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Millennials and Mortgages- the two words that seem to be on everyone’s mind recently. As a professional Millennial working in the mortgage industry, I’d like to offer a first-hand account of what we see and encounter in the Mortgage and home buying process.
I’ll share my perspective of my own home buying experience throughout several posts this year, and hopefully provide a bit of insight into one of the larger hot-button topics we continue to hear about: Millennials.
“They are entering the market.”
‘They are ruining the market!’
“They are difficult to classify in the market.”
We sound like an alien species.
A few things I’ve noticed is that this market, and EVERY market, likes to try and classify Millennials. We’ve been dubbed as the ‘lazy generation’, we are dismissed as valuing ‘in the moment’ experiences over long-term goals.
In reality, Millennials are not difficult to classify. We are young adults. Some of us have established ourselves in our careers. Some have put roots down and started a family. Some have traveled the world to gain a better understanding of cultures and global phenomena. So, why are we viewed as terrifyingly different from the generations before us?
We love technology.
And quite frankly, we only love technology because we grew up with technology, and not in a ‘that child always has their face in a screen’ way, but technology has matured in its functionality, processing power, and screen size as we have matured through our educational years. Conversely, older generations, specifically those employed in the mortgage industry, get frustrated because they can’t seem to ‘figure us out.’ With this in mind, I’d like to look at the two stereotypes that I’ve encountered and read about the most.
Millennials spend the majority of their time online.
Well, we are researchers. We were in grade school when the phrase ‘just Google it’ became part of the worlds’ vernacular, so it’s difficult to imagine our behaviors being any different as adults. We prefer to be well informed in any decision we’re making, whether it is the ingredients in our food, the chemicals in our cleaning products, or the average salary of a job before we submit our resumes. Why wouldn’t the same apply to our home search? We utilize apps and websites to look at a home, the number of bathrooms, the last time it was purchased, but we still crave guidance and need professionals to talk to when it comes to the nuances in mortgage calculations and applications.
Millennials would rather have a truly digital mortgage experience.
Sure, it’s nifty to have the mortgage calculators built into some of those apps, but we take this dollar amount with a grain of salt. It’s a ballpark estimate, and we don’t expect that to be the exact amount we pay on a mortgage. In fact, I personally don’t want a machine telling me at all what I would pay for a mortgage. I want, and need, to talk to a professional who has been in the industry for more than my lifetime to tell me how the market has ebbed and flowed, if I should lock in a rate, if I should wait for a different season, or if I should work on my credit before even thinking about applying for a mortgage. As much research as we can do, nothing will truly be the best mark of a ‘good time to buy’ than going into an office and talking to the expert behind the desk.
In my next blog post, I will share my experiences, concerns, and initial reaction that the impact Credit Score has on the application process.
