It’s almost impossible not to talk about the coronavirus right now. It’s everywhere and everyone is talking about it in some form or fashion. Weather is over the dinner table, over text or email with friends and coworkers, or in the workplace… If you can still go there. While so many people are being sent home including kids, teachers, and employees, some people still need to buy or sell real estate. Perhaps it’s a relocation and you are under a time crunch to find your next house or you need to sell quickly for financial reasons. Whatever the case, if you need to buy a house now but are nervous about the COVID-19 virus, there are some things that you can do to ease your mind and help you carry on with life.
Do as much as you can online.
You can talk to your real estate agent over email, text, or phone and do as much searching as possible online before looking at a home in person. Nowadays, nearly everyone starts there property search online so why stop now? You can find out quite a bit of information about a property before actually seeing it in person.
Take a look at the crime rates for a particular address. View the Google maps Street view so you can see what the neighborhood looks like before actually touring it. Find out about schools, the ratings of schools from great schools.org in a particular school zone, and check the crime rate for that neighborhood.
More: Should we really have an open house?
Talk to a lender online.
There are a lot of options for mortgages these days but it doesn’t mean you have to go with the big guys like Rocket Mortgage or Zillow to get a great loan. Many loan officers are available completely over the Internet and the last few deals I’ve done, the buyers haven’t even seen their lender in person even though they are local. Email, text, doc-u-sign files and even confidential documents can all be transferred electronically now from the safety and comfort of your own home.
More: How to NOT Let the Virus Keep You From Selling
Choose the home carefully.
Once you have found a home that you think you will love, contact your real estate agent for a private showing. Ask that the sellers not be home when you view the property, which is pretty standard anyway. Drive your own vehicle to the house and have hand sanitizer on standby. When looking at a house, make sure you wash your hands and then just don’t touch your face while you’re in the property. You can get a great sense of the neighborhood and the property without touching a thing. Ask that the sellers leave the property about 30 minutes prior to you viewing the home to allow for any germs that may have lingered in the air to fall harmlessly on the floor.
More: 3 Things to Do Now if You’re Selling This Spring
Do as much electronically as possible.
Nowadays, we can conduct pretty much every purchase and sale contract online without anyone actually having to meet. I know this sounds a bit extreme, but for those of us that are really taking care of our health, especially anyone over the age of about 65, anything we can do to protect ourselves helps.
Don’t worry, the age of major socialization will come back sooner than we realize and this will all be a distant memory but for those of us that need to carry on certain types of businesses, there are solutions and workarounds. Let’s become, support each other, and do all we can to stay as healthy and safe as possible.
Call me! We can do all this over the phone or online! (480) 721-1195