Millennials are turning 40 and settling down. They made up the largest portion of homebuyers in the U.S. in 2020, so it makes sense to market to this crowd and their distinct preferences when it comes to selling your house.
Here are the home features that millennial buyers love.
Millennials are looking for walkable communities, and luckily, Nashville ranks as a very walkable city. Newcomers can even sign up for a group walking tour.
Highlight stores, restaurants, and entertainment within walkable distance, and advertise any nearby hike and bike trails. The Natchez Trace Parkway and Urban Riverfront Park are big draws for millennials and everyone else moving to Nashville these days.
The outside of your home is just as important as the inside. Since more than half of millennials own a dog, they want a fenced-in yard for Fido to roam.
They also want the landscaping to be low maintenance. Whether it's a gorgeous monochrome flower bed or a display of Tennessee native plants, bringing your yard up to shape is a must.
Some of the changes brought on by 2020 are probably going to stick around -- and that includes at least some working from home. A home office or separate work space will remain a top home feature for millennial homebuyers. If you have a home office, that’s something to advertise, even if it’s just a built-in desk in the living room.
If you don’t have a separate room for working from home, consider staging your home to create a work space by grouping furniture to divide a room into working space and living space.
A lot of millenials are first-time homebuyers, and DIY is not at the top of their list. Move-in ready and updated homes are very attractive to this generation of homebuyers.
How to market your home to millennials: Update your wallpapered bathroom and Formica kitchen counters to something more trendy. It will pay off with this segment of the market.
Millennials are a digital generation, and they want smart features in their homes.
Increasingly common tech features like a digital doorbell camera -- Ring or Nest are two popular brands -- and smart thermostats are not expensive and easy to install.
Some of the most popular smart home features include outdoor Wi-Fi smart plugs to control things like decorative lighting with the touch of a smartphone. Smart locks, home security systems, and smart lighting are also high on that list.
Millennials are growing up, settling down, and buying homes. This is such a big generation -- 72.1 million -- that home sellers ignore millennials at their financial peril.
Make your home more attractive to this set of homebuyers. This can be as simple as changing the features you highlight in your listing and adding a few flower beds and a doorbell camera -- or more complicated like a kitchen revamp.
But knowing what your millennial target buyers are looking for will make those home offers come in faster and higher.
Desiree Miller staged her first house at age 6. By all accounts, Barbie and Ken loved her work, and Desiree has stuck with it ever since. Desiree still stages homes today, and she writes about real estate topics.