How to Use Real Estate Data for Lead Generation
Every year since 2017, the Zillow Group has put out a Consumer Housing Trends Report.
The reports contain home buyer, sellers, and renter survey results. The survey results are from 13,000 respondents that did a real estate transaction within the last 12 months.
Real Estate Marketing Ideas based on Zillow Data
Call Action reviewed the Zillow data and use it to create effective real estate lead generation ideas for agents.
Use the data to build home buyer personas for your next real estate marketing campaign.
Remember that real estate marketing is designed to generate inquiries from three primary communication channels:
- Calls
- Text
- Emails
Make sure that you have a marketing automation system like CallAction to capture leads from each of these communication channels before launching a real estate marketing campaign.
We will start with understanding the consumer so that we can design high converting marketing campaigns.
Goal is to Create Real Estate Marketing the Resonates
Let us start by saying that the goal of this information is for you to create marketing that home buyers will pay attention to.
This means your imagery, headline, and offer are all in alignment to match home buyer avatars / personas.
Your real state ad campaigns must always be compliant with fair housing rules.
Be sure to always review and adhere to real estate advertising guidelines.
Let’s take a look at home buyers.
Important Consumer Insights for Real Estate Professionals
We reviewed the housing trends to highlight some of the insights contained in the report.
Use the takeaways to help with your marketing and to build your real estate business.
We will break down the takeaways for home buyers and do a follow-up post for home sellers.
(make call to action for notification of next Seller post)
2019 Home Buyer Data
Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report summary setup into various sections.
Get a PDF of the Zillow report now
- Text ‘Zillow 2019‘ to (855) 341-3555
You will get the PDF download instantly via text message.
Who were the Home Buyers 2019
Home Buyer Year over Year Percentage Changes
The average age of the home buyer went from 41 in 2018 to 43 in 2019.
Married couples stayed the same at 65% for both years.
Homebuyers with children under 18 years climbed 3% from 2018 to 49% in 2019.
Which Generation is Buying Homes?
Massive demographic shifts are happening currently with Baby Boomers and Millennials.
Here are some year over year comparisons for the last two years.
Generation Z Home Buyers
First, we’ll cover Gen Z buyers defined as 18-23 in 2018 and 18-24 in 2019.
Older Gen Z buyers increased to 5% of total buyers in 2019 vs. 3% in 2018.
Millennial Home Buyers
Next, we have the Millennials that are 24-39.
In 2018 42% of home buyers where millennials vs. 39% in 2019.
Gen X Home Buyers
Gen X on of the smallest demographic groups which are 40-54 years old.
This stayed stable at 25% in 2019 vs. 26% in 2018.
Baby Boomer Home Buyers
Baby Boomers are one of the largest generations. These Baby Boomers are currently 55 to 74 years old.
They are the single largest group of property owners making up 41% of all owners with 32 million homes in the US.
Baby Boomers’ home buyers accounted for 28% of purchases in 2019 vs. 24% in 2018.
Silent Generation Home Buyers
The silent generation which is anyone over 75 stayed the same at 4%.
There was a 16% increase in Baby Boomers buying homes.
List of Home Buyers Sorted by Age
Summary of the largest to smallest groups of home buyers by age.
- 39% of home buyers are Millennials ages 25-39
- 28% of home buyers are Baby Boomers been 55-74
- 25% of home buyers are Gen X ages 40-54
- 5% of buyers are Gen Z ages 18-24
- 4% of buyers are the Silent Generation 75+
90% of all real estate buyers are between the ages of 25-74.
Understanding Who is Buying Allows you to Focus your Real Estate Marketing Efforts
Now you understand the top home-buying age groups you can start to think of life events of those age groups.
This is important since most real estate transactions tend to be influenced by life events.
Top Reasons for Buying Real Estate
According to the 2019 Zillow report:
- 35% of people moved because of life events.
- 21% moved because of market conditions.
- 49% moved for other non-specified reasons.
The 2019 home buyer report did not list the reasons like the 2018 report did.
Zillow Top Life Events Influencing a Move in 2018
Knowing the primary life events that cause people to move allows you to tailor real estate marketing headlines and ads.
Targeting the right message to the right person will help increase lead conversion.
Here is list of top reasons for buying a home.
- 71% moved because of marriage
- 68% because of separation or divorce
- 52% bought a home because of the adoption or birth of a child
- 51% purchased a new home because of retirement
- 48% bought a house after school graduation
- 46% was due to the health of family member
- 46% change in job location
- 45% purchased a home because of a change in mobility due to disability
- 40% had a family member move in
- 39% moved because of death in the immediate family
- 37% bought a home because of job pay increase
- 37% because of a job layoff
- 33% bought a home because of improvement in personal finances
- 30% because finances got worse
- 30% started school
- 25% decrease in pay caused move
- 22% moved because of a new pet
If you look at the life event list carefully, you can break it down it broader categories for simplicity.
Use those events as the foundation for your real estate marketing and to identify lead sources.
Age + Life Event = Successful Real Estate Marketing Campaigns Personas
As you review the demographic data and the life event data of current home buyers you can start to build a persona and messaging.
Here are a few examples to get you started. The number one life event is marriage and the top age demographics are Millennials and Baby Boomers.
There are two primary newly married couples;
a) younger Millienial married for the first time
b) older Gen X or Baby Boomer getting married a second time.
Now you have two different personas of the top home buyers.
Create a successful campaign for each using age-appropriate imagery and headlines to attract those personas.
You can also stack the personas in your advertising to be even more targeted.
An example is as follows:
Picture of a younger couple getting married (71%) with a new baby (52%) in the wedding.
A headline maybe as follows:
“Does your new, growing family need a larger home?“
That is an example of the right message, to the right person.
Use the data provided above to create your personas and marketing messaging.
Home Buyer Marketing Ideas
You now have home buyer personas so now you must focus on sources to connect with these personas.
Ideally, you have the correct imagery and headlines.
Below are a few real estate marketing tips to connect with home buyers based on a life event.
This quick list includes online and offline sources
Marriage
- Wedding websites
- Wedding planners & photographers
- Bridal Conventions
- Facebook posts about engagements, weddings
- Blogs and FB groups
Divorce
- Divorce / Mediation Attorneys
- Legal / Attorney Websites
- Court Filings
- Facebook statuses
- Support groups
- Online blogs / information sources
Kids
- School info / websites
- Kids events / sports
- Mommy Blogs & FB groups
- Baby shower websites
- Graduation party websites
Jobs
- Facebook status changes
- Job sites
- Human resource departments
- Relocation information
- FB status updates
Health
- Medical websites
- FB posts
- Probate Attorneys
- Old owners of 2 story homes
We will be doing an in-depth post on real estate lead generation ideas soon.
Where Are Home Buyers Looking at Homes?
Now that you have real estate marketing personas you must advertise in the right places.
Here are the information sources used by home buyers during their home search according to Zillow
- 82% Real estate agents / brokers
- 73% Desktop websites
- 60% Mobile websites
- 56% For Sale / Open House Signs
- 52% Friend, relative, neighbor etc.
- 51% Smart phone mobile app
- 32% Builder sales center
- 31% Print ads
- 23% Direct mail
Note that the top response that you control #4 which is the 56% of people that reference real estate signs. You should use call capture real estate signs with a call to action.
#1,2,3,6,7 are all your competition.
Right Person, Right Message, Right Time in the Right Place
Combine everything mentioned about in your real estate marketing and watch your lead generation grow.
Right Systems and Workflows to Convert Real Estate Leads
Now you are generating real estate leads you must make sure you can keep up with the volume.
You need intelligent automation like CallAction to handle your lead inquiries via calls, text and email.
Questions, call us (844) 955-0505
Download previous years of the Zillow Reports.
- 2019 Zillow Consumer Housing Trend Trends Report PDF
- 2018 Zillow Consumers Housing Trends Report PDF
- 2017 Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report PDF
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*All Data from Zillow Group Consumer Trends Reports
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