Everything You Need to Know About Millennial Home Buyers
Millennial home buyers are about to hit the market.
The average adult checks their phone 30 times a day. The average millennial?
157.
Does that sound like your son or daughter? Always hunched over their phone, texting, or on Facebook.
But you know what? Realtor Mag predicts that they’ll make up a whopping third of the entire housing market in just this year — the largest single demographic.
And that’s just great news for you.
Loosely pegged as those born from 1980-2000, millennials are growing up. They’re finishing school, starting jobs, getting married — and now they’re on to the next step: home buying.
How do you appeal to these people?
Millennials approach things entirely differently than your last cohort, Generation X. Marketing to them is going to be a whole new ballgame.
To continue thriving as a real estate agent, you’ve got to understand who millennials are and what appeals to them in order to discover how to target your marketing strategy towards millennials.
So let’s get inside their heads…
How Do They Think?
The DIY mindset: millennials have grown up with the library of the Internet at their fingertips. That means that before they pick up the phone to call you, they’re doing their own extensive research online. They’ve always figured out for themselves how to do things online, and home buying is no different.
Your goal: convince them a real estate agent’s expertise will bring them more value than tips from the web
Where Do They Spend Their Time?
You guessed it — online. 71% of millennials are on social media every day and for an average of 5.4 hours, according to Entrepreneur.com. They text, they don’t call. They add each other on Facebook, they don’t meet up. If you want to target millennial clients, your best bet is to do it online.
Your goal: heighten your online presence
What are they struggling with?
Millennials are known as the generation that stays in their parents’ homes. Many of them are struggling with debt from school and working jobs that they like instead of jobs that pay. Their money troubles are going to affect their buying patterns.
Your goal: prove that you know how to navigate a difficult market
Your Millennial Home Buyer Marketing Strategy
The answer is social media marketing.
What does this do?
It gets your brand and content out where they can see find it. It uses your existing network to reach out to potential clients. And if you do it right, social media marketing can help build trust between you and a client.
In fact, 34% of millennials view brands more positively if they’re active on social media, compared to 16% of those aged 30+.
Here’s what to need to do:
- Get yourself on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
- Regularly post relevant content: this could be local news, home design, and your listings
- Engage with your followers: respond to every comment
This is how you’re going to build your brand’s online presence. When a millennial home buyer does their initial research and they find your social profile, they’ll know immediately that you’re a professional real estate expert.
Or perhaps it’s a millennial you have as a Facebook friend, who’s just starting to consider purchasing a home. Since they’ve been your friend for a while, they’ll have seen your real estate updates and useful content — they’ll know you’re available to talk.
And there’s nothing more attractive to a millennial than the ability to send a quick Facebook message.
With all the real estate content you sharing, you’re proving to people that you know your stuff. You can brand yourself as an expert in home design and renovation, in your neighborhood, in money-saving tips, etc.
And if you post frequently, they’ll see that you’re active, and speaking their language.
The Problem: Time
The downside is that effective social media marketing is going to take time. If you’re serious about marketing to millennial home buyers (and remember the potential in this huge cohort!), you’re really going to have to put in some effort.
You’ll want to post a variety of quality content, and content that your friends will find engaging. Do that maybe multiple times a week, if not daily, to be consistent. The top 50 most engaging brands on Facebook are posting an average of 1.3 times a day.
Millennials are super social savvy — you want to make sure your strategy is rock solid.
Where CityBlast Comes In
We get it: there’s just no time to juggle everything. Real estate agents are entrepreneurs, and have a lot on their plate as it is. So CityBlast manages social media for real estate agents and brokers like you. We have real Social Media Experts (who are millennials themselves!) who find and post relevant, intelligent, and engaging content to your social networks.
You could be attracting in millennials home buyers right now, without having to do anything but wait for the leads in your inbox.
Sign up for a free trial now, and start investing in the new generation of millennial home buyers.
