A neighbor delays their home sale and now a reader wonders: Won’t our digital communications tools help sellers list and sell?
Q: This is a reader’s response to the Sunday, March 15, 2020, column: “Can sellers and buyers expect the process to be business as usual as we cope with the coronavirus?” Pat: Great column as always. You mention the economists think the rebound from the economy as a result of COVID-19 will take longer than it did with SARS in the early 2000s. Do you recall how long the economy took then to rebound? I cannot recall; all I remember and will always remember is we were all hit so hard with the 2007 issues and into 2008, etc. We’re planning to sell our home following the sale and closing of our neighbor’s house. However, yesterday, they decided to postpone the sale after spending weeks preparing the property for the market. Can’t they use all the hightech tools to sell the property over the internet? Thanks for sharing; keep on sharing. We’re all in this together!
A: I’m in Silicon Valley, so the SARS recovery blended into our hangover from the Dot-com Crash. Your agent can provide the housing trends before, during and after the SARS outbreak for your region. You’re right; we are in this together. When we collectively feel a state of shock, we need to work together. The 1960s began with the Cold
War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and having our young president taken from us. I was 3 years old on that day of national and household shock. By the end of the decade, I felt 33 years old. The 1960s saw countless shocking moments delivered to households via the newspapers and evening news. Despite all that, and a 1968 flu (H3N2) pandemic, housing prices increased nationwide throughout the decade.
In the last 100 years, we also fought hot wars, battled through the 1929 stock market crash, the 1973 OPEC embargo, the early 1980s recession, and bookended by 1987’s Black Monday crash and the 1990-91 recession was the slowmoving Savings & Loan (S&L) Crisis. Lest we forget, in the S&L Crisis, 1,043 out of 3,234 of its financial institutions collapsed. And all the while, we were fighting epidemics and pandemics. The real estate market withstood every battle and healed from its wounds.
Also, correct, nowadays, we all have a variety of easy-to-use online realty tools; the county Recorder’s Office is currently recording deeds digitally, and escrow officers are shepherding escrows electronically. Unlike commercial real estate, Acts of God clauses are not in residential contracts. If buyers or sellers in a sale need a pause, use the California Association of Realtors’ Extension of Time Addendum (C.A.R. Form ETA). Make no mistake, we’ll get through this, we always do.
Questions? Seeking practical and tactical methods proven to help home sellers and homebuyers? Contact Realtor Pat Kapowich, a Certified Real Estate Brokerage Manager, at 408-2457700, or visit www. Siliconvalleybroker. com Broker License 00979413.