Millennial Marketing: Highlight Your Features in Language They Use!

Did you see the recent Sacramento Bee article: Elk Grove millennials buck national home ownership trend in a big way?

Author Thomas Oide cites marketwatch.com's studies indicating Elk Grove (a suburb south of Sacramento) is the No. 1 city in the country for homeownership for those under 35.  That's the Millennial demographic everyone is focused on!

Millennials favs: large, open spaces, multi-functional rooms -- check!

Smartasset.com attributed the high rate of Millennial homeownership to the strong Sacramento job market (finally!) and relative proximity to San Francisco. Note: median home value is $390,000.

Not every community has the San Francisco factor available for their marketing campaign, however. Builderonline offers suggestions for the rest of us in Redfin's Whitney Bennett's How to Make a Home More Appealing to Millennial Buyers.

We'll focus on Millennial-friendly Suggestion #1 and follow-up with others, soon: Create an Open Floor Plan.

Bennett says most younger buyers are interested in large, open spaces with fewer walls and partitions. Why? They like entertaining in large spaces and are also interested in multi-functional rooms.

How to market that open floor plan? Let's look at a recent CPS SalesTouch installation at Cornerstone Homes' new Agave community in North County San Diego. You'll notice an open first floor area as well as a second floor flex space.

Now, image your home shopper going one step further and interacting with the floor plan, using the drag and drop furniture feature, finding the floorplan meets their lifestyle objectives!  As a builder, your're letting your home shopper dream and create their new living space!

And, it's in a "language" they understand -- interactive technology. This is the generation that grew up with iPhones and iPads, after all.

Encourage your Millennial home shopper to create their lifestyle using interactive tools -- moving away from the standard brochure plan by mixing/matching structural choices, adding furniture, marking up the plan -- and making it their own!

Marketing Homes to Today's Millennial Buyers

There's a recent Builderonline article called How to Make a Home More Appealing to Millennial Buyers (you can read it here). 

Redfin's Whitney Bennett points out  the Millennial demographic makes up a large portion of the home buyer market and suggests several ways to be more Millennial-friendly in your marketing.

SalesTouch: Let buyers start creating their multi-functional living space!

We'll focus on Suggestion #1 and follow-up with others, soon: Create an Open Floor Plan.

Bennett (and the National Association of Realtors in 2014) says most younger buyers are interested in large, open spaces with fewer walls and partitions. Why? These buyers like entertaining in large spaces and are also interested in multi-functional rooms.

How to market that open floor plan? Let's look at a recent CPS SalesTouch installation at Cornerstone Homes' new Agave community in North County San Diego. You'll notice a great open first floor area -- along with the ability to interact with the floor plan and drag and drop furniture letting home shoppers dream and create their new living space!

Next on the Millennial wish list: walkability -- and according to Redfin.com's recent study, each point on the walkability score can increase home prices by an average of $3,250.  More to follow!