How To Sell My Home to Millennials | First Time Buyers

Unlike the baby boomer generation and generation X the millennial generation are not looking for the fixer upper with a large square footage far from town. They tend to prefer a more modest sized house that is easier to manage and is near amenities like shopping and dining. The prefer to support local businesses and prefer public transportation over owning their cars.

The Millennial’s (Generation Y) are the generation born approximately in the early 1980’s and ending in the mid 1990’s to the early 2000’s, with 1981 to 1996 a widely accepted definition.

For the millennial’s the internet is the first stop for shopping or researching anything. When selling to this generation providing and easy method to view the house, details and a video walk through is ideal. They will not only research the house, they will also look into the seller or real estate agent. Writing and publishing some helpful blog posts on your website and doing some online self promotion will help.

What the Millennial Prefers in a House

The millennial’s have a different understanding of home ownership and what the baby boomer generation might consider traditional. The previous generation might think of the bigger better home, maybe a fixer upper to save on money and a big yard further from the urban areas. The millennial’s seem to prefer the small house with less overall property and therefore less maintenance.

They prefer a house that is move in ready and does not need any or much upgrading. They prefer a smaller house with an open floor plan and the hardwood floor look. Remove the carpet unless its in great shape and the color can be matched with your plans for staging. The internal paint colors should be neutral. Stage the home with rented furniture that is more modern to improve the look.

Since this house may be their first or what used to be called a starter home, be sure to mention that there is plenty of room for customization. They should understand that changes can be made later to get exactly what they want and it does not need to be rolled into their mortgage. Be open to their questions and notice the commonalities between buyers.

First House

Buying your first home is often a frustrating and complicated new experience. It can be an overwhelming process for most people. The cost of home ownership is high to begin with and the millennial generation has had trouble with finding careers after college. Not to mention the new mortgage will be in addition to the school debt they already accumulated.

This generation tends to prefer a smaller square footage house on a smaller plot of property. This means less lawn maintenance and less internal cleaning. They no longer have furniture such as the entertainment centers or special shelves for media like BluRay or DVD’s. There is a more minimalist approach to the house layout.

More recent data shows that millennial’s are not shopping for their first house until after their 30’s and more around 35 years old. Making the decision to purchase a house a more serious and possibly lengthy process. As a real estate agent you should be willing to answer questions and personally guide them through the process of buying their first home. If selling as a FSBO it would be wise to be more patient with this age group as they tend to walk away easily.

This generation will be most responsive to a more “white glove” approach or extra guidance through the process at least. Agent communication will also be key to keeping them happy and focused. Consider they are a first time house buyer that can google anything you discuss during or after the walk through. Communicating well is key to selling to this generation.

Communication and Guidance

Millennial’s are known for their low patience in waiting and higher than average requirement for instant gratification. They prefer repeated updates and a more hand-holding approach and this directly applies to purchasing a house. The real estate process is notoriously slow but they will want an almost constant update on their status.

They do prefer that a realtor helps to guide them through the real estate process. They may not understand the offer process or they might request things outside the norm and need to be discussed. This means that the best place to find house hunting millennial’s is through a real estate agent. An agent can also suggest some subtle changes to the home or the staging to cater the walk-through a little more towards the millennial.

This generation grew up on the internet and they use social media daily. They prefer to be updated via text, social media or lastly a phone call.

Social Media

Whether it’s through online news, popular blogs or a YouTube channel, millennial’s are more motivated and persuaded by online reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends on social media. They do not seem to be persuaded by regular advertising as much as the older generations.

Publishing via social media offers a challenge when learning it and using a new form of media to sell. It also offers an opportunity to publicize those great photos of the home on more than one social media platform. Be sure to add text to the photos such as as their neighborhood location and include beds, baths, square feet and the asking price.

The next logical step is to create a video walk-through for virtual tours online. I found many sites suggesting this is very useful in attracting generation Y. Posting your video on Zillow.com or Realtor.com is huge in attracting buyers for a showing as they will browse the house virtually on the mobile device from any location.

Telling the story on Instagram or Pinterest is an opportunity to display the home with high quality photos and video. Talk about the local businesses and neighborhood in general in video and in content. All this will be Instantly available to the next interested parties.

Walking Distance & Local Business

Companies have spent a lot of time and money to minimize the amount of time their customers have to wait. Whether it’s Amazon.com with their next day shipping, or Uber instead of Taxi’s and every Starbucks is installing a drive through window now. The millennial’s have grown up in this “instant gratification” environment which means they tend to have less patience for waiting longer than they think is appropriate.

The millennial is interested in finding the right community with a balance of their interests and passions located nearby. They tend to support local businesses as opposed to traveling far for a big box store in another town. Understanding where the available shopping and dining areas are will be important. They will search online via maps but when showing the house you can mention the local highlights and they they are “just around the corner” for example.

Another house location requirements for the millennial is that there are business and other attractions within walking distance. This could be dining, shopping, places to walk pets or simply some park locations for a stroll. They prefer to use public transportation or and Uber to travel so they like things to be more local to where they live.

Move-in Ready

The previous generation would be more open to customizing their home and be looking for the fixer upper to do so. The millennial is more interested in a move-in ready home that requires less work after purchase. In fact, if they like the staging decor they may ask that it be included since much of their budget will be spent on down payment and furniture anyway. This prepares the house to “move in” as quickly as possible.

When comparing the average millennial to their parents, they tend to be more minimalist. The preferred home decor is a more open concept, open areas and a “less is more” type layout. Part of this is due to the shrinking of entertainment devices and the heavy usage of online streaming instead of storing disks and devices somewhere in the living area.

For the millennial “move in ready” means they want the ability to walk in the house and have everything working on day one. The water turned on, the gas and stove is ready to cook on and the wifi is already setup to hop on the internet. If you can help or advise on how to make the appropriate changes happen before they get the keys, they may be more open to the purchase.

WiFi and Technology

Regarding technology, you should be ready to talk about the mobile phone carriers and signal strength inside and outside of the house. Have a list of the available wireless providers and internet providers for the property.

I found that there is also some suggestions, when showing the house, to bring a hot spot or setup your phone as a wifi hot-spot for the shopper to use while they are there. It’s a small concession like having fresh baked cookies but makes the internet consumed Generation Y more comfortable.

Be prepared for questions based on a quick google search as they will do this while you are showing the house. In fact you should do some searching yourself before the showing and write down their questions to google later and see why they asked. This information may have nuggets of useful ideas to consider.

Some of the preferred technology for a millennial can include camera surveillance and digital entry or card key door locks. This is far from the full automation home but a small investment in outdoor cameras might swing a fence sitter to buy this house. Also look into the home automation systems so you can discuss them if the question arises.

Green or Eco-Friendly Home

The millennial is more interested in a home that is in part or fully Eco-friendly. This refers to resource saving utilities or energy efficient appliances so it would be advisable to highlight this during a showing. Appliances with the EnergyStar® label shows that the device meets and exceeds the governments energy efficiency requirements. Specific brands can be chosen where EnergyStar has given an award to their appliance.

The impact on the environment is an important requirement to the millennial. It helps that the house is using more Eco-firendly devices and appliances that are high efficiency. A refrigerator built today will use 75% less energy than a refrigerator from 2 decades ago while keeping the food just as unspoiled.

Another suggestion I found interesting was that millennial’s tend to like plants and rooms that have this decor. When staging the house it would be a great idea to add some hanging plants around the outside of the house. Inside you might add a few large potted plants in some corners to liven up the interior.

Solar panels is a less likely Eco-friendly item to be found on a house to be flipped. If you get lucky it would be good to have a professional review the system and advise on the connection to the grid and the battery life. I think a solar powered home would be a big plus if just replacing a few batteries gets the system up to 100% again.

Comparison Shopping Online

Generation Y has been raised on the internet so they will spend time online researching and comparing homes, the neighborhoods and the agent. When attempting to sell the house it is advisable to do some of this same research yourself. The key is to research with the buyers eye instead of a real estate flipper.

Here are some of the items relating to the “Agent” to think about:

Read online reviews about the Real Estate Agent
Visit the agents brokerage website and lookup their past sales
Search social media and ask friends or family members about the Agent
Research their market knowledge, where do they sell most

When comparing houses:

Updated Bathrooms
Kitchen areas; size and updated appliances
Open concept and hardwood floors
Smart home options: cameras, automated garage doors, door answering device
Home office workspace
Energy efficient
Walking distance to attractions, dining, bars and others
Short distance to highways

We haven’t mentioned the home workspace before but combining an area in the home for work is another millennial must have. Much of the millennial generation work from home, sometimes a few days a week and sometimes full time. They will be looking for a room or “space” that they can assign as a workspace.

If the house is in an urban setting it would be more attractive to the “work from home” individual as they do not need a car to get to all of the amenities nearby.

Pricing

Millennial’s have earned the reputation for being frugal or at least very careful with their finances. Many are well educated but they carry a heavy school loan debt which forces them to be cautious with money. When searching for a home the price will be very important as well as the negotiations. Keep this in mind when the inspection find something wrong or the buyer begins asking for small changes to the contract.

The fact is most of the millennial’s savings will go to the down payment and furniture for the house. Updates are further down the list of expenses and can be done at a future date. The educated millennial knows that pricing will encompass the house plus all expenses and fees and the bank will need to approve in the end. They are not looking for the biggest bang for the buck but more like the best bang.

Gen Y is also less likely to max out on the amount of debt a bank will loan for a home. This goes back again to the existing school loans and how this generation is interested in smaller and simple as opposed to the big house on a hill.