With all the talk and all the hype about technology disruptors taking over from real estate agents, more housing consumers than ever are using agents to buy and sell their houses.
A newly released Harris Insights consumer study indicated that a full 90% of all housing consumers use real estate agents to help them buy and sell their home. This 90% of housing consumers using agents is an all-time survey high. In the last such survey in 2014, 85% of consumers used agents and in 2001, 81% of consumers used real estate agents.
Breaking down housing consumers by age, education and economics, here are the percentages:
- 18 – 34 year olds – 91%
- 35 – 44 year olds – 94%
- 55 years and older – 81%
- Those with a college degree – 94%
- Those with a high school diploma – 83%
- Those earning $50,000+/year – 79%
- Those earning $75,000 – $100,000 – 98%***
What do those housing consumers want in a real estate agent?
- Referrals from people they trust.
- 69% consumers believe trustworthiness is either extremely or very important.
- 72% of consumers believe trustworthiness is important.
- 64% say finding an agent who has listings “like my home.”
- 62% say looking at websites with ratings of an agent’s performance.
- 57% say having a personal relationship with an agent.
- 52% say the agent being a member of a Realtor organization.
Despite the all-time high of 90% of housing consumers using agents, 92% of all housing consumers look at websites for information about agents. This percentage is higher among younger generation…96% of Millennial housing consumers look at websites.
Which are the top websites used to look up real estate agents? According to this latest Harris Insights survey…
- Realtor.com
- Zillow
