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Millennials & Baby Boomers: How to Appeal to All Generations

by Jason Porterfield

An Emerging Generation of Homebuyers

Millennials were among those hardest hit by the financial crisis and extended recession that gripped the country from 2008 to 2012. Many were just beginning their careers or had not even entered the workforce when the recession hit. Unemployment reached 10.1 percent in October 2009 as companies struggled to survive. Workers saw their wages drop and their hours cut. Part-time and entry-level jobs that would have gone to younger workers either evaporated or were filled by older, more experienced professionals.

Tighter credit, unemployment and lower wages kept many Millennials out of the housing market during the recession and in the years that followed. The strengthening economy and recent job gains – along with the generation’s maturation – point to tremendous growth in the number of Millennials looking to buy their first home. And this pending market is huge. Defining the generation as those born between 1977 and 1995, Nielsen pegs the Millennial generation at 87 million strong, or about 34 percent of the U.S. population. That’s even larger than the Baby Boomer generation.

Many Millennials – particularly those in the 18 to 29 age range – weathered the recession by living with their parents. As the economy strengthens and unemployment drops, many of these individuals are now considering buying a home. Nielsen estimates that in the next five years, Millennials will spend $1.6 trillion on housing purchases and an additional $600 billion on rent. Of those surveyed, 80 percent said that they either already own a home or plan to buy one in the future.

Today, Millennials younger than age 34 make up the largest percentage of homebuyers. The National Association of Realtors in its 2014 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study found that 31 percent of recent home purchases were made by people in this age group, followed closely by members of Generation X at 30 percent.

Realtors already recognize the strength of the Millennial market, and many have adjusted accordingly. Carolyn Duffy, a Realtor with John Greene Realtor in Naperville, says that marketing across generations often requires a delicate balance between utilizing technology to appeal to younger clients and more traditional methods for contacting older clients.

“All generations, Millennials through the Baby Boomers and everything in between, they all need the same guidance and information, but they need it delivered differently,” she says. “The Millennials need immediate gratification. Their patience level is low. They don’t really like to talk that much. They like to see things, they like text messages. They like immediate communication. The Baby Boomers are more deliberate. They require considerably more of your time. You have to go off and be face to face with the Baby Boomers.”

  Duffy is a member of the Baby Boomer generation, but has no trouble attracting clients from younger generations. She emphasizes the need to be able to read a client and understand what they’re looking for in terms of communication. She uses DocuSign and Dropbox to get documents to and from her clients electronically, but remains flexible for people who don’t use the technology.

“With Millennials, you’d better be ready to do it at lightning speed,” she says. “They generally don’t really like long stories. They want to know what you will do for them, not how great you are or what wonderful awards your team or your company have received. They want the bottom line of what are you going to do for me as I buy or sell a house.”

Duffy runs her marketing strategies by people who belong to the generation or demographic she is trying to reach to test their effectiveness. She is comfortable with texting and technology and had no trouble adapting to contacting her younger clients that way. While she enjoys sending text messages and was never into giving housewarming gifts, she misses the relationships that could be forged during weeks of working closely with clients.

“The weirdest part for me is that I don’t get as much opportunity to have a long-term relationship with a Millennial when we are mostly communicating through texts and online signings,” she says. “We have to learn who they are and what they are a little more patiently. They’re not going to tell you too much about their life until down the road.”

For Duffy, social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn play a large role in bringing in younger clients. She has also started using Yelp, acknowledging that the free review site is a vital source of information for many Millennials. She has long used her own website to attract clients, and appreciates the convenience of electronic services like DocuSign.

“I can be at home, it can be 10 o’clock at night and someone could need something, and in four minutes I could email it to them,” she says. “It’s changed a whole bunch, but I like the changes. I’ve enjoyed every single change I’ve gone through.”

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