79 percent of home buyers and sellers used a real estate professional

Ø       The 2007 National Association of REALTORS Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey shows that 79 percent of home buyers and sellers used a real estate professional, up from 77 percent over the past three years, and nearly nine out of 10 buyers were very satisfied with their agent's knowledge of the process. (REAL Trends)

·         More than eight out of 10 sellers and nearly nine out of 10 buyers would definitely or probably use the same agent again or recommend him or her to others.

·         Forty-one percent of sellers found their agent as a result of a referral, while 23 percent used the agent in a previous home purchase.

·         Similarly, 43 percent of buyers relied on referrals to find an agent, while 17 percent of repeat buyers used an agent from a previous transaction.

·         The study finds 81 percent of sellers use full-service brokerage, nine percent choose limited services and nine percent used minimal service, such as simply listing a property on a multiple listing service. These are comparable to the findings in 2006.

·         Eighty-two percent of home buyers who used the Internet to search for a home purchased through a real estate agent, in contrast with 65 percent of non-Internet users, who were nearly twice as likely to purchase directly from a builder, or more than three times as likely to buy from an owner they knew before the transaction