Getting in Touch

Millennials willingly do their own research when looking for a property to buy, and they tend to use mobile devices in their hunt for housing. But while NAR found that homebuyers from all generations tend to start their searches online before contacting an agent, Millennials study the homebuying process before getting in touch with an agent, and are more likely than their elders to find the home they purchase through online searches than through an agent.

Agents may have to get used to their Millennial clients doing some of the legwork on their own. The perspective of agents who belong to the generation can be useful in reaching those Millennials who want to work with an agent without disrupting the strong sense of self-reliance that characterizes them. They also need to be able to instinctively give Millennials the space they need to build trust and give them access to information about themselves. The Pew Research Center’s 2014 survey of Millennials found that when asked whether most people can be trusted, only 19 percent of Millennials replied ‘yes,’ compared to 31 percent of Generation X members and 40 percent of Baby Boomers.

“Not only have they already researched the market – Millennial buyers have already researched you,” Mitchell says. “As an agent, you have to make sure that they have access to you. Your accolades, your accomplishments, what would make you more appealing to work with – make it readily available for them.”

Looking for real estate online has become routine for would-be homebuyers. NAR found that 43 percent of all homebuyers started the process by using the Internet, even before they contacted an agent. The Millennial generation also has a well-documented preference for immediate communication, even while taking their time in crowd-sourcing and researching businesses they patronize, products they purchase and services they seek.

Just as many Millennial homebuyers approach purchases differently from older generations, Millennial agents also take different approaches. Lauren Goldberg, an agent with @properties, sees an increased willingness among her peers to go digital, particularly in terms of networking and marketing.

“We’re definitely a more technology-savvy, Internet-oriented generation,” Goldberg says. “It seems like it’s going in the direction of off-market networks, and a lot of properties are being marketed there before even hitting the market. Being part of those networks is definitely giving the Millennial agents an advantage in their familiarity with those programs. More and more people are hitching onto them.”

Similarly, Millennial agents tend to be less willing to accept business practices that they don’t see as efficient or practical.

“We’re a lot like Millennial buyers in that we’re less willing to just accept things,” says Anne McMillin, an agent with Related Realty and a Millennial. “If there’s a way that something is being done that we don’t like, we won’t run our business that way. We’ll try to do things in a way that makes sense to us, rather than just accepting the status quo.”

Millennials also put a lot of emphasis on word of mouth. Whether they take a recommendation from a friend or from online reviews, they like to confirm that they’re on the right track and check things out before committing. When looking for agents, they go with those who have positive reviews and a strong online presence over agents who are less visible on the Internet.

McMillin believes that agents have to be willing to demonstrate their value to her contemporaries.

“Ask what they know and ask what their opinion is of the market, because you really need to know where they stand and what they know going into it,” McMillin says. “Millennials don’t just accept everything that an agent says because that agent is the expert or because that agent is the professional. You can’t just say to a Millennial ‘the Zestimate is inaccurate.’ Agents need to really take the time to explain what a Zestimate is, how it works, why it is inaccurate, and why using an agent is the better decision. With the Internet and everything at their fingertips, they’re not going to accept that they need a professional right away. Agents really need to demonstrate their value to them to make them see it.”