With a new generation of home owners comes a new generation of buying, selling, and overall real estate techniques and trends. These changes may make the real estate business hard for agents who are used to older approaches. Here are five tips for dealing with the next generation of real estate.

1. Renting is just as common as owning
The last generation of home owners married young (typically in their early 20s), purchased a single-family house in the ‘burbs, and got started on paying a 20-year fixed mortgage. Moves to new houses only occurred once or twice after this initial purchase.
But times, technologies, and occupations have changed, leading to a more versatile and flexible pool of home buyers who travel more constantly, move more regularly, and look to expand their horizons on an almost annual basis. People are moving to and between big cities, looking for homes that are right for a much smaller time frame than original housing owners.

2. Time may be money, but beware of mistakes
Technology has sped up many processes, the buying and selling of homes not excluded. It’s easier to find listings,  see homes online at your own convenience, and compare potential purchases. Advances such as these have also made the physical real estate transaction process faster as well. Documentation is easier to access and process. But even with all the time, money, and effort saved with technology, the home buying process should not be rushed. Make sure to take the time to cover each step thoroughly.

3. Don’t forget your agent
Real estate has become less agent-oriented and much more do-it-yourself-based in this next generation of the industry. This, however, does not mean you should go at it completely alone. Your local real estate agent has valuable experience and knowledge that can make your process less stressful and overwhelming. It certainly pays to use a little help from an expert, who can save you time and money when looking to buy or sell a home.

4. Research is the new, prevailing trend
The next generation of home buyers has been raised to research just about everything. If you want to appeal to this new market, you need to make sure you’re doing the right research on your end, too. Sellers need to know how and what the new market is looking for in order to make their property appealing and viable. You can easily be overlooked if you don’t take their habits and expectations into account when posting and readying your listing. A Yahoo! Homes article by Brendon De Simone suggests that you ” Leverage today’s resources and technology and think like a buyer before going on the market. Once you go live, there’s no turning back. If you aren’t completely ready to sell, don’t list.”

5. Lend yourself to loan research
Because the permanence factor in housing has changed so drastically, it no longer makes sense to secure a 30-year loan for a house or apartment you may not be in for more than a couple of years. Make sure to really look into different loan options when taking that next step. The right research can help you from making some costly mistakes.

One thing to keep in mind when looking at the next generation of home buyers is that the emotions in the real estate process have not changed, despite everything else. Buying and selling a house is still a personal experience. It’s always a good idea to be thorough with every aspect of a sell or buy and to remember that, even though technology has increased all manner of efficiency, you and your potential buyers or sellers are still human.

Article Citation: De Simone, Brendon. (April 25, 2014.) 5 tips for navigating the next generation of real estate. Yahoo! Homes. Retrieved April 26, 2014 from: https://homes.yahoo.com/news/5-tips-navigating-next-generation-real-estate-035404879.html.
Picture Citation: http://blog.edmontonhomesforsale.biz/2013/11/05/youthful-buyers-continue-to-drive-housing-sales-in-october/