Will and Kyla are like many new home buyers in general. They are also typical of people using the Web to search for homes – and not just in terms of demographics but also behaviorally.

In this series, part one will focus on the demographics of first-time home buyers and about the general approach Will uses to search for homes. In part two, we’ll ask about the specific problems or frustrations Will has. In the final section, we’ll talk about how some of Will’s behaviors and frustrations are typical of novices to a search. We’ll also talk about design patterns we can use to solve some of his problems.

Who are first-time home buyers?

According to the US Census’s 2009 American Housing Survey (AHS), a Census survey conducted every two years, we know that first-time home buyers were 41% of all home buyers, up from previous years, 2005 and 2007, when they accounted for 35% of home sales.¹ More generally, first-time home buyers were typically:

• white, non-Hispanic (66%)
• in their early 30s (the average age is 34 with 62% under 35)
• married (45%), where 19% had no children and 26% had children
• earning a median income of $60,000, an average income of $67,342 [2]

Will and Kyla are both white, in their 30s, married with one child and another on the way. While we may know the demographic profile of first-time home buyers through surveys, it’s through conversational interviews that we can bring to life the otherwise inert data generated by surveys.

Why are they in the market?

Will is preparing to retire from the Navy. He’s mostly certain about his decision. His foray into the housing market is a way to test the economic waters. Part of his reason for the home search is to see if leaving the military makes financial sense right now. If buying a home is out of reach, Will figures he might re-enlist and hold out for a stronger economic recovery.

They tried searching last year, but Will was stationed overseas and they found the process stressful. With another child on the way and stationed stateside, they’ve decided to give it another try. They started looking, for a second time, in April, 2014.

Will is focused on finding a good deal in a fixer-upper. He wants a nice home, but Kyla cares a lot more about existing home features. She prefers a move-in ready home. To that end, Will does most of the searching – he doesn’t want to prematurely eliminate options. Plus, Kyla is busy. She juggles a job, their son, and part-time college classes.

Talking with Will, you quickly realize he wants to be in control of the process. While he was stationed in Japan, he felt disconnected from Kyla’s search efforts and found that frustrating. This time around, he wants to manage the search and leave Kyla free to veto his decisions. Will reckons she’s busy enough without being stressed out about the home search details.

How do they search?

Will and Kyla rely on a variety of resources: word of mouth from friends, searching online, for sale signs, open houses, classified ads, and promotional flyers. Twice, they have devoted a Sunday to driving in neighborhoods they think they might like, looking for homes that might be for sale.

Will tends to do most of his searching in the evening, once everyone has gone to bed. He uses a laptop to search, one that both he and Kyla share. Like many couples, one shared laptop and two smartphones are enough to accomplish most of their casual searches. Will doesn’t like to search with his phone unless he has to. He wants to see the larger photos. When they are on the road, Will is drives. Kyla, who suffers from motion sickness, doesn’t like using the mobile phone on the road.

• Uses many different resources, both online and not, whether it’s word of mouth, traditional flyers, or online search
• Online, they also use a variety of sources: search engines, real estate search aggregators, local real estate web sites (e.g., Nancy Chandler)
• At home, uses a laptop preferring larger viewing space
• On the road, uses a smartphone
• Does not own a tablet

Will and Kyla are typical of people who search for homes online – whether first-time home buyers or not. People who search online as opposed to people who don’t tend to use a wider variety of search sources. You can see this in the results from the National Association of Realtors annual survey. People who search online tend to use a greater number of different kinds of resources and with more frequency than do people who don’t use online resources. People use online real estate search because they are in research mode. They are seeking out information, perhaps even information-hungry. In Chart 1, you can see that people who conduct searches online use a bigger variety of sources and consult them more frequently than do people who do not use the Web to search for real estate.

What do they want?

Obviously, first-time home buyers want a house. Our question is more about what people want from the home buying process. That’s a harder question to get at, especially because don’t always have ready words to describe what they expect the home search process to be like – any more than they might be able to say what they want the coffee brewing process to be like.

To find out, though, I decided to ask Will if he could tell me about how he searches for houses online. Eventually, I learn that what Will wants most is to feel knowledgeable about the home search and home buying process. One of the reasons Will uses an online search is because he wants to know more about the market before he actually talks with a real estate agent. He’s worried that, under pressure from an agent, he might make a bad decision. He was also frustrated when he went to a first-time home buyer seminar at the Naval base. The Moral, Readiness and Welfare office sponsors financial planning and home buying seminars to teach young families life skills. While he found it somewhat useful, he felt it was more an advertisement than objective advice.

As first-time home buyers, Will and Kyla want to:

• feel in control of the process, with a road map or guide to the home buying process
• come away from the online process feeling knowledgeable

In part two, we’ll find out more about how Will actually conducts his home searches, looking at specific concerns and problems he encounter. Once we understand his goals, his desires and dreams, as well as his frustrations, we’ll be in a good place to start thinking about how we can solve his problems. We’ll also want to make sure that he feels we’re giving him to tools to pursue dreams and desires.

Resources

This entry was inspired by the research behind a presentation in our series on “The search experience at Homes.com, part 2″. By clicking the link, you can download a .PDF of the slides and data used in the presentation.Understanding the Search Experience @ Homes.com