The
Importance of Relating
Well to
Younger Home Buyers
In Orange
County, California, most Realtors®
(the majority being in their 50s) know pretty well how to relate
to homebuyers who are approximately their own age and even older
boomers (1944-1962)
But what about
relating to the younger homebuyers…the Gen X and Gen Y gang, those
born 1980-1990? The ones who are often our Orange County First
Time Home Buyers. Studies show that these First time home buyer
consumers, who have considerable spending power, are confident,
often risk-taking, may favor entrepreneurialism over a “safe” job,
and are prone to taking more risks than the boomers did (whose
parents may have lived through the depression of the 30s).
Lucky for them, the
government is offering First Time Home Buyers a special and
generous home buyer tax credit:
Frequently
Asked Questions About the Home Buyer Tax Credit
The American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes a tax credit of
up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a
principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before
December 1, 2009.
The following questions and answers provide basic information
about the tax credit.
http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/faq.php. You
SHOULD go here because it really does answer everything about the
First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
If you, as an Orange
County First Time Home Buyer have more specific questions, we
strongly encourage you to consult a qualified tax advisor or legal
professional about your unique situation.
Because they grew up
during the information age, youths want everything now, now, now.
They want answers now! And if a Realtor here in
Orange County cannot provide answers fast enough, they may go to
another agent.
Today, nearly 80% of
homebuyers go to the Internet to find homes and real estate
agents. And you can be sure that the Gen X and Gen Y folks are
well represented in this group. Using a computer or
the Internet to them is as familiar as boomers driving a car.
However, this group may be weak when making key decisions about
construction or remodeling budgets, choosing the right builder,
scheduling construction benchmark completion dates, creative
financing and other somewhat detailed or esoteric considerations.
Here in Orange County, California, Gen X and Gen Y members buy
much Orange County real estate because North County has older more
established communities with lower home prices, and South County
has more elevated prices, thus any pocketbook can be accommodated.
What? Are Gen X and Gen Y folks
really
shelling out nearly a million dollars for a home? Well, they
almost have to here in upscale Orange County, California, where
home prices have escalated some 40% over the past three years. In
fact, homes in South Orange County even went up about 6% in 2006.
Note that this happened when real estate in most of the rest of
the country hardly appreciated at all, or, in rust belt and
auto-related states, actually diminished in value.
And remember that the
boomer parents of X- and Y-ers were prodigious savers, taught from
youth and the experience of hard times, to conserve, save, invest,
pay off mortgages, retire with pensions, put away money for a
rainy day, and …be sure to have a good life insurance policy.
As a result, their
kids and their kids often inherit a considerable sum upon
the parents’ demise---plenty of money for a good down payment on a
home with a nice sum left over for a solid investment. Here is an
opportunity for a smart Realtor to bone up on the very concerns
that these two groups of young people will have when buying a
home.