46% of Sellers Use the Same Agent They Did When Buying

Almost half of all sellers used the same real estate agent to sell their home who they did to purchase it. Here are some more highlights of the home selling process, according to the National Association of Realtors®’s 2024 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report.

Finding an Agent

For all sellers, a referral from a friend, neighbor or relative was the most common way of finding an agent (39%), followed by:

• Using the agent previously to buy or sell a home (26%)
• Website (without a specific reference) (5%)
• Referral from another agent/broker (4%)
• Personal contact by agent (4%)

Older sellers (78-98) were significantly more likely than other age groups to find their agent through personal contact such as telephone or email (8%).

The majority of sellers (81%) reported contacting only one agent before selecting one to assist with the sale of their home.

What Sellers Want from Agents

Overall, sellers most want help:

• Selling the home within a specific time frame (22%)
• Pricing the home competitively (21%)
• Marketing the home to potential buyers (20%)
• Finding ways to fix up the home to sell it for more (14%)
• Finding a buyer for the home (11%)

Of all age groups, younger sellers (25-33) most wanted help with paperwork, inspections and preparing for settlement (7%), and older sellers most wanted help finding a buyer (23%).

Considerations When Choosing an Agent

The biggest consideration for sellers when choosing an agent was the reputation of the agent (33%). Other factors they thought about included:

• Agent is honest and trustworthy (21%)
• Agent is a friend or family member (14%)
• Agent’s knowledge of the neighborhood (11%)
• Agent has a caring personality/is a good listener (5%)
• Agent’s commission (5%)

Older buyers were most concerned about the agent’s reputation, and younger buyers were most concerned about whether the agent was honest and trustworthy.

Service Provided by Agent

Of all sellers, 85% said their agent provided a broad range of services and management of most aspects of the home. This was followed by:

• A limited set of services as requested by the seller (7%)
• The agent listed the home on the MLS and performed few, if any, additional services (8%)

Sellers ages 78-98 were the most satisfied with the service their agents provided them (89%), but 84% of sellers or more in each age group said they received a broad range of services.

Additionally, 73% of all sellers said they would definitely use their agent again or recommend them to others.

For more details on the home selling process, including MLS listings, methods used by agents to market homes and more, read NAR’s full report.