Millennials are buying homes blind

Future. Millennials, now reaching their peak home-buying years, are buying homes without ever taking a physical tour of them. The digital natives are happy to take the plunge if it means snagging their dream home in the hot real estate market. With many work-hub cities skyrocketing in price, many Millennials may start making a habit of flipping homes to build wealth — without ever seeing any of them.

Real estate gamble
Many Millennials are making the biggest purchase of their lives without ever actually seeing what they’re buying.

• According to Redfin, 63% of homebuyers in 2020 (mostly Millennials) made an offer on a home without seeing it in person.
• And last year, Zillow found that almost 60% of Millennials were comfortable buying a home online, sight-unseen, as long as they got a virtual tour of it.
  • Aerial videos are especially important — homes that have one are 68% more likely to sell.
• Millennials (55% according to SurveyLink) — are also taking advantage of online auction tools to buy homes out of things like foreclosures.

Ironically enough, the blind purchases are coming at a time when the median home price in the U.S. is at a record high — $369,000.

Relocation fever
The uptick in blind purchases is because Millennials are the first generation raised on the Internet — and are therefore okay with making big buys. Plus, since demand is so high for homes (and supply so low), they feel like they need to make an offer as soon as possible.

Also, the rise of remote work has led to “relocation fever.” One-third of people shopping for a home report wanting to move to new trendy work hubs, including Miami, Phoenix, Nashville, and Las Vegas. On the flipside, with 48% of Millennials happy to get rid of their commute, new homebuyers are looking to move somewhere that has nothing to do with their jobs.