May Sellers: Don’t Wait—You Can Still Tackle A Home Sale During a Pandemic
The coronavirus may have transformed life as we know it, but the business of buying and selling homes? That’s still going strong.
It’s true that selling a home looks very different during COVID-19 than it does in normal times. However, that doesn’t mean that sellers need to wait until the pandemic has passed in order to sell their home and move on to their next one.
In fact, according to a HomeLight survey of top real estate agents shortly after the pandemic struck in March 2020, more than 60 percent of agents still characterized their local housing markets as sellers’ markets.
So how do you tackle a home sale during a pandemic? Here are some selling tips to help you during the coronavirus.
Get creative with virtual showings and tours.
While in-person showings are greatly reduced due to concerns about spreading the virus, video tours and virtual walk-throughs can give potential buyers the information they need to either move forward or look elsewhere.
Invest in a video tour by hiring a real estate video company. Ensure that the company you work with takes safety precautions, like having any videographers wear a mask, gloves, and booties while they’re in your home.
If you’d rather not have someone else in your home, work with your agent to record your own video on your phone—it’s not ideal, but it’s certainly permissible in this environment! Buyers want to be able to tour homes during coronavirus from the safety of their devices, so anything you can do to make that easier will help you immensely.
Ask your agent to carefully screen buyers.
Sight-unseen home purchases are occurring, but they’re still very few and far between. Most buyers will still want to see your home in person before making an offer.
The difference now is that most agents are screening buyers very carefully before granting any in-person showing requests. This could mean requiring that buyers be pre-qualified for the amount of the mortgage they’d need, and have a pre-approval letter or proof of funds they can show you, as well as having buyers do a “preliminary showing” by driving or walking by the home and exploring the surrounding neighborhood or environs.
Take safety precautions at all times.
Exercise social distancing from your agent and anyone else you need to engage with during the process at all times. This may mean doing things a bit differently, like driving in a separate car from your agent while looking for your own new home.
If you’re allowing people into your home for a showing, do whatever you can to reduce the need for them to touch anything: turn on all lights, open all doors, and ask that buyers wear gloves, masks, and booties. You or your agent should disinfect everything before and after the showing, and wear your own protective gear if you’ll be on the property while anyone else is.
Selling your home during coronavirus will be different, but it can absolutely be done. By working with a great real estate agent and taking the right precautions, you’ll be placing a “Sold” sign in your yard in no time.
What is the number 1 question both buyers and sellers are asking right now? I bet you know what it is...
With Covid-19 running rampant, work stoppage and skyrocketing unemployment, and with mortgage lending getting tighter and tighter everyone wants to know what is going to happen to the real estate market. But what they are really asking is what will happen to the price of homes.
I wish I could answer that question, but I can tell you that based on the amount of available inventory I would say that I don't believe it will go down, at least not in any significant way. Take a look at this chart of Inventory of Single Family Homes in Bristol County spanning the last 5 years:
Notice the number of listing units. One of the biggest issues we have had over the last few years is lack of inventory. Now look at the inventory level for 2020. It is down 25% from this time last year and down 45% from 5 years ago.
Now look at the months of supply. A stable market, a market in balance (equal number of buyers and sellers) is usually indicated when there is a 6 month supply of homes available. We are currently at 1.7 months of supply.
Now, let's take a look at this chart for Multi-Family homes in Bristol County:
See a trend here? Very similar statistics as the single family chart. Now let's look at condominiums:
Again, similar story.
There is no doubt that the effects of the corona virus will have a chilling effect on the economy and the number of home buyers in the market place but with so little inventory the likelihood of any long term and significant downward pressure on pricing is low.
However, if there is one constant in real estate it's change! I do expect that once we are on the other side of this, and businesses are able to re-open and we all start to become more accustom to this new normal that there will be a flood of homes hitting the market. So when that happens we will have to see how the market responds.
Stay Safe,
Christopher Terry EZ Home Search Real Estate 508-646-4777 chris@ezhomesearch.net
The 2008 crash was caused by subprime loans and speculators. Together, they drove prices to unsustainable levels. It was a perfect storm of events that had a devastating impact.
But if you think we’re headed for the same rough waters today — think again.
Today’s housing market is much different than it was in 2008 — and therefore more stable today.
There are key differences in this market then 2008. Don’t believe me? Check out this article that shows 8 Reasons the Coronavirus Won’t Crash the Housing Market.
Buying and selling real estate is still a good idea right now — if you have the right agent on your side.
Contact me to find out how we can guide you through these uncharted waters.
We Wish You All The Hope, Joy and Wonder of the Holiday Season!
One day at a little over a month ago as I was pulling into the parking lot EZ Home Search Real Estate when a car pulled in behind me driven by an older couple. They asked if I could help them find a new home.
It turns out that they had sold their home to a life long family friend and had stayed on as tenants in one of the units.
It was heartbreaking when they told me that their friendship with their life long friends had become strained and that had no choice but to find another place to call home.
Unfortunately living on retirement income meant that paying today’s current market rent would be nearly impossible.
I connected them with Nina Despres @ St Anne’s Credit Union who qualified them for a great loan program and we went to work in search of an affordable option for them. In just a few days we found a great entry level condo, in a beautiful condominium building, that was right in their budget.
This lovely retired couple, who were so worried about where they were going to live and whether it would be affordable are now owners of a beautiful condo...and it’s less than what they would have had to pay for rent.
It's stories like this one, and many others over the years that make us all at EZ Home Search Real Estate so grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to help families find their dream home, plant roots and build long term equity through home ownership.
Everyone here at EZ Home Search Real Estate would like to wish you all the Hope, Joy and Wonder this holiday season can bring and a Happy, Healthy and Wealthy 2020.
Christopher TerryEZ Home Search Real Estate508-646-4777 x105
A common question I get every time mortgage interest rates drop is: "I hear rates are dropping, should I refinance?" And with rates dropping again it's a questions that is asked of me almost daily. So, how do I answer that question?
If your monthly mortgage payment will be less by refinancing then the answer seems obvious, but just because you are saving money does not mean that refinancing is right for you. I believe it's important to consider how long you plan to keep the new mortgage and how much it will cost you to refinance. Let me give you an example. If the cost to refinance is $5,000 and your savings is $50 per month. You would have to plan to keep the new mortgage for 100 months (8+ years) before you would recoup the cost to refinance in your new monthly payment. This calculation does not take into consideration the interest savings on the total loan. There's a link below to help you calculate if refinancing is right for you.
Refinance Savings and Break-even - Should you refinance your mortgage? Use this calculator to determine what your new payment will be, how much you'll save in interest and when you will break even.
Are you interested in real estate and what is happening in the Greater Fall River area? Be sure to subscribe to our blog below. And feel free to comment! We love hearing from you!
MAR (Massachusetts Association of Realtors) Releases August 2019 Pending Sales Data Report
Pending Single Family and Condominium Home Sales were UP in August of 2019 when compared to August 2018.
This new data marks the 12th straight month of year over year increases for single family homes adding more pressure to an already tight inventory market. Single family prices also saw a 2.8% year over year increase.
The condominium data showed similar gains with pending sales either flat or up 9 of the last 12 months and a year over year price increase of 3.1%.
These continues gains are bringing home affordability down causing many potential buyers to continue to be only potential buyers.
Pending home sales are considered a leading indicator of future existing home sales and is generally considered a more accurate measure of the strength of the real estate market. This is believed because a majority of the labor involved in selling a home are performed that lead up to signing an agreement for the sale of a house. The mortgage process represents the end of the sales cycle but is a technicality and can take 4 - 8 weeks on average. Generally pending home sales is an accurate measure of existing home sales one to two months in the future.
Check out the full Press Release here.