Homebuying experience is fragmented, survey finds 70% call it a hassle

Buying a home has never been a simple transaction. Buyers navigate home searches, financing, inspections, insurance, title, closing and countless decisions along the way. Each piece may be handled by an experienced professional, but when those pieces operate independently, the responsibility for connecting them often falls on the buyer. New research shows just how much that fragmentation affects the consumer experience. A recent HomeServices of America survey of 1,000 recent homebuyers found nearly 70% described the homebuying transaction as a hassle. More telling, 46% identified uncoordinated service providers, including real estate agents, mortgage lenders, insurance providers and title or closing companies, as the biggest source of frustration. For the real estate industry, those findings should prompt us to think differently about what buyers actually need from us. The agent’s role is getting bigger, not smaller Technology has given consumers more information and more ways to manage parts of a real estate transaction on their own. Buyers can search for homes, estimate payments, research neighborhoods and compare financing options before ever speaking with an agent. But access t...