By Aijaz Alam
What percentage of home buyers and sellers use an agent?
88% of US home buyers bought through a real estate agent or broker, and 91% of sellers sold with an agent, in the National Association of REALTORS' 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, covering July 2024 to June 2025. The seller share equals NAR's record high, and sales by owner fell to 5%, an all-time low.
- 88%Of US home buyers bought through an agent or brokerNAR 2025 Profile, Jul 2024-Jun 2025
- 91%Of US home sellers sold with an agent, equal to the record highNAR 2025 Profile, Jul 2024-Jun 2025
- 92%Of buyers of previously owned homes used an agent or brokerNAR 2025 Profile
- 5%Of sellers sold the home themselves (FSBO), an all-time lowNAR 2025 Profile
The numbers
The full breakdown
How US home buyers and sellers used agents, NAR 2025 Profile
| Measure | Share |
|---|---|
| Buyers who bought through an agent or broker | 88% |
| Buyers of previously owned homes who used an agent or broker | 92% |
| Buyers who would use their agent again or recommend them | 91% |
| Sellers who sold with an agent | 91% |
| Sellers who sold the home themselves (FSBO) | 5% |
NAR release of 4 Nov 2025 and the 2025 Profile highlights PDF. Purchases and sales from July 2024 to June 2025, homes bought to live in. NAR's seller answers come from buyers who also sold a home.
What buyers wanted most from their agent, NAR 2025 Profile
| Help wanted most | Share of buyers |
|---|---|
| Finding the right home to buy | 50% |
| Negotiating the terms of the sale | 13% |
| Negotiating the price | 12% |
| Help with paperwork | 7% |
2025 Profile highlights PDF. Each buyer named one thing they wanted most; the highlights list only these four answers.
How US buyers bought their home, NAR 2024 Profile
| Buyer group or method | Share |
|---|---|
| All buyers: through an agent or broker | 88% |
| All buyers: directly from a builder or the builder's agent | 5% |
| All buyers: directly from the previous owner | 5% |
| New-home buyers who used an agent | 63% |
| Buyers of previously owned homes who used an agent or broker | 92% |
NAR 2024 Profile highlights PDF (purchases from July 2023 to June 2024). The 2025 highlights do not repeat the builder and new-home splits.
Buyers and sellers who used an agent, Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report
| Survey year | Buyers who used an agent | Sellers who used an agent |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 82% | 83% |
| 2020 | 85% | 83% |
| 2021 | 82% | 82% |
| 2022 | 89% | 88% |
| 2023 | 88% | 90% |
| 2024 | 85% | 89% |
| 2025 | 84% | 89% |
| 2026 | 85% | 89% |
Zillow's Buyers and Sellers results from the Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026 (published 14 Oct 2026). Share who named a real estate agent among the resources they used at any stage. Buyers bought a home in the past year; sellers sold in the past six months and are asked directly. Zillow notes that seller data before 2021 came from an outside vendor and that the change of method likely overstates year-to-year changes, so compare the 2019 and 2020 seller values with care.
Over time
Agent use in NAR's annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
| Profile | Buyers using an agent or broker | Sellers using an agent | Sold by owner (FSBO) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 Profile | 86% | 86% | 10% |
| 2023 Profile | 89% | 89% | 7% |
| 2024 Profile | 88% | 90% | 6% |
| 2025 Profile | 88% | 91% | 5% |
Each figure as printed in that year's Profile highlights; the 2025 Profile covers July 2024 to June 2025. The 2023 Profile gives the year-earlier seller share as 87%, not the 86% printed in the 2022 highlights. Earlier Profiles were not read.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88% | Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 | NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers | All buyers of a home to live in, new and previously owned |
| 92% | Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 | NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers | Only buyers of previously owned homes |
| 63% | Jul 2023 to Jun 2024 | NAR 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers | Only buyers of new homes, who often buy from the builder |
| 91% | Jul 2024 to Jun 2025 | NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers | Sellers, reported by buyers who also sold a home |
| 86% | 2022 Profile | NAR 2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers | Earlier survey year, for both buyers and sellers |
| 85% | 2026 survey, bought in the past year | Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026 | Buyers who named an agent among the resources used at any stage; online panel weighted to Census benchmarks |
| 89% | 2026 survey, sold in the past six months | Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026 | Sellers asked directly; counts any agent use, including a small share who used an agent but never hired one |
The figures you see quoted for agent use, from 63% to 92%, are mostly the same NAR survey cut different ways. Zillow's separate Consumer Housing Trends Report gives a close but slightly lower picture: 85% of buyers and 89% of sellers used an agent in its 2026 survey, and its buyer share has stayed between 82% and 89% every year since 2019. Zillow surveys online panels weighted to Census benchmarks and asks sellers directly, while NAR mails a questionnaire to recent buyers. The 88% covers every buyer of a home to live in. Buyers of previously owned homes use an agent far more often (92%) than buyers of new homes (63% in the 2024 Profile), because many new homes are bought straight from the builder. The seller share, 91%, is not a separate survey of sellers: NAR takes it from buyers in its sample who also sold a home, so it leaves out people who sold and did not buy. Older articles quote 86% or 87%, from the 2022 Profile. All the figures leave out investors and vacation-home buyers, and the survey had an adjusted response rate of 3.5%. When you quote a share, say whether it is buyers or sellers, which home type, and which Profile year.
What it means
How to use these numbers
About nine in ten US home deals still have an agent on each side. In NAR's 2025 Profile, 88% of buyers bought through an agent or broker and 91% of sellers sold with one, equal to the highest seller share on record. Selling alone is rarer than ever: sales by owner fell from 10% in the 2022 Profile to 5% in 2025.
The buyer figure is held down by new homes. In the 2024 Profile, 92% of buyers of previously owned homes used an agent, but only 63% of new-home buyers did, and 5% of all buyers bought directly from a builder or the builder's agent. For a resale home, hiring an agent is close to universal.
For agents, the contest is less about whether people will use an agent and more about which one they pick and keep. In the 2025 Profile, 91% of buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend them, and half wanted help above all with finding the right home.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- National Association of REALTORS, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2025
- Sample
- 120-question survey mailed in July 2025 to 173,250 recent buyers of a primary residence; 6,103 responses, adjusted response rate 3.5%. Seller figures come from buyers who also sold a home
- Margin of error
- +/- 1.25% at 95% confidence
- Definition
- Buyers who purchased through a real estate agent or broker; sellers who sold with the assistance of a real estate agent; FSBO: sold by the owner without an agent. Investors and vacation homes are excluded
- Released
- 4 Nov 2025
- Second source
- Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: 21 online opt-in panel surveys fielded March to July 2026, 144,000+ respondents in all, weighted to Census benchmarks. Buyers bought a home in the past year; sellers sold an existing home in the past six months
- Checked at source
- 31 Oct 2026: NAR release of 4 Nov 2025 and the 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 Profile highlights PDFs. 1 Nov 2026: Zillow's 2026 Buyers and Sellers results and methodology pages; NAR's Profile highlights page still showed the 2025 edition
- Next release
- NAR publishes the Profile each November; the 2024 and 2025 editions both came out on 4 Nov. Zillow's buyer and seller results came out on 14 Oct 2026
- Last changed
- 1 Nov 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; Generational Trends; Existing-Home Sales, National Association of REALTORS Industry body
- Consumer Housing Trends Report (Buyers and Sellers results), Zillow Research (Zillow Group) Vendor data
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FAQ
More questions people ask
Do most home sellers use a real estate agent?
Yes. In NAR's 2025 Profile, 91% of sellers sold with an agent, equal to the record high, and only 5% sold the home themselves, the lowest share NAR has recorded.
How many buyers of new homes use an agent?
Fewer than for resale homes. In NAR's 2024 Profile, 63% of new-home buyers used an agent, against 92% of buyers of previously owned homes; 5% of all buyers bought directly from a builder or the builder's agent.
What do buyers want most from their agent?
Help finding the right home, named by 50% of buyers in NAR's 2025 Profile. Next came negotiating the terms of the sale (13%), negotiating the price (12%) and help with paperwork (7%).
Would buyers use the same agent again?
Most would. In the 2025 Profile, 91% of buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend them to others, up from 88% in the 2024 Profile.
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (National Association of REALTORS, Zillow Research (Zillow Group)). Free to cite with a link to this page.