Old school tactics or digital strategies: Communication holds key to generational sales

With an average dwelling and land value of $1,455,000, Gen X lead the way, while Boomers have developed a portfolio worth $1,360,000, and Millennials are yet to break the $1 million mark.

Clarke & Co director Nick Clarke told REB that one of the largest challenges when dealing with buyers across generations was the difference in communication styles.

“Younger generations are too scared of the process,” Clarke said.

“They’re too introverted, and a lot of the time they like to hide behind a keyboard or a phone.”

“You can get more out of them on the phone than you would in person because they would be too uncomfortable in person.”

Clarke said he had found that once agents educated younger buyers about the process, they were typically much more invested in buying a property.

“You have got to give them the confidence in the product, and once you give them the confidence, they just buy it,” he said.

While younger generations preferred communicating through technology, Clarke said Baby Boomers preferred interacting face-to-face.

“The older markets, they prefer to do everything in person,” he said.

“You have a much better chance of engaging with them in person; they’re old school.”

Clarke said that Baby Boomers hadn’t initially set out to grow their wealth with a property purchase, but had still benefited from the increasing market.

“You brought your main house, you paid your mortgage, and then you retired. That was the mindset of older Australians,” he said.

“They got lucky by their main place of residence growing in value from what it was, but they haven’t created wealth.”

He said that it was important for agents to tailor their approach to individual demographics.

“At the end of the day, the only thing that has an increase in price is emotion.”

“If you can’t create emotion with someone, then you can’t increase the price,” Clarke concluded.