Real estate brokers forced into world of virtual sales
Pandemic creates new rules, driving much of process online
Imagine buying or selling a house without ever meeting your real estate agent in person. That’s been happening for some buyers and sellers for a few years.
But now, virtual homebuying is no longer optional as the world adjusts to COVID-19=. It’s simply the way things are being done.
Open houses could well be a thing of the past once the self-isolation era of coronavirus passes, some brokers say. Even the walk-through — long a staple of the experience — could become a relic.
“Brokers are learning how to give virtual tours,” said Gregg Antonsen, senior vice president and qualifying broker at Sotheby’s International Santa Fe. “This is one of the things that will change, and our people will realize they can do so much more with the internet.”
Unlike the restaurant and hotel industries or retail in general, real estate did not immediately crumble in the first weeks of severe restrictions. But concerns are real. Brokers say that while some are still interested and buying houses, others sign contracts and then cancel a few days later.
Some sellers are pulling their listings. The week ending March 19 saw 33 homes sold in Santa Fe County in contrast to the 42 homes sold in each of the previous two weeks. The declines were all in the southwest sector, according to Santa Fe Association of Realtors statistics.
All of which puts the next weeks and month under the microscope.
The good times in Santa Fe real estate, at least on the high-end front, continued through the first quarter. Antonsen said Sotheby’s sold 54 homes priced above $850,000 from Jan. 1 to March 19, in contrast to last year’s 36 homes in the same time frame.
For Santa Fe Properties, home sale closings are happening as scheduled and appraisals are moving forward, but not necessarily at a blistering pace,
said qualifying broker Chuck McKinley.
“We had two appraisals last week,” McKinley said. “Normally this time of year we have eight or 10. We’re doing what we do. We are listing and selling. I would certainly guess there will be a slowdown. We’re not there yet [with people pulling their listings].”
Experts say real estate has been marching toward a technology-driven, internet-based future. The technology is there and many real estate agents have embraced the virtual ways. Nevertheless, many others have clung to the old school — giving prospective buyers physical tours through homes, signing documents with pens and putting buyers or sellers, plus agents, title agents and mortgage officers in one room.
But with terms like “social distancing,” “self-isolation” and “shelter in place” instantly rooted in the common lexicon, technology is keeping real estate in the game as more and more businesses shut down.
“Had this happened two years ago, real estate companies would not have been able to do what we are doing today,” Antonsen said.
Keller Williams officials said their firm is technologically set for whatever the near future brings.
Jama Fontaine, general manager of Keller Williams International for New Mexico and team leader for the Santa Fe office, said about 60 percent of the firm’s agents in Santa Fe had embraced technology. Like many office-oriented business, Fontaine has hired “very tech-oriented people” in the last three years.
Keller Williams in February launched a consumer app that allows agents, buyers, sellers, and mortgage and title representatives to work on the same online platform from the beginning of the home search to closing the sale, Fontaine said.
“For the client, they can start the search online,” she said. “They can follow the whole transaction. The agent can handle loans, lead generation, do social media, do neighborhood searches, communicate with the customer. Anything the agent was doing can be done on the consumer app.”
Still, real estate is a social sport. But like all sports, things have changed. And people are changing with it.
“A month ago, we may have been in a conference room, signing and talking with their broker,” McKinley said. “That would be stupidity now.”