Share of buyers, sellers using agents hits record high
Agents remain a vital resource for consumers, but they must put effort into keeping repeat business, NAR’s 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers suggests.
Key points:
- Even with access to home search portals and AI chatbots that can answer any number of real estate questions, more consumers than ever are choosing to hire an agent.
- Buyers still want agents to help them find the right home, and sellers rely on agents for help with marketing and correctly pricing their home.
- Most buyers say they were satisfied with their agent and would use them again, but few actually do, suggesting that agents can do more to maintain those relationships.
Despite the real estate industry's growing use of artificial intelligence, humans — and real estate agents in particular — remain essential for buying and selling a home. In fact, the agent-client relationship may be more important now than ever before, according to the National Association of Realtors' 2026 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
NAR Deputy Chief Economist and VP of Research Jessica Lautz said that a new high in agent use "might seem counterintuitive" given all the information consumers have access to today, but "that information can be misleading without proper context" from an experienced real estate professional.
Agent use hits all-time high
According to NAR's survey, which polled consumers who transacted between July 2025 and June 2026, the shares of homebuyers and sellers who used an agent have hit four-decade highs.
Ninety percent of buyers and 92% of sellers said they used an agent, up year-over-year from 88% and 91%, respectively. Agents were also the most frequently cited source used by buyers in the home search process (86%), while the number of for-sale-by-owner transactions held steady at 5%.
What consumers want from agents
Providing help in finding the right home was the most-cited agent request from home shoppers at 51% of buyer respondents. But 54% of buyers also said their agent helped them better understand the homebuying process and 55% said their agent pointed out property faults that they themselves missed.
On the opposite side of the transaction, the most common seller needs included marketing their home and pricing, each cited by 20% of seller respondents. Figuring out the best timing to sell a home was close behind at 17%.
How agents are chosen
Referrals remain one of the most popular sources for finding an agent. Four in 10 buyers said they were referred to their agent by a friend, neighbor or relative and 63% of seller respondents said they either used an agent they worked with previously or someone who was referred to them.
Fifty-two percent of first-time buyer respondents said they found their agent through a referral. A scant 1% of all buyers found their agent by searching with AI.
In a theme that carried through from previous NAR surveys, most consumers did not search beyond the first agent they found. More than three-quarters of repeat buyers (77%) only interviewed one agent and 67% of first-time buyers did the same. An agent's reputation topped the list of considerations sellers weighed when selecting who to work with (cited among 31% of seller respondents).
"People are still hiring someone they trust, and they're finding that person through people they know," Nicholas Himes of Service First Real Estate Group wrote on LinkedIn in response to the survey's results. "Take care of people, stay in touch, and be the name that comes up when someone asks 'who'd you use?'"
Discrepancy in buyer satisfaction, action
Although a strong majority of buyers said they would use their agent again, a gap remained between that reported client satisfaction and agent rehiring. Eight-eight percent of buyers said they "definitely" or "probably" would use the same agent or recommend them to others, but just 24% of repeat buyers said they did use an agent they previously worked with to transact, NAR found.
A survey published by Zillow in December 2025 showed similarly stark results — 79% of repeat buyers said they would consider working with their same agent again, but only 13% actually hired that agent for a subsequent transaction. According to Amanda Pendleton, a home trends expert at Zillow, losing those clients isn't necessarily a loyalty issue, but agents "who stay visible, communicate clearly and demonstrate expertise early" are more likely to regain that business.