If you are a Realtor trying to appeal to first-time home buyers you may need to think outside the box. The Generation Y and Generation X buyers use the internet much differently than do Baby Boomers when it comes to buying real estate. Baby Boomers (and even older retirees) do use the internet to shop for homes and real estate investments. They are looking now to downsize their principal residence and buy a second home that can double as a retirement home.

Gen X real estate buyers are moving on up from their starter homes. They are the ones looking for more bedrooms and bathrooms and larger yards. In short, they want the homes the Baby Boomers are leaving. Gen Y is just coming into its own in the workforce, and picking up steam as real estate buyers. They’ll be snatching up starter homes and townhomes.

As a Realtor you must know not only the home buying preferences of each group but also how they get information on real estate. You need to know how they make buying decisions, including decisions on which Realtor to work with on a home purchase.

If you are focusing on a niche defined by age, then this will determine how you use the internet in marketing your real estate services. Those who are over 70 will not use it much at all. Baby Boomers will use the internet a lot, but primarily by getting MLS-type information from large real estate sites.

Gen X and Gen Y grew up with the internet and so use it differently. These are the people who get news online, causing the decline of traditional media like newspapers.

These are the internet users who made YouTube the #3 website in the world in just two years. They like their videos, eh?

These younger buyers are also big-time users of Facebook. Much more so than either MySpace or Twitter.

My recommendation is if you want to reach the Gen X and Gen Y home buyer, make some videos, post them on both YouTube and on Facebook, link them to your website homepage, and to your blog, then get busy making new online friends in all the right forums.

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Leo Vidal is an internet business expert, and a former Realtor who has been helping small businesses for over 20 years be more profitable using the internet to generate leads and sales.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 10:14 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.