A Real Estate Discussion Blog

"There is a whole new change in the way people look at luxury.  It's moving aways from being in-your-face, conspicuous consumption to how you feel in your environment."

- Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, a consulting firm that studies consumer behavior.  She was addressing the trend towards smaller-scale homes and furniture.

I believe there are a lot of factors that influence this statement.  Obviously we can't overlook the economy being one.  But I think a lot of it has to do with simple Generational differences in priorities and methodologies to approaching life. 

I recently heard Jeremy Conaway, a real estate industry consultant, speak on a subject I personally find fascinating- generational differences when it comes to buying a home.   

Age can be a defining factor, or a generational challenge, when figuring out how to market a home to a particular segment of people.  Different aspects of a home are more important to others, and your marketing can be adjusted to accommodate this.  For example, according to Jeremy:

Civics - This group tends to value safety, security, they often moved within close proximity to other family members.  Neighborhood promotion is what speaks to them.

Boomers- Boomers were consumed with working 80 hours a week and didn't care as much about neighborhood, as they didn't plan on being there long anyway.  They were working towards being able to buy their next bigger home.  Gated communities appealed to them, and big homes with room for all their toys.  Their home could be thought of as a showpiece.    

But let's focus on the group of people who are the next crop of home buyers:

Gen X, Y and Millennials   - Grew up with their parents not being around as much, as they were always working, and are determined to enjoy more family time and be at all the little league games.  The home is the center of their lifestyle, which means open spaces and highly upgrades kitchens for the family to hang out in are important.  Neighborhood is also a very important, as lifestyle is something they think a lot about.

This group of people happen to be among some of the poorest, for a couple of reasons.  First, they are willing to sacrifice higher paying jobs and longer hours for more time at home and secondly, inflation rates have accelerated beyond cost of living rates.  But what makes this group even more challenging is they grew up with all the niceties that their more wealthy Boomer parents were able to provide and they expect that this level of comfort will not change for them.  So while they are making less money, they have high standards.   

Also interesting was Jeremy likened this group to that of a 3 year old, as a person who constantly asks ‘why' throughout the transaction.  Why does the lender need those papers, why do I have to pay title insurance, why has this home been on the market for nine months.  This group of people is very good researching online and because of this wants to feel like an equal in the transaction.  They want to be constantly informed and communicated with along each step of the way. 

The research they are doing also impacts what homes they want to see.  Jeremy threw out a great phrase, calling this crop of homebuyers "frugal chic".   When they say they want to see homes in the 200K, this is the highest price homes they want to see and showing them anything higher makes they feel like their research is being disrespected, which could easily lead to a firing.  Verses when a Boomer says that they want to see homes up to 200K, they are really willing to go up to 300K if they find something they like, as they can probably afford it. 

I realize these statements are painting a big group of people with a single stroke, and obviously isn't going to apply to everyone.  But I find it fascinating to at least realize that there are guidelines out there to help when working with a particular group, as there is some truth when applied to the masses.  

Wasn't a lot of movement in the rankings this month, except for Coldwell Banker who shot up 10 spots in popularity from the previous month.

Sept Ranking, Site, Aug Ranking

1      www.realtor.com    1

2      www.realestate.yahoo.com     2

3      www.zillow.com    3

4      www.ziprealty.com     4

5      www.rent.com    6

6      www.remax.com    5

7      www.servicemagic.com    7

8      www.coldwellbanker.com    18

9      www.hud.gov    10

10     www.homegain.com    8

11     www.trulia.com    9

12     www.apartments.com    11

13     www.century21.com    13

14     www.realtytrac.com    12

15     www.homes.com     14

16     www.realestate.msn.com    15

17     www.mynewplace.com     17

18     www.visualtour.com     16

19     www.forrent.com     19

20     www.loopnet.com     24

After approximately 13 years of positive growth and appreciation in real estate, we are now in our 40th month of a negative growth national trend.  When the recover starts (or it may have already started in your area), the psyche will not be same as it was in the early 2000’s for years to come.

It is also predicted that more general market share and position will change hands in the next 18 months, then what has occurred over the last 18 years, again weighing on the average American’s psyche.

The psychological impact of what we are going through is bound to stick around beyond the rebounding years, and is something that the real estate community will feel as they deal with the public. For example, it is interesting to look at how long it took for people to start buying cars again, even after the Depression was long behind them. And the people that went through the Depression, even today, still have a much different outlook on how resources should be spent than that of a Gen Yer.

The Psychology of Down will be interesting to watch and understand as markets start to come back. Do you think people will now be more conscious of what they can actually afford?  Or do you think this will be a short lived lesson?  Or do you think people will be less likely to learn lessons from this situation thinking that government is there to throw a golden parachute if necessary?  Interesting times... 

Zillow has always let you post listings for free.  And when you created a free profile on the site, your photo shows up on all of your listings and on any contributions you might make on the site (ie Discussions area).  However, until today there really wasn't a way to just search for Agents, Lenders, or Real Estate Professionals. But not anymore! 

Today we launched the Zillow Professional Directory!!  All you need to do is create a free profile on the site to be included. If you have already created one in the past, it will automatically be included in the directory.  If your broker or a listing syndicater is sending your listings to Zillow, then it is still necessary to create this profile.  Please make sure to register with the same email address that is used in the feed.  This will ensure we match your profile to your listings. 

 Make

When you create your profile, include your specialities and the areas that you serve.  This will help ensure that you come up in all appropiate searches. 

Another tip- in your profile there is an area to write "about me".  Here you can obviously write marketing text, but you can also include relevant links to your website.  So you could say "I specialize in Wicker Park..." and Wicker Park could be a hot link to the area on your website that might have Wicker Park neighborhood information.  This will help with your SEO efforts! 

You can read the full announcement about the launch of the Zillow Professional Directory on our blog.