As with most areas of life, the coronavirus pandemic has introduced many new challenges to the process of buying and selling a home. While having your home on the market right now may not seem ideal, there are some factors working in sellers’ favor. Specifically, the supply of homes for sale remains low and demand is strong, despite the economic downtown caused by the virus. By implementing the following measures, home sellers can take advantage of these conditions and attract the right buyer.
- Invest in professional photos and staging. Buyers will likely spend more time getting to know your home through the online listing,so photos are more important than ever. In addition to having high-quality photos and working with a stager to ensure that each room looks its best, consider adding high-tech features—such as drone footage or a 3D tour—to make your listing stand out.
- Offer virtual showings. In order to observe social distancing guidelines, some realtors are providing virtual showings by walking buyers through a home while talking to them via FaceTime. This allows buyers to take a personalized tour and ask questions in real time. In addition, Facebook Live offers a good option for showing homes to multiple buyers at once.
- Don’t overprice your home. While the housing market currently remains strong in most areas, many people are tightening their budgets with the expectation of a recession—so buyers may be less willing to bid on an ambitiously priced home than they were just a few months ago.
- When showing your home in person, provide masks, gloves, shoe coverings, and hand wipes at the front door. To minimize the surfaces that visitors touch, turn on all the lights and leave doors open before a showing. Taking these basic steps will help protect your family’s health while enabling buyers to feel safe as they tour your home.
Sources: kiplinger.com & cnbc.com
