Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Gen Z Homebuyers Won't Call You...Here's the Fix

Transcript

Gen Z Homebuyers Won't Call You...Here's the Fix · Mortgage Marketing Radio

• 0:00
  Hey there, welcome back to another episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio. I am a guest host. As you can tell, I am not Jeff, and my guest is not Jeff, but I am filling in for Jeff today. So I'm Katie Shive, and today I'm really excited to be having a conversation with Drew Gillette. He's the VP of Marketing at Guild.
• 0:21
  And Drew and I have a little bit of a history because if any of you listening don't know me, I was at Guild before I'm doing what I'm currently doing. And so I have a huge spot in my heart for Guild. And Drew was a fearless leader when I was there and he's continuing to help run the team. So Drew, welcome to the show.
• 0:40
  Hey Katie, happy to be here. Cool. Well, today we're going to talk about a report that Guild kicked off just a couple months ago. So I'd love for you to open up and just kind of share what is that report and why is this really important for loan officers specifically to know about?
• 1:00
  Yeah. So at the beginning of 2026, we launched our Gen Z homebuyer research study. It was really important for us to start to understand more about this next incoming generation of homebuyer. Guild's bread and butter has been first time homebuyers for years. That's our primary customer, right? We are all about service. We're all about education.
• 1:23
  But we know that when you look at different generations, there are different trends, different patterns. And with all of the access to data that we have today, we can get even more information about this generation.
• 1:36
  The impetus of that started late last year. We wanted to make sure that we had a verified, like really defensible study and research project in place that is going to be valuable to the entire industry. And so that was our original goal. We set it up as a longitudinal study. So we're looking at changes in this data over the course of the year. We have four different waves of this study going out. And so far, I think we've interviewed about
• 2:00
  1400 gen z people who are interested in buying a home or own a home and so we partnered with a survey group called yougov it was a national pollster global pollster who works with you know fortune 100 companies on all kinds of things and so we wanted to make sure we had a good partner as well and i'm really excited to share some of the the insights that we've found so far and we'll have more later on this audience
• 2:25
  Yeah, so we'll dive into that. But I think, I mean, I love that you guys are, you've sponsored your own independent research. A lot of lenders and even realtor brokerages, they will, you know, kind of piggyback off of studies done by NAR or Housing Wire or, you know, even First Home IQ. And so you guys really found your own niche to go out and commission this.
• 2:51
  I mean, I was joking that, you know, you could have just set up shop in a bar or something and interviewed a bunch of people. But, like, this is literally a legit survey that you guys have done. And so the data is really sound, which is cool. So...
• 3:08
  One of the things I'll just kind of kick off one of the questions as I was looking through. And for those of you that are listening, the survey is going to be in the show notes. So everything that we're referencing today, you guys will be able to go pull from the show notes and see directly. But one of the things I thought was really cool was a lot of your questions, or if not, correct me, all of your questions were open-ended responses. So of all the questions you asked, it wasn't just, you know, check yes or no, or, you know, a scale.
• 3:38
  you know, fill in the blank and you actually got to read their responses. Is that correct? It was a variety, but there were absolutely open-ended questions within it. And that's where we get some of the strongest insights. So what were some of the things that just like really surprised you from the open-ended responses?
• 3:57
  Yeah, the open-ended response has kind of landed in three main areas. We were asking all kinds of questions about the buying process. We asked everything from how confident are you that you can buy a home to when are you looking to what confuses you about the process?
• 4:15
  Right. And so from the open ended questions, it landed in three kind of distinct points. First, transparency over everything. We don't want you to hide things, no surprise fees and be honest. The second one was, I need you to walk me through everything step by step. Explain it like I'm five, right? They don't want a sales pitch. They want a roadmap. The third one was, now show me how this applies to my specific situation.
• 4:39
  So all things that you hear from everybody, but they called out these things in interesting ways. Do you want me to go into some examples of those three? Yeah, totally. So when I say like transparency above everything and don't hide things, they're looking for more than what is required. So when you look at a loan estimate and you're like, okay, well, here's where all the different things are. Here's where the fees are.
• 5:01
  Those are consolidated. There are reasons and rules and why those things are in place in the way they are. They want more. They want to understand down to the level of like, how are you paid as a loan officer? And how much? There's no wrong answer. Just be honest with me.
• 5:18
  That's really fascinating though, actually, because I can't say, so my husband and I have now bought and sold several times over the course of our marriage. And I've actually never once, prior to working in this industry, but I've never once considered like down to the exact number. Yeah.
• 5:35
  But I'm wondering if that also plays into trust and building trust because, you know, we often credit just the research shows that Gen Z has a lot of mistrust or trust is not allocated in the way of our favor. And so by even just getting so granular, as you're saying, into transparency and talking about, okay, how am I paid? How much am I paid?
• 6:02
  I would think that helps even build more trust just in radical transparency. Absolutely. And, you know, this extends out beyond just this audience, too. They want to be able to share this with their friends. They want to be able to, you know, have the answer. In a generation that grew up with so much information at their fingertips, they're
• 6:21
  You know, there's the joke that they were born with a cell phone in their hand. Yeah. They've also experienced the mistrust that can happen in that generation. They've been scammed on Instagram. They've been catfished. They have multiple profiles across different networks. Like there's not a lot of people in other generations who are that savvy across these things and how to find the information and answers they want.
• 6:42
  Which is really interesting when it gets to that second kind of key point of walking me through the process step by step. They have access to all this information. They have access to go search on YouTube, which they do as a primary source and find answers to this stuff. But they want you to explain it. It's different.
• 6:58
  And you know what's crazy to me is like when we're having this conversation and this is like, you know, in a super elaborate research that you guys commissioned. And yet when you look at the data and the themes, I just keep coming back to like, this is also common sense, right? Radical transparency, customization, like talk me through how this impacts me. Explain things, educate, like you guys...
• 7:26
  We're talking about a very elaborate research that is just validating common sense. This is just marketing 101, sales 101. So it's kind of cool that it validates that. One of the stats specifically that popped out to me when I was looking at it was 40, I think it was 47%.
• 7:48
  want in-person meeting after their first point of contact. So whether that's looking at you on Instagram or YouTube or wherever they're finding you, after they have that first point of contact with you, they actually want an in-person meeting. Which, how many times, Drew, have you heard that, you know, Gen Z is millennial and they wanna do everything contactless and not in person and the data actually shows that's the opposite.
• 8:13
  Yeah, that they just want to do the whole loan through their DMs, right? It's the kind of generational joke that applies. Take stock mortgage, right. Right. But yeah, one and two from this study, and this was nationwide. We did all over the US. One and two wanted to have an in-person meeting. It's a part of that trust building. That's pretty crazy. Okay, so I'm just going to pull out some of the data facts because I literally went through this. And so since I have you on this call, I can just shoot some of the data at you. Yeah.
• 8:43
  But one of the other specifics that I wrote down was between the age bracket of 26 to 29, only 4% said that they plan to buy in the next six months. But more than half were checking their credit on a regular basis. And they're researching patterns like going on Zillow and all kinds of things are showing like they're actively wanting to buy right now. So where do you think that dissonance is?
• 9:13
  I think the key point there is it's not that they're not willing to want to buy a house. They want to check things like their credit score. They want to see what their finances are going to look like. They want to find creative financing solutions, but their confidence is very low. And so I think if you're going to take away one point from this study, it's that currently Gen Z has a very low confidence score that they can ever buy a home. Statistically, it's 3.16 out of 10. And so...
• 9:41
  But they are doing those activities. Yeah, they're doing the activities around home buying. They're watching their financial numbers and trying to get their on their own. Okay. So they want to buy, but they probably also are seeing news headlines. And, you know, I would imagine, depending on the market that they're in, if they're looking around, like affordability is a huge.
• 10:05
  huge issue. So looking at some of the, you know, some of the different barriers, you know, market conditions, 65% said market conditions were a barrier, meaning prices were high. Obviously, we have very little control over that. But some of the other barriers that play into building their confidence, as you are saying, is customization.
• 10:29
  So how can you customize some of the broad education? And one of the examples I love is just running scenarios, pulling out a pen and pad and writing down, okay, here's an example for a $500,000 price point at today's average interest rate of this. And then just showing them how that, it's a generalization, but showing them how that breaks down into, here's how we get it, what your monthly payment is.
• 10:57
  Now, if you want this customized to look for specifically for you, send me a DM and let's, you know, let's do that. What do you think about that kind of a strategy using social media?
• 11:08
  I think that's the entire opportunity with this generation. And it takes time with them to build trust. So the research they're doing where they're finding you online, where they're watching your videos or content, they're doing that for the same period of time that they're watching their own financial metrics. When they reach out is when they feel ready, but you can help influence that decision. And I think...
• 11:29
  It really speaks to the opportunity to build education, to say the things that you say every day even more, which is what more loan officers should be doing. Yeah. And I think one of the data points as well is that there is a trust gap between realtors and loan officers. Did that surprise you specifically?
• 11:52
  It did, but only in the sense like it's about familiarity, right? Realtors get the fun, cool photos to share. They get to show the cool backyards, cool bathrooms, beautiful houses. Loan officers don't have a lot of shiny objects, right? You can't make a loan estimate real cool to look at. But what you can do is really educate around finance and educate around what opportunities are out there. I'm sure all of us had at least one teacher who made learning fun, right? You just have to take that mindset when you're creating content.
• 12:22
  The other thing I'll say about that stat, there's the difference between there. There's also just a lack of familiarity with loan officers, mortgage advisors, mortgage brokers in general. One of the quotes that somebody said was, at age 28, no one has explained to me precisely what lenders and advisors do.
• 12:40
  And so there's this misunderstanding. And I think that shows in that number of trust of even what does somebody do in the home buying process when they're a lender? Do they work for a bank? Do they work for my bank? Right. So there's this gap that needs to be filled.
• 12:56
  So, you know, just breaking that down, even just creating simple content around, you know, what, what do I do? What, you know, not, I'm not just talking about like a day in the life of, and like, you know, we're, we're past like just the TikTok dancing videos, but.
• 13:13
  Actually explaining in really common terms, what's the difference between a mortgage broker and a loan officer, like somebody that works at a bank versus somebody that works for a national lender such as Guild.
• 13:29
  I mean, there's differences there. I think sometimes where loan officers get kind of blocked in their head and content is they just, they're in their content every single day. And so what might seem like super obvious to them, I always tell loan officers,
• 13:46
  You know, what is common to you? Your audience most likely doesn't know. So what are the questions that you get via text message? What emails do you constantly answer? Or what's the five things that you go over every single time you have a first-time home buyer in your office? Start there. Like there is really low-hanging fruit for a content bank. What are some other things that you encourage your loan officers and guilds to be doing in terms of types of content to create?
• 14:15
  Yeah, I think for this audience, it is that level of education, right? It is continually being out in front of the basics. Like we said, this is a generation who wants to learn and wants to be confident before they give you their information. The other tactic that we're playing towards is when you communicate in this medium, so through social, through YouTube, the medium that Gen Z is learning from, you may or may not hit directly with them.
• 14:40
  You're probably of a different demographic. But if your demographic, their parents, their grandparents are also seeing your content, they now have a way to share it with the way that their younger family member understands. And you can really make a connection through that.
• 14:57
  That's such a great point. And I like to say just to that, it might be hard for you to connect with the 22-year-old or the 29-year-old that specifically is who you're targeting. But if you think about it this way,
• 15:13
  Do you have, do you have children that are that age? Do you have nieces and nephews, or do you have friends with kids? Like, who do you know in that demographic to help you kind of personify who you're talking to? Because sometimes, especially if you're older, there can feel like a big disconnect. Like, I don't know what the common trends are, the vernacular or what to talk about. But if I have found, if you can put a face and a name is kind of like a,
• 15:40
  oh, I'm going to pretend that when I'm doing this video or creating this piece of content, I'm speaking to so-and-so that helps make the educational output more real because now you have kind of a name and a face and not just a broad generality. Totally. And just like you don't have to do a TikTok dance, you don't have to speak in Gen Z slang. You don't have to lock in all the time. You don't have to rate your aura now.
• 16:07
  I've had times I definitely start to feel my age where I've had to like Google or AI and check a couple of phrases. I was like, I've never heard of that. I feel old. I think the other the other stat from the study that emphasizes this point is more than trust with real estate agents or loan officers. Seventy five percent said they would trust advice from their friends and family, which speaks to that same idea of get this information in this channel to the parents of this generation. Yeah.
• 16:34
  Yeah, because on that note, when they most likely bought, even if it was just in the last five years, you know, they were in a different rate environment. They were in a completely different financial bracket, most likely. So many different variables. I mean, there's a lot of terminology around like this is not your this is not your parents economy. Right. And so the more that you can educate people,
• 16:59
  Even, yeah, parents and adults and grandparents. So loan officers, that even looks like tapping into your past client database. What are your thoughts on email marketing as a way to kind of educate through some long form content? Do you feel like email is dead or is it still a helpful tool? I feel like email is going to change. It's still a very viable channel today.
• 17:24
  Now, if you're speaking to this audience in particular, not really. It is far behind something like video and video, meaning being on YouTube, being on social media, whatever platform you're on, but also YouTube. That's where they're doing the majority of their searches for this content.
• 17:41
  And what are some of the added values or benefits of being on YouTube? Like, I feel like a lot of people just get nervous being on YouTube because they think it has to be, you know, really long form content. But what would you say, like some of the added values of being on YouTube are?
• 17:55
  YouTube is a great search engine, right? Just like Google, but it's the Google where you learn via video and you find what you want in a video. When we're talking about long form, it's not an hour long webinar. That's not long form. It can be, but it's eight to 10 minute videos where you're talking about a particular topic. You've set a hook and you just talk about it like you would to any of your clients. Yeah.
• 18:18
  Well, and the other cool part that I'm loving with YouTube is it's heavily crawled by AI too. So we talk a lot about AI visibility and especially Gen Z heavily is leaning into AI. So, you know, going back to they're asking questions to their AI chatbots.
• 18:39
  Initially, you know, things like, you know, what do I need to buy a home or how much do I need for a down payment? Some of those really low hanging fruit questions. So if you have content that is optimized to help answer some of the likely questions that they would be asking and, you know, you're in their area, there's just so many different dynamics that go into that. But now you're not just having long form content where they're searching on YouTube, but they're also searching.
• 19:06
  And we can find you via, you know, chat to be your Gemini.
• 19:11
  Yeah, but at the same time, they also don't know what questions to ask. And so it can be hard to find that content. So the more you put out, the higher chance you have of giving that answer. But use scenarios, use examples. Another interesting thing we found was a bit of a paradox. So there's this income illusion. So when I was talking about confidence, we rated confidence across each of these groups. Earners of $25,000 to $50,000 a year score lower in confidence than those earning under $25,000 a year.
• 19:40
  So what that means is like as they make more, they are less confident that they can buy a house. Which is crazy because I would think I literally would think that it's the exact opposite. You would. Right. And I think that's something that comes out throughout a lot of this study is the preconceived ideas that we have about Gen Z are not always accurate. Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:01
  But when you can create content around DPA programs in their area, when you can address that, you've learned enough to know what's scary, but here's a solution. You can really build that trust with that audience. Yeah. And I think even doing content with like, you know, going back to what you just said about Gen Z doesn't even know what they don't know. So they might not even know what questions to initially ask. Yeah.
• 20:26
  That's content right there. Hey, thinking about buying a home in the next 12 months, here are five questions that you should be asking or thinking about, right? So you're kind of even suggesting and spoon feeding them, hey, go do your homework or go look at this. And that's a great content idea right there.
• 20:45
  Yeah. Or take it a step further and talk about an example of, you know, you have the five questions, but I was talking to somebody who makes $55,000 a year. They're 26 and they're wondering what they need to do to buy their first home. Then go through those five questions that they had and how it applies to their situation. Now you've created a story that somebody can connect with. Yeah. Yeah.
• 21:04
  When I love story, like framing stories, because the entire point of that is that they see themselves in that story. I think sometimes when we create content, they feel so disassociated from the example, or maybe it just feels really sterile of like, you know, what down payment assistant is in my community. Great. What does that mean? But if they hear a story of, hey, I had a client come into my office this week, they make $37,000.
• 21:30
  And, you know, we talked through these three scenarios and X, Y, and Z, whatever that path was. Now that feels much more relatable and real than just three, you know, three things to know about down payment assistance.
• 21:45
  Right. I think another interesting angle is when we did this study, we had people at the high end and at the low end. So I don't want it to sound like all these numbers are just terrible. Right. They're all low. Nobody. Everybody's doom and gloom. There were people who were highly confident that they could buy a home that were set up that were in the hundred K plus salary brackets.
• 22:06
  One interesting angle of those who were very confident, who rated themselves a 10, males were 12%. Females were two. And so I think getting this messaging out to a female audience, talking about empowerment, normalization of qualification, all those things are not just for education, but they're for confidence building too. So you're saying the confidence level, there was a 10% gap between men and women in terms of buying. Wow.
• 22:35
  being highly confident that they could buy. Dang, that's crazy too. Yeah. One word that was brought up in this study from the open-ended questions that like one specific word that came up continually was embarrassed. And so buyers specifically stated that they felt embarrassed. Can you talk to me about that? Like what were they embarrassed about specifically?
• 22:59
  Yeah. I mean, the general trend was I'm embarrassed. I don't know enough. I don't know what I need to do. And so that's part of that confidence score. It's part of why they lurk on content before they engage somebody. And what we see that as on our end of the business is I have a bunch of people looking, but nobody's becoming a lead. They're not filling out a form. They're not giving me their contact information, so I can't call them. So what are they worth to me? Right.
• 23:25
  They're worth everything. You're building that relationship and you don't even know it. When they call you, then they're ready. You got to build that up first. You got to build that trust. And so I think that embarrassment comes from lack of knowledge. They don't want to be the one who walks into the room, not the answers to what questions are they going to ask me? They want to walk in with a sense of confidence around that. And going back to one of the things you talked about with they want specificity. So they want to know like specifically like how this pertains to me.
• 23:55
  What are some ways that loan officers could create more content or be stickier? So like if they want something specific, like obviously it's hard to do a specific generic video on like one to many. But what are some ways that they could help make their content feel more specific or so specific to get them on a phone call or to schedule a meeting to get them one to one?
• 24:21
  Yeah. I think it's repetition, right? It's being consistent in your message, in the content you provide, showing different scenarios. As people get more familiar with you, they'll start to think of you as, so this is the person who breaks it down in a way I can understand. I've seen their videos dozens of times across my network or on YouTube.
• 24:41
  And then when they call you, they feel like they know you. You have no idea who they are, but they want to have that sense of feeling. So be consistent in continuing to put content out. Be consistent in showing those stories and playing to your own personal brand. And don't be afraid of repeating yourself and think, oh, I already did a video about this. That's fine.
• 25:02
  Well, there's so much there is. I mean, there's just so much out there that, you know, even as a content creator myself, I struggle with that sometimes of like, man, I've already talked about this like five times. I'm sick of hearing that or I'm sick of saying that. And I think that is that that line just right there that I said is one of the things that we all tell ourselves. And that is what like limits us from creating that content is because we think because we hear it all the time that everybody else hears it. And it's not true.
• 25:31
  So by just saying it one way and then saying it another angle, you're saying the same thing over and over, but that repetition is key.
• 25:42
  You know, the other thing I would say, and I'm curious if you're studying hit on this at all, is just like personal branding. Like, do you feel like it's important for this demographic specifically to see content that isn't just specific to loans, but maybe it's like they're real life, they have a family, or I kind of get to know that they have certain hobbies. Like seeing them as a person and not just as a loan officer is.
• 26:09
  We didn't dive into personal brand in this study, but we know from a general audience sense that that matters on these channels. Right. So if you're only talking about that one topic, you're going to be known for that one thing. But if I know a little bit more about you, I'm going to trust you a little bit more because I don't think you're a hired shill for this company. I know that you're actually a person who's doing this. Right. And they want to have that confidence.
• 26:34
  Well, not, I think, too, is another thing. I'm just kind of ping-ponging back to transparency. You know, a lot of times, like my niece is 19, almost 20. And so she's right in that process of, you know, setting goals and wanting to buy.
• 26:51
  And some of the persona with a lack of trust is they just think that you are after your commission, right? So it's like, well, I just want to tell you what you need to hear to get you into the loan so that I get paid. And so going back to what you said of just even creating content around the transparency part, I've never considered that until you mentioned that. But I think that's really key of just continuing to break all parts of what you do now.
• 27:18
  Yeah. And they just want to feel like it's fair. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, there's so much that's not fair. I mean, not that it's not fair, but like, well, there's elements that are just completely out of our control, like the market. Like I would say it's not fair that the housing prices are so high or what have you. But I do think that there's more, that Gen Z has more access than they do.
• 27:39
  think they do. And that's one thing that makes me really bummed is that we just see these national headlines, you know, if prices are so high or interest rates are so high, and now is a terrible time to buy. But then if you actually got in front of them one-to-one and looked at their scenario, my guess is a lot of them would be far more ready to buy than not. Would you agree? Yeah. Yeah.
• 28:07
  And I think it shows like even when I was looking at a higher income bracket,
• 28:11
  of the 26 to 29 year olds. So they're at an age where you can buy a house. Some of us probably bought houses around that age. They're in an income bracket where they can afford, even with rough affordability. They also have low confidence. They have issues where they're trying to figure out how do I do this? And they're afraid to reach out. I think it was, I'm trying to remember, so I might be wrong on these exact points, but of those, they were very similar in that they've been checking their credit score. They've been watching their balance build.
• 28:40
  They still think they need 20. Less than 4% of them have gotten pre-approved. And so they're not taking that action to reach out and actually talk to somebody because they're sitting in that embarrassment phase. I make a bunch of money. I'm at the age I should own a house. And I don't know all the information. And so I'm not going to take that step. And so you can help fill that gap.
• 28:59
  Yeah. And again, that just goes back to assumptions, right? I think we just naturally kind of assume that the more that you make, the more knowledge you might have or the more access you would have to understanding those kinds of things. And it just goes to show the playing field is not as linear as we might assume.
• 29:18
  And so whether, you know, you could have your audience that you're talking to, they're in the $40,000 annual income bracket in the 100, you know, 150 income bracket. And they're all kind of below the surface dealing with some of the confidence issues as well. So that's really, that's crazy. What type of content are you seeing that performs really well for reaching this demographic? Like we've touched on YouTube a little bit, but like TikTok, is it really a thing?
• 29:50
  Um, TikTok is, is a thing, but it's, it's more of entertainment value around this. And so if you're going to do it, you know, make sure that the content is entertaining or there's punchy statements. They're not on TikTok to really dive deep on learning. They're watching influencers, right? They're watching people who shock jock interviews about people's finances. And, you know, it makes you feel better about yourself if you think that you're doing better than somebody else. Yeah.
• 30:16
  or they're watching some big mistake, right? The fail videos, it used to be called. But that's really where the audience is using TikTok. One of the things I think is great for TikTok is almost like a Reddit, is going to get kind of voice of customer, right? Because you can go watch TikTok videos.
• 30:37
  And I want to just give a shout out to John Farrell if he's listening because he did a video a while ago that was like, I watched it and I was like, this is so moving. But he had a video of a gal. I don't even think she had fully closed yet. Or maybe she had just closed. But anyways, it was not his client. She was on TikTok.
• 31:01
  And he recorded, you know, he did like a screen share where it was like the TikTok video and he's watching it and then he's giving his feedback. And this gal, she had to be in her 20s crying, just talking about like, I've dreamed about wanting to buy a home and now it just feels so burdensome and my payment and the maintenance. And it was just really, it was a masterclass like on how he broke down.
• 31:26
  what makes him different. And it was not a pitch. It was not a, it literally was like so empathetic of this makes me really bummed to see that people are really feeling this way. So anyways, do you see loan officers doing any type of content like that? Like losing videos as examples and then kind of self-sourcing that and talking through that? Do I see loan officers doing it today? Not really, but should they be? Absolutely. Yeah.
• 31:53
  It's the same thing. To your point, like using the medium in the way that people are finding value in it, finding entertainment, finding some emotion or motivation, doing that kind of green screen or doing a stitch or even doing a live. Like live on TikTok performs really well. Do a live Q&A. You have to be careful about what you go into and don't get too detailed. Make sure it's compliant. Yeah.
• 32:17
  Yeah, but I mean, those platforms push that stuff like candy, right? And so you can leverage the platform in the way that it wants to be leveraged and really find value. And I think what John did specifically is he pulled the video that was from TikTok, but he hosted it on YouTube.
• 32:34
  So he wasn't even repurposing it on TikTok. He just used it as, here's my case study. And it wasn't even his client, which I was like, this was so great because it was a real pain point that people can visually see, they can hear, they can completely relate. And then you can, you know, put your own spin, your own perspective on what you believe and why you're sharing that.
• 33:02
  Another one, let me ask you about this, Reddit, helpful or is it hype?
• 33:07
  Probably one of the best networks that you could be involved in. Why? So Reddit is the, you know, kind of the community hub of the internet. There's a reason that Google has partnered with Reddit so deeply. They leverage Reddit across AI and AI search. So many people started Googling questions with Reddit at the end of it that Google invested in Reddit. Not because they thought it was a viable company or anything else, but because the data showed they should, right? And so now you start seeing Reddit answers differently.
• 33:36
  organically populate the top of search on search pages. And so as we're talking about AI and AI answers and AI search, if you want to make a move in that space, you have to be on Reddit and you have to be visible on Reddit and you have to be not selling on Reddit.
• 33:53
  Which is like a really beautiful limitation to have. Because that's the whole point is you cannot, you will literally get banned and flagged and all of the other things. But it's actually like a great limitation because then it forces you to be having value-rich conversations that are not just, here's my number, here's my application, call me. But you're actually kind of getting those reps practicing, how would I respond to this? And it's purely for the purpose of educating people
• 34:23
  giving back. Yeah, I love Reddit. Yeah, I think if you were going to take one tactic away that you were going to do as soon as you were done listening to this, go on Reddit, reddit.com, type in your name and see what the results are. And I'm going to guess that for a lot of you, there's not going to be anything. And so that's your sign to start going on Reddit, going on first time home buyer Reddit pages, going on your city. Everybody has a sub Reddit for their city. Yeah.
• 34:51
  And just finding where people are talking about homeownership or loans or buying a home or anything like that. And all you have to do is find a question, respond, give your input and put your name on it. Another, I think, under leveraged opportunity are Facebook groups.
• 35:08
  especially moms love to yap. Moms love to give recommendations. And so even if you're not a mom, but that's kind of a goldmine. A lot of local communities will have, you know, a subgroup. So think about if you have a hobby, if you love mountain climbing or rock climbing or, you know, any of these kinds of things. Yeah.
• 35:31
  For realtor groups, there's so many different sub communities and groups on Facebook. And I was leading a demo a couple months ago, and I was part of a local community group
• 35:46
  And the client that I was coaching with was in that community group or in that community demographic, I should say. And I was like, here, let's just go see. So we like I pulled up the group in live time and I type in the company's name and it was so crazy to see.
• 36:02
  Like what came up? And I was like, you guys, this is in your backyard. Like you literally can keyword search your name, your company, and some of these groups. And again, just like Reddit, if you start participating and just showing up and adding value, your name will be, you know, more top of mind.
• 36:21
  A hundred percent. And you can do this in multiple different ways, right? You can be a member of your community and that is an online version of your community. But there are also ways to engage with your partners through the same thing. What are some of the best ways that you're seeing like partnerships through like with, you know, realtors and whatnot? And maybe just talking even outside of a digital strategy, what are some?
• 36:43
  face-to-face or in real life strategies that you're seeing are working today. Yeah, I think an easy one is you flip the agent playbook as a loan officer through these groups. And so you find or build a group in your community, your city, your tri-city area, whatever it may be.
• 36:59
  where agents are participating or you've invited agents to participate and they're talking about properties and you know you see those a lot of times as a loan officer you can now flip this script and say hey group i have a buyer looking to buy a three-bedroom house in the charleston area does anybody have any leads on where we could find something and you immediately start getting feedback right you've now brought the lead to the group and no matter who you end up working with people start seeing you as valuable so i think it's an interesting reverse play
• 37:29
  Yeah, that's a great reverse play. And whether that's, you know, a group that you have with your partners or sending an email out to your partners, it's really awesome to be able to bring the leads to your partners as well and kind of not farm it out, but put it as an opportunity of like, hey, I'm sort of the matchmaker. I know that doesn't happen all the time, but I think to your point, that is a playbook that you could nurture and really go after if that was something that you wanted to do. Yeah.
• 37:57
  Cool. Last thoughts, like anything in the survey that we didn't touch that you feel is worth highlighting on? I think there's a lot of interesting data in there that we'll get deeper into as we release more kind of analysis on the study. We're going to be releasing blog posts throughout the year where we're diving deep on different topics. Next month, we have our next big wave of the survey going out. This is the first one of four you mentioned, right?
• 38:26
  We've done the first two waves and we have two more coming up. And in July, we'll have new data across another 1,200 respondents across the country. But we are seeing some differences start to pop up in certain areas between part-time students, so students who are working, and full-time students. We're seeing differences between different races of Gen Z and what they identify as.
• 38:48
  And it's in confidence. It's in the questions they're asking and the responses they're giving. And I won't dive too deep into it on this, but we'll have some more interesting stuff come out around that. So what I hear you saying is there is going to be a part two of this podcast, just maybe. We'll see. Very cool. Well, Drew, where can people find you? What's the best way for somebody that's listening to connect with you? If they're like, hey, I want to go deeper on this. What are some of the best ways to connect? Yeah.
• 39:15
  Yeah. I'm a marketing guy, so I'm on all the platforms. But if you want to talk to me about this, if you want to connect with me for business, you want to ask some of my thoughts, you can find me on LinkedIn. And on LinkedIn, I'm Drew Gillette. It shouldn't be too hard. There aren't more than a couple of us. Well, there's one and only Drew Gillette. But I, yes, all of that will be sourced in the notes. So we'll link the surveys that Guild has published directly to.
• 39:42
  some ways to find Drew. And Drew, thank you so much for coming on today. It was always just really fun to yap with you about this. So I really appreciate your time today sharing with the audience. Yeah, thanks for having me. One last thought I'll leave you with is that, you know, what we've seen in this study is this isn't a generation that's given up on home ownership. Don't think that they have. It's a generation that's waiting for someone to show them what's actually possible. And that's the opportunity sitting in front of every loan officer listening
• 40:12
  So fun. There is hope. And they actually want to thrive. They just need confidence. So if you take anything away, it's build confidence with education, build trust, and go get on Reddit. All right. Well, thank you guys for listening. You guys want to do like, subscribe, and we'll see you on the next episode.