Recent profiles of home buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) suggest that real estate agents deserve more respect than they often get. The yearly profiles conducted by NAR not only contain a plethora of interesting and useful information for real estate agents, but also some that is gratifying.

Realtors® should pay attention to the surveys' findings about what it is that consumers are looking for in real estate agents. These people are interested not only in what it is that an agent can do, but also in what kind of person the agent is. While buyers and sellers have different needs with respect to an agent's abilities -- sellers want someone who can bring about a timely sale; buyers want someone who will help them find the right house for them -- both are concerned about their agent's character.

In the most recent survey, 28 percent of buyers said that the most important factor they considered when choosing an agent was honesty and trustworthiness. This was the largest portion of all considerations. Another 22 percent said that reputation was the most important factor, and while reputation might well include other aspects such as aggressiveness or attentiveness, you have to think that it includes integrity. Moreover, honesty and integrity ranked the highest (97 percent) among the qualities that buyers considered most important.

20 percent of sellers said that honesty and trustworthiness were the most important factors they considered when choosing an agent. 38 percent said that reputation was the most important, but, again, it is reasonable to suspect that integrity was a component of that.

The above numbers are interesting, to be sure; but here is the good news. Among buyers, 68 percent said they would definitely use again or recommend the agent who had represented them. Another 19 percent said they probably would. Seller responses were similar. 62 percent said they would definitely use the same agent or recommend him or her. 19 percent said they would probably do so. (And this was in 2007, a generally declining and difficult market for sellers.)

Buyers, who were asked questions that sellers weren't, indicated by 84 percent that they were very satisfied with their agent with respect to their agent's honesty and integrity; another 11 percent indicated they were somewhat satisfied. Only 4 percent said they were not. Regrettably, sellers weren't asked this question.

As we have noted, this is good news. But, there is a puzzle. Generally, real estate agents don't fare well in national surveys. Recently, real estate commentator par excellence, Blanche Evans, has noted that the Harris poll has continued to show real estate brokers at the very bottom of its list of prestigious professions. (Of course this may have nothing to do with ethical behavior. For example, one might think that toll booth operators are highly ethical, yet not think their profession is very prestigious.)

More tellingly, over the years Gallup polls have consistently marked real estate agents pretty low on the rankings of those professionals who are perceived to be honest and ethical. (Real estate agents aren't always included on the list of those who are ranked, but when they are, they usually don't do very well.)

How do we explain these discrepancies? Gallup poll respondents say that real estate agents rank pretty low ethically; yet the home buyers and sellers that NAR surveyed consistently say that their agents performed admirably in that arena. What's up?

It would be easy to say that, somehow, the NAR surveys are biased, that the questions are "loaded." But there is no evidence of that. I would suggest that it is more relevant to look at the survey populations. Gallup (and Harris) poll random samples of adults. Now, over the past decade or so, somewhere on the order of 6 million homes are sold each year. That represents, at most, around 22 million principals (many are repeats in the same year). Given the population of adults in the U.S. (about 218 million), that means that there is barely a one-in-ten chance that a Gallup respondent would have bought or sold a home within a year. On the other hand, NAR only surveys people who have bought or sold within the year.

The NAR results come from people who have recently been engaged in a real estate transaction. The overwhelming majority of Gallup and Harris respondents are people who have not. Indeed, a significant portion of them have probably never had such an experience. The Gallup poll respondents are generally people who are basing their opinion on second-hand, third-hand, and "urban legend" experience; whereas the NAR respondents are ones who have recently been there and done that. Who would you believe?