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Much has been written about the challenges and opportunities that come with working in the Millennial housing market. One of the big secrets of the housing industry, however, is that the most reliable market is not the young who are buying their first property, but the seniors who are looking to sell.
If you are interested in finding a reliable, lucrative real estate niche, here are three reasons why the housing market for seniors represents an exciting opportunity for motivated realtors:
Most Baby Boomers Have Property
Almost all seniors today are from the Baby Boom generation who came of age in the sixties and seventies. Because of different economic realities, when baby boomers reached adulthood, purchasing land and a house was much more feasible than it is for the young people of today.
Boomers were more likely to own their own home than their parents or their children, and this means that as they have aged their property values have skyrocketed, especially if they bought in a growth market like New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, or Los Angeles. This means that Boomers can be sitting on a lot of equity that is tied up in their home. If you want to know how you can get into the industry so that you can facilitate this kind of sale, click here for more info about how you can get licensed as a realtor in your jurisdiction.
One of the things about getting older is that you are less able to maintain your property. The people who bought single-family homes in the seventies, eighties, or nineties and raised a family in them may be getting to a point in their lives where they are living along and would prefer to downsize to a more easily maintained condo. Seniors, like young people, are frequently on the move, and this represents and opportunity for real estate agents.
When downsizing a property there is much that needs to be taken into account, and this is especially true for seniors. Specializing in this kind of deal can be a great way for real estate agents to build up a dependable customer base as more and more seniors get to the point in their lives where they want to move to a more manageable living space.
Seniors are More Likely to Work with Real Estate Agents
Like a host of other industries, the purchase and sale of houses and condos has been to some degree disrupted by the explosion of tech start-ups searching for ways to make real estate deals more efficient.
But while Millennials are more likely to be open to alternative ways of purchasing property, older clients prefer to work with licensed professionals like realtors. This means that they are more likely to be on the look out for a real estate agent in the first place.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report, senior housing is one of the best property types for investment and development. In fact, the senior housing market ranked second for investment prospects in 2018 for the second year running.
With many housing markets facing uncertainty in the coming year, real estate for seniors remains a reliable bet for any agent, and one that rewards dedicated cultivation.
