What 11,200 Buyers & Sellers Want From Real Estate Agents

To help you stay ahead of industry changes and economic uncertainty, Zillow created our first Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents. Throughout the year, we surveyed more than 5,000 buyers and 6,200 sellers to capture their attitudes, preferences, and recent activity. 

How do they find agents? What services do they value most? How do they prefer to communicate? And what do they think about commissions? You’ll find answers to all of these questions and more in our report.

Here are a few highlights:

How do buyers prefer to communicate?

Start stretching out those fingers. When it comes to communicating, 53% of buyers who worked with an agent preferred to text or use a messenger app, while only 33% wanted to speak on the phone. When you add in buyers who liked sending email (13%), two-thirds preferred written communication with their agent over a traditional phone call.

Given that agents spend a lot of time traveling outside of an office, this preference could be a positive trend that helps them manage clients throughout the day without needing to interrupt showings to pick up the phone. However, responsiveness still matters to many buyers: 44% said they were in contact with their agent daily, while 47% communicated weekly.

How many agents do sellers contact?

Nearly all sellers (93%) work with an agent at some point during their journey.

Sellers who worked with an agent were more likely to hire the first person they contacted (59%) compared to buyers (47%). The difference is even more drastic among first-time sellers (64%) compared to first-time buyers (40%). Urgency could play a big role here, especially among sellers influenced by disruptive life events like a job transfer.

Another factor could be first impressions. While buyer’s agents may have a harder time differentiating themselves early on, listing agents may be able to seal the deal during the first appointment with a convincing pricing strategy and compelling marketing strategy.

Click the button below to read the full report.