthly and screenshot.
  3. Get reviews that name your town and niche. “Sarah sold our 1950s ranch in Wilton in 9 days” does more than “Sarah was great!” Build the ask into your post-closing CRM sequence. More on Business Profiles here.

Make Your Proof Public

  1. Publish your numbers in plain words. A line like “In 2025 I closed 18 sides in Westport and Weston” is something an AI can quote. MLS stats behind a login aren’t.
  2. Get on the rankings that have city lists. RealTrends Verified is opt-in and now ranks by city, not just nationally. You don’t need national numbers to show up locally.
  3. Make every award public. If your brokerage recognizes you, make sure a press release or web page names you and your town.
  4. Update and audit your Zillow profile. Sales should flow in automatically through the MLS feed, but they don’t always. A common culprit: your contact info in the MLS doesn’t match your Zillow profile. Make the name, email and phone identical in both, then check that every listing and buyer side shows up. One more gap. Zillow credits only the lead agent on the MLS, so co-listed deals won’t appear on the co-listing agent’s profile. Zillow’s agent pages are among the pages AI tools cite most for “top agents,” so missing sales cost you.

Widen Your Footprint

  1. Write what you know, under your own name. Short market notes on your niche: what mid-century homes sold for this quarter, what downsizers are trading into. Bylined, dated, with real numbers.
  2. Show up in local places. Town paper quotes, chamber of commerce listings, school foundation sponsor pages, local podcasts. More public mentions means more chances to be found.
  3. Borrow a footprint — and make sure you get credit. Co-list with an established agent, or join a team whose name already appears in AI answers. It’s how a lot of today’s top producers started. Since Zillow won’t credit a co-list, make those deals public elsewhere. Rotate who’s lead agent on the MLS when the partnership allows it. List co-listed sales on your own site. Count them in a team submission to RealTrends.

The blind spot: private exclusives. Off-market deals never hit the MLS or Zillow, and they leave no public record of the sale. An agent doing much of their business off-market is building almost no footprint an AI can see. In Connecticut, sellers now opt out of public marketing in writing. Here’s how that law works. That conversation has a cost for the agent, too.

When the client shows up with an AI list

It will happen at a listing appointment or a first buyer call. “ChatGPT said these three are the best.” Don’t argue with the list. Add to it.

  • Acknowledge it. The AI usually names good agents. Saying so builds trust.
  • Show your proof. Bring your local numbers, your niche results and recent reviews. Make it easy to compare.
  • Explain the fit. “Best in town” isn’t the same as best for this house or this buyer. That’s the part the AI can’t judge.

The agents who win these conversations are the ones whose proof is already public. Then the AI and the client find the same story.

Sources

Licensed Real Estate Salesperson

Licensed real estate agent with 15+ years of experience at Connecticut's top brokerages including Coldwell Banker, Halstead Property, and Brown Harris Stevens. Currently Marketing Coordinator at Brown Harris Stevens and founder of Agent Hub, an educational platform for independent real estate agents. MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.

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