Home watchers and ‘tech-pecations’

Presently, owners of vacation or second homes, no longer fit the profile of what is normally perceived as a vacation homebuyer, i.e. people in their 60’s or 70’s who like to have a second home for extended downtime visits. In 2012 a National Association of Realtors survey found that the typical vacation homebuyer “was 47 years old, had a median householdincome of $92,100 and purchased a property that was a median distance of 435 miles from their primary residence.” Let me repeat that age—47 years old. These buyers are not in their 60’s or 70’s. They’re not even in their 50’s!

A 47 year old, in 2015, was born in 1968, finished high school in 1985 and if they went to college, finished in 1989, just a year before the first Internet service providers started to appear. This is a group of people who have been totally assimilated into the Internet era—they are tech savvy and therefore tech demanding.

The resulting expectations of these homebuyers are actually being called tech-pectations, and it’s affecting the business models of every industry from auto manufacturers to retailing. If the new breed of techy consumers shop 24-7, and they do, home watchers can expect them to check up on their vacation homes 24-7 as well. If they notice something is amiss, and they will, they will expect a solution to be in place very quickly.

This group of younger homeowners will also speak tech. They will talk about routers, IP addresses, and firewalls and assume others will understand. They will expect their home watchers to be able to reconnect the Nest thermostat or reprogram the emergency contact telephone in their Vivint home security system.

So for home watchers is time to brush up on their tech so they can meet their clients’ tech-pectations.