Good news for real estate agents, despite the myriad way potential homebuyers can find information about a home online, 86% of those surveyed in a national survey says that real estate agents are important or very important to the home-buying process.
Not only that, but some 71% says they’re perfectly comfortable using a mix of technology such as Zoom email and video calls to buy a house completely online, according to the Emerging Real Estate Trends 2021 National Study by eXp Realty and The Center for Generational Kinetics.
The study found that 61% of older millennials (35-44) would consider selling a home in the future entirely
online and never have to meet with a real estate agent in-person. This is especially true for current
homeowners as they are 17% more likely than renters to buy or sell a home without any in-person visits.
The study also discovered that almost two-thirds (61%) of new homeowners and homebuyers are more
likely to ask about a real estate agent’s technology resources and tools compared to before the pandemic.
Tech-savvy agents wanted
The vast majority of respondents say having a “tech-savvy” agent is important or very important across all areas of the home-buying process including searching for and finding the right home (86%), understanding the housing market (85%), negotiating the best price and terms (84%) and understanding one’s financial options (83%). The bottom line is consumers expect real estate agents to leverage technology to create a better experience for everyone involved.
Not only are almost half of millennial homeowners and homebuyers likely to buy or sell their homes
completely online, the vast majority are also comfortable meeting with real estate agents in many nontraditional settings. Older millennials (35-44) feel more comfortable than other generations meeting with their real estate agent in non-traditional settings including in a park (79%), at their current home (78%), at a coffee shop (76%), or virtually via video conference (75%). What’s more, 51% of this same group say real estate agents should be required to make all their services virtual so they don’t have to meet in-person.
The pandemic has changed the way people think of “home,” with 73% of survey respondents agreeing that owning a home is more important now because of the pandemic. This is especially true for millennial homeowners and homebuyers – the largest segment of homebuyers among all age groups – as 80% of millennials say that owning a home is now more important to them than before the pandemic, a change in importance that is significantly more than older generations. More than three-quarters (77%) of younger millennials (26-34) have a weekly, monthly or yearly savings goal, more than any other generation, and 64% of older millennials (35-44) say they are saving more since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, again more than any other generation.