VIRTUAL HOME BUYING

Just as the pandemic has reshaped work, school and sports, the coronavirus has also changed house hunting. Buyers are now increasingly bidding on properties they have yet to physically set foot inside.

In the past, agents have tried to avoid doing sight-unseen offers.  After all, there was a reason why some agents would bake bread or cookies and play music for showings as together with the look and feel of a property, smells and sounds affect a home’s desirability.

Real Estate Market’s New Reality

We are now faced with the fact that buyers and agents do not always have an opportunity to fully immerse their senses in properties for sale. Sellers have been reluctant to open their homes to strangers, and out-of-town buyers might not be able to coordinate time for showings given the short time allotted for showings.

More and more persons are looking to take advantage of record low mortgage rates, this coupled with many persons now immersed in the experience of working from home, individuals are now reevaluating the need to be in close proximity to their place of work or markets they serve.  This has manifested itself in many buyers looking at properties further away from the city, this combined with the inability for supplies to stay abreast with demand have given rise to more “sight unseen” offers. 

Buyers are aware of the fierce competition for homes and if they wait for an in-person showing, they may loose out on making an offer and ultimately, on purchasing the property. As a result of all these forces, buyers have embraced the new reality and are getting to know their potential new home virtually.

Agents now play a bigger role to accommodate their clients. For example, we recently had a couple who could not make it to physically see a property they were interested in and the agent went to see the property and video called the clients to show them the property which they really liked and made an offer on it.  Two weeks later, one partner went to see the property and liked it just as much as when he saw it virtually. Having developed a good rapport and having a good understanding of the buyers needs and wants the agent had a pretty good feel for what their ideal home should look like and delivered.

In some instances, sellers are requesting that buyers see home virtually and make a conditional offer without physically seeing the property and making arrangements post the accepted offer to see the property in person.  In the event, expectations are not met during the in person viewing, the potential buyer can walk away from the deal.

As a seller, how you prepare your home for sale does not change.  You still need to declutter and present your home well to attract buyers who are now paying more attention to on-line photos and videos.  3-D tours will let buyers spend as much time as they wish to scrutinise your home virtually. Every nook and cranny in your home will be seen.