The first step that you must take when you decide to sell a real estate property is to learn about your potential buyers. Reliable real estate agents can help you understand your buyer most of the time. But even the most experienced agents are unsure when faced with millennial homebuyers. And since the numbers of millennial homebuyers in the market are increasing every day, you are more likely to lose out on potential buyers if you don’t understand their buying behavior.

The buying habits of Millennials can be puzzling. Don’t worry, we have got you covered! This article features some common characteristics of millennial homebuyers that you should be aware of.

They Take Longer to Buy Homes

Most millennial homebuyers in the United States tend to be motivated to purchase a home in their late-twenties and early-thirties. In the meanwhile, they live in with their parents. This phenomenon, however, is provoked by several factors such as:

• The lack of job opportunities and a tough job market
• Unsteady income
• Changing societal norms, like multi-generational home, are more acceptable now
• Changed attitudes towards marriage, i.e., marrying later in life

Another significant reason why millennials take longer to buy a home is because of their trend of ownership. A millennial will ideally move in with parents after graduation, and then rent a home before finally purchasing a home. It is also worth noting that married homeowners are way more common than single homeowners simply due to financial reasons.

They Have Different Preferences

If you think you know too much about millennial homebuyers already, you should think again. Even though they have often been considered to be an ‘entitled’ generation, their purchasing attitude reflects that these entitled millennials are not as spoilt as expected. They surprisingly make smart, careful, and responsible decisions when buying a home. For instance,

• They are more likely to give up luxuries and sacrifice their lifestyle to save enough money for a mortgage payment.
• They prefer affordability and convenience over making unnecessary expenses
• They tend to buy older and smaller homes
• Place emphasis on buying homes in urban areas closer to their workplace or in suburbs that have a good transport system

 

They Are Cautious When Making Financial Decisions

Like each generation, millennials are also affected by the state of the economy in its formational years. In the United States, this generation is still dealing with the effects of the great recession, which has inevitably made trained them to take cautious financial decisions. Reduced job prospects and increased amounts of college debt put them in a position where they can’t afford even to imagine buying a home immediately.

They Mostly Rely on Online Resources

This is a key characteristic that you should keep in mind when selling your home. Most millennial homebuyers will resort to online resources when looking for a home to buy. They prefer doing their research before they even hire a real estate agent, and hence, you must capitalize on this. When short-listing houses for purchase, they are attracted by high-quality photos, appealing descriptions, and the ease of the process. So don’t be surprised if they know more about your property than you expected!

They Think of Home Ownership as Independence

The concept of ownership is viewed differently by millennial homebuyers. Although they do consider owning a home as a long-term investment, their primary motivation to purchase a house is that it will give them autonomy, independence, and security. They see the ownership of a home to be a flexible and fluid process – when they buy a property, they don’t expect to spend their entire lives there. Instead, they are willing to relocate whenever a better opportunity strikes them, and they can afford an improved housing option.

Final Thoughts!

The millennials may delay the home buying process, but they are certainly not running away from ownership. If anything, they are an influential market force boosting demand for new houses. The millennial homebuyers in the United States, therefore, continue to have a strong presence in the real estate industry.