How Boomers Can Sell Their Homes to Millennials

This real estate broker suggests four projects to snag a sale

By Sabine H. Schoenberg for Next Avenue


Newsflash to retiring boomers: Millennials account for 32 percent of real estate buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors. That’s why it’s essential to know what Millennials want in homes. Their values and desired lifestyles are very different than their boomer parents.

Millennials, perhaps more than boomers, have very specific criteria when choosing homes. Make your house fit their criteria and you will expand buyer interest, which means your home will sell faster and probably at a higher price.

What Boomers Wanted, What Millennials Want

Generally speaking, boomers who bought homes to start families purchased what their budgets allowed and fixed them up over time. Nothing could be further from the minds of typical Millennial buyers.

For the most part, Millennials are looking for the finished product and will pay for it. They want what they see in magazines — nothing less. They don’t seem to view themselves living in any one place for a very long time, so there’s no time for gradually rolled out home improvements.

The bottom line: To capture the highest selling price, undertake some key home renovations before listing your house for sale.

Here are four projects to consider:

Open the kitchen to a family room and combine them into one space. Millennials want kitchens that are great places to hang out with everyone while cooking. Even if the removal of a wall creates fewer cabinets and, in your mind, reduces the functionality of the kitchen, do it and increase the desirability of your home.

For the same social reason, if at all possible, give your kitchen a center island with room for stools, because that’s where Millennials want to congregate. (If you have a dining room, they may well turn it into their home office.)

Be certain your home has easy WiFi access throughout the house. Millennials demand the ability to use their smartphones and tablets everywhere. So make sure cell signals are strong and, if they’re not, install WiFi boosters. A faltering cell signal can be a deal breaker for Millennials.

Fill your home with eco-friendly materials. Boomers taught Millennials that recycling was a big “green” idea. Millennials take this a giant step further, viewing themselves as “members of the planet.” Consequently, eco-friendly materials and lifestyle choices are a part of Millennial DNA.

Fast-grown materials like bamboo in flooring and wood with FSC (Forestry Stewardship Certification) in kitchen and bath cabinets are important considerations, and thus clear selling points.

Oh, and save yourself from any conversation about underground oil tanks: if you still have one, remove it before listing your house.

Make sure your house is healthy for its inhabitants and visitors. Millennials want to see health-focused home improvements such as no-VOC off-gassing from paint; mold- and fungus-free basements and good air quality. They also prefer wood flooring over carpet and look for super energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.


Home Location and Size

That said, there are two other things you should know about Millennial buyers that you can’t do much about.

One is that accessibility to an urban center will figure into the pricing of your home. Millennials want to be walking distance or minutes from town. Being out in the boonies and spending lots of time driving is not appealing to them. If your house isn’t near a city, discuss with your listing broker how best to offset this negative.

Unlike boomers, who often opted for more property in exchange for slightly more remote locales, Millennials will accept smaller lots just to be near the city.

The other issue you can’t do much about is that a large house may be a turn-off to Millennials. The-bigger-the-better mansion-sized homes were status symbols for super-successful boomers. But that concept is antithetical to Millennials, no matter how successful they are. Many of them reject size over efficient use of space.

As a real estate broker, I frequently hear statements from Millennial buyers like: “I don’t want to be in separate parts of the house and never see my family.”

For them, compact, well-designed “open concept” and “connected” floor plans are the order of the day.

Every seller can improve the selling value of his or her home. A bit of good planning, based on key trends, and the right upgrades can position yours for the broadest audience. In real estate, “good luck” is generally created.


© Twin Cities Public Television - 2015. All rights reserved.



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Declutter Challenge: What Works Best for You?

By Liza Kaufman Hogan for Next Avenue

Photo courtesy Liza Kaufman Hogan

My 30-Day Declutter Challenge ended in a flurry as I scrambled to complete the last three days of clutter collection.  

The goal of the challenge was to collect one item on Day 1, two on Day 2 and so forth for 30 days. By the end, I had culled more than the requisite 465 items, really closer to 500.

My declutter pile is big (see ugly photo) but not as big as I imagined when I started the challenge — maybe because I didn't have large items like furniture to shed. Instead, I have amassed a large pile of small items like books, toys and electronic flotsam and jetsam.

The challenge was well suited to a declutter procrastinator like me. Having rules to guide (and force) me to collect a certain number of items per day was really helpful. It occurred to me that you might also do the challenge backwards starting with 30 items when you are most fired up and work down to one item for Day 30. However you get there, you'll be glad you did.

Readers Share Their Declutter Tips

We invited readers to join the challenge (it's not too late to start now) and asked them to share their best tips for paring down their possessions. They had some great advice:

• "I keep a shopping bag and fill it with things to give away, and donate that full bag every week to a local thrift shop. Then I open a new shopping bag to fill." Pamela Koller, Queens, N.Y.
• "I decide what has value for me today. What do I really need and want in my life today, and what is something from the past that no longer serves me?" Kevin McGrath, Anaheim, Calif.
• "I try to think if anyone else will care about this item if I were dead. The answer is most often, no. I still may have a hard time parting with it. I don't like to throw away anything useful, so it must be donated or put on the curb for someone to take." Pam Chapman, Dallas, Texas
• "I organized and labeled boxes into categories: trash, sell, donate, file." Rich Crossett, Louisville, Ky.
• "I remembered William Morris' (19th century textile designer and novelist) dictum: 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.'”  Jean Melom, Seattle, Wash.

Like me, some readers found it painful to part with some things. Asked what was hardest to part with, Koller said, "cards saved by my recently deceased mother. I can't part with them. Yet."

Marie Scruggs, of Dallas, Texas said, "We gave away a trampoline that wouldn't fit into our new backyard. That was hard. The kids had so many great memories associated with it."

Melom said her books were hardest to discard. "But a friend was having a big book sale with benefits to support the marriage equality campaign in my (former) state, so I felt good helping a cause I believed in," she noted.

Other Ways to Declutter

Doing a declutter challenge or following tips from others are two ways to jettison things you don't need. But what if you have years' worth of stuff and need help going through it? Or you don't have a lot of clutter but need help organizing what you do have or are preparing for a move?  

Professional organizer Janine Adams of Peace of Mind Organizing in St. Louis, Mo., suggests partnering with a friend to get two houses done instead of one. The work will go faster if you have someone to keep you on task, she says. Even Adams declutters with another professional organizer. She recommends you choose the friend carefully. Someone who will encourage you to keep everything or is easily distracted or is in it for the stuff she'll get may not be the best person for the task.  

When You Can't (or Don't Want To) Go it Alone

Sometimes you just need a professional if you don't know where to start or don't have time to do it on your own. Adams says there are five common reasons people turn to professionals for help organizing:

1. They feel overwhelmed.

2. They don’t know how to get organized.

3. They are afraid they don't know how to do it right.

4. They want it to go quickly.

5. They need help staying focused.

If you are looking for a professional to help declutter or organize, check the directory of the National Association of Professional Organizers. You can search by ZIP code and expertise, such as help for families with children or hoarders or particular needs or home office set-up. When I did a general search for residential services, I came up with 33 organizers within five miles of my home.  

If you are helping a parent move or preparing yourself for a move to a retirement community or a smaller home, you can find tips and someone to help through the National Association of Senior Move Managers.

Adams sometimes works with clients helping a parent downsize or move. These situations call for special patience and empathy. You have to "remember that it's their space and their home. Respecting their wishes is really important," she says.  

Generally, Adams does not recommend people rent storage space — what she calls "paying rent on your stuff." But, she adds, "if they want to keep everything, plan to move stuff into storage if affordable."

She says it's important to keep in mind that the person or couple moving may be OK with a living room crowded with furniture if it means keeping things they love, even if that's not how you would arrange your house.

Whether you are decluttering on your own, working with a professional, downsizing the family home or repurposing a room as an empty nester, Adams has this advice:

"Be kind to yourself. Something about clutter makes people beat themselves up. They ask: 'Why haven’t I gotten to this?'" As Adams knows, we all have clutter to a greater or lesser degree. However you approach the challenge, it's difficult. But trust me, it feels great to let go of it.

Copyright© 2014 Next Avenue, a division of Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.

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