How to sell your home in pandemic/quarantine?

[hoops902]

Ok so we're not selling QUITE yet, but our new house should probably be finished in the next 3 months.  I'm in no hurry to sell, so we'll probably take our time getting all moved in before we bother listing.

It got me thinking a bit though, what do you do differently to sell a house during a pandemic and/or quarantine?  Do you do anything differently?  

Let's assume people are 50% locked down (so you can go out, but social distancing is still in order, and people are loathe to be in contact with strangers).  So probably no open houses, but also people won't be super keen to be around people they don't know, or around their stuff, etc.

Any tips, suggestions, or wild speculations?

Part of what brought this up is that the next month or so seems to be prime selling time during a normal year.  Get the house sold and the new family wants in before the new school year (we're in a small town and a newer home, good chance it sells to someone out of town moving to the area).  

[lynnerself]

DD sold her house last month. It's been a long on going saga that I've mentioned on other threads. She had a good realtor. There was no open house, but the realtor did show it to prospective buyers. They had to be out of the house for these. Also out of the house for inspections.

I think they had about 10 parties interested. One full price offer that was withdrawn after the inspection. The 2nd offer was low and still asked for about $10,000 in repairs.

But since they needed the sale to get into their new house, they took it. All within a month of listing it.

They did an in person closing for both closings.  I think everyone wore masks.

[hoops902]

My wife's mom has been BIG on "you can't wait until you move, it'll be empty, nobody wants to look at an empty house, it'll never sell".  Part of me says "let it be empty now more than ever in the past".  I know houses well better when staged...but we're not going to stage.  It's either sell it while we live there or sell it empty.  With 2 kids under 5, I wonder if "sell it empty" might make it look...cleaner...more clinical...more likely to impress.

[teen persuasion]

I'd heard realtors were doing virtual showings, no in person. Take lots of pix with *some* furniture (for scale). Can always do more clean slate pix after you are moved out completely.

[Tiny]

I would guess that "open houses" will either go away - or have some sort of "queue up and wait for a turn"  to walk thru a house.  

I would also think that having pictures (that aren't fish eyed or with blantant photoshopped stuff (glowing windows and a beautiful sky) will need to be available.  I think a video tour is also helpful.  

I've bought houses without ever having walked thru them   I used the listing photos, google maps, info on the house from the local accessors office (or deeds website) and then I've had a family member do the walk thru/send me photos of my top picks for putting in possible bids.   

I would imagine a realtor will simply let perspective buyers into a no longer lived in house so they can view the property.  
(my property manager outlined how new renters would view my condo:  The realtor would go thru and view the property first, the perspective renter could then go thru the property, the realtor would go back thru the property to make sure every thing was ok (lights off, water off, the viewers didn't damage anything, etc.  The prop manager also mentioned the possibility of creating "walk thru or tour" videos of the property.  

I would think property listings will change a bit -  having a listing that actually represents the property (versus the 'lifestyle' one might have if they bought the property) is helpful.  I wouldn't be surprised if realtors have one set of 'shopped' pictures for their listing (to generate interest)  - and then actual photos/video tour of the property for interested buyers (on request) and then scheduling an actual walk thru. 

I strongly suspect houses will continue to be bought and sold.   But of course it's all Location, Location, Location.   In my area the people with jobs that would support home ownership seem to have retained their jobs during the SIP orders.  I would think if they had plans to buy/sell they will follow thru on those plans.  


ADDED:  I would think a realtor would "stage" an unoccupied house - as in the seller will leave a few pieces of furniture to give buyers some perspective on the room sizes/layouts.   OR if the house is occupied the sellers will move most of their stuff to storage (de clutter the house).     I've been seeing that trend in listings for the last two years (I bought a house I've never been in or to - in November 2019 ) I looked at A LOT of listings in several different states/cities.   

[emma1420]

I've been thinking about putting my house on the market, and the agent I talked to said that while the stay-at-home orders are in place that they cannot list a house unless it's considered essential (so if someone is being relocated, etc.).  Once the stay-at-home orders are lifted then it's virtual showings in combination with in person showings, and they are encouraging home owners to clean after each showing and requesting that potential buys avoid touching surfaces.  So encourage buys not to open cabinets, etc.  The realtor I talked to said that she's been asking sellers to open closet doors to avoid buyers touching door handles, and there are absolutely no open houses.   They are also trying to restrict the number of people coming to look at a home.  So buyers can no longer bring their spouse, mother, siblings, kids, etc.

I'm not sure if I'm going to list or not, as I don't need to move.  I'm just concerned that this time next year that there will be a glut of homes on the market driving down home prices (circa 2009/2010).

[oped]

I just asked my friend who is a realtor in north central PA... and she said there are people looking, and not tons of inventory... so while there is a lot of old inventory hanging around, if there is a new listing of a decent house it is selling within a week... so... a little slice of anecdote. 

[Gardening Grandma]

More anecdotal, but a neighbor sold his house in 6 days.  The realtor did a great job with photos, including a drone shot of the view from his house.  There were a lot of lookers the first day on the market, but it seems they were by appt.

I'm told that while there aren't a lot of buyers, there also isn't a lot of inventory.

[Tiny]

As for closings... it's not that unusual to NOT have everyone sit around a table while the buyer signs contracts/papers.  

When I bought the house I've never been to or in... the title company and loan officer did everything.  I opted out of a lawyer because everything was boiler plate and there wasn't any special circumstance for the house I was buying.   I had the choice of having all the paper work sent to my home (and then I would have to find a notary to notarize it)  OR I could have it sent to someplace where a notary (or representative of the title company) could meet me (like a park bench or a coffee shop).   i was able to go to the title company's office in my city.   I  arrived was directed to a conference room, someone came in with the paperwork (I had seen most of it in draft format before hand).  I compared my draft to the new documents as I signed.   I sat alone in a conference room and signed all the paperwork.  I returned the signed paperwork to a "basket" at the front desk.  While I waited someone notarized it and I was done.  took 30 minutes and I barely talked to anyone/had much interaction with anyone.   

I guess a drama filled closing with buyer and seller lawyers and loan officers and realtors needing to be present as the final contract and price is hashed out moments before the down payment is wired to the appropriate account will be a challange  -- maybe a really big conference room?  and Masks?  Or maybe a Webex?   

[bean29]

My niece just sold her house.  She got over asking price, within 3 days of listing it.  It is a small home in one of the best school districts in the state.  It was also on a busy road and has no garage, just a carport.  They are still in their house and they have a one year old.  Everyone was teasing her because all the toys showed in the basement pictures - they said Baby N didn't have enough toys.

They say the market is only supposed to compress about 1% in the next year.  I suspect you can wait until you are more sure of your completion date.  You also can take your listing pictures before you move everything out.  IDK if you can leave some furniture behind to Stage the house, or if you could rent/borrow some stuff.

[Tiny]

FYI:  I've been looking at listings in the cities I was interested in buying in - since I've closed... and there are houses for sale.  In the place where houses were listed with inflated prices - they are still listing houses with inflated prices.  (the prices start dropping every  30 days the house is on the market by 5K to 10K  until it gets a contract. )  The other 2 places the prices have held steady and the sale prices are either the asking price or 5 to 10K less.   (Im guess it's concessions so the seller doesn't have to replace the carpeting or re-paint or something else).   

I'm kind of watching for a drop in prices - I'd buy another investment house  (or condo) if the price was low enough.  I truly do not think it's gonna happen.  Despite the high unemployment numbers - there's still alot of people still working jobs that can support home ownership.     I also don't think foreclosures will skyrocket or that a sudden glut of "short sales" will happen. 

[pooks]

Neighbor just listed their house and went pending in 5 days, which is pretty standard for my neighborhood.  I saw people touring it over the weekend, usually couples and realtor.  My guess is anyone in an apartment and looking for a house is anxious to get more space.  So I would think, you have serious buyers out right now.  

Around here it is standard to stage.  Most people move out and then sell, not sure why.  I don't see many empty houses.  

We are thinking about selling, but don't know where to move to yet.  

[wvugurl26]

My aunt just bought in NC and sold in TN. For NC, they had checked out a couple of areas when she had an in person interview before everything got crazy in March.

Once she got the job, they did extensive searching online. They went to NC one weekend and did drive bys and toured 6 houses. The one they bought spent less than 24 hours on the market.

The TN house was on the market maybe two weeks. They had several showings.

My cousin is buying a new house in OH. He's going to move into new one before selling the old one. His wife is disabled now and can't leave the house alone. Showings would be difficult to arrange during the day.

I heard PA was shut down for real estate. No showings, no transactions.

[oped]

My friend just went back last week? They have to wear masks gloves and booties but she is showing houses... before that was virtual.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

My sister’s house closes on the 15th.  It sold just about when all of this started.  She got about $30k more than the appraisal on it.

Now she just needs to find a place to move to.  She’s reserved a corporate apartment for the next few months to figure this out.

[wvugurl26]

May 11, 2020 17:45:31 GMT -5 oped said:

My friend just went back last week? They have to wear masks gloves and booties but she is showing houses... before that was virtual.

It's probably been a week or two since my neighbor mentioned that. And some counties are reopening so that makes sense.

[nidena]

I had to find a notary because the bricks and mortar location was closed.  I used Thumbtack and found one who came that same day.  Cost me $60 for five signatures but it was so worth it to get my part done.

[tskeeter]

May 11, 2020 15:06:55 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Ok so we're not selling QUITE yet, but our new house should probably be finished in the next 3 months.  I'm in no hurry to sell, so we'll probably take our time getting all moved in before we bother listing.

It got me thinking a bit though, what do you do differently to sell a house during a pandemic and/or quarantine?  Do you do anything differently?  

Let's assume people are 50% locked down (so you can go out, but social distancing is still in order, and people are loathe to be in contact with strangers).  So probably no open houses, but also people won't be super keen to be around people they don't know, or around their stuff, etc.

Any tips, suggestions, or wild speculations?

Part of what brought this up is that the next month or so seems to be prime selling time during a normal year.  Get the house sold and the new family wants in before the new school year (we're in a small town and a newer home, good chance it sells to someone out of town moving to the area).  

Listed Dad’s house last week.  Here are some of the local rules.

Realtors can’t show an occupied house.  Just what constitutes an occupied house, I don’t know.  Is it a house with nobody living in it?  Is it a house where none of the residents are home?

Realtors can’t drive clients to show homes.  Real estate agents and buyers must travel in separate vehicles.

The agent showing the house is supposed to sanitize all contact surfaces before they leave the property.  (Yeah, sure)

Buyers are discouraged from touching anything in the house they are touring.  Only the realtor is to open doors, cabinets, etc.  (Yeah, sure) Then the realtor is to sanitize any handle, knob, or drawer pull they touched.

Face masks, gloves, and shoe covers are recommended, as is availability of sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer.  Assuming you can find them.

[tskeeter]

May 11, 2020 15:19:21 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

My wife's mom has been BIG on "you can't wait until you move, it'll be empty, nobody wants to look at an empty house, it'll never sell".  Part of me says "let it be empty now more than ever in the past".  I know houses well better when staged...but we're not going to stage.  It's either sell it while we live there or sell it empty.  With 2 kids under 5, I wonder if "sell it empty" might make it look...cleaner...more clinical...more likely to impress.

One of the things I have noticed as a buyer looking at empty houses is that every speck of dirt shows.  You can see where the couch sat on the living room carpet.  Where pictures were on the walls.  Not just small holes from hanging art work, but an actual shadow outline of the picture that was on the wall.  A house that is obviously less than spotlessly clean will turn off a lot of buyers.  Even experienced, somewhat jaded buyers.

Of course, an empty house makes it easier to do a thorough cleaning so the house is spotless.

[justme]

My realtor who is a quasi friend is still doing showings. Masks, having stuff to sanitize stuff and such. I feel like I saw her do a form of open house - more posts on come on by but I dunno specifics. She's part of Keller Williams and is following the guidelines they handed down which I believe are from Realtor but not sure. 

I bought my place empty. And most of the ones I looked at were as well. A lot of the lived in ones, while firstly negated for other reasons, their lived in furniture was not making the sell for me. 

I'm also well aware that my lived in space sucks ass too though. 

[aricia]

Is your new house in the same town? Have you considered moving some of your belongings to the new house and leaving some behind to stage the old one? Move all the toys or other clutter and the bare necessities to camp out in the new house. This would work best if you think the house will sell quickly. We did this and it worked out well for us but we didn’t have kids yet and were able to move all our necessities for phase 1 of moving without hiring movers. We took our mattress and put an air mattress on the bed at the house for sale. We took a lot of clothes out of the closets and a lot of the dishes and cookware. I would think you could probably empty the kids‘ rooms entirely and it wouldn’t matter much.
Desirable new listings are still selling within about a week in my area.

[Blonde Granny]

I live in a unique neighborhood of over 55 residents. It was finally built out a few years ago. The only thing that a resident needs to do to sell their house is to notify the neighbors their house is for sale. An email went out yesterday, the price is way more than I think is reasonable, but I thought the same thing last fall. Have a house, put a high price on it, and it will be sold in a matter of a day or 2. Can't wait to see how fast and how much this latest one goes for, cuz one of these days it's going to be mine that is being sold.

[chiver78]

May 11, 2020 21:10:44 GMT -5 nidena said:

I had to find a notary because the bricks and mortar location was closed.  I used Thumbtack and found one who came that same day.  Cost me $60 for five signatures but it was so worth it to get my part done.

I don't think notaries are allowed to charge for services....?

[Tiny]

May 11, 2020 22:38:10 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

May 11, 2020 15:19:21 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

My wife's mom has been BIG on "you can't wait until you move, it'll be empty, nobody wants to look at an empty house, it'll never sell".  Part of me says "let it be empty now more than ever in the past".  I know houses well better when staged...but we're not going to stage.  It's either sell it while we live there or sell it empty.  With 2 kids under 5, I wonder if "sell it empty" might make it look...cleaner...more clinical...more likely to impress.

One of the things I have noticed as a buyer looking at empty houses is that every speck of dirt shows.  You can see where the couch sat on the living room carpet.  Where pictures were on the walls.  Not just small holes from hanging art work, but an actual shadow outline of the picture that was on the wall.  A house that is obviously less than spotlessly clean will turn off a lot of buyers.  Even experienced, somewhat jaded buyers.

Of course, an empty house makes it easier to do a thorough cleaning so the house is spotless

From my experience (I look at houses that need some elbow grease work done - I'd rather pay for the paint on the walls/new flooring and/or new appliances or a new toilet or faucet or light kit in a room out of pocket after purchase rather than roll the expense into a 30yo loan). When looking at houses, for a house to be "move in ready" the realtor will STRONGLY encourage the seller to have the interior repainted (usually a lovely shade of gray) and to have the carpet cleaned or better yet replaced with brand new gray carpet (or gray toned flooring) and to maybe replace appliances, remodel the bathroom (new tub surround), etc.

Houses that haven't been repainted/refloored, have older appliances, or a bathroom that needs a new chair height toilet, do sell... but to "investors" or "flippers".

A funny story: last year my sibling sold his house - repainted the interior everything was spotless. After 2 months (and comments from buyers) he replaced all the kitchen appliances with stainless steel (old ones were a couple years old), replaced the kitchen sink, faucet, and counter tops, re finished the kitchen cabinets (galley kitchen so not alot) and re-carpeted the house. When he did get a buyer/contract he had to come down on the price abit. Before the new buyers moved in they tore out the kitchen and re-carpeted the house (my sib's neighbors took some pictures of the dumpster and piles of stuff being removed.). It's weird out there...

[alabamagal]

May 12, 2020 8:33:15 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

May 11, 2020 21:10:44 GMT -5 nidena said:

I had to find a notary because the bricks and mortar location was closed.  I used Thumbtack and found one who came that same day.  Cost me $60 for five signatures but it was so worth it to get my part done.

I don't think notaries are allowed to charge for services....?

They are allowed to charge. But most banks do it for free if you are a customer. But that was when you could just walk in to a bank.

[chiver78]

May 12, 2020 9:54:58 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

May 12, 2020 8:33:15 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

I don't think notaries are allowed to charge for services....?

They are allowed to charge. But most banks do it for free if you are a customer. But that was when you could just walk in to a bank.

interesting. I've never paid for these services. but then again, for the handful of times I've needed that, I worked in a large enough company that there were a few notaries to choose from among the employees. nobody was charging. 

[alabamagal]

We bought and sold a house last year. My DH and I disagree on staging to help sell. He think we could have got more money if we staged the house we sold. I disagree. We left a few large pieces of furniture for the open house, but was mostly empty. We got a price close to asking, and we were asking pretty high.

If you have a smaller traditional house, I don’t think staging is important. It is more important to me for open concept houses to define spaces. I have also heard of “virtual staging” where they just add furniture to your pictures. Pretty sure I have seen some pictures online like this.

Neither house we bought in last 5 years was staged. 5 years ago house was flipped and had all new floors and paint. Traditional layout so easy to picture how furniture would fit. Last year house had only a couch in living room, covering a bad spot in carpet, and we had plans to replace with hardwood anyway factored into our cost.

[swamp]

May 11, 2020 15:47:44 GMT -5 Tiny said:

As for closings... it's not that unusual to NOT have everyone sit around a table while the buyer signs contracts/papers.  

When I bought the house I've never been to or in... the title company and loan officer did everything.  I opted out of a lawyer because everything was boiler plate and there wasn't any special circumstance for the house I was buying.   I had the choice of having all the paper work sent to my home (and then I would have to find a notary to notarize it)  OR I could have it sent to someplace where a notary (or representative of the title company) could meet me (like a park bench or a coffee shop).   i was able to go to the title company's office in my city.   I  arrived was directed to a conference room, someone came in with the paperwork (I had seen most of it in draft format before hand).  I compared my draft to the new documents as I signed.   I sat alone in a conference room and signed all the paperwork.  I returned the signed paperwork to a "basket" at the front desk.  While I waited someone notarized it and I was done.  took 30 minutes and I barely talked to anyone/had much interaction with anyone.   

I guess a drama filled closing with buyer and seller lawyers and loan officers and realtors needing to be present as the final contract and price is hashed out moments before the down payment is wired to the appropriate account will be a challange  -- maybe a really big conference room?  and Masks?  Or maybe a Webex?   

I average 5 closings a week.   I NEVER to that.  

If the buyer is using a bank, it's done at the bank. 

If it's a cash deal, the buyer does it at my office.

If I represent the seller, the sellers sign the papers ahead of time and I forward them to the buyer's attorney in escrow.  

If the buyer doesn't have a lawyer, they come to me, and I give them the papers to record after they give me money.   Either wire or cashier check.  

[justme]

May 12, 2020 8:33:15 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

May 11, 2020 21:10:44 GMT -5 nidena said:

I had to find a notary because the bricks and mortar location was closed.  I used Thumbtack and found one who came that same day.  Cost me $60 for five signatures but it was so worth it to get my part done.

I don't think notaries are allowed to charge for services....?

I think that might vary by state. I've seen things like "free notary if you have a bank account with us" and such in my state. So I assume others charge because why advertise it as free if it's free everywhere?

[nidena]

May 12, 2020 9:57:55 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

May 12, 2020 9:54:58 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

They are allowed to charge. But most banks do it for free if you are a customer. But that was when you could just walk in to a bank.

interesting. I've never paid for these services. but then again, for the handful of times I've needed that, I worked in a large enough company that there were a few notaries to choose from among the employees. nobody was charging. 

I'm not working and I bank with USAA.

I imagine if I was in the same state as the transaction, they would have had a notary on-hand.  Alas, there was 1100 miles between the two states and the company that was being used that *could* have provided a notary wasn't answering their damn phone.