Steady improvement in the market brings more opportunities for all agents, but those like Koonin who spent the downturn expanding their contacts and working on their strategies may gain the upper hand in many cases. For top producers, market downturns often become opportunities to refresh their relationships with past clients.

Marc Castillo of Coldwell Banker also had an excellent year, though it wasn’t quite as spectacular as the previous year. 2013 was a phenomenal year for him, but he was still playing catch-up in 2014. While still an excellent year, it was a little more work for him to reach his $11 million volume. He saw many sellers get too confident too quickly and start to expect that the rapid growth would continue.

“2013 caught us all by surprise,” Castillo said. “It was just an avalanche of recovery. We were so behind other markets that we didn’t really see it coming.”

Castillo believes that his people skills and his problem-solving abilities have helped him become one of his company’s top agents. Multi-tasking and listening to what his buyers and sellers had to say and attending to their needs kept him near the top in 2014. He remains passionate about the work and helping people find homes.

“The bottom line is you really have to love what you’re doing, because you’re going to be doing it seven days a week” Castillo said. “You’re going to be answering the phone constantly and you never know what it could be. It could be a problem with at a listing you have – a pipe burst – or it could be the opportunity of a buyer relocating from outside the area that was referred to you personally. You never know.”