Two generations are worth watching if you want to see your mortgage business grow in the coming years. While a recent report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) revealed that Boomers currently make up the largest segment of homebuyers, a lot of those purchases were downsizers or people moving into their forever home. They’re fairly likely to stay put. 

Millennials, on the other hand, made up the next-largest segment, accounting for 28% of all home purchases. And many of them are just getting started in the market — 70% of younger Millennials were first-time buyers, and 46% of older Millennials were. 

Beyond that, even though the oldest Gen Zers are 26 years old (and the youngest only 11), this demographic already makes up 4% of homebuyers. 

Clearly, if mortgage lenders want to see their businesses succeed in the years ahead, they need to tailor their service to this growing segment of home purchasers. And you have a huge tool to help you do just that: your website.

Why your mortgage website matters to Millennials and Gen Z

Millennials might remember a time before cell phones, but most of them at least had the internet and MySpace in their wheelhouse during their youths. And Gen Z grew up as digital natives. 

This is creating major shifts in the way society lives and works. Even the hand gestures we use are adapting. While older Americans might put their thumb and pinky out to symbolize a phone, for example, Gen Z generally uses a hand flat against the side of their face. 

As digital natives or people who grew up in the dawn of the internet, these users have high expectations when they hop online. 

Specifically, as a recent Entrepreneur article called out, users from these generations expect websites to be three things:

• Quick
• Convenient
• Highly usable

Quick means your website needs to load rapidly, but it also means users need to be able to access the information they want quickly. Convenient means key info is available up top and users can choose their own adventure to drill deeper and get more personalized details. And usable means your website never feels confusing to navigate or read. 

That’s a lot to ask. But it’s absolutely achievable if you deploy the right tools on your site. 

High speed pursuit

First, let’s talk about load speed because Gen Z and Millennials definitely care here. This is just what it sounds like. When someone clicks to a page on your site, how long does it take for text, images, videos, and anything else to load?

It should be lightning-fast. 

If you’re not sure about your own page load speeds, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to check them. Under “Diagnose Performance Issues,” it will give you specific suggestions to improve load time, like optimizing image sizes and eliminating unused CSS. 

You don’t have to be a software developer to get a mortgage website that loads quickly, too. Using tools that are already optimized — like our rate tables and calculators — allows you to build a highly useful website without loading it down. 

Fast load times aren’t the only thing Gen Z and Millennials expect, though. They also want speed — and convenience — when it comes to finding the information they want. Which leads us to our next point. 

Comfy and convenient

When someone from these generations visits your mortgage website, they expect more than a brief synopsis about your company, an overview of your products, and a phone number. They come to find information that’s both relevant and personal to them.

Take current interest rates as an example. The people who visit your website usually do so because they’re trying to find out how much it’s going to cost them to buy a home. If you can give them a general idea of cost right then and there, you show them two things. 

First, you demonstrate that you’re informed enough to have real-time information ready for them. Secondly, you show that you’re committed to customer service, so much so that you make info your potential customers might want readily available. Blend those two things together and you create a strong positive impression with your website visitor. 

And since 96% of homebuyers use online tools during their home shopping process, you also prevent them from leaving your site and going to a competitor’s. 

Ultimately, providing resources and data tailored to your website visitor can help convert a lead into a customer. Here are a few ideas to help your mortgage website deliver the convenience Gen Z and Millennials expect:

• Lead workflows that let them input pertinent information in exchange for personalized rates
• Real-time rate tables
• Mortgage and affordability calculators
• Pages tailored to your individual loan officers with their bios and direct contact info

To help you do all of this, we offer all of those tools with integrations to your existing systems, like your pricing engine and CRM. 

Friendly to every user

Millennial and Gen Z website visitors expect your site to be highly usable. It should serve up the information they want quickly. It should be intuitive to navigate. Your website should look clean, professional, and engaging and it should work on their phones. 

It should also feel personally tailored. Lead workflows and landing pages allow you to tailor the info you provide based on relevant user details. Plus, these tools can help you capture your Millennial and Gen Z website visitors as leads.  

As you’re thinking about user-friendliness, you should also remember that your site should be accessible to all types of users, including those with disabilities. That means using alt text on your photos, choosing font and background colors that make text easy to read, and more. If you want to dig into best practices for website accessibility, the University of Washington has some tips to guide you. 

Clearly, Gen Z and Millennials expect a lot when it comes to websites — and that includes your mortgage site. Fortunately, adding tools and optimizing your site to meet those expectations can be a lot easier than you might expect. In fact, our team can handle it for you. To explore our wide range of mortgage website tools to help your site convert leads from these generations, request a demo today. 

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