Shopping for a home in a virtual market
A year ago if you were shopping for a new home, chances are you drove around your prospective neighborhood, maybe consulted some listings, and then contacted a Realtor to visit homes in the area. Sometimes a year ago seems like ten.
While the rest of the world has changed, the buying and selling of real estate, including homes, has undergone some remarkable changes as well. Amazingly, many potential buyers who never thought they would buy a home sight unseen have done so and the real estate market and Realtors have adapted, even during a pandemic. Both buyers and sellers are affected.
In a blog titled “Keeping Current Matters,” current conditions are described as follows:
“In a year when we are learning to do so much remotely, home buying is no exception. From going to work to attending school, grocery shopping, and even seeing our doctors online, digital practices have changed the way we live…
This year, rather than delaying their home purchases, buyers — alongside their trusted real estate professionals — turned to the Internet to do more than just a typical home search. In some cases, they bought homes without even stepping foot inside. Jessica Lautz, Vice President of Demographics and Behavioral Insights at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), says ‘People really didn’t buy houses sightunseen, traditionally. It’s still not a huge number, but it has gone up, and we have definitely seen that trend accelerate.’”
How much have traditions changed? According to the same article quoting from the National Association of Realtors, one in 20 homebuyers purchased a house sight-unseen. This does not even consider the larger number of potential buyers who consult online resources before initiating their in-person searches or contacting a Realtor.
Consider the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. State regulations earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic prohibited “walk through” visitations by Realtors with prospective buyers. Pennsylvania was one of the strictest states in regulating real estate activity. Real estate needed to be adapted. In May, real estate sales and “related activity” was permitted to resume across Pennsylvania provided guidelines were followed designed to limit infection. At that time, as reported by 6ABC, “the governor’s new guidance… people in the real estate industry can get back to work as long as they all wear masks or other facial coverings, and use separate vehicles to drive to visit properties…” In addition according to the same source, “property showings will have to be scheduled at least 30 minutes apart, and food will be prohibited during in-person real estate business activities…” For transactions that can be performed electronically or otherwise remotely, this is the preferred method of handling. New regulations regarding masking, quarantine and testing were issued recently in November — not specifically dealing with real estate but recognizing recent increases in cases.
All of this leads to considering alternatives and one such alternative is using a source we have all come to use more frequently, that is online information. Some Realtors have adapted by including “virtual walk throughs,” 360-degree photography and other technologies to make the home more visible to the potential buyer. Some of them report that prospective buyers even prefer this method to the time consumed and long drives involved in visiting properties since it allows them to separate more efficiently those properties that hold their interest from those that do not.