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It’s not business as usual
If your plan is to buy or sell a home this year, and you want to watch the market and hope it will drop in price, then plan to pounce in may be a reasonable plan, however gaging just the right time, has always been hard to do, almost impossible. Same goes for the stock market, watching and waiting sometime results in not jumping in at all.
Let’s face the facts, life will never return to exactly how it was before, social distancing is now going to be a part of our everyday life. So buying a home, or selling a home, viewings, and negotiating, must also change it doesn’t mean it won’t happen anymore, of course, it will. People need to sell for different reasons all the time, families will still need to move to a bigger space, or downsize, newlyweds will still look forward to their first home, job relocations, this is just a very short list of reason why sales will still happen even with the current pandemic in full effect.
So how will things be different, well firstly by viewing homes will change, gone are the days of jumping in the car and going out to see, 3-5 homes at a time. Now it will be on line, 3D virtual tours have really been helpful, along with MLS photos. Although a buyer may still want to see more, so as an added step, once my buyer has narrowed down their pick to the top 3 homes via virtual, I would go out exercising all the necessary precautions and have a face time call with my buyer so they can get a better look. I know what you’re saying that’s still not the same! Well work with me guys, we have to adapt to change. From that point we narrow it down to 1 home they feel fits their needs. At that point, we work with the seller’s agent and the seller, and we arrange an in-person viewing. In this way, we are doing our part for our community by not exposing ourselves to multiple viewings of homes, but still trying to meet the buyers and sellers need to complete a real estate transaction.
As for sellers, we are focused on the same thing, when I list a home for a client, I am screening the buyer and the buyer’s agent, limiting showings, and making sure they have considered the same options we discussed, and if we are a strong contender, with restrictions allow a viewing.
We then it’s time to negotiate, well luckily I have been working paperless for a few years now, so offers where already being signed online, but many times negotiations are done in person, so we now rely more heavily on zoom calls, we use this to discuss the offer and the terms, we can also screen share to discuss comparable properties, that have sold which are heavily used in agreeing on pricing.
So yes its different, not the same for sure, but we are making it happen, real estate has always been one of the best investments to have, although markets move up and down and are affected in different ways, I still stand on the same side real estate is one of the best investments to have for your financial portfolio.
Signing off for now,
start your own search, you can also sign up for price drop alerts, or check by schools of your choice see below!
Natasha
https://www.natashaniles.com/landing/dream-home