Real Estate and the Millennial Home Buyer
The American Dream has not changed for Millennials. It is very much the same dream our parents might have had: a career, a family, and a home.
It’s just taken us more time to get there because we grew up in a world where unpaid internships and contract work did not usually mean long-term employment or a career. Saving wasn’t enough with school debt and rising rents. Growing up in an age where the internet dominates daily life and surrounds us with distractions and a non-stop flow of information. However, the American Dream of home ownership has always been a part of what has driven us forward.
We Millennials are growing up, though. Engagement parties, wedding planning, baby showers, and buying homes are hot topics of conversation among my peers, who, ten years ago, merely had the goal of self-sufficiency. Now, many of their goals involve supporting a family. Before I got into real estate, my fiancée (then girlfriend) and I decided to speak with a lender to get a home loan because we were working toward home ownership. While we weren’t in a position to purchase a home then, the meeting wasn’t a waste of time. We walked away knowing we had things to work on such as improving credit scores, managing our budget, and working harder in our careers to establish our financial stability. As we’ve grown older, we’ve sensed an increasing optimism among our Millennial friends that the American Dream is becoming an achievable reality.
As an agent with DeLeon, I’ve worked with a diverse group of homebuyers of different industries and various ages. An increasing number of Millennials are showing up to our open houses and calling in to inquire about properties. Millennials have overtaken baby boomers as American’s largest generation and workforce, and it’s likely that this Millennial-homebuyer trend will only continue to move forward. Millennials are well-educated, career driven, ambitious, and technologically savvy. We grew up surrounded by computers, smart phones, and free information at our fingertips. With so many Millennials interested in buying homes, it’s not a surprise that there are now so many real estate apps available to aid buyers in their home search.
Redfin and Zillow have popular websites and phone apps buyers can use to find information about open houses, offer dates, school systems, comparable properties, and more. They are powerful tools, and I know more than a few agents who use these tools themselves to help them search for homes for their buyers. However, home buyers will quickly find the search can be overwhelming—this market moves fast! A home search can span across multiple cities. There are open houses every weekend. There are hundreds of pages of disclosures to review per property. There could be multiple offers to put together in a week. Furthermore, the buyers I work with are commonly dual-income households. Couples who have children, pets, and other responsibilities on top of their careers may have little time to devote to the home search. This is why I believe real estate agents are underutilized, especially among my fellow Millennials. A good realtor should be viewed as a necessity.
At DeLeon, our agents are all real estate professionals who have chosen this industry as our career. Many of us have advanced degrees and experience beyond real estate. We all love working with clients, and know this industry is built on relationships. Beyond that, we are people who all have personality, ambition, and our own sense of humor. I would never hesitate to refer a friend or family member to any one of my colleagues because I know that they are hardworking, knowledgeable, ethical, and friendly people to work with. Beyond DeLeon, there are plenty of excellent agents out there in the community as well. Finding the right agent for you is one of the best things you could do as buyers looking to find a home.
