Real estate agents go after Gen Y

USA TODAY, June, 2008 by Stephanie Armour

Jacky Teplitzky used to turn to all the time-tested tools to drum up business for her New York-based real estate firm, Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Billboards. Mailings. Advertising.

Not anymore. The brutal real estate slump has made Teplitzky and other agents so hungry for business that many have decided to go after a group not known for its home-buying habits: Twentysomethings. And to try to connect with them, agents are unleashing a new breed of marketing tactics, from posting homes for sale on YouTube to building snazzy Facebook pages.

"This younger generation is so technology-savvy," Teplitzky says, "and because of that, they are changing the way real estate is being marketed and how brokers must use technology to successfully get to this group....