There’s always something to howl about.

The Kids Really Are Different…

There is so much pop-demographic-driven hype about Gen X, Gen Y and the “Millennials” (I saw that movie…cartoon family in red suits, right?) in the RE Blogosphere that it has become a bit of a cliché.

It makes sense: The industry is dominated by Boomers, and if you are a self-proclaimed RE Guru, there is no better way to scare a Boomer into downloading your eBook than to suggest that they are no longer “hip”, that the next generation is smarter about technology than they are, and that the alignment of these two trends threatens their very way of life.

Sort of like how their parents felt about the Beatles.

Then something comes along that syncs up with the hype, and it reminds me that there really is some substance behind the idea that generational demographics are at work, and that it matters.

On the Property Detail pages of our RE Search Engine, we encourage people to ask our agent a question. We have cleverly named this feature “Ask Our Agent” (AOA).  This recent question is my new favorite:

“Straight up: Does this neighborhood suck? Don’t lie, I will be there soon, and if you do, I’ll know.

You can tell me if it sucks without saying, “Hey Jay, It sucks out there.”  Be smart.

P.S. Don’t lie.”

This question reveals so much in so few words:

  • Homebuyers really are getting younger.
  • Younger Homebuyers approach home buying on the Web in the same “straight up” fashion they approach other interactions on the Web.
  • Younger Homebuyers assume RE agents will lie to them.
  • Younger Homebuyers assume RE agents are idiots. This one actually instructs the agent on how not to lie and admonishes the agent to “Be Smart”.

The property in question is a $105k, 3 Bdrm row house in Bridgeport, CT , so it is within reach of a younger buyer. The listing is not our client’s, so all we have on it is what came out of IDX – the base facts and the one picture (complete with garden hose and trash cans) that shows a house that looks to be in reasonably good shape, but tells us nothing else, including the name of the neighborhood let alone whether or not it sucks.

This is where the rubber meets the road for this industry right now: The Gen X and Gen Y buyers don’t have a lot of faith in us to start with, but they will engage, anyway. In this case because the agent who posted this listing has done such a poor job (confirming their suspicions about all RE Agents), that he didn’t have much choice.

How we respond to the Jays out there, when they grudgingly reach out,  will determine whether they work with us or work around us. Jay wants somebody to give him the straight up truth about this ‘hood, and he knows he isn’t going to get it on TruliaVoices. He is looking for an honest response, what the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto called “the Human Voice”:

The real thing. We have knowledge of what we do and how we do it — our craft — and it drives our voices…

The Cluetrain also points out that we are pretty good at recognizing a true Voice, and I submit that Jay probably doesn’t care much about your Blog, because, while its your words, its not your Voice, and its not specific enough. A Bridgeport Real Estate agent could Blog all day long about what a beautiful town Bridgeport is, how it has lots of parks and a great zoo, but that’s not what Jay wants to know.

Jay wants to know two things: Is anyone selling crack next door to this place he is interested in,  and can he trust you to tell him, straight up (as in email me back and let me know), without you trying to get his pre-qualification letter first?