The Impact of Real Estate Agent Specialization and Activity Level on Market Outcomes

Jason Beck, Frank Scott and Aaron Yelowitz

Journal of Housing Research, 2022, vol. 31, issue 2, 163-180

Abstract: Real estate agents play a critical role in reducing transaction costs in home sales. The incentives they face and the effect they have on selling price and time on market have been shown to differ depending on the legal setting governing the contractual relationship between principal (home owner) and agent. Using 8 years of Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data from a large Midwestern city, we study a market where the large majority of transactions involve a listing agent working directly with the seller and a cooperating agent working directly with the buyer. We find that more active agents sell homes more quickly, but at a lower price. Important differences emerge when we separate agents’ roles into listing agents and selling agents. We find that recent market activity by listing agents leads to significantly lower sales prices and a quicker sale. An additional listing in the previous 60 days is associated with a 0.3% reduction in sales price and a 0.8-day decrease in days on market. More active selling agents are associated with fewer days on market, but with no apparent impact on price. Relative to less active agents, listing agents in the most active quintile are associated with an 8% lower transaction price and 14 fewer days on market.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10527001.2021.2016340 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjrhxx:v:31:y:2022:i:2:p:163-180

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjrh20

DOI: 10.1080/10527001.2021.2016340

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Housing Research is currently edited by Kimberly Goodwin

More articles in Journal of Housing Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().