Introduction: This bachelor thesis deals with consumer behavior, more specifically the buying decision process when it comes to purchasing a high involvement service. Increased competitive pressure between companies increases the importance of efficient marketing. In the real estate market, competition is clearly visible, and it is particularly high among real estate agents. Due to the fact that competition among real estate agents is high, it can therefore be of interest for companies in the real estate industry to understand what factors that may affect the consumer's choice when hiring a real estate agent. The hiring of a real estate agent is a high involvement service and more research is needed on what the buying decision process looks like in the purchase of a high involvement service and what factors that affect the consumer.

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe the buying decision process for high involvement services and on the basis of it explain what factors that are affecting the consumer during the various steps of the process.

Theory: In the theory section, the most central literature in the field is described, which is the five steps of the buying decision process: (1) Problem/need-recognition, (2) information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) purchase decisions and (5) post-purchase behavior and the various cultural, social, personal and psychological factors that affect the process.

Method and Empirical Data: This thesis is based on a qualitative method. Ten respondents who sold their home within the last three years were interviewed through semi-structured interviews.

Analysis and conclusion: What is most evident in our study is that a significantly shorter buying decision process is carried out when consumers have received a recommendation from someone they know or have a previous relationship with the real estate agent they hired. We also found one recurring factor, trust, which is interesting since it hasn’t been included in previous studies.