Fighting a Tough Battle to Sell Properties During the Pandemic

Timing is the key to making a profitable property deal, and most experienced realtors would agree, especially when you sell properties during the pandemic. However, with the pandemic stretching more than expected, in the current environment, its the worst thing that could happen in the real estate sector. The Coronavirus pandemic has created unique challenges of its own, and realtors now have more things to focus on.

Some of the top-rated moving companies in America work with iMoving, a moving service platform, and state that most people have canceled their moving contracts because the pandemic has restricted their movement. Most of these customers were relocating permanently, which implies that they were looking for a house to buy. Reports suggest that the sales graph of real estate has significantly dipped at the end of March. However, before the sales touched the lowest of all times, it revived as restrictions have eased, and there has been more movement and open houses of late.

Realtors, however, still face a lot of problems. The already tough process of selling a house has become even tougher with the ongoing pandemic and its effect on all of our lives.

So what has changed?

The house selling scene has become more challenging and demands a lot of extra effort. From staging to approaching clients in new ways, things have definitely changed significantly. Let’s dig deeper into these details:

It is prudent to make your staging scene look perfect for selling in this environment. The efforts you make on staging before the pandemic needs to be doubled. The scene has changed, and now your preparation must be focused on tending to your visitors when they will be visiting you virtually and not physically. 3D touring is a new reality now, and more and more buyers and renters prefer to use such tools that help them view the property without visiting it physically.

More and more buyers are restricted from moving or are tied with the social distancing norms, which prevents them from visiting the property themselves; they expect the realtor to be the property’s qualifier with respect to its value and quality. If you are not willing to do personal, live tours of the property, the buyers may not show trust in your dealings. Moreover, the buyers expect you to be on the site as they visit the property so that they can ask questions and get a satisfactory answer to them, there and then.

Conducting virtual tour: Understand the reality.

Offering a house tour through a virtual platform differs from holding a Facebook Live or Instagram live session. You need to be different and know the tactics to assist your clients. What you must know about a real estate virtual tours include:

·      Make it private:

Yes, a virtual property tour must be private enough to keep the buyer’s identity anonymous. However, this privacy must not appear as a restriction for the buyers to join the tour in the first place.

·      Take notes and appoint help:

Because it is a live session, you will be getting a lot of questions, both verbally and in typing. You must know that taking notes of these questions is very important. You must check that you have assistance from someone taking down the notes from the comment section during the live session.

·      Make things presentable:

As you are presenting online, you need to know that there is no space for mistakes in this setting. You are always with the customer to check for any flaw in the house during the staging, but when it is a virtual tour, you may not know what the client is thinking of and what they consider to be wrong.

·      Making arrangements for the sale:

Most quarantine restrictions have been lifted, and people are also opening up for accepting a little socialization. A few sellers who want to sell their property as soon as possible allow buyers to visit the property physically. However, as a realtor, it is your duty to ensure that all the social distancing and hygiene norms are followed during these visits. Ensure that there are sufficient face masks, sanitizer, shoe coverings, and hospital-grade disinfectant wipes to ensure no contamination of the property and its occupants

Some sellers are taking their houses off the market, but those who need to move or have any other undeniable reason state that they need to sell their property no matter how. It is a huge challenge to ensure that the sellers get the right value for their property, and the current market conditions do not affect the transaction negatively. 

Conclusion | Sell Properties During the Pandemic

Develop a go-to database of the buyers and offer them ways to expand their search criteria; you must make the property searching scene easier if you are working on the seller’s behalf. Besides searching for a safe neighborhood, people consider the house searching process’s safety amid the pandemic condition. The swifter and safer your property search will be, the better you will be able to negotiate for the price.