MILLENNIALS - The New Face of Real Estate

By Thomas R Wilkins, CEO February 05, 2010
For Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associates 5 Part Blog Recruit Series

Stroudsburg--Text messaging, email, IPods, Facebook and being mobile as ever is a part of the new generation, the Millennial. The Millennial are the young workers ranging in age between 21 to 29 years old. They have the potential to create a lasting change in the real estate workplace because of the way they live, communicate and more importantly, the way they view their jobs.

Managing the Millennial as a Broker or manager can be challenging. Millennials are more productive and work more efficiently than they were initially perceived by employers. Because they differ from other agents in the workplace, they can sometimes stand out and be a bit "different". They may not be like those mature or "old dogs" you have in your office.

The Millennials are very goal oriented and ever critical of their own performance. They are very interested in making their career in sales. This generation's performance is equal to or greater than that of other generations. They are immediate in looking for a return of their labors and are not afraid to make that known.

Other general characteristics of the Millennial generation include them being very mobile, likely to live within 3 miles of the central business district and have a feeling of autonomy and independence rather than being part of a team. They always want to win, are collaborative, confident and embrace diversity. Don't expect to see them at the water cooler, instead, expect them at your local Starbucks®.

As a Broker, it's important to recognize the positive attributes of the Millennial generation and make sure that we prepare for them. Appreciate that close to 100% of buyers start their search online so it's important to have the tools readily available to the Millennial worker so that they can efficiently do their job online. That means social media, a popular and tracked internet site, the proper tools to produce contracts, listing agreements and other documents online and other online marketing all become important in retaining that Millennial agent.

One thing is for certain, the Millennials are here to stay and will in fact become the New Face of Real Estate. -- I say, "Welcome aboard!"

Thomas R. Wilkins is CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Wilkins & Associate. He has been actively involved in the real estate industry as a Broker for the past 22 years. WARE has 5 offices and 107 Realtors®. Their offices operate in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.