Even as we see restrictions easing around the country, open houses are not yet allowed to resume the way they were in February. Showing your home to buyers is trickier than ever during covid-19. In-person home showings with limited numbers of people and an abundance of sanitizing wipes, face coverings and gloves are the new normal.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention continues to call for physical distancing and stresses the importance of maintaining space between oneself and other people outside of one’s home.
HomeQT helps limit the number of in-person viewings by identifying buyers who have described wanting a home that matches the seller’s home description. Buyers and sellers are contacted of a possible match and can choose to remain anonymous until they are sure that both parties are interested in moving forward with a home viewing.
Casual in-person home tours.
With casual in-person home tours not being possible in this covid-19 climate, sellers need to effectively communicate as much information about their home to buyers before they allow them to physically tour the home.
The rise of showing a property virtually has become quite popular in the past few months. It’s not unusual to find sellers showing a home on video chat to give buyers a feel for the property answer any immediate questions the buyer has.
Some sellers opt to create a video of the home in order to save time and eliminate the need from performing multiple virtual tours. The video method is also useful since buyers can simply re-watch the video if they have any questions or need clarification about the home.
Many home sellers are choosing to limit the number of buyers touring their home by requiring a pre-qualification letter from a buyer. This way, only qualified buyers are considered for an in-person tour.
In-person showing protocol guide.
The National Association of Realtors released an extensive guide for in-person home showing protocols that can be applied to the showings of off-market homes.
During this time, in-person home showings are happening, but they are definitely trickier now than they were just a few short months ago.