Skip to main content

Housing Shortage: Love is the Answer!

I recently came across a survey conducted by a company called CentSai that involved 2,050 Americans aged 18-34.  The major upshot: Millennials are far more traditional about home buying than previously believed.  Let’s take a look at some of the stats from the survey:

     •91% will use an online site or mobile app to research neighborhoods, homes, and prices (nothing earth shattering about that, but I thought it would be nice to start off “soft”)
     •75% said they will use a LOCAL real estate agent instead of an online agent (interested yet?)
     •71% said they will use a LOCAL lender (does that mean they’d rather have face-to-face interaction over a matter that will most likely be the biggest financial decision in their lives up to this point?)
      •56% plan to purchase a home in the next two years

While you attempt to stop your head from spinning off your shoulders, let me add something.  Currently here in the United States, the 18-34 age group is about 76 million people.  Using the last statistic listed above, that means 42.5 million people plan on purchasing a home in the next two years!  (If that last little tidbit did, in fact, make your head spin off your shoulders, use some duct tape.) 

Homes aren’t being built nearly quickly enough to keep up with that number.  Add in all the people in other age groups who are planning on purchasing in the next two years, along with the folks who will be purchasing investment properties and second homes, and suddenly you’re looking at the makings of quite a Sisyphean task for the real estate world (for both agents and clients).  (A Sisyphean task is one that’s impossible to complete; it was named after a chap in Greek mythology who was forced to push a huge rock up a hill while showing distressed properties to potential clients who refused to get prequalified.)  Fear not: I have an idea that can help a lot of you. 

Priority Lending is going to become a matchmaking service – the eHarmony or Match.com of the mortgage/real estate world.  Both agents and potential home buyers should come to us for a “get to know you” session.  We’ll be able to get a feel for your personality, your likes and dislikes, etc. and then start matching you up with the right partner in this quest.  However, before we send you out on your first date, we’re going to prepare you.  Agents, we’re going to make sure you know how to answer any question your date will throw at you to assure you get that second date.  Potential home buyers, we’re going to help you understand what’s going through a realtor’s head so the two of you can be on the same page – it makes for a much more pleasant dating experience, which will lead to the Big M.  Yes, you guessed it: Mortgage. 

Rather than trying to go it alone and establishing your own love connection, come to us first.  We’ll get you prepared so that you make the coolest power couple around.  That dream house will be yours because NO ONE will be better equipped to negotiate and find creative solutions than you will be!  Our new motto: Priority Lending, Love Conquers All!  Let it grow on you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Numbers Don't Lie, But Wherein Lies the Truth? (Posted November 21, 2016)

Said with enough conviction, you can make almost anything sound true.   Preface the fabrication with “according to a recent bi-partisan government study,” and you’re three quarters of the way to selling the lie to a lot of people.   Seriously, try this. The next time you’re at a dinner party or having coffee with friends, pepper this little tidbit into the conversation: “I read something really interesting the other day.   According to a recent bi-partisan government study – I think it took them three years to get it all done – middle-aged men who drive either a Toyota Camry or a Honda Odyssey have more testosterone than younger men who drive either a Ford F150 or a Dodge Charger.”   You’ll get some raised eyebrows and looks of mild disbelief, but don’t let that deter you.   Just lift up your hands, palms outward, and say, “I just think it’s interesting, and it makes sense when you think about it” – and then change the subject to something completely u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Couching Your Savings Correctly (Posted July 25, 2016)

I recently read an article online about a gentleman who set a goal to purchase a home and then mapped out very specific steps as to how he would reach that goal.   Personally, I was extremely impressed by his discipline and foresight.   His goal had two parts to it: save $150,000 for a down payment and purchase a home.   Before you choke on your coffee or spit soda through your nose, let me disclose here that the gentleman who is the subject of the article was purchasing a home in the New York City area.   Now that your blood pressure is returning to normal and you’ve spared your freshly ironed white shirt from staining, I’ll give you a breakdown of his plan: •   Starting in 2007, he looked at his annual salary and then took a look at the amount of credit card debt he was carrying; he cut back on as many expenses as possible so he could pay off that credit card debt in the first year.   Touché! •   He kept his lifestyle scaled back to the poin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dumb as (or Smart as) a Box of Rocks (Posted June 27, 2016)

Obviously, you all want to know what Brexit means to the economy and the housing market specifically.   So do I!   But since my crystal ball is at the cleaner’s, let’s give the Brits and the European Union a little time to work out the terms of their separation and look at something else.   What’s a “fad ”?   With the help of Google, this is what I got as a definition: “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities; a craze.” In April 1975, an advertising executive by the name of Gary Dahl invented the Pet Rock.   The idea came from his sitting in a bar with some friends who were complaining about the cost and time required to take care of various types of pets.   He marketed his “pets” by placing a rock in a box cut and shaped like one you would get at the pet store to carry home a puppy or a kitten.   Along with the box and the rock, a booklet was included...
Post a Comment
Read more