GENESEO, N.Y. – Matthew Sharman, team leader of The Sharman Team at Real Broker NY LLC, has been named an Elite Agent by Real Brokerage, a designation that the company says is based on production, not tenure or membership.
According to the brokerage, the Elite Agent title is a measure of recent sales volume. Agents cannot earn it simply by being licensed for many years or holding membership. Instead, it reflects business closed within the qualifying year, not a career total.
For buyers and sellers, this distinction is more meaningful than the title itself. It indicates an agent who has been actively involved in the market recently and repeatedly—navigating pricing, negotiations, inspections, appraisals, financing, title issues, and closing coordination—rather than someone whose experience is largely historical.
“Clients should never choose an agent because of a title alone. What matters is what the agent had to do to earn it,” Sharman said. “Reaching Elite reflects sustained, current experience across a large number of transactions, and every one of those experiences makes us better prepared to protect the next client when something unexpected happens.”
Sharman focuses on the waterfront market at Conesus Lake, Honeoye Lake, Silver Lake, and the western Finger Lakes, working alongside his father, who has been licensed in the region for five decades. Conesus Lake inventory is limited and seasonal, and repeated experience in that niche translates into practical knowledge of frontage measurement, shared-access and easement arrangements, and appraisal gaps on properties with few comparable sales—details that can determine whether a lake purchase holds its value.
Earlier in 2026, Sharman was named RateMyAgent Agent of the Year for Livingston County and Conesus Lake, and a Top 10 Agent in New York State.
Real’s Elite Agent Program offers two qualification paths. Agents can reach the company’s full annual cap of $12,000 and then generate an additional $6,000 in post-cap transaction fees, or they can reach $500,000 in gross commission income across at least 10 completed transactions of $1 million or more. Sharman qualified in August 2026 under the first route, having completed roughly 70 transaction sides over the preceding twelve months, nearly evenly split between buyers and sellers. Because Real’s cap is the maximum the brokerage collects from an agent in a year, exceeding it is a direct function of transaction volume.
The Elite Agent designation is important because it offers a verifiable signal of an agent’s recent activity and success. For clients, choosing an agent with proof of sustained, current experience can reduce risks when dealing with complex transactions like lakefront properties, where unique issues often arise. This news also highlights the value of production-based recognition in the real estate industry, where titles can sometimes be misleading.
