What Does $1 Billion Look Like?

Last year, HomesUSA.com's Ben Caballero—who has been atop the REAL Trends/WSJ "The Thousand" list of real estate agent rankings for both total dollar volume and number of transactions since 2013—became the "World's First Billion Dollar Producer." It's a feat that's hard to get our heads around because we toss around the term "billion" so frequently we forget how truly breathtaking this accomplishment is. From a PR point-of-view, it presented a significant challenge in finding a way to put what Ben had done in the proper perspective. That was the test we faced at WAV Group Communications when Ben became our client.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

One of my favorite quick reads as a young writer was Harper's Index. It was really the first textual version of the infographic, as it made numbers interesting and put a clever spin on numbers related to obscure and often startling facts and figures. It's also what sparked the idea of a great way to tell Ben's story: make it a visual one and bring those numbers to life. And that's why we turned to creating an infographic that could put in perspective exactly what Ben had accomplished. The goal was to show the awesomeness behind being the first to break the billion-dollar barrier. Think about it: one agent responsible for more than $1 billion in home sales during a single year!

We also didn't know if Ben would ever hit that level of volume again. After all, Ben's markets were all Texas-based (Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio) and conventional wisdom at the beginning for 2016 said that most of the Texas markets that were exploding with new home construction would soften. Nearly 100 percent of Ben's business is new home construction listings for builders.