From floridarealtors.org
For most real estate professionals, their referral network is the strongest source of new clients.
Almost two out of three (61 percent) of recent homebuyers said they found an agent through a referral, or they used an agent they worked with in the past, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report.
On the selling end, 73 percent of sellers said they used referrals from someone they knew or a real estate agent they previously worked with.
The following is a breakdown of the top ways buyers found their real estate agents, according to the 2015 Home Buyers and Sellers Report:
• 41 percent referred by a friend, relative, or neighbor
• 12 percent used the same agent before
• 12 percent digital marketing
• 11 percent in-person contact
• 10 percent from an agent’s website
• 5 percent referred by another agent
• 5 percent visited an open house
• 4 percent had personal contact by agent (telephone, e-mail, etc.)
• 3 percent referred by an employer
• 2 percent walked in or called the office when the agent was on duty
• 1 percent search engine
• 1 percent mobile application
Using the Internet and working with a real estate agent appear to go hand-in-hand. But which gets called upon first?
Forty-four percent of homebuyers say they first looked online and 33 percent then contacted a real estate agent, according to NAR’s data.
Twelve percent of buyers surveyed say they found their agents online (10 percent from a website and 2 percent from a search engine or mobile application).
“Referrals and repeat business are no doubt the number one source of new business for real estate agents, but digital marketing is indeed how agents capture an additional fifth of their entire business,” according to a recent post at NAR’s Economists’ Outlook blog about the survey’s findings.