Having killed more than 400,000 people worldwide, and 110,000 in the United States alone, COVID-19 is a once-in-a-lifetime event that is reshaping the way nearly every industry is doing business, and real estate is no exception. During the lockdown many open houses were simply cancelled, and the market stalled for a time as no one was buying or selling. But as restrictions are easing up, buyers and sellers are finding that it is a good time to be in the market again–houses are selling cheaper than they were before, and sellers are finding that many are eager to move.
How to Find Leads During COVID-19
Just because open houses have slowed and in-person meetings may have taken a dip, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t eager both to sell and buy–but they’re moving more and more online. Of course, online real estate marketing has been common for years, but things that are becoming more essential are blogs, content marketing, and the ability to move fast.
Blogs and Content Marketing
Blogging may have become passe in recent years, but with everyone stuck at home and nowhere to go but online, reading through blogs and content marketing is an ideal stay-at-home shopping experience. If you’re looking to sell, you’ll want more than just the standard description and photos–you’ll want to recreate the experience of going out and seeing a home in real life. Describe the neighborhood, the street, the trees, the yard. Talk about the quiet neighbors, the traffic on the street, the smell of the flowers in the garden. The more you can get in touch with the sights, sounds, and smells of the experience of a walkthrough, the better you can help your potential buyer see themselves living in the home.
You’ll want the best photos, of course, but now even more than ever. And staging is a must. It’s hard to tell from a photo how the couch will fit or where the TV will sit, but a properly staged house will illustrate for the buyer just what it would be like living in the house. A good blogger will be able to catch the sights, sounds, and smells of a new home–or you could look to your old creative writing classes and dust off the old skills: what does the wood smell like? How do the thick carpets feel beneath your bare feet? What is the effect of walking into the grand entryway? What sweet scent do the honeysuckles that surround the front door remind you of?
Don’t forget the whole family, from the parents sitting on the rug watching a roaring fire, to the kids playing in the sprinklers in the backyard, to the puppy trotting in and out of the doggy door. You want to make the buyer feel like they’re there–and not just in an empty for-sale house, but living in their new, moved-in home.
Focus on the Market
There’s a lot of volatility right now, but things have stabled out after that first major drop. Stocks have continued to rise, and the housing market is steady. There will be buyers looking for quick deals–preying on people who have been foreclosed on because they’ve lost their job–and while those houses will be available, they’re not as expected as once thought. Most people who lost their jobs were in low-earning positions and mostly renting (and there has been rent and mortgage protection in some areas to preserve these people through early hardships).
What you’re more likely to find are people who are moving for work–they may have lost one job and found another in a new city, or they’ve decided to cut back and downsize. They’re motivated sellers, to be sure, but they’re not desperate. This isn’t a time for vulture investors to come swooping in to pick up the remnants of a deserted market. This isn’t a housing bubble that burst. This is merely a chance to buy a lot of houses that have hitherto been unavailable–but near market prices.
Buyers Will be Eager, but Thrifty
No one knows what’s ahead of us with all the uncertainty in the world–and things seem to be getting more uncertain by the day–but there are definitely buyers looking for a good deal. They may be a little reluctant to pull out all the stops and buy the biggest home on the block with the nicest yard and the three-car garage. More likely they’re going to be conservative in their purchases, keeping an eye on the Dow Jones, and making sure that the investment they’re making in their house is one that they’ll be able to afford should the economy take another blow.
Virtual Showings On the Rise
Just because your buyers can’t be there in person doesn’t mean they don’t want the experience of walking through a house, and just like Zoom calls have taken over business meeting, remote, virtual showings will become the wave of the future as realtors walk through the property, showing off all the amenities, giving an illustration of space and size, and making the buyer feel like they’re really there. A lot of questions will be answered, and few people will buy a house based on a virtual walkthrough, but while lockdowns are in place, these are excellent ways to give a buyer a sense of just what they’ll be getting.
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