By Jason Boone
For many millennials, the only experience they have with buying a home is what they remember of the process their parents might have gone through:
Hush-hush conferences with a Realtor. Reams of paperwork documenting the financial means to purchase a house. Phone call after phone call setting appointments with lenders, inspectors and others.
Now, millennials – roughly defined as those born between 1982 and 2002, an age group that makes up the largest segment of the U.S. population — are increasingly entering the home-buying market themselves, and their sheer volume is changing how homes are marketed and sold.
As millennials stake claim to a larger share of the home-buying population, they have come to expect the ability to look for and buy a home on their terms.
It’s worth remembering that the millennial generation is the first that grew up with the Internet. They don’t know of a world that predates on-demand purchases, online reviews and instantaneous response.
When buying a home, millennials can expect that the people they deal with, from their Realtor and their lender to their home inspector, will communicate and conduct business digitally. There’s no need to wait for a phone call when communication can be done via text messaging and email. In this age, signing documents for a purchase offer, providing documentation to secure a loan and researching the sales history of a home can all be done online.
Millennials are accustomed to getting the information they want — historical trivia, sports scores, social updates from friends — when they want it. That’s no different when it comes to researching a home.
When millennials want to learn about a home, they want the information regardless of the time of day. To meet that expectation, Realtors nowadays are accustomed to providing detailed information in an online listing, replete with photographs that present a 360-degree view of the home and valuable details that help a prospective purchaser make up his mind.
Millennials are known to consult a dozen online reviews before plunking down $100 for a dinner at a restaurant. For a home, a purchase costing two or three thousand times as much, it’s only natural that millennials will want to know everything possible about everyone involved in their transaction. Their Realtor, lender, home inspector and title insurance company should have an online presence with a wealth of reviews from clients.
Whether you’re a millennial who is relatively new to the housing market or an experienced home buyer, my knowledge of the Bend market can help you find the right home an appropriate price. Likewise, if you’re a seller, I can help you market your home for maximum exposure in today’s environment.
To learn more about Bend home prices, get started with listing your Bend home, or to view area homes, contact me at (541) 383-1426 or via Bend Property Search to connect with me through my website.