Why you should be thinking about Gen Y

You think the earth’s plates have enormous tectonic shifts when earthquakes occur?

Wait until you get hit with the demographic shifts that are about to take place in your real estate market.

We talked before about the “silver tsunami” of baby boomers who are retiring, an estimated 77 million of them leaving the workforce at a rate of 10,000 per day.

Well, guess who is going to replace them at the office? A huge bubble of Gen Yers, people born between the years 1979 and 1997.

In less than eight years from now, the workplace will flip from 50% baby boomers and 25% Gen Y workers to 50% Generation Y workers.

That means there will be a bubble of these people now making serious money in this country.

Are you prepared to market to them?

For example, some real estate agents and brokers might still scoff at the use of social media and posting on Facebook and Twitter. They are probably not seeing huge returns on the investment of their time.

That all changes with Gen Yers. These people were RAISED on Facebook and Twitter – it’s in their DNA.

Going to the park to walk the dog? Let your friends know on Facebook. Ate a tasty sandwich. Tweet it.

In fact, they have already moved on to the next big things with Pinterest, LinkedIn, and a preference for messages via videos on You Tube.

Computers, that’s old school. It’s ALL mobile with them.

Ever sat down to dinner with a Gen Yer? During the meal, the conversation is between you, them and whoever they are texting.

These people are technologists. There were practically born with computerized circuitry in their veins.

They are going to start making serious money. They are going to start buying houses.

What are you doing to appeal to them?

The first thing you had better do is make sure your web site is wired for 2013, not 2003. That means a site that you can change quickly, optimize for search engines easily AND feed posts to all those outlets out via RSS, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The best way to do that today is with a WordPress real estate site created specifically for brokers and agents.

Why WordPress?

How’s this for validation? In the NAR 2011 Realtor Technology Survey Report, they asked what were the most valuable technology tools Realtors started using in the past 12 months. WordPress was one of them.

Real estate agents are learning that WordPress sites are the website of choice when it comes to owning a site that is able to service the rapid pace of change in today’s marketplace.

You can’t wait a week for your webmaster to make changes on your site. You can’t wait until whenever when you need to update listings on your site.

GenYers operate at one speed – NOW.

Now is the time to start preparing for this generation. Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1978) are also still out there and will be coming into higher incomes as well. And, they too are wired big time.

It’s seems pretty darn evident – get your website up to speed. The techno-saavy, high-speed generations are about to take over.

To read on CNN how Gen Yers will change the workplace, click here.

To learn more about how you can easily convert to a WordPress platform for your real estate website, click here.