Each year, the National Associations of REALTORS® (NAR) releases the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers based on results from a survey of primary residence buyers and sellers between July 2014 and June 2015. The report contains valuable insights for real estate professionals and provides us with important information about the trends of today’s consumers. Many of these insights can be used to help your members effectively market their business while giving them a deep understanding of the wants and needs of home buyers and sellers as well as a look into the challenges they face today.

Below we share some of the highlights from this year’s report:

Home Buying Process

• 42 percent of home buyers say the first step in the home-buying process was looking online for properties
• 92 percent of buyers used the internet in some way in their home search process
• 87 percent of buyers used a real estate agent in their home search process
• 66 percent of buyers who used mobile searching found their home through a mobile application
• Of home buyers who used the Internet to search for homes, 88 percent ultimately purchased their home through a real estate agent
• 78 percent of recent buyers found their real estate agent to be a very useful information source
• 41 percent of buyers found their agent through a referral from a friend or family member and 12 percent used an agent they had used before to buy or sell a home
• Compared to repeat buyers, first-time buyers were more likely to find their agent through a referral (50 percent)
• 88 percent of buyers would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others

Home Selling Process

• 89 percent of home sellers worked with a real estate agent to sell their home
• 42 percent of sellers who used a real estate agent found their agent through a referral by friends or family
• 24 percent used the agent they worked with previously to buy or sell a home
• 70 percent of home sellers only contacted one agent before selecting the one to assist with their home sale
• 84 percent of sellers said they would definitely or probably recommend their real estate agent to others
• 32 percent of sellers recommended their agent three or more times since selling their home
• 44 percent of sellers reported they reduced the initial asking price at least once during selling process
• Recent sellers typically sold their homes for 98 percent of the listing price

Methods Used to Market the Home

• Listings on the MLS are the number one marketing source for sellers (89 percent)
• Other popular methods: Yard signs (69 percent), real estate agent website (51 percent), open houses (51 percent), Realtor.com (50 percent), real estate company website (43 percent), third party sites (40 percent)
• 12 percent of agents use social media to market their listings, up 9 percent from last year
• 79 percent of sellers worked with an agent who could provide a broad range of services and manage most aspects of the sale, 12 percent of sellers worked with an agent who listed the home on a MLS and performed few additional services, and 9 percent worked with an agent who performed a limited set of services

Click here to purchase the full report from the National Association of REALTORS®.

Bottom Line: Relationships are Key

With the importance of referrals and first impressions in this business, demonstrating value to potential clients is key! How can ListHub help? Check out a quick overview of our seller tools to see how brokers and agents can get the edge over the competition: