0
0
0

Millennials & Baby Boomers: How to Appeal to All Generations

by Jason Porterfield

Fresh Faces in Realty

Millennials are moving into real estate as brokers as well as clients, though the generational turnover is occurring more slowly. The median age for a Realtor is 56, according to NAR. As the housing market rebounds, brokerages are actively recruiting Millennial agents to step in and take the place of older agents as they retire. Their technical savvy and networking skills are assets to any real estate firm, though they may have trouble attracting and connecting with Baby Boomer clients.

“I believe that Millennials have to have a mental connection with liking somebody that’s older than them,” Duffy says. “Maybe they have someone who was a grandparent who they just adored, and it affected their whole outlook on people as far as the older generation have great stories to tell; they have great experiences they can share and they have to put themselves in a place where they’re listening and smiling and finding some kind of common bond. I think it’s the same with the Millennials deciding they’re going to work with the Baby Boomers and the Baby Boomers deciding they’re going to work with Millennials.”

The issue cuts both ways. Millennial agents may not have the patience to slow down for Baby Boomer clients and contact them by phone, email or face to face. In turn, Baby Boomers may not be willing or able to adopt new technology or use it proficiently enough to keep up.

“I think there’s more Baby Boomers who are trying to work with Millennials that have issues with that because there are more Baby Boomers who are slowing down,” Duffy says. “Their reactions are slower, and if they can’t keep pace, the Millennial generation is not going to work with them. But if they can keep pace, they love talking.”

Millennial agents who can’t connect with older clients miss tremendous opportunities to serve a generational demographic likely to start looking to downsize their homes and buy smaller properties. Younger Baby Boomers born between 1955 and 1964 currently account for 16 percent of recent home purchases, according to the 2014 NAR Home Buyer and Seller Trends survey, placing them third behind Millennial and Generation X buyers. Older Americans are looking for less square footage, and homes that are energy efficient and have new community amenities. Understanding and reaching out to that market will become even more important for Millennial agents as more Baby Boomers prepare to move out of their larger homes and those residences go on the market.

Flores is a younger agent with children still in school. From her base in Edgebrook, she has helped many older individuals find homes on Chicago’s Northwest Side. To appeal to a wide cross-section of clients, she runs ads in the Reporter/Journal, a local weekly newspaper. The community is very supportive of the paper and many local agents advertise in it.

“Most people don’t [advertise in] newspapers,” she says. “Baird & Warner as a whole doesn’t even do the Tribune anymore because we advertise online. But in an area like this, to appeal to everyone I do a lot of marketing in the Reporter.”

In Flores’ experience, it doesn’t matter whether there is a generation gap between Realtors and clients, so long as the Realtor can listen to and communicate with them and provide them with the service that they need.

“In the end, I think it’s all about the relationship and I think it’s all about how you treat people,” she says.


Screen Shot 2014-10-29 at 3.40.01 PM

Read More Related to This Post

Join the conversation

New Subscribe

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.