The New Homebuyer Journey: What Lending Marketers Must Do Differently

Here’s how lending marketers can adapt to longer homebuying journeys

The homebuying market has fundamentally changed over the past several years, not because of any single economic factor, but due to a combination of shifting consumer behavior, affordability pressure, and longer decision cycles. Today’s buyers are more cautious, more informed, and far less linear in how they move from interest to action. For example, according to the National Association of REALTORS®, 43% of buyers in 2024 began their search online rather than initially contacting an agent, underscoring how early and independently buyers engage with the market across longer homebuying journeys.

For marketers in the lending and financial services space, this has created a more complex environment for growth. Traditional acquisition tactics that once relied on clear, late-stage signals are increasingly misaligned with how and when consumers make buying decisions. As a result, many teams are being forced to rethink how they identify in-market audiences, engage them over time, and measure success across a longer horizon.

Why today’s homebuyers have slower, more deliberate decision cycles

The homebuyer profile has shifted in recent years. The median age of first-time buyers has risen to 40, while the median age across all homebuyers is now 56 (Apollo Academy, 2025). At the same time, first-time buyers accounted for just 21% of purchases in the most recent year on record (National Association of REALTORS® 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers). The purchase process has become more prolonged and deliberate. Many buyers remain active in the market while waiting for the right combination of price, financing, and inventory, extending the time between initial search and purchase.

One of our customers saw that nearly 30% of consumers who bought a home began shopping more than 130 days prior to their purchase. Homes are taking longer to sell, but prices have yet to significantly drop, so finding the right house at the right price, let alone submitting a winning offer, has extended the time it takes to purchase.

Marketing to the modern homebuyer

Old marketing messaging and tactics may no longer be effective. As buying journeys become longer and less linear, marketers need to leverage data to identify opportunities earlier, engage more consistently, and measure impact more accurately.

1. Start with a clearer picture of today’s buyers: Lenders can start by re-analyzing their customers and prospects. What do you know about recent buyers, and how can you apply that knowledge to your acquisition efforts? Data enrichment services can complete your consumer profile to help identify your high-propensity opportunities. This can not only inform your targeting strategy but also how you personalize messaging.
2. Engage buyers earlier, and for longer: With longer purchase cycles, lenders should also implement more longitudinal engagement strategies. Shopping alerts can help you identify who’s in-market earlier, but it’s important to pair this with a strong outreach program. Introducing digital and social display campaigns into your mix can help keep your brand top-of-mind with a less disruptive approach. Furthermore, marketers looking at 90-day attribution windows and dismissing upper-funnel metrics risk being out-of-sync with the consumer purchase process and should challenge their measurement strategy.
3. Identify in-market buyers earlier: Expand in-market audiences using predictive signals, not just declared intent. As buying journeys become longer and less linear, relying solely on late-stage triggers limits reach and timing. Predictive approaches help marketers identify consumers who are statistically likely to enter the market soon by modeling large-scale, verified shopping behavior alongside demographic and lifestyle context. This allows teams to move earlier, segment audiences more intelligently, and activate privacy-compliant lists across digital, social, CRM, and direct mail channels. When paired with observed behavioral signals, predictive modeling enables marketers to scale beyond existing customers and shift from a reactive, wait-for-intent approach to a more proactive, always-on acquisition strategy.
4. Adjust messaging: This new market presents new problems and consumers may need new solutions. For example, many current homeowners in competitive markets cannot make offers contingent on selling their home. This means money they could use for a down payment is tied up in existing home equity. Educational content around HELOCs and recasting could illustrate ways to deploy their home equity and unlock new solutions for buying.

This shift in consumer behavior is converging with changes in the regulatory landscape for lenders. With the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (H.R. 2808), widely known as the trigger lead ban, limiting access to shared mortgage credit trigger leads, lenders can no longer rely on late‑stage signals alone. Identifying buyers earlier in the journey has become both a strategic and a compliance‑driven necessity.

Driving growth in a slower market

Longer, less predictable homebuying journeys are forcing marketing leaders to rethink how they identify opportunities, sustain engagement, and measure impact. Success increasingly depends on engaging buyers earlier, maintaining relevance across extended decision cycles, and aligning measurement with how purchases actually unfold, not how funnels were designed to work. Teams that adapt their strategy to these realities are better positioned to drive consistent growth, even in slower or uncertain markets.