First time home buyers make up about 33% of the market every year across the country. The majority of those buyers are 28 years and under.
There's a few things that you can do in order to specifically market to that age group and there are some amenities that this group specifically seeks out. Millennials represent a 1.3 trillion dollar part of the country's spending.
Marketing To This Age Group
Mobile
85% of millennials own a smartphone. They do a whole lot of research online and a big chunk of that is off their phones. Make sure that your website is optimized to work well on a smartphone. It can't be glitchy or slow loading on mobile browsers. If it is, the viewer will probably give up on the site.
A study conducted in 2014 found that millennials do 36% of real estate research, on a smartphone.
Most of the time, a millennial will disregard a brand pretty quickly if their site doesn’t look professional, and can’t be easily accessed from their phone.
Social Media
We've covered social media and social media marketing over and over here at Smart Agents. It's naturally even more important when thinking of the younger demographic, since they are the most active here.
Article sharing is very common and painting yourself as the expert through these platforms will go a long ways. 60% of millennials engage and create their own blogs and videos. Meeting them on a platform that they’re accustomed to is sure to garner their attention. If you create good content that they will learn from you'll gain their trust when it's time for them to buy their first home.
Personal Referrals
98% percent of this demographic is much more likely to engage with a friend's or follower's post on a brand on social media. So any referral or shout out will go a long way. This is one of the reasons why it's so important to keep a good and ongoing relationship with all of your past clients.
When you reach out to your past clients, recommend they take a look or share and like anything you've posted.
SEO
SEO is important because this age group does so much online research. You want to be one of the first things they see when they search a real estate topic. 83% of millennials will spend up to 6 months or even more researching their potential home.
So it's very important you show up really early in their search.
What They Look For
Low Maintenance Homes
A lot of younger buyers look for houses that require low maintenance. They want features that don't require much upkeep and are easy to maintain such as wood floors as opposed to carpet or granite counter tops.
Younger home owners look for homes that are more disposable than to be faced with frequent repairs. A yard that requires little to no work is also a big sell. The less responsibility required to keep the curb appeal high, the better. Homeowner Associations with lawn services are appealing.
Technology
Now more than ever home buyers and prospective buyers are looking for the most technological capable homes. Cell phone service and internet speed are two of the main driving variables for this. Those services aren't up to the seller, but being in an area that gets any of those poorly will cause problems.
Expect for that to be brought up.
Efficient Energy
This generation is more and more conscious of buying homes that are green. It isn't as important as other parts but buyers will ask, especially with rising energy cost.
Energy Efficient appliances are big draws. There has been greater push for solar power homes lately as large banks step forward to help with funding.
No Formal Dining Room
A formal dinner space is very low on the list of requirements when millennials go looking for a home. Dining rooms are actually a lot less important than office space, since so many people are working from home now. In fact more than 14 million Americans work from home.
The National Association of Realtors found that millennials are very likely to use a real estate agent, and they do represent a big slice of buyers. So go out of your way to appeal to their demographic and jump at the opportunity to sell them a house with these types of amenities.
Joe Nickelson is a real estate professional dedicated to helping home buyers and sellers achieve their dreams of owning property, and helping real estate agents stop using the sometimes-vicious tactics that weigh on their consciences. He believes that the Smart Agents books will, quite literally, change people’s lives for the better. Check out his full bio here!
