The Governor of Michigan has modified her Executive order to
allow for the resumption of real estate sales activities, with necessary
precautions. The COVID-19 pandemic is anything but over in Michigan and elsewhere
across the country; however, economic and political pressures have reached the breaking point and states across America are “re-opening”.
What does that mean
for home sellers or potential home buyers?
First, it means that the risk of catching the Corona Virus
and getting very sick is still very real. Let’s not discount that. It appears
to be a risk that many are willing to take in order to get back to work; but
are the home buyers and sellers willing to take the same risk? Apparently, so.
Given the fact that your home purchase (or sale) is likely
the biggest financial transaction that you will ever make, let’s look at what
is being done to make this transaction as safe as possible during this
pandemic.
First off, the real estate brokerages, multi-list services,
title companies and others involved in the sale are creating and agreeing upon
a set of health safety guidelines for doing in-person visits to homes that are
for sale. They have used guidance from the CDC, Federal and State health
officials to create a set of recommended protocols for listings and showings.
These protocols have the expected requirements for visitors to use PPE when
doing in-person visits and for sellers to take the necessary steps to clean and
sanitize the property before and after each visit.
Actually, the first thing they did was to have their lawyers
draw up release of liability forms – one that sellers must sign in order to
list a property and one for buyers to sign before going on an in-person visit.
This is acknowledgement that the Realtors involved don’t (and can’t) know if
the sellers have sick members in the home or if the buyers may be sick without
knowing it. So, these are “buyers and sellers beware” forms that hold the
broker and agents harmless is someone (on either side) contracts the virus due to
a visit.
The PPE requirements for buyers/visitors include wearing a
mask and gloves during the visit (with shoe covering also recommended), not
touching anything during the visit and using hand sanitizer after the visit. Visits
are also limited to 4 people max, so bringing Mom and Dad and Uncle Joe is
discouraged. It is probably best to leave any children at home, too. Many
Realtors will have PPE available for visitors, if they don’t have their own by
now.
Recommendations for the sellers include having all lights on
and all interior doors already open and re-sanitizing after each visit, just in
case anything was touched. Realtors and visitors are admonished not to turn
lights off, so they don’t have to touch the switches. Sellers are advised to
take their homes off the market or stop showing it, if anyone in the household
is sick with the virus. With increased testing and tracking, that may include
people who have been in contact with someone who is confirmed to have the
virus.
The ancillary functions and services like home inspections, appraiser
visits, movers and the like are allowed;
however if alternatives like drive-by appraisal are available, that is
recommended. Services like picture taking for listing pictures will also be
allowed, but under the same PPE guidelines as for any visit.
Given all of this,
the questions remain, is it a good time to sell or buy a house.
From the seller’s perspective, even though there is extra
work involved in getting the home ready and keeping it safe for visits, it is
still a good time as far as the selling price is concerned. The inventory of
homes on the market is still low. Prices have not dropped like they did in the
2007/08 Great Recession and mortgage rates remain at a historic low. On the
downside, the time to get to a closing has stretched out a bit and mortgage underwriters
have tightened up requirements and lowered appraisal values (especially if they
could not do an in-person appraisal visit). The pool of potential buyers has also
shrunk, due to people being laid off from work. Still, ,it’s not a bad time to
be a seller, one just has to be more patient and work a little more at it.
The buyer side of the equation has been impacted quite a bit
more, with a significant number of people who might have been buyers now
sidelined by layoffs or outright loss of jobs. For some, the prolonged loss of
income has also decimated the down payment savings of many, pushing their plans
to buy further out into the future. For others, who perhaps were able to continue
to work from home and not dip into their savings, this isn’t a bad time to buy,
just a strange one. Everything that you need to do to buy a home is do-able;
you just need to proceed with caution.
Buyers should try to minimize their exposure to in-person
visits by doing most of your shopping on line. Take the time to look through
the pictures and virtual tours that are
available on-line to eliminate homes that you can see have obvious things that
you don’t like. It used to be just a big waste of everyone’s time to make lots
of visits to homes that you really hadn’t evaluated with the data and pictures
that were available to you on line. Now it is also dangerous, as well as a waste
of everyone’s time. This is not “tire kicking” time. There will also be no open
houses allowed during this pandemic.
For many Realtors this is a tough time. It is not possible
to just throw a switch and turn on a business like real estate sales. Those who
had clients at the beginning of this probably still have them, although some
may have wandered away and decided to wait a while longer to sell or buy. All
agents will be advertising that they are using safe practices with sellers and
buyers and all will be trying to do that; however, this is called the invisible
enemy for a reason – you can’t see it coming. Buyers, sellers and agents are
advised to consider anyone that they come in contact with, or who visits a
home, as a COVID-19 carrier and take the necessary precautions to protect yourself
and your family.
Welcome to the “new normal”. Want to buy or sell a house?
Message me and let’s talk.
