Renting woes
At some point in our lives we’ve all been there. Renting a place that’s not kept up by a landlord, passive-aggressive fighting over driveway space, the dread of that annual announcement that rent is being raised (again), or even the possibility of the place being sold to new owners. I could go on and on.
Renting is a hassle, and in today’s world of insurmountable student loan debt, car payments, and salaries that can’t keep up with the cost of living, home ownership can seem out of reach for anyone under 40. And don’t forget about avocado toast in that list of contributing factors.
What say you
In the second quarter release of the Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) report, NAR asks consumers about their perceptions of housing affordability in their communities.
They found that 49% of consumers felt that homes were only affordable to those with above average incomes while 41% felt that homes were affordable to almost everyone.
Nine percent of people asked felt homes were affordable only to those with high incomes.
Additionally, those who were college educated were more likely to feel that homes were affordable versus those that are not and people who lived in rural areas felt that homes were affordable as opposed to those living in suburban areas.
Perspective and perception
Looking over the data it’s interesting to see the variations in perception depending on region, age, and income and one can only wonder what is driving these perceptions of affordability. For many home buying can appear to be a very daunting and complicated process.
There’s a lot of pressure to get it “just right” but not many really know what that looks like.
Recent research shows that homes aren’t affordable to only those that make six figures and through email newsletters and blogging there’s actually a lot that you can do to dispel this myth.
Reach out, bust the myths
Email newsletters are great because it’s a way for you to reach out to consumers directly with the most up to date information available. Fat Rabbit Creative highlights the benefits of email marketing, the five key takeaways being that email marketing is targeted to who you want to actually receive the email, it increases brand awareness, it’s easily shareable, measurable, and cost effective.
Blogging also has similar benefits in allowing you to reach a wider audience of consumers.
Blogging gives you a more human touch in your communication with consumers and rates high on shareability. With blogging and email newsletters someone might find the information useful or insightful and want to pass it along to a number of friends that it could benefit.
Blogging also creates more of a presence, and if you’ve got a presence you become a trusted and reputable source.
From there you’ll naturally start to gain more traffic and from that you can generate more leads. This is your opportunity to address many of the most common questions and concerns that consumers have with buying a home along with dissipating any rumors that may be preventing people from becoming first time homeowners.
Get movin’
So get out there and find out what consumers are afraid of, find out what they’re looking for, dust off that blog if you’ve got one, and start generating those leads. If you don’t have one yet, don’t worry. If you build it, they will come.
#DownWithMyths
