It is a Saturday in April, and on the way to a showing you drive past 18 Linden Avenue, where a For Sale sign stands on the lawn with another agent’s name on it. You sold Ana and Luis Delgado that house in 2022: you found it two days before it reached the market, talked them through an appraisal that came in $15,000 low and held the deal together through a second inspection, and at the closing Ana hugged you and told you they would never use anyone else.
You call her that afternoon. “We were going to call you,” she says, sounding embarrassed, “but my sister’s agent was over for dinner the week we decided, and it all happened so fast.” You did the hard part of earning that listing four years ago, and the agent who came to dinner will collect the commission on it.
Where does a real estate agent’s business come from?
Past clients and their referrals bring the typical US agent about half of their business: 28% repeat and 22% referrals in 2025, in NAR’s 2026 Member Profile.By years of experience, agents with 16+ years earned 41% of their business from repeat clients in 2024, against 0% for agents in their first two years.
41%
of their business came from repeat clients for agents with 16+ years, in 2024
NAR, Member Profile, by years of experienceRepeat business jumped from 20% to 28% in one year (NAR). Still missing from this page: where your share sits between 0% and 41%, and what the agents at the top do to keep it rising. Both are in the full report.
How many agents do home sellers contact before they list?
Most US sellers contact one agent and hire them.In NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 80% of recent sellers contacted a single agent, and in Zillow’s 2025 survey 62% of agent-using sellers did. NAR’s share has held between 75% and 82% every year since 2019.
80%
of recent US sellers contacted a single agent before they listed
NAR, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2025Two publishers agree that the listing is decided before the phone rings. The tool shows where you stand against these numbers, and the full report shows what experienced agents do before that call.
Do past clients use the same agent again?
Most buyers say they would come back, and far fewer repeat buyers do.In NAR’s 2025 survey, 91% of US buyers would use their agent again or recommend them, while 18% of repeat buyers used their previous agent. Zillow’s 2025 survey shows the same pattern, 79% against 9%.
91%
of US buyers would use their agent again or recommend them
NAR, Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2025The two numbers answer separate questions, so read them as a pattern rather than a rate. What happens to that goodwill between moves, and the habit that keeps it, are in the full report.
What changed for real estate agents in 2026?
Sellers are staying in their homes longer than ever.The typical US seller had owned their home for 11 years in NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the longest on record. In Canada, August 2026 sales ran 6.9% below August 2025 (CREA).
A past client can now go a decade between calls to any agent. What that means for your listings in 2027 is in the full report.
See where your repeat and referral business stands against agents with 16+ years, in 90 seconds.
See how your numbers compareWhat is one past client worth to a real estate agent?
A past client who lists with you again is worth a full commission side: about 2.4% of the price in 2025, according to Redfin and Anywhere Real Estate’s SEC filings, on a US median existing-home price of $414,400 (NAR).Over three years, the gap between keeping those clients and losing them grows larger than most agents expect.
A worked example through 2029, with every assumption shown so you can put in your own numbers, is in the full report.
What do the most experienced agents do differently?
Agents with 16+ years of experience earned 41% of their business from repeat clients in 2024, against 0% for agents in their first two years (NAR, by years of experience).Our read is that they do three things differently after the closing, and each one moves a number in this report.
Half the business from past clients, 80% of sellers calling one agent, 9 in 10 buyers who would use or recommend their agent: the agents at 41% turn all three into listings. Two things are still missing from this page: where you stand on each number, and the three habits themselves. Both are in the full report.
Sources
Every number above comes from these published reports. Links open the original.