Takeaways From the Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2019 for New Construction
The current New Home Buyer Journey is in a state of flux. The Report makes clear that builder’s sales strategies should be as extensive and varied as possible.
Consider these consumer data points–
- New home buyers are most likely in the Millennial or Boomers cohorts
- In the buying process,Millennials focus on the community amenities and lifestyle while Boomers focus most on the house details.
- The majority of new construction buyers have purchased a home before (66%)—both Millennials and Boomers — so they will often be buying and selling at the same time
- Most of the Millennials and 75% of Boomers work full time
- While we often think new home buyers are motivated to buy due to market dynamics (ie. interest rates), in reality both groups are most often motivated by a life event (42%)
- The majority are married or have a life partner (79%) and are parents (44%)
- The most common methods for finding a builder are:
#1 Driving by new construction in their desirable location (36%)
#2 Searching on the internet (28%)
Conclusions from the data points:
New home buyers are stressed:
- Going thru life changing events.
- They are time-poor due to working, family commitments, etc.
- Likely they have to juggle selling a home while buying
- First time buyers can be overwhelmed by the process itself
It’s important to know which cohort the buyer falls into:
- Knowing if the buyer is a Millennial or a Boomer helps agents direct specific follow-up messages to them
- When conversing online, engage buyer with a survey which asks age or their current address (if an owner, look up to see when they purchased it)
It’s important to know if they own or rent:
- Knowing if the buyer is an owner and if their home is or is not on the market indicates where they are in the purchase process
Besides capturing buyers through the internet means:
- Look for ways to make the sales center more welcoming
- Invest in a system to capture drive-buyers who are dodging the sales center
For more information about drive-buyer lead capture systems, visit www.NterNow.com or call 678-910-1811
**You can read Part 2 of our Takeaways from the Zillow report here.