Why You Need Real Estate Market Data On Your Website To Earn The Trust Of Millennials
Millennials are now the hottest home buying segment of the population and there are several reasons why adding real estate market data to your website is a necessity when dealing with this group.
First of all, hopefully, you are paying attention to the Millennial generation. That’s the huge bubble of consumers created in the 1980s to 2000 by that first huge bubble of consumers – the Baby Boomers.
This giant segment of consumers, estimated at 76 million strong, has now entered the home buying stage of their lives. It was a long journey to get there. For one, they lived through the Great Recession when the economy took a nosedive and they watched the price of their parents’ homes go downward as well.
But that was in 2008. The economy has recovered. Millennials are starting to make some money. They are tired of paying rent. Rents that continue to go up. They finally see the value of investing in a house. They know mortgage rates are low but they are noticing how they are starting to creep upward.
Research shows 80% of Millennials want to purchase a home. They make up 66% of new home buyers and more than a third of all home buyers in general. Many definitely plan to buy a home in the next five years.
How great is that?
Real estate professionals have to love the fact that a big part of the population is now eager to purchase a home.
It took a while to get there. Because this is a skeptical bunch.
This is also a wired bunch of consumers, that are digitally savvy.
That means they know they have the ability to use those little devices in their pockets to find the questions they want to be answered. They trust their own abilities, instead of relying on hype, or in this day and age, fake information.
For that reason, many facets of old marketing models don’t work with this group.
In fact, in a study titled “Engaging Millennials, Trust and Attention Survey” nearly 85% of Millennials say they don’t trust traditional advertising.
Uh oh. That means all those newspaper ads, direct mail pieces, and radio spots are not as appealing as they once were, at least to this audience.
Because Millennials are more interested in content than hype.
According to one study, Millennials are 84% more likely to look for and trust experts than ads.
And, since they have been wired since birth, they know how to find information and people with expertise on the web.
Whoa. That’s a tough crowd.
But the great thing about the digital age, especially for brokers and agents, is that it works both ways.
Sure, people today have incredible access to an abundance of knowledge through their iPads, laptops and smartphones.
But in this era of Big Data Technology, a local broker or agent has the ability to provide a tremendous amount of that reliable, trustworthy content directly to Millennials from their website.
(And frankly, one could argue that today, that Generation X before the Millennials is just as wired and even many Baby Boomers are the same way. After all, it was Boomers Like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that made the digital age happen).
Real estate market data tech goes local
After all these advances with personal computers and smartphones, it took a while for big data technology to catch up. For one, the pipelines (broadband and wifi) to distribute that data had to be created
But today, brokers and agents can easily add a few snippets of code and tap into giant databases of local real estate market data and offer that critical content to Millennials themselves.
National data aggregators such as Home Junction have the ability to gather massive amounts of that real estate related content. They have the expertise to access public records, MLS listings, property sales data, US Census results and dozens of other sources.
Some of the records they can pull include:
- Recent property sales
- Characteristics about properties – eg square footage, number of beds, baths, etc.
- School data – the number of students enrolled, number of teachers, student demographics
- Area amenities, eg restaurants, parks, golf courses, etc.
- Cost of living indices
- Real estate demographic data, eg gathered from sources such as US Census data
- And hundreds of other detailed datasets
Home Junction’s data developers created an API (Application Programming Interface) they call “Slipstream” to facilitate the transmission of this data from their massive national database to a local agent’s website.
These real estate data APIs or school data APIs “feed” a local agent in Anywhere USA hundreds of datasets about their particular market. That agent can decide where and how they want to display that data on their own website.
What does all this have to do with marketing to Millennials?
Plenty.
This is the arena where Millennials like to play. Finding their own answers to their questions.
If they want to know about Market Trends in an area, you want them to go to your website.
If they are thinking about starting a family and want to research schools, you want them to go your website.
If they are checking out crime statistics for a neighborhood, you want them to go to your website.
Remember, these people are buyers.
Data has tremendous appeal to Millennials
You don’t want them venturing all over the web looking for answers, perhaps visiting one of the large real estate portals, and letting some other agent capture that lead.
You want them on your website and you want to generate that lead for yourself.
Use the real estate market data on your website to promote your website as a resource for Millennials.
Don’t just post listings on your Facebook page or Twitter posts, but also promote real estate market data as well.
Show Millennials charts pointing out trends in home sales in different neighborhoods. Point out to them how home prices in one area of town are not moving as fast as other areas which might indicate a good buying opportunity.
(This is especially critical at the moment when home for sales are scarce, which naturally has occurred because guess what, this massive shift in Millennials regarding home ownership).
If you send out an email, send out valuable content to entice Millennials back to your website to learn more.
Even on your mailings, offer to create a custom presentation for Millennials with all the data they want to know for their particular needs – school data if they are starting a family, demographic data if they are interested in moving to a neighborhood where there are lots of professionals like themselves, cost of living information if they are concerned about expenses, and so on.
If you provide all of this data to Millennials, they will see you as an expert. The expert on the markets they are considering.
Because here’s another fantastic factor when dealing with Millennials: they also like to read user-generated content and reviews.
If you use your wealth of hyper-local real estate market data to impress them, Millennials will express their satisfaction in positive reviews on Google or Yelp. They will share your information on Facebook or Twitter with their friends. They will forward those emails to others.
Sure, marketing to Millennials might be hard. But if you do it right, it could be incredibly rewarding with referrals coming to you at the speed of an electron.
The game has changed. Technology has changed. Attitudes have changed. Marketing to prospects has changed. But, fortunately, some aspects of marketing, such as adding real estate market data to your website, have gotten easier.
