Although the nation’s Baby Boomers are beginning to share the spotlight with other large age groups such as Generation X and Generation Y, they are still charting the course for future trends in the nation’s real estate industry, and agents must adapt to their evolving desires in order to thrive in the market.

That was the message delivered at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors annual convention in Falmouth last week, as a packed room of agents listened for ideas about their future business planning.

“People born between 1946 and 1954 have done more to change America than any other age group,” said Dianna W. Brouthers of the population she categorizes as “early” Baby Boomers. Brouthers is a South Carolina-based, nationally recognized speaker on real estate issues who runs the Web site www.collegeofrealestate.com.

“We were the ones that didn’t like what was going on in Vietnam, we protested and we changed it. We were the ones who wanted to forward the civil rights movement and the women’s movement, and we got together and changed it,” she said, citing examples of the Baby Boomers’ influence on the nation.

Brouthers said it was the Baby Boomer generation that jump-started the idea of moving out of the city and creating suburban communities when members of that generation got married and decided to raise families. It is the members of that generation, she continued, who are now planning to “resize” their living needs as their children have grown up and moved out of the home, while at the same time are realizing they may have to take care of older parents in the coming years.

Financially, Baby Boomers will also be looking to move to new homes to take advantage of a hot market and currently favorable real estate tax laws that Brouthers predicted won’t last forever. “There is a window of opportunity out there right now,” she said.

“Baby Boomers will continue to drive the housing economy,” she said. “They’re going to be the ones to force change in the real estate industry over the next 15 years. Generation X and Generation Y are big, but still, no one will have the clout that they do.”

Brouthers said the Baby Boomer market is a great market to get into because people in that generation are looking for new housing opportunities. And unlike other generations, Boomers generally are loyal and dedicated, meaning they will be more likely to stick with one real estate agent after working with them once successfully.

But those same Boomers also possess qualities that are going to force real estate agents to adapt the way they do business to that population’s wants and needs. Baby Boomers are interested in doing many things themselves, Brouthers said.

“We’re the ones who have made all those Home Depot employees multimillionaires,” she said, “because we are the ones that are saying we can do things ourselves.

“How does that affect real estate agents? Well, 40 percent of the 78 million Baby Boomers out there are going to be moving,” she continued. “They [may] say ‘I can do some of this myself.'” Because of that thought process, Boomers may begin asking agents to “unbundle” their services, offering assistance in only limited areas and therefore receiving a smaller commission.

“The e-companies are already offering this, which is something we haven’t been able to do,” Brouthers said. “The Boomers are going to take a look at the services you offer. They’re going to ask you what exactly they’re paying you for.

“They’re not planning to cut you entirely out of the transaction, but they’re not going to want to pay for what they don’t need. There are over 2,000 Internet sites out there where they can do it themselves. We’ve got to offer them some value.”

The key to offering them value, she said, is identifying what the consumer wants and being able to offer that to them.

For example, Brouthers said Baby Boomers place a high emphasis on personal safety and are looking for properties in gated communities or housing units in buildings with limited entry. Additional amenities such as a garage are also favorable.

Developing a Plan
Since the Baby Boomers are an aging population, they will most likely show an interest in housing that features ample lighting to make rooms easier to see and navigate and that accommodates possible future accessibility issues including the use of a walker or wheelchair.

Installation of levers instead of knobs on doors for arthritic hands is a plus, as are grab bars and handrails in the bathrooms. Brouthers added that because Baby Boomers still do not consider themselves senior citizens, they often opt for stylish grab bars that look more like a decorative accent yet still function as well as traditional fixtures.

“Baby Boomers are not senior citizens,” she said. “We’ll take that senior discount, but don’t call us senior citizens.”

In addition to purchasing somewhat smaller homes with greater amenities, Brouthers said experts predict the percentage of high-end renters in the Baby Boomer market will also increase as people choose to move back to major cities they moved away from when starting families.

“People don’t want to leave their roots in the city,” she said. “But they don’t want to have to dig around the roots either, and when you rent you have someone else doing all the digging for you.”

Agents need to develop a plan now to target the Baby Boomer population in the future, Brouthers said. “You should set yourself now to be able to answer all of their questions,” she said.

“You need to develop a plan. Any road is going to get you there if you don’t know where you’re going. But right now, if I had to choose a specific path, I would line my Mercedes up on this Baby Boomer road because they’re going to meet my [business] needs for the next 10 or 20 years,” Brouthers said.

In order to reach that target buyer group, Brouthers said effective marketing is key. And since surveys show Baby Boomers are very likely to make use of the latest technology, she suggested the most modern forms of communication.

In addition to using e-mail marketing to reach potential clients, Brouthers suggested logging on to chat rooms that typically attract Baby Boomers and establishing yourself there as a real estate resource.

Other suggestions included scheduling educational seminars that incorporate other issues important to Baby Boomers, such as financial planning.

“Agents need to develop a niche market,” she said. “We tend to spread ourselves too thin. We can’t be everything to everybody, but we can be everything to somebody.”