Thanks to social media like Twitter and YouTube, there’s not much today’s Millennial doesn’t have some basic knowledge of. This is true in real estate as well, thanks to the online availability of MLS data, property history, tax info and permit records.  When it comes to searching for a home or researching how to sell one, today’s Millennial is much more in the driver’s seat than buyers in the past.

What holds true for how Millennials search for real estate also holds true in what they’re looking for in an agent.   According to a National Association of Realtors study completed in July, 2013, Millennials do want help from agents, but because they bring a much greater level of independence to the process than older home buyers or sellers do, they are:

• More likely to find the home they plan to purchase via the Internet, while older buyers typically found their first home through their agent.
• More likely to ask friends and family for agent recommendations, whereas older buyers were more interested in an agent’s overall reputations.
• Interested in an agent to help them navigate the process of purchasing a home instead of helping them find the actual home.  Younger sellers typically want their home sold within a specific timeframe.  Both younger buyers and sellers are more likely to choose an agent based on “honesty” and “trustworthiness” vs. neighborhood knowledge and marketing expertise – which is what older buyers and sellers prefer.

As more Millennials enter the real estate market, agents need to keep these trends in mind when doing business with this up and coming group – where the fact that you helped one of their friends buy a trendy loft close to work is more important than your 10+ years of experience and knowledge of neighborhood statistics.  This can be hard to accept, but according to Forbes Magazine, “Millennials {are the}  biggest generation of customers ever (80 million strong in the U.S., which means there are more Millennials than there are baby boomers).” Ultimately, these changes are already here. Adapting your sales and marketing activities to support millennial perspectives will help make you more successful today — and in the future.