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How Millennials and Gen Z are shaping Real Estate

• Courtney Twiss • Episode 46

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Unlock the secrets to successfully navigating the ever-evolving real estate market with the insights from our latest podcast episode. Discover how millennials and Gen Z are not just participating but driving the industry forward with their digital-first preferences. We explore how real estate agents must adapt, embracing virtual tours and remote closings to cater to these tech-savvy generations. By drawing parallels to other sectors that have adapted to technological shifts, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of the necessity for embracing social media and engaging video content as essential tools in building relationships with younger buyers.

Join us as we tackle the financial hurdles that these younger generations face on their path to homeownership. Inspired by financial philosophies akin to Dave Ramsey's, we stress the importance of mentorship and financial education, especially for those in high-earning trades. This episode goes beyond the basics, offering creative strategies like workshops and video communications to demystify the home-buying process. Learn how cultivating long-term relationships and candid financial discussions can empower millennials and Gen Z to make informed, confident decisions.

Finally, experience our journey to harness the power of social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Through success stories from industry leaders like Rob Brown and Levi Lasek, we reveal how these platforms can be incredible lead generators. We share personal anecdotes and strategies for maintaining consistent, engaging content, enhanced by SEO and AI tools. As we gear up for an exciting trip to Orange County, follow our adventure and gain insights into keeping your energy high and strategies sharp in the dynamic world of real estate.

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Speaker 1:

My friend's man down See twist is look at how great we look, but rain or shine. Here we are.

Speaker 2:

We're here, we're sick, but we're on, we're both sick but we have more sick than I am. I think I might be too Not so fun. But you know what, when the work is there, you gotta do it.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Now. Making Moves in Real Estate, episode 46. Sea twists coming at you sick, as is the general. I'm not really sick, I've just got a cold. But we're here, rain or shine, and today's topic is, I feel like, brought to us solely by C-Twist because she falls in one of these categories a millennial. She falls in one of these categories a millennial. So our topic is how millennials and Gen Z are shaping the future of real estate and what agents need to know to serve them better. So why is this important and timely? Because these generations make up the largest share of homebuyers today. So their unique preferences require real estate agents to rethink the traditional strategies, and we're going to talk about buying preferences, communication styles, challenges and how to stand out. So, Courtney, why did you pick?

Speaker 2:

this topic. Well, first of all, I do have to say yes, I am a millennial, but I think I would be described as an elderly millennial. I looked up the years, so millennials are born 1981. That's where I fall, to 1996. So essentially it's 27 to 43 year olds.

Speaker 1:

So I just made it into that category At least you're on the cusp. Right, I don't even, I don't even make it in there.

Speaker 2:

So and then we got, we've got the Gen Z's are 12 to 26 year olds. So basically, our, our kids um, those have just grabbed, you know, you know, just graduated college. We've got everyone in our ranch fence team. A lot of those are our buyers that we're working with. So I just thought it was pertinent, since this is our main buyer pool right now and you got to cater to them a little bit differently than you do different generations. So you know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

I mean I was well, go ahead. No, no, go ahead, michelle.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was just thinking about it. Like you know, you're totally right, because no matter how much you want to help your clients, regardless of age, we can be focused on customer service. We can do all the things, but if you're not like adapting to technology, you're going to miss the boat with this, with these critical buyer, buyer pools. So, yeah, I couldn't agree with more.

Speaker 2:

Well, so there's a thing called digital natives, and that is essentially a word that is used to describe both millennial and Gen Z buyers, and it's essentially just meaning that they are obviously very they find a lot of value in our in tech driven propositions. Um, as well as experiences as well as experiences.

Speaker 2:

So you combine the two of those and we'll get into this a little bit more as our conversation goes on. But, right, Like videos, social media, 70% of them are looking through online platforms for not just homes, but for their realtors, for their towns, for the communities, like everything is driven through technology with with these types of buyers. So I thought it would be kind of pertinent to get a little bit more information on that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's talk about some stats. I thought it was interesting that a growing percentage of these buyers prefer virtual tours and remote closings. Like what does that even mean? Like sorry to be like kind of dumb about that, but I can't even imagine doing like a remote closing I can.

Speaker 2:

Maybe that's because I'm a millennial. I mean, like, what does that even mean? Convenience, it's convenience, right, like's okay. So, first of all, the home tours right, the virtual home tours. That's nothing new. That's been around for a long time. It's just a great way to see a home without having to physically go there. I think you could definitely add drone footage into that as well. It'd be something like that. I think people appreciate, um, but remote closings I, I do think we're going to be going that direction.

Speaker 1:

I mean, what does that even?

Speaker 2:

mean I think at some point it's going to be where you're not having to sit in front of a notary, even like in in title or you do it. We do remote closings all the time with notaries in their area. I've closed deals in different countries, at embassies or in the past. So that's a remote closing and I just think that that's. It's all about the convenience, right, and for them that's a better experience because it's not taking up too much, too much of their time.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I thought it was like something fancy. I was like what does that even mean? That's the stuff we're already doing, so, okay, I thought it was like something different than like what you just described.

Speaker 2:

No, but I do. I do see that that changing with technology, for sure, and AI and just better ways of um. You know, you can have your driver's license on your phone now, like there's just that stuff's changing, I feel.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's just like how you buy a car, right? I mean, it's kind of the same same concept, you know, with all these different ways of buying cars, and then just like, buy it, deliver it. Delivers it to your, to your house. So similar thing similar change in the automotive industry. So, yeah, Anyhow, well. And then over 70% of millennials and Gen Z buyers use online resources, which you already touched upon, so like Zillow, Relatorcom and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Well, and YouTube? Oh yeah, I mean YouTube, right, I think YouTube, which is a Google product, is used. Youtube's basically a search engine, and that's where they're going. Look at all the videos Even we're putting some out there about living outside Yosemite and as an agent. How are you educating these type of home buyers, cause that's something that's important to them We'll dive into, as well as just being super transparent and providing education to to them as they go through the process. That's all part of that experience that we touched on.

Speaker 1:

Well, let's go, let's just talk about that, cause it's kind of skipping ahead. But I thought that that was like, um, the whole social media thing, like all the agents, real estate agents that are out there that aren't using social media, and let's just, I mean I was one of them, like I'm, I'm old, I'm, I'm late to the game on social too, um, and it is like, if you're not adapting to that, like you later, later, I mean you're dead. You're dead Even in the race, you're dead.

Speaker 2:

You're dead Even in the race. You're not even.

Speaker 1:

It's like, not even like a Google thing, like you know, like back in the day you would like Google realtor in San Francisco or whatever, or Yelp, you know. Yeah, now it's go to YouTube or Instagram, go to.

Speaker 2:

YouTube or Instagram. Go to YouTube or Instagram. I mean even for non-millennial Gen Z buyers. Let's just think about buyers in general. Like right now people are staying in their homes an average of 10 years, which is a really, really long time. That's a lot longer than what it used to be I think it used to be like five or six years for a while there. So they know how many realtors like how many realtors they see are in their world and their life and how are you staying in touch with them. It's a that's a lot of work to stay in touch with somebody for a 10 year stretch and I think social is a great way to nurture relationships. So not even just getting in front of new buyers or Gen Z you know the millennials but just buyers in general. Like that's how you nurture relationships. So they feel like they know you and you know them and you comment and you see their stuff and you watch their kids graduate or whatever life events are going on, and it's just a great, great resource for that.

Speaker 1:

Even like referrals. Do you know what I mean? Like if agents are like looking up agents you know in another market and you're not on social media, you're not Right. So anyways, but it's daunting for agents that are like more seasoned to think about. I mean, we've met a lot of seasoned agents that are like fully embracing Remember that, like 70-something-year-old, we met in Cabo. That was like, was it Cabo?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and she's just killing it with technology and social. Amazing, anybody can do it.

Speaker 1:

Totally. So yeah, I've skipped ahead a little bit, but I was like thinking that at the end of the day, like no matter what people obviously like personalized experiences. No matter what age people like transparency, but there's a lot of people that embrace technology and these particular generations are are those people? So got to get on it.

Speaker 2:

Well, and then like back to the education piece of it. You know, even with at Twist, you know we developed a whole homebuyer program where it was free. We called it Healthy Homeownership Program, or HOP for short. You just directly get it off of our website, get it off of our social. It was in all of our content everywhere. Yeah, and it was a great. It was all video based, right, like I think we have 10 steps that the buyers can work through on understanding how to save money, what all the steps of escrow are, and we've had marketed ourselves as trusted advisors for about 10 years now and that's definitely like a term these days, right?

Speaker 2:

I mean obviously more than a term. You want to be a real advisor, real trusted advisor for your clients. But I think it's more important now than ever.

Speaker 1:

So what are your thoughts on this affordability issue with these buyers, because it is another area that I'm not super relatable to with the student debt thing. That happened like way after I went to college, but it's a serious thing. These people are dealing with some debt and then like the rising prices of homes. How, how do we walk those, those buyers, through all of that navigate?

Speaker 2:

So that's it was. The whole reason we created our home buyer program was because affordability was so hard and it's just going to simply take these buyers longer to get to the finish line and you're going to have to cultivate and nurture that relationship for longer than you would have previously. So it's going to start with way more candid conversations with these young folks, these 43 and under young folks. No, just kidding. Well, for the Gen Zs, probably. But hey, what are we looking at? What's the big picture regarding debt? Do you have any debt you need to pay off? Do you have any cars that you could sell? And is there a potential that you live with mom and dad for six months and bank it and not pay rent Like? These are the realities these days.

Speaker 2:

And I'm okay with saying all that because Jared and I, and you and Bo, have done those things ourselves and made those sacrifices to have the ultimate reward of homeownership or, in our case, um. We've taken it even further with a bunch of investments. So I think it was spawned off of Dave Ramsey's financial peace um philosophy. We hosted financial peace courses. How many do you?

Speaker 2:

I think we did three or four over the years, at least four at least four nationally, up nationally and met a lot of great people, and then it was also just a give back to our community. And that's kind of where you have to start. It's no longer let's just start with how many bedrooms and baths? What's your budget? We have to get creative and think outside the box. Maybe look for properties that have assumable loans. It's not cookie cutter anymore and you've got to be savvy and you've got to communicate with these buyers in a way that they'll hear you and what you're saying and it's not necessarily picking up the phone. A lot of them don't even want to have an actual phone conversation. A lot of them are by text. And how do you get all that out there? Well, you do it through videos and then you can rinse and repeat with other clients and it's not you saying it over and over and over.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, I couldn't agree with you more. It's almost refreshing, though, when you do speak to young people and they know who Dave Ramsey is you're like. Oh okay, you must have smart parents.

Speaker 2:

I know Well in you and I we have worked so with my husband's company having a lot of young guys in construction. That's an area actually that is a little untapped because there are a lot of these, these people working in the construction world that are making prevailing wage, which is a really good income, as long as they know not to blow it On trucks by trucks, and quads and toys and boats and RVs or whatever the things are that are so enticing when you have disposable income all of a sudden. And many of them are getting into these jobs right out of high school, so they're not saddled with the debt from college like others, but they just need to know how to be wise with their money, and we've helped, I mean a dozen over the years buy homes before they're even 25.

Speaker 2:

And I just closed on one last week and we have another two from my husband's company. That again, these kids are 21 years old. 22 years old and they're buying homes and we're getting them homes. It's taking a while to get them there.

Speaker 1:

They have really good mentors, though, too. Do you know what I mean? Like they see their, their, their mentors, buying homes at younger ages. And yeah, I mean the one buyer that we have that you and I both share. I mean he, he's like oh, I just want to save a hundred thousand dollars before the end of the year before I buy a house. I'm like, really bro.

Speaker 2:

How great would that be.

Speaker 1:

Gotta have his goals, gotta have his goals, gotta have his. No, he wasn't no, but the thing was is he was not that far off and when I talked to him he was like super close to reaching that and I'm like, okay, when you and I were like 20, we were not saving a hundred thousand dollars, or I mean, come on but no, I was already getting pre-qualified for an interest only loan and bought my first house at 22.

Speaker 2:

That was like a horrible loan. That's why we got ourselves into such a pickle and said and that's why we're here now helping these young guys do it the right way, cause if they can learn from our all of our mistakes, I know, but I mean by learning through that.

Speaker 1:

and Bo and I, when I took him out to that listing today, this morning, he's like how much was that house for? And I told him and he's like dude, and we paid two, 70 for ours. And I'm like well cause, we bought at the right time. Because we learned from buying in the wrong time, yeah, so anyhow, it's just, you know it's.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can hear you, I just the prices are just higher now. So, like I said, it's got to get a little more creative. Um, you know, they're got to simplify the process for them, just to make sure that they can understand it, whether it's through the videos, like we talked about, or checklists are great because, again, checklists can be reshared over and over. You can template your emails or even your text messages and reuse them or use them through your CRM. You could do workshops. We've definitely done first-time homebuyer workshops and I think that's a great way to hit up multiple people. I think it's fun to do them in a fun location, like we did ours at a bar once, which was fun.

Speaker 1:

Well, that was one of the things I was thinking about. That you did such a great job with your brand over the last you know dozen years is just really being looked at as the local expert Like you did that before. Like social media, I feel like. And then, as soon as social media like came on board gosh remember when I used to do your Facebook post oh, nightmare. But anyhow, you were so quick to be like okay, we're going to do these collabs with businesses and giveaways, and, gosh, you started doing that way before everybody embraced that and really solidified your ability to be the local expert in a tech, technologically savvy way. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, and now it's different, though, right, because there's a lot more people on there now than there, and we've moved on more so to Instagram as our platform.

Speaker 2:

But I think that it's even more important to stand out. So, because there are so many people out there and I'm hoping I'm not going to offend anyone with this, because I do love Canva and we're super excited because everybody at eXp now gets Canva pro for free, which is awesome because I paid for it for years but I will say, if you think that all you need to do is make a Canva template and you go pop that thing on your Instagram or your Facebook, that is not enough. Like, that's not going to do the trick. You will blend in with every other realtor that's out there, and these buyers are going to see the same shit over and over and over. So that's where I think again. I think it's no question that reels are looked at. Reels and stories are looked at more than posts. If you are going to do a post, the trend right now is carousels, meaning that it's multiples, and you try to lead from the first photo into the second, into the third.

Speaker 1:

Um, those are getting more attention currently, but it's like trends that you have to stay on on top of you know, but you you were like you were doing all that like stock stuff way back in the day, right Like you were doing like just listed, just closed market trends like C-Twist brought that all game on social and that's what I've always admired about you is like getting ahead of technology so that you can better serve not only your team but your clients.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, I just happen to love it. I do have a degree in marketing, so that's a passion of mine is like the marketing, the branding. I always like looking for new, the new trends, the new ways to get ahead of the curve, um, and I just think you, you kind of have to do that or you're just going to get stale, and I think it's hard, though, when there's all these different platforms out there. So, for for me, I decided all right, facebook's kind of it's just doing its thing. I decided to focus on Instagram over the last couple of years, really try to build up followers for my purse, not my personal, but I have two separate pages, and that's been good.

Speaker 2:

My daughter, who's Gen Z, who we've had on the podcast Bella, was like hey, mom, I don't know what's going to happen with Tik TOK. You know there's a lot of talk about that. Is it going to go away, Is it going to stay? But I think you probably need to be putting your stuff up, and that's like one that I have not for some reason, embraced, even though I know I can just funnel the same, my same reels from Instagram onto it. So I don't know. I know.

Speaker 1:

But remember, when I started, um started all my stuff, what a year ago. What are we in December, year and a half ago, like I started TikTok, instagram, facebook, all LinkedIn, all business pages Cause I didn't have any of that. I was helping you, remember, I started doing TikTok and you were like you own TikTok and I'm like, well, it's kind of hard, like you can't be great at freaking all of it Like tomorrow, do you know what I mean? And we, we were like we need to build this tomorrow. So I started leaning into it and then got distracted with Instagram because we do so much collabing, so I can't, you can't, neglect that. It's like damned if you do, damned if you don't. But I do agree with you. There's so much on Tic Tac, tic Tac, tic Tac, tic Tac Tic.

Speaker 2:

Tac. It's just me not choosing to take the time to do that. You can automate it. Have them go into both.

Speaker 2:

One thing I want to touch on before we sign off, though, is regarding YouTube. So, youtube, I have not done a good job with YouTube over the years. I mean, we now have our YouTube channel for the podcast, which has content every single week. It obviously has algorithms, and consistency is key, but one thing that I learned through some workshops and then when I went to eXpCon, it's I don't want to say it's simple, but it's definitely doable. Like you can just literally use your phone and take some videos and show that you are the, the expert for your area or your expert in whatever you want to be the expert in.

Speaker 2:

Um, simple, and with ours that I just recently revamped, I mean, we're getting like I don't even know how many more views than we were. Hundreds compared to like oh, I had six views previously on old stuff. Um and I'm. What I'm doing is I'm searching SEO, seo terms online of what people are looking for, and then I'm making content around those search terms, and there's AI that you can use to do that to help you see what's current. So some of the ones that I recently did was how to buy a house without a realtor, which?

Speaker 1:

sounds.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but it's obviously catches the eye, um, and you're like, wait, what is she a realtor? You're she's trying to tell us how to buy one without a realtor. And then, of course, at the end it's like, well, this sounds like a little bit too much. Then you know you can actually work with a buyer's agent and they can negotiate their fee from the seller. So make sure you grill your buyer's agent and make sure they're good negotiators. Watch my next video and that was the next video I rolled out and then we did some on taxes. You know just the different things that they're. They're looking, looking up how to what it's like living outside Yosemite, things like that. So, anyway, I do think that that's an area that is going to continue to grow a lot, in my opinion. Instagram and YouTube and again, the YouTube one is really it's a search engine, so that's where they're going to find data, to find info.

Speaker 2:

And that would be a great place to start.

Speaker 1:

You know who does a great job at that is that Rob Brown agent and O'Kurse the Century 21 guy. That's like all he does is just videos. Great job at that is that Rob Brown agent and uh, oh curse, the century 21 guy. That's like. That's like all he does is just videos and he gets all. That's where he says he gets his business from.

Speaker 2:

It's doable and he's not a millennial and he's not Now. I met a guy. He would be a. I think he is a millennial. Yeah, he's younger than I was.

Speaker 2:

Um, he spoke at eXpCon and I had heard him in Salem where I, when I spoke at the conference in Salem, levi Lasek and he was a brand new agent in Dallas brand new, never did any business started the YouTube and he sold oh, it was like an insane amount in one year. He has millions of followers. He did it like in a year and it was all from just consistently and he, like literally in the beginning, was just like holding his phone as he's driving through neighborhoods and just talking about Dallas neighborhoods. It was so inspirational. So I literally looked at what the top of his YouTube page looked like and copied it.

Speaker 2:

He said we could do that, you know, with my own stuff, but like it. He said we could do that, you know, with my own stuff, but like, why reinvent the wheel? So I I had, like a cool cover changed the photo from my twist, really logo to my face, cause people want to see faces, they don't want to see logos. Um, I have, oh, the keywords. That's important. You really do need to research. Use chat GBT, truly use chat GBT and find out what keywords or what hashtags or what you need to put in there so that it captures it in your you know, on your caption for your YouTube video.

Speaker 1:

I think the biggest hurdle for people that that, like myself, that are a bit older, is building the muscle memory and the habit of using your phone. Because, for example, this morning when Bo and I were out at our listing ran out, the car left the phone in the car. It was raining. I have my husband underneath you can see the visual right Bo's underneath the deck pulling out those boxes Like poor guy has his butt crack hanging out. It's muddy, it's raining and I'm like, oh my God, I should be captured.

Speaker 2:

I don't think you want to capture that. Do not post your husband's ass on social media. That is not what we're telling realtors to do.

Speaker 1:

No, it would have been so funny though I could have put like something funny, it was so bad it was like it was just such a train.

Speaker 1:

Funny. Do you know what I mean? It was so bad, it was like it was just such a train wreck. Do you know what I mean? And that's the kind of stuff that's like showing what it's like being a real estate agent, you know. I mean the whole thing like I could have been like videoing the nail in the truck, the tire, and I'm like driving into town and he calls me, come back and get Lauren. Like it was just freaking chaos and I didn't capture one bit of it.

Speaker 2:

It's hard when you're in the moment and sometimes your family doesn't appreciate when you are capturing it or maybe that's just mine.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but if, if I, if you were like, if you build a habit around it and people get used to it and it's just a new, normal, right, that's the thing is these generations, that's what they're doing. They're on their phones putting it all out there 24-7. And you know it's just hard when you're not in your little generation.

Speaker 2:

Or vlogging. Now, the one thing I have not got into is snapchat snapping. Now that's, I think, more of total gen z, but I am wondering if that's something that we can leverage at some point. I don't know, I need to check it out.

Speaker 1:

I've had it on my phone two times over the last 10 plus years and deleted it, like deleted the app. I mean, I'm sure I still have an account, but I can't even remember the last time I was on there, because what would I do on Snapchat?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, but that's definitely that age group, right? I don't know. I don't know how it works that one we have to. We'll have to look into yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, at any rate, I mean, at the end of the day, you got to adapt. That's your, the call to action as a real estate agent. Bottom line if you're not adapting to technology and and finding ways to to to work with these clients, later Going to be doing like two deals a year.

Speaker 2:

And there's a lot, there's a lot of tools out there that you can leverage to know you don't take, so it doesn't take you so long If you don't know what they are. Ask us, follow us. Hey, listen, I've come a long way. Yeah, you have, you have. So, yeah All right.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a wrap. Great topic. When I saw that you wanted to discuss this, I'm like what the you lost me at digital native. So I'm like what the hell is that?

Speaker 2:

Tech-driven all about the experience.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, once I read through it, I'm like, oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Tech driven all about the experiences provide education. If you do those, you'll be their trusted advisor For sure.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, that concludes episode 46, with now making moves in real estate with C-Twist and the general sick look at us. Do we still look?

Speaker 2:

great like not going back to bed. I'm gonna go back to bed now, okay my hair off, get some rest, good night. Good night, my friend get rest like whatever two in the afternoon.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I still got to go to Oakhurst, I know, but you know got to get my beauty on. We got big things coming up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, traveling to Orange County next week. We'll be at OC doing some strategizing, so that's going to be fun, it is going to be fun, so okay, follow our stories all things twist as the general, because you will definitely see fun stuff going on on our trip. All right, okay, Love you Bye.