How to Zero in on What Buyers Want

What are buyers looking for? Who will be interested in the house you have to sell? What is most important to your buyer? House flippers need to think about the answers to these questions not just while rehabbing but before they even choose an investment property. The home buyer of today looks very different from the home buyer of twenty, ten, or even five years ago. Rehabbers need to have a strong sense of who they’re going to sell to in order to choose a home that will appeal to that demographic.

In the current marketplace, there are two big buying groups that house flippers should think about. The first is Millennials.

Millennials are now the biggest generation in the country, and while they had a rough go of it for a few years with the Great Recession, they’re finally coming into their own. They’re doing it later than their parents did, but many Millennials are now at an age where they’re starting to get married and have children. They’re ready to buy homes that will give them some roots as they settle into their careers and family lives.

In general, Millennials tend to look for homes in good school districts that aren’t too far from work. But Millennials as a group aren’t all that excited by the suburban lifestyle. They still want proximity to amenities. Walkability might be more important to Millennials than it was to older generations. As a result, many Millennials look to buy in up-and-coming neighborhoods that are in or very close to city centers.

The other buying group that shouldn’t be overlooked is the boomerang buyers – the one and a half million people who bought homes before the Great Recession and lost those homes to foreclosure. All those foreclosures will be off the credit reports of this group this year, which means they can re-enter the housing market.

Expect boomerang buyers to be a bit wary and to look at homes at the lower end of the market. Many of these buyers are also Millennials.

Figuring Out Who Your Buyers Are and What They Want

Obviously, these two groups aren’t the only house flipping buyers out there, and it would be a mistake for house flippers to focus exclusively on them. So how can you determine exactly who your buyers will be?

When researching a neighborhood, a good place to start is with the demographics. But don’t look at what the demographics are – instead, look at how the demographics have changed over the last few years.

Who is buying in this neighborhood? Who is renting? How old are they, and what types of jobs do they have? How are the schools growing or changing? And what new amenities have been added recently or are on their way? Will a new train stop open in the neighborhood next year? Is a big business opening a new office nearby?

This sort of information will help you create a much more useful house flipping buyer’s guide for yourself than historical data. House flipping is an industry built on change, so don’t be surprised if your buyers are changing, too.