How Does Technology Influence A Millennial Homebuyer?

Technology is everything to millennials. They grew up with technology, used it in the classroom, and even pursued majors devoted just to technology in college. It’s a useful obsession, considering technology is the future. Merely a product of their upbringing, millennials use technology for making important and informed decisions at every turn in their life, including home buying.

There is a lot of different ways technology influences millennials real estate activity. From finding the home, vetting the home, and deciding on the home, to integrated smart home tech features, technology shapes the entire process.

Real Estate Apps: By now, you’ve heard of Zillow and Trulia, two of the biggest real estate apps in the world that provide up-to-date listing information, listing maps, asking prices, renovations, and more on properties. Updated in real-time, millennials check these apps before starting the home buying process. They also crosscheck information with these apps throughout the process to ensure they aren’t being lied to.

Research: Millennials are big into research today, which means they’ll use review-based platforms like Yelp.com to vet realtors and other lending agencies working with them on the process.

Social Media: Yes, millennials will most definitely use social media to check out community amenities, as well as shortcomings. Although they may trust the realtor, they’re going to use technology to do their own vetting process behind the scenes.

Smart Homes: Millennials are willing to pay an average of 20 percent more a month in order to secure a home with smart technology. They want electronic access, keyless locks, interconnected doorbells, a mobile security system, and of course, voice-activated home assistants like Amazon Alexa. Millennials know this kind of technology will expedite their daily processes and save them time.

The smart home reasoning is probably the most important one for sellers to take note of if they want to successfully sell to millennials. Millennials are looking for things like smart thermostats for monitoring energy usage, smart watering systems that enable millennials to turn sprinklers on and off with their phones, and smart doors and locks that are device or fingerprint activated so keys aren’t necessary anymore.

Overall, technology influences the real estate process of millennials from start to finish. The more technologically transparent and supportive a real estate firm, seller, and lender is, the more likely a millennial will work with them and close the deal on that house. Technology is one way to earn their trust.