A few months after the start of Covid-19, we are starting to see the long-term effects it has had on the real estate market. Trends are beginning to emerge. Agents and their clients are getting used to this new normal. So, what big changes have occurred that will last?
Working from home. Yes, we’ve all been doing this the past few months, but it’s important to understand the impact it has had. If you reside and work in an area that is considered a tourist location or that small beach town everyone wants to live in, you may already be fully aware of this recent change.
Some companies have realized the benefit of their employees working remotely and are allowing them to permanently continue to do so.
This means, people can move. They are no longer held down to a city they don’t enjoy living in, instead they can live wherever they want. We have already seen this take place as big city dwellers in Los Angeles and San Francisco started moving to much smaller, Santa Barbara. Slower paced and less traffic is what a lot of transplants are looking for. As an agent, you may be impacted by this lifestyle shift.
Until we see a drastic improvement in the spread of Covid-19, we can also expect to be donning masks, slipping on our booties, and providing hand sanitizer to open house guests indefinitely. Sellers vacating their properties prior to listing will continue to be very helpful to agents and buyers. So, if at all possible, try to work that out with your sellers.
Whoever thought we’d be ‘zooming’ so often? Using Zoom, Google Meet, or other video chat platforms have been essential in communication with clients. As agents, especially if you worked with relocations prior to Covid-19, you are familiar with video calling clients and showing homes remotely. What we expect in the future is, for this type of virtual buying and selling to grow. Even if a buyer isn’t relocating, they could be too busy to go from showing to showing.
There are a lot of benefits to listing homes with every technological tool at your disposal. Working with agents across the U.S, our team has seen the impact of using these virtual means. Listings with more virtual information sell faster. The time of just photographs for property marketing is over. If you want to be the go-to listing agent for your area, cutting-edge marketing must be in your toolbelt.
Aerial photography is becoming more prevalent with recent advances in technology, but not enough agents are doing it. When a buyer is viewing a property online and possibly deciding to make an offer sight-unseen, aerial views of not just the home, but the neighborhood are extremely impactful.
In this day in age, nothing frustrates a buyer more than looking at a listing online and it not having a 3D virtual tour.
Pictures alone do not provide justice for your listing. If a listing has a “tour” that is just a photo slideshow, that is a big disappointment for a buyer who clicks on that video. Not only do 3D virtual tours provide buyers with a much greater understanding of the property, but it makes your job easier as a Listing Agent.
Showings may be reduced because they can clearly see if the home will work for them or not. That means less people walking through your seller’s home who aren’t serious about buying. It’s important to understand that the more virtual information you provide, the better.
As an agent, your job has never been more helpful to buyers and sellers during this unusual time. Even though we can’t really predict the future of real estate, being prepared and flexible in the upcoming months will help your business grow.