The AgentMapIt Blog

Nicole and Amanda talking over lunch.

For those of us over 30, text messaging has kind of crept up on us. Now that so many kids have cell phones, text messaging has become second nature to young people – many as young as 9 or 10 years old.

You think you’re on the cutting edge because you use email to communicate with friends, family and clients? Think again. For younger people text messaging has basically made email obsolete. Jay Thompson, a Phoenix area real estate agent reports that in December his two teenagers sent and received about 10,000 text messages – that’s about 83 messages each per day – while his 17 year old son claims to have sent maybe 10 emails in the whole month.

In an article called The Future of Real Estate Communication Thompson suggests that agents who want to be in the loop with the next generation of home buyers had better understand the communication media they use.

Thompson is a good example himself of the communications generation gap. More technology savvy than most agents, he has more than 5,000 email messages in his inbox, while most of his own text messages have been back and forth with his children. Rarely, if ever, does he use text messaging for “serious” business purposes.

As he says, “The point is, the way we communicate is changing. According to some researchers there will be 2.3 trillion text messages sent this year. Wikipedia says that 80% of 13 to 24 year olds use text messaging (compared to 18% of 40 to 49 year olds). That’s a whole lot of texting by a whole lot of soon to be first-time home buyers.”

The other change that has already taken place over the last couple of years is the way an increasing number of people use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. People who would not think of using a stuffy email message to talk to each other find themselves commenting to each other back and forth through Facebook and Twitter. Not only are these becoming mature communication channels between people, but companies and entrepreneurs are finding innovative ways to interact with customers and prospects through these massively popular media.

The bottom line is that real estate agents will have to accommodate themselves to the communication media used by their clients. That means if they want to reach young people who are plugged into these non-traditional modes of communication, they themselves will have to become plugged in.