Last year, millennials accounted for 36% of the home purchase market
For years, millennials – those between the ages of 19 and 37 – have been called the next big wave of homebuyers. Well, that wave hit the shore last year, with 36% of all home purchases involving millennials.
The implication for you, as a power originator, is as clear as a moonlit sky: If you want their business – if you want to ride the wave with them – you better speak their language and know their tech communications habits and preferences cold.
Unless you like saying goodbye to more than a third of all potential business, you better jump on board with these tech tips:
Don’t dial for dollars. Millennials prefer instant messaging, texting, email and other forms of written communications. Millennials are not exactly phone phobic, but they like the editing, deleting and buffering features that the written form provides, plus they can open texts and emails at their convenience.
You love tech, you love tech, you love tech. Affirm your commitment to technology, even if you have to fake it until you make it. Put yourself in an open and receptive state of mind to learn new things. Try a positive affirmation like: I enjoy mastering new computer skills every day, so I can provide my clients with even better service. By repeating your affirmations daily, they are more likely to happen.
Be selective. Every day, scores, if not hundreds, of new computer programs and apps come out promising to revolutionize your business. You can’t possibly learn them all. So, identify and tackle one or two skills that you believe could dramatically impact and improve your computer literacy. If you know your potential millennial clients are up to their digits in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +, you better ramp up these social media skills first.
Start a buddy system. Fumbling around a keyboard for hours can be painful, especially when a friend might be able to show you, in a keystroke or two, how to navigate a new app or program. Generally, people like to share their knowledge so don’t feel like you’re imposing. Try to return the favor. In exchange for showing you how pin a Tweet to the top of your profile, buy your new benefactor a $5 Starbucks card.
Take a class. There are more computer classes, both physical and online, than ever before. Formal instruction, where grades are handed out, increases accountability. Many classes allow you to proceed at your own pace. Besides your local city college, check out your hometown’s recreation and senior center for no- or low-cost computer classes. Remember, once begun, half done!
Teach yourself. YouTube shows more than cat videos. Just enter a task or a skill in the YouTube search bar and scores of tutorials will pop up. Basic Google searches can also help you solve some computer riddles that have been holding you back.
Work for a tech-forward company. Align yourself with a company committed to meeting the digital preferences of today’s consumers across a variety of platforms, meaning your millennial customers can interact with you how they want, when they want.
New American Funding’s ground-breaking GoGo LO platform is a high-touch, intuitive system that enables loan originators to deliver the push-button service that their millennial prospects and clients have come to expect. From their mobile devices, New American Funding loan officers can instantly communicate with all parties working on the loan, which includes running soft pulls or tri-merge credit reports on the spot, sending pre-quals promptly, signing and submitting final 1003s, and providing real-time loan status reports from opening to close.
If this looks and feels like a wave you want to catch, call New American Funding today, and we’ll get you on board.
