I currently have 26 listings and have no problem managing them.  My systems are in place and it would make no difference if I had 226 listings.  My Sellers are happy and I can't see how having fewer listings could possibly have them sell faster -  the market is what the market is and each area is different.

we don't want any buyers...we are listing agents and expect every buyer to have a buyer's agent....if they don't want one, they go it alone and we always represent the seller... to answer your question, there are never enough or too many listings.... we can always handle more and when I was without a team, I had as many as 30 resale listings along with my new construction....

Depends onthe listings them selves.  I know some agetns that have no idea if a place is their listing...then you have to many.

Jack Lewitz  - if there is a team, no number is less!

As a solo agent, I think I can handle 7-10 listings (or even more, I guess).

However, planning to build a team - so I can handle many more listings.

I think 5-8 are as many I would want to have at one time.  Here in Denver you put a home on the market, and in two days you gets 15+ calls from agents, sign calls and multiple offers to review.    You cannot take too many at one time and stay sane.

I don't agree that we need to balance buyers and sellers. I'll take on as many listings as I can handle, and the number varies for the reasons Scott Godzyk mentions.

Scott below said it well as other pointed out. I would say evaluate the level of service (time) that any particular listing requires. And then ask yourself what would jack Lewitz as a seller like Jack the Agent to carry on his books.

I would take exception to that article.  If you have too many listing you outsource, or hire someone.

Are you kidding.  There is no ceiling to Listings.

When I was doing REO listing I might have 20 listing however I found it hard to service that many listings with the care I would prefer. I like to juggle 4-5 residential and a few dirt listings...

I think the systems in place make life much easier, and as Scott Godzyk points out - some listings are easier than others. Right now I have a listing under contract and the buyer agent has to be a newbie - I am going to have to really manage this one 

It would be interesting to see the support that the Chicago Tribune used to determine the statistics you quoted.

Different listings require different levels of service. Some seller can tak emuch mor etime and could take up lots of time and resources. Other listings are smoother, require less times and level out tyhose that require more. It also deoends in the agents ability. Some agents cant handle more than one at a time, some could handle double. For me I average 10 active and can swell to 20 in the peaks and many times this year i have hd 0 as everything was under contract. A balanceof work and effort is always need to maintain current listings, get those pending to close and get new ones .