Millennials – a force to be reckoned with

The purchase of a home is an emotional buy. Sellers must speak to potential buyers emotionally. Make them think they’re walking into their potential home.

Baby Boomers, if you plan to sell your home in the next 10 to 15 years, you must come to terms with the broken connection of the typical boomer home and the home today’s prospective buyers want. There are a few things you need to do to make your home appealing to today’s market-dominating Millennials.

What features, characteristics and qualities do Millennials want in a home? Millennials want:

• to be near mass transit
• “walkability” (a home that is easy to walk to stores, schools, work or public transportation from)
• great cell and wireless service
• a home office
• a home theater
• to entertain groups easily
• walls painted with bold colors
• hardwood floors

If your home is the typical Baby Boomer home and you are ready to list it, you can’t move your house to make it closer to mass transit, give it high scores for walkability or great cell and wireless service. You can make your home as appealing as possible to Millennials in the following ways:

1. Take a walk around your neighborhood and visit nearby homes. See how yours compares. This will help you know whether or not major or minor renovations of your home are needed.
2. Hire a home stager to make your home appealing to the Millennials. Buyers feel more connected to a house when it is staged. It can be difficult for them to see through your clutter in order to picture themselves in your home. You can begin your search for a home stager here: https://www.iahsp.com/
3. If your home has a separate living room and dining room, consider transforming your dining room into a home office. It’s important to show Millennials where a home office could be set up in your home.
4. Add some color to those walls. Sherwin Williams says Coral is this year’s color of the year. Add some upbeat and optimistic Coral Reef (SW6606) to your home’s front door or an accent wall.
5. Replace carpeted floors with hardwood flooring. You’ll be amazed at what hardwood floors and a coat of fresh paint will do to appeal to Millennials.
6. Upgrade your old-fashioned, inexpensive countertops, and paint your kitchen cabinets white. Granite still appeals to Millennials, but quartzite is a 2015 housing trend. White kitchen cupboards are, too.
7. Turn “green.” Energy-saving washers and dryers are number one on Millennials’’ list for must-have technology. Millennials are very green.

If you’re a Baby Boomer and want to sell your home this year, making your home Millennial-friendly will be well worth every expense. List your home with The Pikoff Team. We know what’s important to Millennials, and we know how to you can make your home appealing to them. Contact The Pikoff Team at (281) 670-1910 today.