What homebuyers want: An all-in-one experience, coordinated by their agent 

Buying a home is a coordinated effort involving an agent, a lender, a title company, an insurance provider and often several other specialists — all of whom need to work in sync for the experience to feel seamless and hit its closing date. Homebuyers are often left to manage a lot of this on their own and end up in a time-consuming loop of various communication channels and paperwork. 

This shouldn't be the case, though. We've always found the best experience for the consumer is one that is coordinated by an agent who works hand in hand with service providers who are part of a single team from beginning to end.

Historical industry research has indicated this too, which is why we surveyed 1,000 recent buyers across the country to get a read on what they actually want from the real estate transaction process today. (I recently joined Mitch Robinson for an exclusive webinar, "The Transaction Experience Buyers Want Now," to discuss what we found. You can watch the full conversation here. 

The survey and research discovered that the majority of recent buyers (7 in 10) said this exact thing — the uncoordinated services and back-and-forth working in siloes — is what caused them to label their buying experience a "hassle." The interesting part is that most of them (69%) also assumed their agent would be the one coordinating their mortgage, title and insurance providers for them, which is not generally the case. And even when an agent does assume that responsibility, it is still a disjointed cobbling of unconnected service providers.

When we asked buyers if they wanted something different next time, the answer was an unambiguous yes. Nearly 9 in 10 (87%) found the idea of bundling their agent, lender, title company and insurer into one coordinated experience appealing, and 79% said they'd much prefer that integrated, agent-led model. That preference held steady across every age group.

Our research also dug into how buyers value their agents today, and we were pleased to learn that despite all the advances in technology, people still want an expert leading them through the process, making the agent's role more essential today, not less. 

Only 26% of buyers said they would prefer an app- or website-driven experience with little or no human interaction. In contrast, 74% favor a human-led experience (35% want an experience driven by in-person interactions, and 39%, the largest single group, want "an experience led by people but supported by an app or website" that integrates their mortgage, title/closing and home insurance providers). 

Buyers are telling us, with real specificity, what they want: supporting technology, coupled with coordinated service providers who work together and are led by an expert, so they have a less hectic, complete experience that's not broken into so many smaller ones they have to manage on their own.

The future of this business will hinge on getting that right.

To hear Chris Kelly and Mitch Robinson discuss these findings in full, watch the webinar recording of "The Transaction Experience Buyers Want Now."