Before the coronavirus hit, you decided it was time to sell your home, and now you may be wondering if it's still possible? While there may be more challenges to listing and selling a home during the coronavirus pandemic, by working with your agent to come up with a game plan, you can be on your way to a successful sale. Follow these six selling tips during coronavirus to get your home ready to list and appeal to the perfect buyer.
Keep it clean
Especially now, when people are concerned about germs, cleaning is a major tip for getting your home ready to list during coronavirus. Cleaning is especially important if you are going to invite potential buyers in your home, and while you may have fewer in-person visitors than you would normally, your final buyer will want at least one in-person showing before closing the deal. Buyers who visit your home will appreciate that just cleaned look, to keep them at ease. After every showing, even if your agent is only doing a virtual tour (more on that below), disinfect all high-touch surfaces, like doorknobs.
Get ready for the stage
Staging is always important, but now you'll definitely want your home to look its best, so you can list and sell it efficiently. Before you show your home, you want to transform it into an inviting place for everyone. With limited options for shopping, you can work with what you already have, moving furniture around, taking down heavy curtains, and creating light with extra-clean windows. Adding flowers, plants, and accents to the inside of your home are a few easy staging tips.
Make it virtual
One of the biggest differences between listing your home at other times and listing your home during coronavirus is that you and your agent will need to heavily rely on digital tools to market and show it. That's right, virtual meetings aren't just for yoga, and work calls, in these days of a coronavirus lockdown, it's also how buyers will get to know your home. This goes beyond the online listing, which you'd likely do at any time - you'll need to plan for virtual showings. Agents are talking about offering Zoom open houses, showing potential buyers around, and answering questions live on video, and scheduling them as you would any other open house or showing. It does require extra coordination, but the carefully-orchestrated virtual showing will be your top tool for marketing a house during coronavirus.
Organize everything
Another aspect of your home that you'll want to make available virtually as you get ready to list it is any documentation that interested buyers might ask for. You can create a digital file that contains all of the information - details about inspections, warranties, repairs, and anything else as advised by your agent. This folder can share crucial information about your home before people decide to visit it in-person.
Take extra precautions for in-person showings
Before you list your home, be aware of the precautions that you'll need to take when you show it to interested buyers. Data from a recently HomeLight report shows that before the crisis, agents reported that only 5% of their transactions involved a buyer making an offer on a property sight-unseen, and only 30% of agents feel like sight-unseen transactions are on the rise in their markets. Some safety tips to be aware of: Allow your agent to show your home to only one person at a time, keeping a distance of six feet apart. Ask all visitors to wash their hands or provide hand sanitizer at the door. You can even take it a step up by providing masks for everyone involved.
Stay calm
Our number one tip for getting a home listed during coronavirus, is to stay calm. Work with your agent to take the steps necessary to achieve your real estate goals, while keeping yourself and your family safe.
If you are looking for more on COVID-19 and real estate, check out HomeLight's Top Agent Insights Survey from Q2!
