11:30 AM CDT on Thursday, July 30, 2009
By STEVE BROWN
The Dallas Morning Newsstevebrown@dallasnews.com
A new consumer poll asked sellers and buyers to rank national residential sales companies, and Coldwell Banker and Keller Williams were the sellers’ top choices.
J.D. Power and Associates surveyed home sellers about customer satisfaction.
Buyers ranked Keller Williams higher, the report issued Thursday said.
Both Coldwell Banker and Keller Williams have a big sales presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
J.D. Power measured customer satisfaction by asking about experience with the individual agent, the company’s office and additional services provided.
“For both buyers and sellers, the agent is still the most important driver of overall satisfaction,” the researchers found. “However, the importance of agents has declined substantially from 2008, while the importance of additional services has increased considerably.”
J.D. Power’s research also found that more than half of homebuyers are now first-timers. Government tax incentives and falling prices have lured many of these people into the market.
"The presence of more first-time buyers is encouraging, as it indicates that the real estate market is returning to more normal activity, with fewer speculators," said Jim Howland, senior director of the real estate and construction practice at J.D. Power and Associates.
The study showed that 64 percent of sellers used the Internet to market their homes. And the number of open houses at properties is down from an average of 4.5 showings in 2008 to 3.2 this year.
The rankings did not include large local or regional real estate companies which dominate the market in some cities.
How real estate sales firms stack up
Based on interviews this year with home sellers who were asked to rate satisfaction with nationwide firms. Based on a 1,000-point scale.
Coldwell Banker: 815
Keller Williams: 801
Re/Max: 784
Century 21: 770
Prudential: 753
SOURCE: J.C. Power and Associates
