In the Spring of 2008 Gale Fulton and I attended the REAL Trends “Gathering of the Eagles” conference in Colorado as part of the Leadership Team for the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors.  At the time, little did we know of the challenges our industry would face over the next 2 years. One comment that resonated with both Gale and I was the quote from one of the speakers that “our industry is going through a change that, once we get on the other side, will be totally different from what we know now”.  He must have possessed a crystal ball because he was right on the money. I am going to do a series of blogs that address some of the changes we have witnessed and are now experiencing, the first of which is the change of the consumer mindset regarding their “wants” vs. “needs”.

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We recently attended a Broker Forum which featured Jeremy Conaway of RECON Intelligence Services.  Jeremy travels extensively and consults with many Realtor associations around the country.  Much of Jeremy’s focus was on the differences between the generations and their hopes and dreams.  According to Jeremy the baby-boomers focus was on work, work, work, accumulation of wealth and the status of owning a large home and nice car.  They didn’t have a lot of time to focus on family because they were so busy working to support their idea of the American Dream.  The X-er’s and Y-er’s and New Millenniums are more focused on quality of life and enjoyment of their friends and family. They don’t feel the need to own a big home in a gated community.  They can get by on much less with regards to housing and prefer to spend their money on travel, community service and protecting the environment.  This is our new buyer and as real estate practitioners it is our responsibility to adapt to their way of thinking and doing business rather than attempting to force them into our antiquated and old school way of doing business.

One book you may want to read on the subject is “More Not So Big Solutions for your Home” by Sarah Susanka.  Sarah is an architect and advocate of homes that are smaller, practically and efficiently designed, yet still beautiful and comfortable according to Inman News columnist Tara-Nicholle Nelson.  Sarah compartmentalizes her book into several interesting chapters such as “By Design”, “Room by Room”, “Attention to Detail” while focusing the last half of her book on “Making it Personal” using practical and creative methods to create space and design solutions for the smaller home.

Our industry has never been more exciting with new methods, new consumers and fresh life coming into our lives after the demoralizing market we have recently endured.  Embrace new technology, read (or listen to podcasts) of books such as Sarah’s that educate us on the new consumer and move forward into a fuller life balancing your business and personal life.  It’s a great day! If you’re interested in purchasing a home and great place to start is our Find A Property.