According to Inc. Magazine, “Millennials make up 66 percent of first-time homebuyers and 34 percent of homebuyers overall.” Considering they’re also the largest generation in history, and only a small percentage of them have already purchased a home, it’s no stretch to say that the successful future of residential brokerages largely depends on how they cater to the ever-growing millennial homebuyer market—which may make you wonder…
What do millennials care about when buying a home?
To help you better understand this important question, let’s introduce you to someone. Meet Millennial Mike. He’s 29, a college graduate, and after renting an apartment with his new partner for the past nine months, they’re now searching to buy their first home. Many of their REALTOR® friends have already approached them, yet they’re unsure who to work with. Aside from obviously finding a home within their budget, there are a few things Millennial Mike and his partner care about above all else—and the brokerage who can provide the information they truly want just may have the best opportunity at winning their business.
Location: According to a recent Zillow Housing Trends Report, the No. 1 deciding factor for millennials when buying a home was, by and far, location.
Lifestyle:​ Sixty-two percent of millennials prefer to live in the type of mixed-use communities found in urban centers, living close to a mix of shopping, restaurants and offices. With this new kind of buyer, it’s not just about location, but the ideal​ lifestyle that location provides.
Local Data:​ The millennial buyer wants to know how quiet the neighborhood is, where the closest parks are located, what kind of neighbors to expect, etc. As many of them are first-time homebuyers, this sort of “meta data” is critical to their decision process. So while Mike and his partner are like most homebuyers searching for something within his specific budget, as a millennial, they have additional criteria that if met, could help you win their business.
3 Steps to Win More Millennial Business
Acknowledging the fact that millennials do business differently already puts you ahead of the curve. By providing them the dataset they desire and a more custom, unique home-buying experience, you’ll be taking concrete steps towards making you their “brokerage of choice.” Here are three simple ways you can immediately implement to impact your entire marketing funnel:
- Optimized Mobile Website:​ More than half of home-buying traffic first occurs on mobile. By making your site mobile-friendly, you’ll begin quickly converting more of your organic traffic.
- Hyperlocal and Personalized Information: ​We already know that millennials are about location, lifestyle and local data. By simply adding this hyperlocal and community specific information on your site and listings, you’ll help to increase engagement and user time site-wide.
- Speed Up Your Site:​ Delay is the death of all leads, but even more so with millennials, as they’ve become accustomed to immediate answers (the Google effect), and now carry that expectation throughout their online experience. By using something like Google Autocomplete, you’ll not only increase your site speed, but greatly decrease abandons.
These three simple steps will dramatically impact the top of your online funnel by increasing engagement, conversion and overall user experience.
For more information, please visit www.locallogic.co/ris-media-millennial-buyers.
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