In April 2016, the Pew Research Center reported that millennials have officially surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation, according to population estimates compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Millennials are most commonly defined as individuals who were born between the early 1980s and around the year 2000. That puts most people who fall within this category between the ages of 16 and 36.
As more and more millennials continue to enter the homebuying market for the very first time, it’s important to understand how they differ from other generations, and what motivates them to buy.
In this post, I’m sharing 8 essential tips that every real estate agent can use to successfully sell more homes to the millennial generation—a group of people who now represent the largest share (32%) of homebuyers in the U.S.
Tip #1. Master social media
Millennials use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as primary tools for communicating with other people, engaging with businesses, and performing research that ultimately helps them make purchasing decisions. According to the Pew Research Center:
- 82% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Facebook
- 30% of online adults under 50 use Twitter
- 55% of online adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram
- 37% of online adults under 50 use Twitter
As a real estate agent, social media sites present you with the opportunity to connect and engage with buyers in channels where they already feel comfortable and spend most of their time. To learn how to master social media for real estate, check out this helpful guide from Wishpond.
Tip #2. Sell the neighborhood
Millennials tend to be much less interested in finding the perfect home and much more interested in finding the right community that can align with and support their interests, passions, and needs. This is a group of people that cares deeply about supporting local businesses and causes, prefers public transportation over owning cars (in urban areas), and would rather be eating dinner on a patio at a restaurant down the street than cooking a meal in their own home.
To successfully sell more homes to your millennial clients, you need to put an emphasis on selling the neighborhood in addition to the house itself. The easiest way to do it is to come to meetings and showings armed with expert knowledge of all things local—popular events, nearby restaurants and businesses, hidden gems, the best bike trails, the favorite breweries, the coolest music venues and local bands, and anything else that could help paint a good picture of the type of community they’d be able to participate in and enjoy if they bought the house you’re selling.
Tip #3. Embrace mobile
According to a USA Today article published in October 2015, 86% of people aged 18 to 29 now own a smartphone. Millennials rely on smartphones for everything—they use them to find instant answers to their questions, for entertainment, to communicate with others, to perform research on people, companies, and products, for online shopping, and even (you guessed it) to look for houses and reach out to real estate agents.
Embracing mobile as a real estate agent by using an app like HomeSpotter can help you easily differentiate from competitors, attract more millennial clients, and sell more houses.
Tip #4. Be a resource first
Since many millennial homebuyers are also first-time homebuyers, it’s important that you position yourself as a resource first, and an agent trying to sell a home second. Buying a home is often a complicated, frustrating, and overwhelming process for a lot of people, and it becomes even more daunting if you’ve never gone through the process before. As a real estate agent, you can build trust and establish a strong reputation for yourself among millennial homebuyers fairly quickly by simply being willing to help answer questions and personally guide people through the process of buying a home.
One of the easiest ways to start positioning yourself as a resource and connecting with more millennial homebuyers is by investing in content marketing—i.e writing and publishing helpful, original blog posts on your website. To learn more about how to use content marketing for real estate, read this quick beginner’s guide from Inman.
Tip #5. Customize communication
To effectively connect with and sell to individuals within the millennial generation, you have to be willing to communicate with them using whichever method they prefer. Most millennials, for example, would rather communicate through text messaging or instant messaging rather than talking on the phone or even meeting in person.
READ: How Messaging Apps Are Changing The Real Estate Industry Forever
Some millennials may prefer communicating through email rather than text messaging, others might want to communicate primarily within Facebook, and some might prefer the convenience of having a conversation over video using tools like FaceTime.
If you want to attract and sell more houses to millennials, ask them early on how they prefer to communicate, then embrace it fully.
Tip #6. Make responsiveness a priority
Millennials, also known as the ‘instant gratification’ generation, have pretty high standards when it comes to customer service and responsiveness. Thanks to companies like Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, and many others, they don’t have the patience or interest in waiting longer than they think they should to get what they want.
Some real estate agents might see this as an annoyingly unavoidable part of working with millennial clients, but smarter agents will recognize it as an opportunity to differentiate from competitors.
When selling to millennials, you have two options: you can either choose to communicate and respond to them in the same way and in the same amount of time that you normally would for other more patient clients and hope it yields the same results, or you can recognize and accept how important responsiveness is to this group, and choose to make it a priority in order to make the sale.
Tip #7. Leverage reviews and word-of-mouth
Like most people, millennials are significantly motivated and persuaded by online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends. Consider the following statistics highlighted in a great blog post from Ambassador:
- 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.
- 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision.
- On social media, 58% of consumers share their positive experiences with a company, and ask family, colleagues, and friends for their opinions about brands.
To attract more millennial clients, consider asking your current and best past clients to send you testimonials or help you build a case study spotlighting their experience working with you. Build instant trust and overcome any objections that prospective clients have by featuring these powerful social proof statements prominently on your website, share them with your followers on Facebook and Twitter, and include them in your email signature.
Tip #8. Invest in video
Thanks to popular websites and apps like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine, millennials love watching videos and using them to make decisions about what they buy. Consider these facts highlighted in a blog post from Animoto:
- 80 percent of millennials consider video content when researching a purchase decision
- 7 out of 10 millennials are likely to watch a company video when shopping online
- 76 percent of millennials follow brands on YouTube
- 60 percent of millennials prefer to watch a company video over reading a company newsletter
To attract and nurture more relationships with millennial buyers, use video to share convenient virtual tours of specific properties, customer spotlight stories, and educational tips that help them navigate through the homebuying process.
What else are you doing to attract and sell properties to millennials? Share your ideas and tactics in the comments below.
Tip #6 about responsiveness is so important. When I want to buy something, I want to do it now. If you take too long to get back with me I get bored and move on – which isn’t something you want to happen as a realtor trying to sell me a house.
Embracing mobile is key and can be easily integrated with an agent because of the on-the-go duties of the job. We covered a post similar to this on the Contactually blog — https://blog.contactually.com/2015/11/the-realtors-guide-to-marketing-to-millennials/
Awesome post and we’re going to share it out to our audience!
Lots of Millenial articles going around these days but I think this one really hits on the key points of working with them. Great article.
That’s crazy that millennials have surpassed “Baby Boomers” already. These are great tips that I will use when working with clients. Thank you!
Good article and advice
I really like what you said about choosing your battles, and fight for what you really want. My husband and I are looking for our first home, and I want to be sure that we choose the right home to fight for. If we find a home that we absolutely love, we will be sure to fight for it, so that we get what we want.
Thanks for pointing out that most millennials will prefer communication through text! As a millennial, I can confirm that the ability to communicate to the sellers through text would be so much more convenient in most cases. I can handle a phone call, but that probably wouldn’t be my main mode of communication with a seller after the initial contact and meeting.
Great article and very helpful for someone who has been selling real estate in Summerville, SC for over twenty years! Having children who are millenials helps me to understand and bring a new dimension to my clients as well.
I really like your tips for mastering social media. That seems like a great way to get your home out there for people to see. My husband and I are going to be selling our home in the next few weeks so we will have to keep these tips in mind. Thanks for sharing!
I agree that a good real estate agent would be up to date with technology. I can see how looking for an agent that uses technology can help you buy or sell your house as this can mean that he has a wider range of influence. I will make sure to look for an agent that is well educated in social media, it might be of great benefit for me.
Video promotions or advertisement to promote products and services will be the best for now. It can reach more audience.
I too would fall into the category of people who would trust an online review. It would have to be detailed enough for me to see that it is legitimate. I would also choose to look at a few reviews before making a final choice, but I would rely on those reviews heavily.
It can make a really big difference.
I like that you said that social media presents you with the opportunity to connect and engage with buyers. If I was looking into buying a new home then I would want to know that I would be able to get help with one click. When people use social media the right way, I think that it can be used to benefit yourself and others.
Absolutely – it can be huge!
I would have never thought that social media present real estate companies to connect with Millennials to sell houses! My sister recently got married three months ago and bought her first house through an ad on Facebook! She is 29. I am no expert, but I would imagine when the time comes for myself to find a house I can find one through social media!
Exactly – and that’s just the beginning 🙂
Great tips! I think first tip is very important. I have seen a lot of people posting on social media looking for houses.
yeah – it’s only going to grow.
That’s a good tip to prioritize responsiveness. That way you won’t miss an opportunity. The markets are so different now with the advent of the internet.
No kidding. Glad you liked it.
I liked when you talked about how a real estate agent should be able to communicate in whatever way their customers choose. I can see how someone with these qualities would get more customers and more sells. It is important to remember that even thought a real estate agent will do the heavy lifting for you, it might still take time to find the perfect house for you.
Millennials tend to go to social media for research of something like reviews of real estate or sometimes asking friends about it in social media. Mastering the social media marketing is really a big thing now.
Thanks for the great blog on options to sell your home to millenials. I own a We Buy Houses In North Carolina company. I’m sure some of your readers in NC would find our services useful in selling their home fast.
I definitely agree with your piece on social media. I myself am a millennial and most of the advertisements I see come from Facebook feeds or Instagram. Great job on helping people understand how people my age think!
My mother is looking to sell her home as well buy real estate for sale near her new location. I like that you gave the advice to keep online reviews in your mind as a good way to capture positive attention. This should help her greatly as she moves forward.
Selling real estate to millennials is a daunting task because of their passion and interests. It’s important to understand how they differ from old generations, and what inspires them to buy. The best way to connect with millennials is to stay active on social media’s because they spend most of their time on it. Keep Blogging!
I like that you mention how it’s important to talk up the neighborhood as well. My brother is looking to buy properties for sale but needs tips. I’ll be sure to talk to him about working with a professional who can help him determine if the neighborhood is good or not.
My sister is selling real estate and she wants to catch the attention of millennials. I like your suggestion about their focus on the right community. I would imagine that parks and outdoor trails nearby are important. Since millennials use lots of social media is also a good idea to have some attractive marketing on the right sites.
Yeah, you gotta put yourself in their shoes (and ask them). What are they excited about? Use that to write your listings for the ideal demographic that you’re trying to reach.
I appreciate your tip to sell the neighborhood your real estate property is in by talking about the local community. My husband and I need to sell our piece of real estate before we can buy a new one, so we are wondering what the best way to do it is. We will be sure to also focus on the neighborhood when promoting our house.
There are so many reasons someone buys a home – so make sure you highlight all of them, not just the home itself, but everything around it.
I’m glad that you elaborated on the different things you should do when selling real estate to a millennial. I agree that you want to be focusing on the neighborhood as a whole because it’s always nice to know you have good neighbors along with a good house. I would imagine that the newer generation puts emphasis on different things than the older generation so you have to change your pitch a little bit.
Thanks for these tips for selling real estate. I’m glad that you mentioned in the article to learn exactly how the client would prefer to communicate. This sounds important especially if it can keep the both of you up to date on any real estate listings or how the process is going.