Agent use among home sellers hit 91% in 2025, matching the highest share ever recorded, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. For Sale By Owner transactions fell to just 5% — an all-time low. On their own, those numbers make a good headline. What’s more useful is what sellers want from a real estate agent in the first place — because that’s what’s actually driving the shift away from FSBO.
The record numbers, briefly
Agent-assisted sales have been climbing for years, and 2025 pushed that trend further: 91% of sellers used an agent, up from 90% the year before, while FSBO sales dropped to 5% of the market — the lowest share NAR has ever recorded. Sellers aren’t just defaulting to an agent out of habit. They’re actively choosing professional representation over doing it themselves, and the reasons behind that choice say more than the percentage does.
What sellers want from a real estate agent
According to NAR’s 2025 data, sellers’ top priorities in choosing an agent were help marketing the home to potential buyers, help pricing it competitively, and help selling within a specific timeframe. It’s not one thing — it’s the combination. Marketing reach without pricing strategy leads to a home that gets seen but doesn’t sell. Competitive pricing without a real marketing push leaves a well-priced home invisible to the buyers who’d actually want it. Sellers are looking for someone who handles both, along with everything in between.
That combination shows up in another figure from the same report: 86% of sellers said their agent provided a broad range of services and managed most aspects of the sale — not just the listing, but negotiation, paperwork, inspections, and the dozens of smaller decisions that come up between “for sale” and “sold.”
Why the 5% still go FSBO
FSBO sellers aren’t choosing to skip an agent for the same reasons across the board. Roughly 30% of FSBO sales in NAR’s data went to a friend, relative, or neighbor — a transaction where a seller may reasonably feel a full agent-led marketing process isn’t necessary. Others cite avoiding commission costs as the primary driver. It’s worth noting NAR’s data also shows a real price gap between FSBO and agent-assisted sales — a median of $360,000 versus $425,000. That gap almost certainly reflects more than agent involvement alone (FSBO sales skew toward off-market, personal-network transactions that are structured differently from the start), but it’s a reasonable data point for a seller weighing the decision to consider alongside everything else.
Is FSBO worth it? What to weigh before deciding
The record-high agent usage number isn’t really the takeaway. The takeaway is what sellers are actually paying for when they choose an agent: broader buyer reach, a pricing strategy grounded in real data rather than a guess, and someone managing the transaction end-to-end so nothing falls through during negotiation, inspection, or closing. If you’re weighing FSBO against hiring an agent, that’s the real comparison to make — not “can I list my house myself,” but “can I replicate the marketing reach, pricing accuracy, and full-service management that’s driving 91% of sellers to choose an agent in the first place.”
The same logic holds for rental property owners deciding whether to self-manage. The value of professional representation was never about the license — it’s about reach, accurate pricing, and someone managing the full process so nothing gets missed. That’s as true for a rental listing as it is for a home sale.
Own a rental in Orange County and want that same level of marketing reach, accurate pricing, and full-service management working for you? Reach out to Smart One Property Management.
Source: National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.