Who Wears The Pants When It Comes To Buying A Home?

Posted At : December 29, 2009 11:17 PM | Posted By : Collins + Company
Related Categories: Myrtle Beach advertising

When buying a home, who is actually making the decision? Is it the man or the women making those major financial decisions? My experience and research has always lead me to believe that the women is usually the one leading the process while it's the man that has the final say. But based on the numbers, it looks like the ladies have about 80% say in all the decisions! Here's a great blog post I was sent from Mike Blaney where he gets into the whole buying process between men and women. Interesting stuff.

Men and Women Buy Homes Differently? Venus and

Mars again?

A recent survey of 1,000 individuals to discover how much men and women differ in the home-buying process by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC produced some expected results for marketers. Men and women make purchase decisions differently.

Communications Research (ICR) were commissioned to ask the following questions such:

“How long did it take for you to know that the last home you purchased was right for you?”
“If you found the home of your dreams but had concerns about its security, would you still be interested?”
“Who wears the pants in the relationship when it comes to making major financial decisions?”

Here is a summary of the results:

Women may be inclined to make up their mind more quickly than men …
When asked how long it took before they knew their home was “right” for them, almost 70 percent of women had made up their mind the day they walked into the house, vs. 62 percent of men. Conversely, significantly more men needed two or more visits: (32 percent of men vs. 23 percent of women).

Women would rather live closer to their extended family than to their job …
55 percent of women find it more important to be closer to their extended family (those that do not live in their household) than to their job, compared to only 37 percent of men.

A home’s security is a deal-breaker for both men and women …
64 percent of women said that if they found the home of their dreams but had concerns about its security, they would no longer be interested. More than half of men agreed (51 percent).

Couples say that no one “wears the pants in the relationship” in terms of major financial decisions …
When asked who wears the pants in the relationship (when it comes to major financial decisions, such as purchasing a home), almost 70 percent of respondents living with their significant other said it’s actually mutual.

However, 23 percent think that they, themselves, wear the pants in the relationship, not their partner. More men than women said this (26 percent vs. 20 percent, respectively).

Men and women agree on how they would use a spare room, for the most part …
When the respondents were asked how they would use an extra 12 x 12 room if it could be anything they wanted, men and women agreed on the top three most popular, and very practical, responses:
Bedroom: 25 percent
Office/Study: 15 percent
Family Room / Den: 11 percent
However, men really do want a “Man Cave”…

Interestingly, out of the 8 percent who indicated they would turn that spare room into an entertainment center, it was men leading the charge. In fact, four times as many men as women said they would use the extra space for recreation / entertainment.

According to Marcia Sutter, Director Client Services of the TrendSight group “Chances are that women are the primary purchasers for virtually everything that your readers are selling. They control more than 80% of all consumer spending and represent the majority of corporate decision makers as well.”