The Future of Real Estate: How Gen Z is Shaping the Market

Mike Mills (00:00:15) - Hello. Hello, everybody. Live is live can be for the 50th episode. Unbelievable that I have done these things of the Texas Real Estate and Finance podcast. My name is Mike Mills. I am a lender here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And this podcast idea is just basically to try to bring information to mortgage professionals and real estate professionals about the industry itself and, you know, kind of trends that are occurring and how to just kind of become better at your job every single day. So today, to help me with that, I am bringing in Miss Ali Cardi. Hello, Ali.

Ally Carty (00:00:49) - Hey, Mike. Happy to be here.

Mike Mills (00:00:51) - Even got applause and all this kind of stuff. It's like real production value we're throwing down. Thank you for coming in. So, Ali, Ali is older than 15. I promise. Even though she seems young, she's doing her her community service and helping out old people today. So I appreciate you for doing that. But Ali is a Gen Z guru.

Mike Mills (00:01:15) - Okay. So what is a Gen Z guru exactly? Well, these days we have a lots of different people that we're trying to sell to in our market. We have the boomers, we have the Gen Xers, the Millennials, and now moving into the market as Gen Z. And this is one of the bigger segments that's really starting to take hold of the real estate market because now, you know, more and more these days with the information that's out there, people are understanding the value of owning real estate and being a homeowner versus renting, even though as it currently stands, you know, when you look at the price of homes and the cost of a mortgage, it's quite a bit more than rent right now. But this market's change and they're cyclical. And if you go back to 2021, Gen Z was buying homes at a greater pace than their parents, which is the Gen Xers. So I could almost be your dad, by the way. Ali So that's kind of how this works. But because of that, I do think having Ali on to kind of tell us a little bit about what we can expect for our future clients that are coming down the pipe, which are these Gen Z buyers, what to look for, kind of how to market to them, what they care about, all that kind of stuff.

Mike Mills (00:02:22) - So so let's just get kind of right into it. Ali First off, I want to know how a 24 year old becomes a Gen Z guru. Kind of tell me your tell me your path a little bit. Tell me how we got here.

Ally Carty (00:02:34) - Man. Well, first of all, Mike, you're making all these jokes about how I am so much younger, but you have out beat me in this podcast. I love everything you're doing. The whole intro, Major Sly That was my word. I will probably use it a lot, but I am so happy to be here. I love what you're doing. I love your whole setup. So am thoroughly impressed as a 24 year old with everything that you are doing from a marketing point of view. So bravo.

Mike Mills (00:03:00) - Appreciate that. Thank you.

Ally Carty (00:03:01) - Um, yes. And so Gen Z Guru, honestly, I'm still trying to figure it out. All my girlfriends are like, What are you doing? But really, I am just hoping to bridge the gap between my generation and our industry.

Ally Carty (00:03:14) - Like you mentioned, we're slowly filling the role that millennials just had of being new to the homebuying market. Um, I am 24. I'm actually having conversations with prospective first time homebuyers in my personal life. So whether it's going to happy hours, bachelor wine nights, doing things with my girlfriends on the weekends, how can I help bridge the gap from the conversations we're having outside of work to bring them to the table in the mortgage industry? And so I grew up in a household. My mom and dad are both in the industry, and I don't really think I would have found this niche without them being there. So I'm really thankful to be here. And I, alongside bringing homeownership to my generation, I also hope to bring, you know, career opportunities and more Gen Zers and our industry, because I don't think that there is enough talk at a college level about career opportunities. But really, um, sparked this interest. I was at a conference back in January and it was probably my fifth or sixth conference I started with to comply back in June.

Ally Carty (00:04:14) - And I realized everyone knows mortgage, nobody knows Gen Z. And so as I've sat through conference after conference, I was in California at the Independent Mortgage Bankers Conference, and I finally was sitting in on a session that was about marketing agency. And I was like, goodness gracious, I, I can actually attest to this. Everyone's talking about their niece, their nephew, their daughter. And I'm like, I am that person. So how can I help our industry better understand what we need to do to market to Gen Z? And so from that conference I spoke with, I don't know if you know Kevin Perino, he does a lot of great videos on LinkedIn. And I said, Listen, I want to help our industry somehow and provide a new perspective. What do you think about me doing these videos? Like I know you do videos. Can I do it, too? And he was. Like, Yeah. And I was like, But I don't want to be this naive young girl who's already at the conferences.

Ally Carty (00:05:08) - And he's like, Just do it. And so I just jumped into it. And I will say, I totally understand any loan officers that are very hesitant to create video content. I was so nervous posting my first video to LinkedIn, but the industry was super encouraging and supportive, which I appreciate anyone that has hyped up any of my content, but from there really just spun into different video series. I started with surveys with 200 gen-z individuals who participated. The population range between 150 and 200. I always like to say that. So and I wasn't reaching all the underserved markets, but it still was a great representation of kind of where where I'm coming from from a Gen Z perspective, you know, how to market to us. What social media are we on the most? What's the biggest obstacle between homeownership and you? Right now, 76% want to buy a home within the next five years. How can I help them do that? And so then from there, I had a lot of people that were like asking me to help them finance a home in my life.

Ally Carty (00:06:08) - And I was like, I can't do that. I can connect you with someone, but let's have a conversation about it, right? And so after the surveys, I really have transitioned into one on one interviews, much like what we're doing today. Mike But I'm speaking with Gen Z individuals who either are prospectively wanting to buy a home or just bought a home and just asking about the process where it can improve. What was the biggest surprise? You know, how can we better help you as a borrower to make the process easier in the future? And it's just been really fun for me. So like like this podcast, this is so fun and it's been really just a way to create content like you and I were talking about, and it's really spiraled into something I'm excited about and hoping to see like a long term effect in our industry as as more people in my age group move into the homebuying process.

Mike Mills (00:06:53) - So you're both of your parents were in the industry. What did they do?

Ally Carty (00:06:57) - So my dad, I he retired when I was born, so I didn't ever really get to see him do as much.

Ally Carty (00:07:03) - My mom is a boss. She was the breadwinner of our family growing up. But she worked. She went through all these different and her first I then she went to Ibn Amro City. I got to see her go through all these different roles, but.

Mike Mills (00:07:18) - So she was in the banking world.

Ally Carty (00:07:19) - She is now. She's with Chase in their home lending division. Okay, So she's a rock star. She is just such a she's paved the way and really encouraged me and supported me. And then my dad is also amazing. But either way, mortgages are just like, I don't know if you saw my recent contribution up to FinTech, but I contributed to this financial literacy newsletter and I moved to Nashville in January of 2022, and I met these girls and I was like, we met actually through a best friend dating app, which is, Oh.

Mike Mills (00:07:51) - Wait, wait. So hang on, a best friend. So like you're, you're, you're not actually looking for a date, but you're looking for a best friend.

Mike Mills (00:07:58) - Is that how it works?

Ally Carty (00:07:58) - So it's like, that's another gen-z thing. I talk about this at conferences. People are like, How do you make friends in a virtual environment? I downloaded this app, I'll plug them Bumble BFF and BFF.

Mike Mills (00:08:11) - What's up?

Ally Carty (00:08:11) - Dan Bumble BFF. So I downloaded it, made a group of about ten girlfriends here in Nashville and they're like, So what do you do for work? Like, they're all like, Oh, I work in retail. I do this, and I'm like, Oh, I work in the mortgage industry and we're all just like, Yeah. And so a month goes by and I'm like, Oh, I'm going to a work conference. They're like, Ali, what is the mortgage industry? And I'm like, You got like, what? And they're like, What is it? And I'm like, It's how you finance a home. And they're like, Oh, I just didn't know. And it's like, that should not be a thing.

Ally Carty (00:08:41) - We should know what the mortgage industry is. They know what the real estate industry is, but they don't really know like the idea behind financing it. And so that was just a whole nother mind blowing thing. When all my girlfriends were out a night and they were like, Honestly, none of us can understand what you do. And I'm like.

Mike Mills (00:08:58) - Well, it's kind of funny because I think in, you know, you know Kristen miserably, right? As well, y'all, you're, you're like her her pet one.

Ally Carty (00:09:09) - Call this morning talking about first time and her next gen homebuyer report so yes yes.

Mike Mills (00:09:18) - Brian knows all about bumble BFF. So you know and I've actually interviewed Kristen before we've talked she's actually been in a few of our sales rallies for our company in Spokane. And, you know, I always tend to see when it comes to people in my business, especially, you know, the old folks like myself, we look and go, okay, you know, this younger person, what do they have to offer in this situation? Like, you know, how do they know I've been doing this? That's my favorite.

Mike Mills (00:09:44) - I've been doing this for 25 years. You know, I know more than you've ever forgotten. Yeah. And the truth is, is that you have to constantly take on new perspectives. Because if you're going to continue to grow and you're going to continue to market and sell to the next generation of homebuyers and people that are coming up with the means and the ability to. Purchase. I mean, there's there's a thing that's happening right now where there's this massive transfer transfer of wealth between the baby boomers and millennials and Gen Z because all of the baby boomers are retiring. They're downsizing their homes. You know, they have more savings or retirement than any generation beyond right now because they've rigged the system for themselves. Congratulations to those guys. But but either way, there's a transfer of wealth that's occurring and that transfer is going to somebody, Right. It's going to end up with someone. Well, more than likely, that's going to be the either Gen X, millennials, Gen Z. So to not have an understanding of how to sell and how to market and how to create education for those people, then or for that that next generation of customer, you're really putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Mike Mills (00:10:49) - And so to be shortsighted and say that, well, because you're 24 years old, how could you possibly have perspective? Well, if you were going to go not to compare Gen Z to, say, dolphins. Right. But let's just say I'm a marine biologist and I'm going to study dolphins. Well, I'm not going to ask whales about how dolphins interact. I'm not going to ask, you know, the the salmon, how the dolphins communicate with each other. I'm going to go talk to the dolphins. Right. Assuming they could speak. Yeah. But the idea is that you have to get it from the horse's mouth. You have to talk to that generation. What you're doing is these anecdotal conversations that you're having with people in your sphere, whether it be your friends, people you went to college with, people in the industry, you are putting perspective on what it's going to take in order for a Gen Z homebuyer to want to pick up the phone and call you. Should they be looking to be buy or sell their home or get a mortgage in? I don't want to underscore the importance of that, because just because you're not 50 years old and been doing it for 25 years does not mean that you don't have proper perspective and can offer a lot of value to the conversation.

Mike Mills (00:11:52) - So how have you been adjusting to dealing with that in our industry of having a bunch of old dudes come and tell you what could you possibly teach them?

Ally Carty (00:12:01) - That's a great question. And I will start off by saying, I think I've received a lot more support than I have. You know, like, hey, no, not interested. A lot of people have been more encouraging towards what I'm doing and kind of the movement around bringing home ownership to Gen Z. So that has been great to see. But I think ways that I have been able to overcome it is just showcasing instances where like people in my generation like and some of the different interviews or podcasts I've participated and I've shared, like we just have different tendencies or go tos such as like I shared with Dave Savage last week, we are not going to turn to Google. We are going to turn to TikTok. And so not until like people who are have been doing it 20 years embrace, you know, hey, there actually is going to be change.

Ally Carty (00:12:50) - Um, I don't know how to change their mind, but I could say that I could see them really losing out on opportunities with Gen Z borrowers, and that would really be my only, like, way to overcome that objection. I think really, just looking at my videos, seeing what I'm bringing to the table. One thing that I wanted to share with you today is I opened my phone to Instagram today, and this is going to be very real content that I'm going to share with you. But I had a friend who sent me this Instagram reel that she saw and she said, Hey, is this true? And it was basically, Sorry, I have music going on at How much of a house can you afford? I know you can barely see that, But she says, how much of a house can you afford? And she sent it to me and was like, Is this true? Then this actually, that was yesterday morning. This morning she sent me something on You should buy a house as soon as you humanly possibly can.

Ally Carty (00:13:42) - She's interacting with this content. She's researching it. So those lenders, those leaders who are like, Oh, I've been in the industry 20 years, I don't need to embrace social media. I don't need to track gen-z borrowers. You know, that's where we're turning. That's where we're getting our information. So to the individuals who are a little less hesitant to jump on the Gen Z train, I think only time will tell what where industry transpires.

Mike Mills (00:14:08) - A little bit. Yeah. Well, you said something about the whole Google versus TikTok thing. And you know, I, I personally so I wasn't on using TikTok hardly at all. I mean, this was I have a daughter that's 15 and I have a son that's 13. And it started off it was musically. Remember that one?

Ally Carty (00:14:26) - Yes. Okay.

Mike Mills (00:14:27) - So it basically started off as like musically. And so my daughter was like, they're doing all their dances and all this stuff, and I'm like And then it kind of transitioned over into TikTok.

Mike Mills (00:14:36) - And the thing about TikTok is, as an adult, right, I'm it my initial introduction to TikTok was, okay, I need to start making content and putting stuff on there. Right. Well, with any social media platform that you post content on, it's also a good habit to interact as well because that's how you, you know, get more, a little bit more eyeballs, traction and everything if you're interacting with other content also. And so the problem with TikTok, though, is that you fall into those TikTok holes where you end up, you know, three hours down a rabbit hole of looking stuff up. But I do find myself as a 45 year old man now, instead of going to Google and typing in something specifically that I'm looking for, I actually will go to TikTok. And I've caught myself typing in Google because it's habit, right? I'm just creating a habit. I've already done this before. And then I scroll. I'm like, What am I doing? And then I'll go over to TikTok and I'll type in the same thing, and I've got 30 videos that I can now scroll through and.

Ally Carty (00:15:30) - It explains it like through a video. And so I think another crazy thing that I've witnessed through TikTok and and through my interviews is people aren't going to TikTok and typing in how to buy a home, but somehow the way and some people are and like some it's showing up on popular pages but the algorithm behind TikTok if people are talking about buying a home, if people are searching it somehow TikTok is pulling it up on your for you page. Yes. So if it's top of mind for that prospective borrower and they're out there and they're they're doing their own independent research, whether or not they're going to TikTok and distinctly typing in how to finance a home, it's going to show up based on hashtags, algorithms. It's going to show up on their for you Page Yes, and that's the craziest part. As I've started doing interviews, I've been like, Hey, are you guys, like, turning to TikTok to look at financing a home? And they're like, not necessarily. But now that you mention it, you know, it's all over my for you page because that's what I'm talking.

Ally Carty (00:16:24) - It's so crazy. It's what I'm talking about. It's what I'm Googling. It's it's really like turning into what they're talking about and looking at all the time. So the TikTok rabbit hole is very indicative of what's top of mind for that consumer.

Mike Mills (00:16:40) - Well, the good and the bad thing about social media and anything on the Internet, because, again, the olds will say, oh, well, you know, they're spying on you and they're watching your every move and all this kind of stuff. And and you know what? That's true to a certain extent. Okay. They are. And TikTok has a bad rap because it's a it's a Chinese based app, you know, originally created. And then and then. But then people don't understand how much information Google collects on you all the time. And if anything, they're a worse proponent of that than TikTok. And so, you know, again, social media and what you see in your feed is what you make it right? So if you want to see cat videos and you want to see, you know, goofy dances, then that's what you'll see.

Mike Mills (00:17:20) - But like my feed is filled with real estate people, finance information, conspiracy theories, health and fitness. And occasionally I have a cat video bleed over because that's where most of my wife spends her time and she'll send me videos from time to time doing that. Yeah, so it is what you create and we it gets such a bad rap because of all the media attention around the, you know, the negative side of tracking your information and spying on you and all this kind of other stuff, which again, you know, there's issues with that for sure, but at the end of the day, it's there. So there's nothing you can do about it. If you want to interact with the planet, that's what you're going to have to do.

Ally Carty (00:17:51) - So I think our generation is just kind of like, who has my information at this point? Like we've grown up in a virtualized environment where, like I talked to my dad and my dad is almost 70 and he's just like, I can't give you my credit card information over the phone.

Ally Carty (00:18:06) - I'm like, Dad, yes, you can. Like I said it like, you know, And so.

Mike Mills (00:18:12) - 600 times.

Ally Carty (00:18:13) - Difference. And he's like, Alexandra, get off TikTok. I'm like, Dad, It's just that's how our generation is. And I think I did a survey that was like, hey, does the TikTok, you know, um, correlation with China scare you? Like 57% were like, no, it does not scare me. I do not care who has my data because at this point, when you're raised from like 9 or 10 getting your first iPhone, who what data were you giving away at 9 or 10 that they don't have today?

Mike Mills (00:18:40) - Um, well, so argue with my wife from time to time about the whole idea of the surveillance state, right? Because when our kids were with their iPads, with their phones, we are constantly. I know where my daughter is right now. I can get on my phone and I can look and see where she is right this second.

Mike Mills (00:18:57) - And I can see what she's been doing all day, where she went, you know who she called. I can see everything, right? So our kids have grown up in an environment of being constantly surveyed. And again, I'm not saying it's good. I'm just saying that that's what it is and you can't change it at this point. We're so far down that rabbit hole that there's no there's no turning it around without some serious legislation and all that, which there's too many corporate interests involved that would be way against, you know, any kind of like lock down on people's privacy. So your data's out there, your information's out there. And so the next step of of it as, as a sales person or anybody in a profession where you're trying to market to individuals, you have to embrace that technology and you have to be able to use it in a way that your customers are going to digest it, right? So if they're going to take it in, you have to create content. You have to create information that's available to them.

Mike Mills (00:19:48) - So speaking on that, when it comes to Gen Z, specifically talk about financial literacy and how important it is, you mentioned earlier about your friends having no idea what a mortgage even was. So how important it is, Is it for the next generation of homebuyer to make sure that they have a base of knowledge for all that stuff?

Ally Carty (00:20:06) - Oh, I think it's going to be so important. And that's why my conversation with Kristen earlier today was so exciting for me because I think financial literacy is very lacking in my generation. Um, the fact that I graduated with a four year degree and I have no knowledge of how credit impacts, you know, my longevity financially, uh, or just what goes into buying a home, what goes into, you know, financing a car, different things that like should be talked about at a high school level, much less if I'm paying you to teach me stuff, at least teach me the stuff that I'm going to need to know when I graduate. Right? Um, that's besides the point.

Ally Carty (00:20:41) - I could go on, but, um, I think that financial literacy is going to be really, really important when it comes to building trust with Gen Z borrowers. For instance, the two videos I just showed you that my friend, she's out there, she's on these financial, she's very financially savvy. And I will say about Gen Z, a lot of my friends and a lot of the interviews I've had, people are very frugal. People want to make sure that they're being smart about their money. Um, I don't know where it comes from, but there's very few of my friends that are thinking about buying a home, but also thinking about like the financial impact that that will have on them long term. So my friend, she's a med student and so she has a ton of student loans and she's very distressed about that. But she also doesn't want to miss out on the opportunity to buy a home because there's all these headlines about low inventory. There's like all these big firms who are buying out real estate and renting it out.

Ally Carty (00:21:33) - That's what my friends are seeing right now. Um, how can a loan officer or a realtor take the time to sit down and explain to them really what the financial benefits are putting the borrower first being like, Hey, listen, maybe this isn't right for you right now. You know, you're about to apply for a school in Pennsylvania. You don't want to buy a house in South Florida. Right. Um, so it's putting the borrower first, but it's also like, hey, black fin, maybe buying a ton of real estate nationwide. But here's the timeline that would work for you. And this is why, you know, they're doing that and what the implications could have on our generation in the future. Um, financial education is going to be huge. And so every everyone I know Brian's on here and Greg and Dan think a lot of us have a similar goal to bring financial education at an earlier stage and really use social media as a platform to have those conversations.

Mike Mills (00:22:23) - Um, would you say with your generation that when it comes to so the financial literacy is important 100% but you know from from where I'm at or, you know, back in my day, we would have a conversation, we'd have coffee, we'd go meet with, you know, somebody would call and we talked to him for an hour.

Mike Mills (00:22:39) - But I think nowadays, and correct me if I'm wrong, there has to be a certain level of trust that's already been established with that individual before your generation is going to pick up and make the phone call. Right. Because if they if they've never seen me online, if I'm not recommended to them by their parents, right, then the odds of me getting that phone call or them touching bases next to zero. But on the flip side of that, if you have two opportunities, you have mom and dad recommend you because you've been helping them sell their house or do your mortgage for 20 years or whatever. Right. Or they've seen you on TikTok or they've seen you on Instagram or they've seen you on notice. The younger people are moving over to Facebook these days, by the way. Um, yes, they've well, unfortunately, I get my 15 year old daughter's friends that want a friend me on Facebook. I'm like, I don't think so. But but, but the idea is that the more they see you in different places, offering a little bit of information, giving value.

Mike Mills (00:23:35) - Right. You're not you're not up there saying, Call me now and I'll be your mortgage officer or call me. I'm going to be a realtor. You're saying, hey, here's what to look for when you're buying a home. Here's how your payment works, here's how much money you're going to need. Here's the types of loans available to you. That information builds trust with the consumer, who then is going to take that and then call you. And if mom also recommended you at the same time, then that just doubly puts you in a spot of authority in that situation. Would you agree?

Ally Carty (00:23:57) - Huge. Huge. I totally agree. I think as I've been doing these interviews, um, and one thing that my mom I showed her one of the recent interviews that I did with Dave Savage, she was like, Ali, It was so interesting because, um, she didn't really realize this until I told her, like, loan officers that don't have a social presence, like they may not be getting traction right now.

Ally Carty (00:24:19) - And I know Greg and I have talked about this. It takes like 100 posts before you maybe see something that is going to generate traction. Um, but for a borrower or prospective borrower, we're going to go to social media to see if they're credible, if they have content, because if they don't have social media, no, what they're getting our business. Um, which sounds not sorry, maybe they'll get, I don't mean to be very pessimistic, but I'm just saying like as a consumer, like, for instance, today I'm going to a concert tonight and we're going to get dinner. So my girlfriends and I before, like 630 and I'm on my phone trying to figure out where I want to eat. I go to TikTok restaurants in East Nashville around this arena, five different restaurants. I do research. I look at their Instagram, look at their TikTok, look at their Yelp. I see where I want to eat. I don't make a single phone call, but they get my business because of what their presence is on social media.

Ally Carty (00:25:13) - Right. Do you have.

Mike Mills (00:25:14) - Validation online for what they do?

Ally Carty (00:25:16) - Right. And my mom might have turned to Google. I don't know what she would do, but.

Mike Mills (00:25:21) - Like Yelp.

Ally Carty (00:25:22) - Text someone, Hey, where should we be? I want to see the vibe. I want to see what it looks like on TikTok. Like you said, you know, I want to see a video demonstration of whatever you're Googling through TikTok. You know, I want to see what the place looks like. I want to see people they've worked with from a loan officer perspective. You know, some suggestions I would have for loan officers is sharing success. Yes. TikTok is a new Google sharing success stories. You know, having a recent client get on a video with you like this. Hey, would you like what was surprising? What was the hardest thing for you to, like, wrap your head around as a first time homebuyer? Um, that content is great. Posting Instagram stories. I think this is very underrated.

Ally Carty (00:26:03) - Post an Instagram story with a question in it, whether it's like, Hey, what's your I think I shared this yesterday with someone, you know, um, post and say what is your ideal home like a vibe. I said the word vibe and I put and I would suggest putting a couple different images that may not get you business right away, but it's getting the borrower thinking, Ooh, I love the way that looks. Let me screenshot this. Let me save it. Oh, I want to talk to a realtor about this. Oh, look at this house. And it's getting engagement. So you're seeing followers engage with your content. And I know that went on a total spiral. No.

Mike Mills (00:26:41) - So you think Instagram stories is a good place? What is it about stories specifically that you think with with with your generation as opposed to, you know, again, I'm an old guy again on Instagram. I will get on there from time to time, but primarily if I'm on Instagram, I'm posting stuff or I'm trying to interact a little bit with other people that I realtors and stuff that I work with.

Mike Mills (00:27:00) - But, um, you know, I don't think about stories much because I don't use stories. I don't use the platform as like a general browser, I guess you would call it. So I do reels, you know, and those bleed over into your, into your post that naturally you can feed them over to. But I never really dive into stories. What is it about stories that you think is is the biggest has such an impact.

Ally Carty (00:27:21) - Yeah so I think first of all I love that you're doing post in reels too, because that's keeping consistent. Like I said, when a borrower looks you up, they're going to see you're really reliable, you have great content, so keep that up. But two I think Instagram stories is a great way to see who is viewing your stuff, but they may not necessarily interact. So for instance, the girl that just sent me those two reels back to back and was like, Hey, what about this? Do you think the housing market is crashing? She didn't comment or like those videos herself, but she sent them to me.

Ally Carty (00:27:50) - So she follows those people and she's viewing their things. So you're seeing who's viewing it.

Mike Mills (00:27:56) - So it's a good Intel. Then you can see who's who's you can.

Ally Carty (00:27:59) - See a little bit curious. And it's not like they want to be poached with like inbounds, like, hey, let's talk about buying a home, right? But it's more so like, hey, if they interact, comment back like you kind of have. I feel like stories is a good way. Like the amount of times I'm on, like I'll be eating my lunch, just clicking through stories. Um, it's really quick. Like if you're running downstairs, you know, I'm in the elevator clicking through stories and if people put a survey up, I'll, I'll respond to it. You know, I'm not. Yeah, like, they're like, Hey, which house do you like better? Ooh. And you actually have an opinion, right? So I think that that's a really big way to get interaction on your content and see who is.

Ally Carty (00:28:38) - Opinionated about the homebuying process is like posting different things in a home, whether it's from a realtor perspective. But I also encourage loan officers to do that because you're the finance behind the home. I had one interview where he was like, I realized the loan officer had the key to how I was going to afford this house. So while the realtor can show it to me and talk about how great it would be, the loan officer was the only reason I was going to be able to afford it and talk through like the actual living in the house and how month to month it was going to work. Yeah. So I think loan officers and realtors can both utilize social media to engage borrowers because the financing of a home is so important, but it's not necessarily the sexiest part of the home.

Mike Mills (00:29:22) - Sexy until you have to do it. And then you want to know everything there is to know about it.

Ally Carty (00:29:25) - Yeah. And so I think but highlighting the home itself and just the empathy and the emotional connection within a borrower when it comes to buying a home loan, officers I think, can still do that without feeling like they're the realtor.

Ally Carty (00:29:38) - Right. I think engaging conversations. Hey, what do you think about this home? You know, my interview last week was with the 24 year old who bought a home here in Nashville. And she is redoing the the rental property attached to her home. And I have just loved engaging with her content because it's like, should I leave my cabinets on or off, you know? And it's just like the design aspect, especially with single woman home buyers. I think that that will be a huge one. You know, Instagram stories showcasing the like paint the picture of owning a home right. Um, and Instagram stories, you know, they don't feel like they have to like it but they're still viewing it and you know, they still saw it.

Mike Mills (00:30:16) - So if you were talking to a realtor or a lender that has hasn't really engaged or gotten involved much with social media, period, what you know, because it can seem overwhelming, right? Because when they go and see your stuff and see and she's on their every day and she's interviewing all these people and and then they'll see, you know, because it's the 8020 rule just like anything else, right? You go on Instagram or you go on TikTok and you're going to see, you know, 80% of the content from the same 20% of the people that are doing it on a regular basis.

Mike Mills (00:30:44) - So it can seem like, well, I'm never going to be able to put a dent into that. Right. Because if I just make my one video, nobody's going to care. So what would you say to somebody that had that mentality and then where would they like, what's the easiest place to start? Just say, Hey, just do this or just try this. What would you suggest?

Ally Carty (00:31:00) - Um, so when it comes to really getting started on socials, I think like I mentioned earlier, 100 videos before you tell me you can't post 100 things and then tell me, Hey, this isn't working, but it really is a long game. Social media and getting started. Take it from me. I'm a 24 year old and in the mortgage industry, everyone already has an opinion about me being in the conference scene. So to jump on social media and start talking about like my generation, how I'm going to add value, I was really nervous, but I was like, You know what my biggest regret is going to be? Not not trying.

Ally Carty (00:31:34) - And so that's what I tell any loan officers that are me, Hey, where do I start? I'm like, Honestly, just jump on there. If they don't like it, screw them. Yeah, like that's just my thing.

Mike Mills (00:31:44) - It's like I would say, how often have you even really gotten negative responses? Because, I mean, I've been doing it for a little while now and I don't get a ton of traction all the time everywhere. But I mean, very rarely does anybody ever have anything negative to say, at least in my experience.

Ally Carty (00:31:57) - Yeah. And I think especially from a loan officer perspective, you can repurpose content. So really just start and get a ring light, 20 bucks, get it, and it'll make you feel better about yourself. I like TikTok because I like the the way that you can edit the videos. It's really user friendly. And if anyone has any questions about that, reach out to me. I would happily talk about how to use TikTok from a editing point of view, because I know my mom is like, Ali, this is way over my head, but it's really not that hard.

Mike Mills (00:32:25) - Tik tok, how do we use?

Ally Carty (00:32:27) - Um, so I would just create a video, whether it's on your camera roll, it's on your Instagram on TikTok, just create a video talking genuinely. And one person that I want to highlight, um, he don't, I don't even know who he is with, but this gentleman reached out to me when I started doing my video content and he's like, Hey, I want to reach Gen Z borrowers, I'm going to get on TikTok. I'm like, do it. Um, and so he followed me. He was one of the first one officers to actually engage my content and like take a call to action. And so I followed him and, um, I don't know, maybe he's late 40s, early 50s, but he's not a 20 year old who's like so confident in social media. And he, he had said that to me before and he was like, I don't really know where to start. And I'm like, Just post a video about what you want to help borrowers do.

Ally Carty (00:33:14) - Hey, I want to help you get in your first home. You know, here's some big misconceptions. If this is you reach out to me. He's getting like 900 to like 1200 views per post. Wow. And he's getting like 18 comments. And while they may not always be the most optimistic, I will say some of the comments are like, I can't afford a home like the government's working against me. But it's it's an inbound. You can respond to it. Be like, Hey, let's talk about it. Here's my number. Give me a call. Yeah. But the fact that he is an individual who is not social media savvy and had told me about him was like, I just want to try bravo to him. And the fact that he's getting 900,000 views per video, that means people are looking at mortgages on TikTok. Right? That means that my hashtag get to know Gen Z is getting 300 views, but hashtag mortgage is getting a thousand views. Yeah. So the loan officers that aren't embracing video content TikTok Instagram reels, it may be really scary, but it's going to be even scarier in ten years when that's what you had to have in order to have a portfolio to gain business with Gen Z borrowers.

Mike Mills (00:34:19) - Yeah, we're already behind the curve if you're not doing it, unfortunately. I mean, I even feel like I've been doing it now for about a year, not quite a year yet, but but on a regular basis at least. And I feel like I'm way behind the curve, even just getting into it. So, so, you know, I can imagine what it's going to be like in 5 or 10 years when the vast majority of information that people consume comes from these type of platforms. And if you're not represented there and and oh, by the way, with, you know, blockchain and web3 and all this stuff that's coming down the pipe, that direction, too, there's a whole other realm of of of the world that we're not even familiar with yet that's going to start having an impact as well. I'm curious, so in your conversations with, you know, that you have because you have your what is it, the conversations on Friday with the Gen Z?

Ally Carty (00:35:00) - Yeah, it's good to know Gen Z Friday.

Ally Carty (00:35:02) - All my friends, all my friends in Nashville know Ali can't talk. Get to know Gen Z Friday.

Mike Mills (00:35:07) - So when you're talking to those Gen Zers on Fridays, what are you finding as a first time homebuyer is the biggest concern that they're having? Like, what is their what is the what's the main thing that keeps coming up over and over again as far as, you know, what they're trying to either find out or what they're concerned about when it comes to buying a house.

Ally Carty (00:35:27) - Um, so I think that can be answered two ways. I think really the biggest obstacle that I'm seeing is the education point. Okay? But really what they're struggling with, they've acknowledged they want to buy a home. Um, you know, Gen Z was made up 60%. Sorry. I want to read it just so I. Yeah.

Mike Mills (00:35:47) - It says Gen Zers make up 16% of all originations in the US and 81% of them open a new credit card in Q4 of 2022. Everyone should focus on their social media strategy, which I would very much agree.

Ally Carty (00:35:58) - Martin Read. Martin, thanks for joining. Completely agree with that. I think education, especially around opening credit cards, is not always discussed. You walk into any mall and they're like, hey, you want to open a credit card? 20% off? Sign me up. Sign me up.

Mike Mills (00:36:13) - 20%. Yeah, let's do this.

Ally Carty (00:36:15) - So great point. But from a obstacle point of view, you know, they've acknowledged, hey, I want to buy a home. It's. The prices, which isn't great. But say, I've sat through all these conferences since I joined in June, which is a really hard time to join and everyone is like interest rates and nobody's talking about interest rates in my my inner circle and my peer group and my interviews. They're talking about home prices. The single women borrowers are talking about safety, security as a you know, I can afford a $400,000 house. It's not in the safest part of town in Nashville, at least, you know, South Florida. And I just think that a lot of the the conversations are around, you know, the financial obligations behind it.

Ally Carty (00:37:04) - But also, I would encourage loan officers have a conversation around it. Yeah, one funny thing and I don't want a ton of inbounds from this, but, um, I have not been approached by a single loan officer. In my journey to homeownership. So my lease ends in October and this is me just saying Blake and I like my colleague, he's 25. He also wants to buy a home at the end of the year. No loan officers have reached out to us and I'm not saying reach out to me now. I'm not saying that.

Mike Mills (00:37:35) - You're going to get inundated, Ali, especially.

Ally Carty (00:37:37) - I will figure it out. My mom is in the business. I will have a great person to talk to.

Mike Mills (00:37:41) - But in Nashville, by the way, if you need to talk to them.

Ally Carty (00:37:43) - Okay, great. But really, the point of me saying that is if I'm not getting reached out to who is. Yeah. If I am out here saying I want to buy a home in October and I know that's far away, people should be trying to build a relationship with me right now, right? Don't do it.

Ally Carty (00:38:00) - I've already had this conversation before. I will. I will figure it out. But if they aren't reaching out to me, who are they reaching out to? You know, um, just to and I'm not saying DM Everyone that interacts with your content, but posting stories, who responds to your stories, posting a question on your story that is huge. And that is something that I think Gen Z borrowers will interact with. I don't know. I can see you looking to the side. Do you? Do you know what I'm talking about? When you say post a question.

Mike Mills (00:38:29) - Yeah. Yeah. You're just asking for interaction is what you're looking for. So whatever whatever type of question you can put up there, the idea I mean, this was I think this is a, that's a pretty, um, as old school as you can get in social media of the if you, if you go talk to the coaches right. The ones that say, hey, here's how you do social media, one of the very first things they'll ask you to do it doesn't matter.

Mike Mills (00:38:49) - Your industry, no matter what you're doing, is to say, you know, what's your favorite car? You know, they just want people to interact with the post, right? So when you're asking a question, you're looking for interaction. That's the.

Ally Carty (00:39:01) - Goal. Yes. And so but through Instagram stories, if you build a brand around mortgage, you want to talk about financing a home, post an Instagram story with the fill in the blank. Hey, what's your biggest obstacle in homeownership? People who may not necessarily want to be hit up on the phone. I know Greg and I have talked, you know, it's really important. Gen Z does not love phone calls. It's more email, text message, virtual.

Mike Mills (00:39:24) - Yes, I discovered that myself.

Ally Carty (00:39:26) - Yes.

Mike Mills (00:39:27) - By the way, on that, too. I had a friend of mine who was an insurance guy, old guy like myself. He was getting text messages from one of our borrowers that we were working with together at like, you know, 11:00 at night or five in the morning or whatever was like, hang on, They don't expect you to respond right then they're just in the middle of doing something like, Oh, I need to send this message.

Mike Mills (00:39:46) - So they send it and then you can respond whenever we're used to. Like if someone texted me like, I gotta get right, I got to get with them right away, you know? But that's not at least my experience, that's not what y'all are looking for.

Ally Carty (00:39:55) - Well, and I think that I've seen kind of the opposite being in this business as a 24 year old, you know, that's how my mentality is. You know, when it's when I see it on my phone, I'm like, oh, I'm going to respond right now. Yeah. If someone doesn't respond to me for 48 hours, fine. I don't take offense to it. But like my mom would be like, Oh my gosh, they didn't get back to me.

Mike Mills (00:40:11) - Well, 48 hours, probably a little extreme, but at least, you know.

Ally Carty (00:40:14) - But I think that, like, if I'm like, trying to like, like, for instance, if I'm trying to schedule a meeting for next week and I'm like, Hey, how does this time work? If you respond Saturday morning at 8 a.m.? Okay, that works for me.

Ally Carty (00:40:24) - I mean, I might respond and say, hey, the time slots been filled, but I'm not going to take offense to it. Yeah. Um, and I also think that as a consumer, if a borrower takes a little bit longer to respond, 48 hours is a lot as a consumer, but within the next like, like 12 hours, if they text you at 11 p.m., text them back by like 2 p.m. the next day. Fine. Um, but yeah, so I do think that there will be a difference, you know, as we are moving through this virtualization age. But I also think our generation has expectations that we're not there with millennials. Okay. Um, such as? I was talking to Kristen this morning. I went to the grocery store. They were out of my dogs dog food. I don't want to change his dog food. So Amazon's going to deliver it tomorrow, right? Um, we have those expectations, and I don't know how our industry will react as we get more innovative and automated, but I think as Gen Z moves into that homeownership process, I had one interview where their title agent, um, took too long and my friend lost his home title.

Mike Mills (00:41:27) - And my favorite.

Ally Carty (00:41:28) - Do you like as I've been in the industry, I've heard that there's a lot of timeliness that is involved and sometimes things take longer than usual. I am going to be very interested to see how that evolves as our generation moves into these expectations within the home buying process.

Mike Mills (00:41:43) - Well, see, part of the problem is, and this has been this has been a mortgage industry issue for a long time is and I bark about this all the time where someone says, you know, you're file like if you're if you're a borrower and you're going through the process and you pick up the phone and you called Loan Officer A, if you don't call them during banking hours, you're probably not going to get them, which is ridiculous. And then the second thing is, is that when you ask the question, you know, I haven't heard anything a while or what's going on, the answer a lot of times like, Oh, it's been an underwriting, you know, the underwriter. Oh, the underwriter.

Mike Mills (00:42:10) - You know, this is just one example. Underwriter. Underwriter. Well, the reality is in our world that it takes when an underwriter picks up a file. Review it. It might take them three hours, maybe, you know, 3 or 4 hours, especially these days, maybe even less, because there's so many things that are automated. But now the process of going through underwriting could take 24 to 48 hours, depending on what the company's expectation is on once the file is submitted to underwriting, how long it takes. But if someone's telling you that your underwriters or that your file has been an underwriting for a week, they're just not telling you the whole story because there's something else that's going on. And I think, you know, and this is every consumer, this just isn't Gen Z. They they just want to be told the truth. Like, just tell.

Ally Carty (00:42:53) - Me the guarantee.

Mike Mills (00:42:54) - Yes. Just don't let me feel like you're lying to me. Like when you tell me something, it may be bad news.

Mike Mills (00:42:59) - It might be something I don't want to hear, but I need to know. And the bigger issue really comes around a lot of times with loan officers in some cases. Is that because, you know, everybody kind of knows their little section of the river, let's call it like I know this part, but I don't know this part that well and nobody likes to feel stupid. And so what ends up happening is people will make mistakes. They will do something that they could have caught in the beginning, but they didn't know or they made a mistake or whatever the case may be. And instead of owning it and just saying, you know what, I missed this, or yeah, this was something that we weren't ready for or whatever the case may be, they're just trying to spin every example and every reason why it's not their fault and the underwriter and title and it's everybody else's issue and consumers just get sick of that because they're just like, look, whatever happened, whatever's going on, I need to know.

Mike Mills (00:43:44) - Because at that point, if they've got their loan with you, they're pretty much committed, like we're in this thing together. So let's get it across the finish line. Just be honest with me.

Ally Carty (00:43:52) - I think transparency will be a huge expectation. And like you said, it's with every borrower, not just Gen Z. Um, but I always like to use this pizza analogy that I was reading about. National Mortgage News published something about Gen Z borrowers and I was reading it. And our generation, this was just a great example, like the Dolphins, very random. But I like when I go to order pizza, I expect to have the ability to track the driver through my app. Um, not having that, not as, not as attractive to me as a consumer, I.

Mike Mills (00:44:24) - Don't expect that at all. That makes it okay.

Ally Carty (00:44:26) - That makes and it's just one thing that it's like, oh, like I expect to be able to track, you know, where my delivery driver is, what time it's going to be here.

Ally Carty (00:44:33) - And if it's not, then I expect to get compensated. You know, that's just kind of and I was reading about it and I was like, I didn't even think about that. But that's so true. That's my expectation as a borrower, as a consumer. Um, so that's another thing that I'm just like trying to deep dive in my interviews, like, what are we going to change when it comes to, you know, the mortgage process? What are we thinking? You know? Um, but yeah, think to backtrack completely, the biggest obstacle would be home, like home prices and just the beast that seems to be homeownership and news headlines. I think that our industry is trying so hard to break down the barriers to like, educate. But when big Tiktoks are going viral about black fan buying 13 I don't remember 13 billion of real estate as a consumer. All my friends are like, Ali, what does this mean? And I'm like, I'm going to figure it out. But I like, you know, because it's like intimidating.

Mike Mills (00:45:27) - Well, ask your mom because the chase, just for 2023, they had set aside, they had allocated, I think it was $26.8 billion for for only for single family residence, residential purchases that they were going to turn into.

Ally Carty (00:45:41) - Lease rent out?

Mike Mills (00:45:42) - Yes. So so here's here's the reality of it. And this is something that whenever I do content, I do content about this all the time. And and it gets it gets you know, it sounds doom and gloom and you hate to be the bearer of bad news. And, you know, but the idea because there's two things that are happening right now on online, you see people that are, you know, click baiters that are showing houses on fire and, you know, the crash is coming and all this stuff's about to happen. And I think you could maybe make that argument to some extent in commercial real estate for many, many reasons that we don't have to get into, but because there's a lot of issues that are happening there with regional banks and with people working from home and companies downsizing and all that stuff.

Mike Mills (00:46:22) - Right? So but push that aside and let's just look at home ownership and the inventory issue has been there since before the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, we were sitting at 3 to 4 months worth of inventory, which was enough. But in a healthy market, you need somewhere between 5 to 6 months of inventory for it to be a balanced buyers and sellers market, Right, Right. So when there's no inventory and home prices continue to go up. And the issue is, is that right now is that there's no inventory on the horizon because builders A, you know, I think there's some profit stuff going on there. But ultimately they still have issues getting the supply chain to getting all their equipment in there, finding issues with labor, and they're finding issues with land and getting land at a relatively inexpensive price to go in and put these properties on. Right. And so you're not having a bunch of new homes being built. People are not foreclosing this whole idea that the foreclosures are about to start.

Mike Mills (00:47:16) - It's like 0.04% rate of foreclosure, which is like the lowest in history. It's not happening because people have 60, 80, $100,000 worth of equity in their home. They're not going to foreclose. Okay. So the only thing that's going to cause any kind of massive shift in inventory in the market would be massive job losses. So if there was a significant recession and if there was a ton of layoffs, you could see. But even then you're talking about taking the foreclosure rate and bumping it up to maybe 1%, which is just like normal. So the bottom line is, is that there is no inventory on the horizon. So that just means that home prices are going to keep going up. And the issue becomes even exacerbated because, A, the debt ceiling crisis was just kind of more or less fixed, essentially, and or at least for the time being. And so interest rates have started to trend back down a little bit. They were above 7% just within the last couple of weeks because of all that.

Mike Mills (00:48:11) - And now they're trending back in the other direction. And then if we do get into a recession, which many people are predicting, that's where we're headed, especially for Q3 and Q4 of this year, then you're going to see rates come down even further. And when that happens and all the people that have been sitting on the sidelines that have been worried about rates, they're all going to come back into the market and try to buy homes. So now your demand just goes up and supply.

Ally Carty (00:48:31) - Stays the same.

Mike Mills (00:48:32) - Though he's the same. So prices keep going up. So it's it's like a broken record thing where you keep saying or we keep saying in the industry, the best time to buy a home is right now because it's just going to get more and more expensive. It's not going to get cheaper unless there's some black swan catastrophe that we're just nobody's seeing coming or happening. I don't see where that happens. And there's a reason why the black rocks and the chases and the black stones of the world are buying up all of this real estate.

Mike Mills (00:48:58) - Okay. If the billionaires and the trillionaires are buying up real estate, there's a reason. So maybe you should be paying attention to what they do.

Ally Carty (00:49:06) - Not Black Fin. I said black.

Mike Mills (00:49:07) - Blackstone. Yeah. It's okay. There's so many. Look, I'm sure there's an offshoot of Black Fin somewhere because.

Ally Carty (00:49:13) - I've been sent so many tech talks about just that idea that I've. And then I was reading a black article earlier, so that's where I got.

Mike Mills (00:49:19) - It's totally fine. But. But that's what's happening. That's what's going on here.

Ally Carty (00:49:22) - This is my friend who sent me the article because her she captioned it. She's like, Alley, is the market going to crash? I'm like, I mean, we've been asking that for months. I went, prices are up.

Mike Mills (00:49:32) - So there's two things that were that ran recently the Case-Shiller, which is like it's kind of an all encompassing statistical model that kind of takes home prices. And then there's FHFa. And FHA is like the governing body for conventional loans, essentially.

Mike Mills (00:49:47) - And so Case-Shiller shows that home prices are down 2.3% from their peak from their peak last June. That's the highest the home prices have been. They're down 2.3. And this is national averages, right, because the West Coast is suffering like crazy. But Tennessee and Texas and Florida and Arizona, they're booming. Right. So overall, that's down. Well, then if you take FHFa numbers, what FHFa does is they factor out cash purchases because if you're paying cash for a home, it's very likely that you're getting a discount because it's a short close. You know, you're maybe homes have been sitting there for a little bit. You're an investor. There's there are many reasons why often if the House is listed for 400,000in your cash buyer, you're getting it for 3.75. Okay. That's just kind of how it works. But FHFa takes those out of the equation and says, okay, just for conforming conventional FHA loans, normal loans, but no cash home. Are actually up 0.7% for those purchases. Okay.

Mike Mills (00:50:47) - Wow. From their peak. This is their peak in 2022. So with all of the media about the crash coming and the rates being at 8%, which they were, it has had little to no effect other than it has slowed the growth. That's it. But as soon as the demand comes back, when rates get a little bit more under control or reasonable, if they do, which I think they will, then you're going to see the demand shoot through the roof again and prices are going to go up.

Ally Carty (00:51:13) - Well, and my conversation with Dave Savage last week, he showcased just the population size that's going to be moving into, you know, the homebuying process very soon as first time homebuyers, there's going to be a huge opportunity within the next 5 to 10 years. And excuse me, I'm getting over a cold, but I think that it's very optimistic and especially like it's also just breaking down. Like what did she mean by market crash? Like, does she understand that that's like a holistic view of like the economy.

Ally Carty (00:51:42) - Um, and she was just like sending me these tiktoks or Instagram reels and was like, what is this mean? And so it's just taking the time. Like as a loan officer, as a realtor, I think getting coffee, like you mentioned earlier, that will be a win. Like, Hey, let's grab coffee, let's talk about it. Like I'm not going to try to sell you. The virtual environment might play a little bit of a twist on that, but that's a whole nother beast in itself. But I think just having a genuine conversation with borrowers that are seeing this and freaking out, um, it will be a great way to build trust. And after conversations with Kristen and analyzing some of their data, trust is going to be a huge way to win business with Gen Z.

Mike Mills (00:52:20) - So how big of a role does technology play? I mean, obviously when I say technology, I mean every our whole life we carry around this thing with us on our Yeah, they sent rockets to NASA with less or to the moon with less than this.

Mike Mills (00:52:32) - But so our whole world is technology. But when it comes to the process of of a younger buyer that's looking to purchase a home, what role does social media technology, their phone, their their sphere, how does all that play a role in their decision process? And when does that start? Does the decision process start a year ahead of time? Does it start three months? I mean, regardless of what it should do, what do you see as the trend of what's actually happening?

Ally Carty (00:52:58) - Great question. So I've had this this question. I've talked with a couple different first time homebuyers and I've asked this. So it looks like the timeline is about two years. And so, like I've told you, long game, you know, I can't sit here and say I can help you get a Gen Z borrower tomorrow because that's not how how they're buying. That's not how we are researching. Right. Um, I started probably this research last June when I realized I was getting into the mortgage industry. But, um, and my goal is to own a home by the end of the year, so.

Ally Carty (00:53:29) - But my friend who I interviewed last week, she was talking about, you know, she did about two years of research. She decided she wanted to buy a home, moved to Nashville, was living in different areas of town, figuring out where she wanted to live. She was renting, but she wanted to buy. Um, and so it's about two years. My the first interview that I did was with the gentleman that said he put two years of research in. He was on, um, Google Tiktoks how we found out about an FHA loan, um, Instagram. He was doing a lot of independent research. And then Kristin and I were talking about this earlier. You know, she was talking about how when she bought a home, all of a sudden it was a month in and she was like, Wait a minute, we're actually doing this. Like, this was a really quick process, right? Um, versus me, I'm going to have an expectation that it better be really freaking quick because I've been researching this for months.

Ally Carty (00:54:24) - I've been trying to find the perfect house. I understand it's an emotional decision, but my expectation is it's going to be quick. Yeah, because we're doing a ton of research. My friend from last week, she'd been listening to podcast on her walk on her walks for months about first time homebuyers tricks. You know what to look out for during, like, the homebuying process. Um, so I really think that one differentiation between Gen Z borrowers and maybe millennials would be the research process. We are doing it very silently. The girl who just sent me all the Instagram stuff, she's looking at buying a home, the content she's interacting with, they have no idea right now, all of a sudden commenting.

Mike Mills (00:55:04) - They're just flipping through it and seeing it.

Ally Carty (00:55:06) - Yeah, but they're also thinking about it, right? So I think it will be a really long game. Like you and I have said, social media will be a long game, but I'd average about like 18 to 24 months for like the research process independently.

Ally Carty (00:55:19) - But when we approach a loan officer, a realtor, and we find a house that we love, the expectation is going to be higher.

Mike Mills (00:55:26) - It's going to happen. You want it to happen quickly at that point. You know, it's funny that you say that because in my social media journey that I've had for the last 8 or 12 months, I've noticed that whether it be because don't like we talked about before you came on or before we started this like, you know, I don't really get wrapped up in likes and. Comments and views like you see it. It's human nature. You're going to look, Oh, this one's doing better than the other, but it's not something I lose sleep over at all. But what I have noticed is just in my everyday life now, because I post just about every single day one something that I'll go out. And whether we're at a baseball tournament with my son or we're at a volleyball tournament with my daughter, we're at the PTA meeting or whatever, whatever we're doing, somebody will say something to me.

Mike Mills (00:56:09) - They'll say, Hey, I saw that thing that you did the other day. I thought that was funny. Or, you know, I had a question about that. Can you answer this for me? And it's really kind of what's funny is my wife and daughter and kids, they hate it, you know, because they're like, oh, you know, he's walking around the driveway. We had a we had a realtor that lived across the street from us. I didn't know. And I have a circle driveway in my we have about three acres and I'm doing laps in my driveway in the morning and hold my camera up and talking to it and doing the whole thing. And she was doing a my wife's a realtor, too, And so she was doing a contract with this. And she's like, Do you live across the street? You know, and in that house with the gate? And she's like, Yeah. She goes, Is your husband is he always the one out there walking around in circles? She's like, Yes, that's him.

Mike Mills (00:56:52) - Thank you for that. So but it is funny that just because don't take for granted that just because you're not seeing the direct result from your content that shows up in likes and comments and shares and all that kind of stuff that we've been told for so long are the metrics. There's such a silent majority of people out there that are just scrolling and they see your stuff all the time. And it really I've just started to experience that a little bit in just the short amount of time that I've been doing it.

Ally Carty (00:57:20) - Yeah, well, this morning I was looking through your LinkedIn to kind of figure out what you typically talk about and make sure we are on the same page. And I looked through probably 8 or 9 year videos. I didn't like any of them. I will go back and do that if you would like, but it was just like I was. I was looking at the content. I was seeing who you had on. Um, but it's also a point to say, you know, my mom gets these calls from people.

Ally Carty (00:57:42) - She's been in the industry for 25 years and they're like, Oh my gosh, I love what Allie's doing. And I'm like, Oh, who was it? Because I get like probably about 85, 90 likes per post. And she's like, Oh, if someone so and I'm like, Well, they didn't like it. And she's like, I'm like, Oh, let me see if they liked it. And I'm like, Mom, they didn't like it. And she's like, I don't know what to say. And so it's like people see stuff and they they like it. Maybe they don't like it. I don't know. But it's not. And I will stand by this quote 100 posts until you see some type of traction. But also don't focus on the traction. Focus on, hey, this is fun. I like interviewing people. I like doing these things because this is adding value to my life. Yes. And once you focus, it's like, can't make anyone else happy to make yourself happy.

Ally Carty (00:58:27) - And so my biggest advice for someone wanting to get started on social media 70, 30, ten, 70 about work, 30, 70 about like success stories at work, top of mind industry knowledge acronyms, whatever. 10% or 30% Personal Post your favorite story, post your workout plan, Do your hot yoga people want to know you and like you as a person, especially a sales person that they want to do business with. Ten product. Hey, let's talk about product. The 70 can be a wide array of mortgage things, right? Does it not just have to be Let's talk about financing your home. It could literally be, oh, look at this house. Look at this interior design. You know, look at it doesn't have to be related product or FHA or, you know, um, so 70, 30, ten, that's what I go by and that's what, you know, I'm hoping to incorporate onto my professional Instagram that I just started. And I'm working on stuff in the background to start slowly launching stuff on there.

Ally Carty (00:59:24) - But, um, that's what I've been telling my mom is she's been like, What should I be posting? I'm like 70 work, 30 personal and ten product.

Mike Mills (00:59:33) - Well, I think it's hard again for people to get started that don't do it because if you ask people, you know, well, what do you spend your time on? There's still 70 year old spend all their time on Facebook. I mean, they're using social media. They're not not using social media. They are. Everybody is. So then you have to realize, okay, well, what am I, what am I, what do I like to do? You know? And that's what I always tell agents that we work with that are uncomfortable doing because I'll get questions about it from time to time because they see the stuff that I do. And and I'll say, Well, what do you like to do? And they're like, What do you mean? I'm like, Well, what are you passionate about? Like, what do you enjoy? Well, you know, I like walking my dog or I like, you know, going to the farmer's market or whatever.

Mike Mills (01:00:09) - I'm like, okay, well, then talk about that. Like, talk about something that you enjoy doing that you have a passion for because that passion comes across, right? That comes across in your content to see that you're a genuine, authentic person, that you're not trying to sell them something. Just just do. But you got to do something. You got to do one or you got to do something. So like the whole reason I even started doing this podcast stuff because like, if you go back and watch like my first five, I'm sitting in a weird room on a chair with somebody and it's like echoey and there's no mic. And, you know, I'm just figuring it out. Like, I'm like, Yeah, I like to talk to people. I enjoy it like I enjoy. Having conversations like this talking shop. You put me in a networking meeting with 25 people that want to talk about the weather and recipes and I am out like not what I want to do, but you put me in a room with one person that I find to be intelligent, that I can have a conversation with about a particular topic.

Mike Mills (01:00:57) - I will talk all day long. And so I took the idea of that with the podcast genre that already existed. And then I said, okay, well I'll just have an hour long conversation with people about topics related to real estate, and then I'll try to see if I can figure out how to take that content and slice it up and put it other places. But I don't have to put a whole lot of effort into coming up with some funny bit that I'm going to do, which takes a lot of production value and a lot of effort and editing. I'm just having a talk, posting it places and just see how it works out. And yeah, I just recommend that when people are starting their social media journey to just find something that you enjoy that's easy, that you're going to do and I promise you you will do it and you'll start to slowly build that, build that catalog of content 100%.

Ally Carty (01:01:41) - I completely agree.

Mike Mills (01:01:44) - So, okay, so we're in an hour. It went by really, really quick.

Mike Mills (01:01:48) - So I want to be, you know, conscious of your time. But before we go, is there anything that you would want to say about, you know, just in general when you're talking to realtors and mortgage professionals about, hey, if you're going to reach the Gen Z market, here's the things you need to focus on and here's what you need to do going forward 100%.

Ally Carty (01:02:07) - So I think like we talked about social media, huge. If you are not on it, it will not be the only thing that you have to do. Thank you, Martin, for your feedback and thank you for staying on. But so basically, really my call to action for anyone listening, anyone who wants to reach gen-z borrowers be on social media. If you're not, it's going to be a differentiator. People who are on it will will gain business over people who are not. Um, to be consistent when you're posting three. Be very genuine about the borrower first and I know that that's with any generation.

Ally Carty (01:02:42) - I know I've talked to my mom but like every interview I've done, people in my generation will see through, you know, the coffee is for closers sale. Great, great movie. My mom made me watch it, but, uh, it people in my generation are seeing through. And the worst part is they're ghosting those people who are coming across in genuine. So the people that are like, boom, boom, boom and their DMS, Hey, let's talk about buying a home. Don't respond. Boom, boom, boom. We respect the approach, but it's so much more likely to be ghosted. A slow approach. Genuine curiosity about the borrower will win business with Gen Z. Um, but really just wanting to talk about it. And like, for instance, my one guy friend who is working on buying a second home, he was like, if someone just approached me and was like, Hey, do you want to know how much of a home you can afford? That is a great entry question.

Ally Carty (01:03:37) - If someone asked that to me, I'd be like, Honestly, yeah. I wouldn't think that they were going to close me. I would just be like, okay, yeah, let's me like, let's talk about it. And let me tell you about like my timeline is.

Mike Mills (01:03:49) - And there's a massive disconnect there too, because between what people want to purchase and what they want their payment to be, it's always a big a big gap there.

Ally Carty (01:03:56) - Yeah, but like knowing how much you can afford, you know, I will get on my couch at night. I'll be watching, uh, NBA finals and I'll be like, just on my laptop researching things. And if I wanted to look up, you know what? How much of a home I can afford. You know, if a loan officer had told me numbers, if I'm on Zillow, I'm like, Oh, I can afford this, this is cool. Or, you know, that's a little bit outside of my price range. Where can I save per month? It just gets thoughts provoked and like, that's going to be my point of source of financial reliability moving forward in the process versus someone that's like, Hey, let's talk about buying a home.

Ally Carty (01:04:30) - You know, it's just it's more genuine. Yeah.

Mike Mills (01:04:33) - Well.

Ally Carty (01:04:34) - Number one.

Mike Mills (01:04:34) - I think what you're doing is great. And I think that, you know, it's. People look and see what you do and go, Oh, you know, she's talking this and she's new in the industry. What does she know? But it takes a lot of, you know, and don't like don't get me wrong, you know, like a police officer five But it's courage. It takes courage to put yourself out there to talk to, to, you know, in a way present yourself as a knowledge center for a particular topic, especially because, again, our industry is typically a little older. And so any time new faces come in, this is what Kristen's been able to do and really kind of shed light on the next generation of buyers. I think it's a valuable resource and what you're doing and the content that you're putting out and the advice that you're giving and the conversations that you're having with the people of your generation that are all saying, Hey, look, this is what we're looking for, this is what we need.

Mike Mills (01:05:23) - And if you don't want to pay attention to that as a real estate professional, then you are going to miss the boat. And that's just what it's going to be. And like you said, it's a long game. And if you don't start now and start working your way through the process of learning how to do social media and how to promote yourself, then when the time comes where that's the only avenue in which people find you, or at least 90% of them, you're going to be out of the business. And that's the unfortunate reality of it, which is why it's so important to get started as soon as you can.

Ally Carty (01:05:48) - 100%. Well, thank you so much for having me, Mike. I am thoroughly impressed by your presence. You're on the air like phenomenal content. Like, I cannot wait to engage with your Instagram, your TikTok, your LinkedIn videos, ten out of ten. Like, I love everything y'all are doing. Well, thank.

Mike Mills (01:06:05) - You very much. I really, really appreciate that.

Mike Mills (01:06:07) - So. All right, guys. Thanks, everybody. That stuck around with us. And if you're watching this online later, if y'all have questions, post them out. We'll definitely answer in the comments. So everybody, have a great weekend. Enjoy the summer and we will see you next week.

Ally Carty (01:06:19) - Bye, guys.

Mike Mills (01:06:19) - Bye.