Working with Single Buyers

Singles

The number of single homebuyers is on the rise. A 2009 survey by the National Association of REALTORS® that found 21 percent of buyers nationwide were single women and 10 percent single men, compared to 62 percent of married couples.

Chicago REALTOR® Julie Woodward-Trenker, ABR, CRS, with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Lakeview says 60 percent of her business has evolved into singles over her 10 years in real estate (primarily single women) largely due to a niche she’s developed with first-time buyers.

Says Trenker: “There’s a lot to commend about women taking control of their own financial future, investing for themselves.”

Trenker says when working with single women, pay attention. “If they feel you are connected and listening, and are concerned about being their advocate, they will feel more emotionally sure about making the financial decision. Basics like safety and secure parking are important in addition to a good floor plan, whereas what really motivates a single man is the commute.”

She takes personal and professional pride in recently helping a single client who worked three jobs to save enough to be a cash-buyer in a fiercely competitive—and successful—bid on a $100,000 foreclosure property in the city.

Four years into his real estate career at Coldwell Banker Devonshire Realty in Peoria, REALTOR® Adam LaHood’s market has become 36 percent single buyers. He and partner Jim Gillespie have built a referral base from the area’s young engineers working at Caterpillar and doctors and nurses from the region’s many hospitals—mainly because they’re in a similar age group, same social scene and are connected via Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites.

“I think that unlike my father’s generation or people 5 and 10 years older than me, younger singles and younger married people are working to live rather than living to work,” says LaHood, age 34. “This factors into their desire for homes with outdoor living spaces, the ability to walk to bars and restaurants and specialty shopping.”

He adds: “Single buyers are more willing to see properties outside their specific search area. I’ll have a client in the car driving down the road and they will say ‘That house looks good,’ but you won’t find that when you are my age looking and married with kids. Then you are very specific about the number of bedrooms.”

Learn more: NAR 2009 Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers, www.realtor.org and Coldwell Banker Real Estate 2010 Single Homeowner Survey, www.coldwellbanker.com