Should I Sell My Home During COVID-19?
Should I list my home now? Is it safe for me or my family? Will the buyers be safe? So many questions! It all comes down to, ‘Is this a good time to sell?’
April 2020
When the Ontario government shut down non-essential services across the province, it allowed realtors to continue working as essential services so they could complete deals that were in process. If you already bought and hadn’t sold, you would need to sell. Conversely, some people had sold their homes but needed to buy a new one. Starting new listing cycles was strongly discouraged. I had a home that was a few days away from being listed, including complete staging and photos ready to share, but because the sellers hadn’t purchased a new home during all the uncertainty, they chose to pull the listing of their home.
Many realtors, including me and my colleagues at Home Group Realty, followed the advice of the government and discouraged all new sellers and buyers. The main reasons were we didn’t know if we could keep people safe while viewing homes and we couldn’t predict if the prices would drop dramatically because of the pandemic. In April 2020, the number of home sales in Guelph dropped 57% from April 2019. However, home values stayed steady.
May 2020
In May, the government started to open up the economy again and doctors had given us good information on how to keep people safe. The number of home sales in May improved and were now only 40% less in Guelph than in May 2019. And prices increased 7.4% from the same month last year!
June 2020
It’s June and I can safely say this is a good time to list a home. The market remains strong. Plus first-time buyers will be motivated to buy over the next 60 days to head off new restrictions coming down from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that will reduce the amount they can afford (see my blog about this). The market for higher priced homes (over $600,000) is a bit sluggish so it is a bit easier to move up if you want a larger or feature-rich home.
The newest adaptation to my home sellers’ strategy is to schedule a stay-cation (a vacation near home) while your house is for sale. In May, the average number of days that a home was on the market was 15 days. That means that sellers would need to leave their homes during showings over about 15 days and with coffee shops, restaurants, and cinemas closed right now, there are few places to go. To ensure you have as short a staycation as possible, I would put your home on the market and then hold offers for 5-7 days. This allows everyone who’s interested to see the online photos and videos, book a socially distanced, sanitized showing, and bring forth their best offer. And due to travel restrictions into Canada, there are lots of Airbnb’s available and many have adjusted their prices down, so the staycation might only cost you around $500.
While the home is being shown, we use these COVID-19 showing rules:
All buyers must have a preapproved mortgage before viewing the home (only serious buyers allowed).
Before scheduling an appointment through their agent:
Buyers must view all online material before. We create 360° photo tours, floor plans, and a video walkthrough. We show all areas of the home, such as furnace rooms and storage closets, not just the pretty ones.
Buyers should drive through the neighbourhood or look at Google Earth.
During scheduled appointments:
Showings are an hour long and the house must be shown in the first 30 minutes to ensure there is a half hour gap to prevent overlapping of showings.
We provide disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes at the door. We can ask buyers to wear masks, if this makes the seller more comfortable.
Only the agent and two buyers are allowed into the home and must adhere to social distancing. Only the agent is allowed to open any cupboards and we ask they use a wipe while doing that.
To avoid touching knobs, handles, and surfaces:
We turn on the lights in the morning and off at night.
We ask that agents and buyers leave all closet doors and electrical panels open.
Before, during and after the sale of the home, I interact with my sellers using Zoom video conferencing, phone, text, email, digital document e-signatures, and social distance visits with a mask and lots of handwashing. And I can accommodate any additional reasonable requests. In short, I’ll go the extra mile to keep you and your family (the seller), the buyers, and the realtors safe.
If you would like to chat by phone or over video conference to find out how I can help you with your home selling journey during these challenging times, please connect with me.