Selling your home is stressful, no doubt about it. Flashback to 2020, the process suddenly became extra nerve-wracking. Covid totally transformed the way we buy and sell homes – gone are the days when eager homebuyers could tour open houses without notice. Now, the community has embraced the virtual side of home buying and selling, and remote closings. More than anything, the pandemic sparked a community awareness of personal space, cleanliness, and keeping each other safe. Reflecting on the past few years and looking into the future, it’s become clear that Covid-related changes are here to stay. 

 

Let us guide you! From us to you, here is our guide to selling your home safely, amid, and following the pandemic. 

 

Hey, we are all accustomed at this point to remote options like virtual work, virtual school, and virtual happy hours, and you can absolutely do the same thing when it comes to selling your home! Right now, virtual tours are BUZZING. If you're selling your home, be sure to get a photographer that can do a video tour and have it available to stream online. 

 

If you want to get fancier, you can add in Matterport tours - check out a sample of one of our virtual home tours, here. We also shoot a virtual “Open House” for our clients, where we do a live-streamed walkthrough on our business pages, talking about the features of the home and giving an even greater context to potential buyers! We utilize platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook Live to share your home in real-time with interested viewers.

 

 

You have already showcased your home online and viewers are flooding in! Now, you only want SERIOUS and PRE-APPROVED buyers touring your home. Not only does this keep you and the community safe during precarious times, but this helps you efficiently manage your time. 

 

The Piece of PDX Team does a great job of front-loading marketing, pricing, and prepping the home, and then whenever possible, we advise our clients to spend the weekend at a hotel or airbnb. The goal being that we get multiple offers over the weekend and your home is under contract by the following week, without ever having to worry about having people in your home while you are there!

 

Psst… While mandates remain, we urge all of our clients to wear masks during showings. Let’s keep each other safe!

 

 

 

When you're selling a home, there's no doubt that there's a lot of paperwork involved. Here's some great news: all of this can be available to you digitally! We utilize a platform called DocuSign that allows you to sign everything online. As for items like reviewing and negotiating offers, we can conduct all of these virtually via Zoom to make sure you don’t need to have unnecessary contact with the outside world. 

 

 

Nowadays, home inspections can also be done with very little to no contact. Inspectors are following mask protocols to ensure a safe environment. We are advising our clients to vacate the property during the inspection (typically for three hours). Essentially, the fewer people in a confined space, the better. 

 

Alongside this, you can request a drive-by appraisal for your home. Usually, an appraiser needs to go inside your home to do the full valuation. Following the height of Covid, drive-by home appraisals have become quite common! Rather than stepping foot into your home, the appraiser will drive by and do an exterior assessment of your home. They'll also utilize city records and property data to complete the rest of the assessment.

 

 

 

Now you have closed, my friend! Congratulations! All jokes aside, similar to the first point regarding virtual tours, the same goes for closings. A lot of title companies are coordinating closings remotely. I encourage you to ask the title company working with your closing to coordinate a mobile notary to come to you. Chances are they'll say yes.    

 

 

To continue exercising safety precautions while selling your home, follow these tips: 

 

1. Take advantage of virtual tours for potential buyers 

2. Be extra cautious and attentive with in-person showings

3. Welcome the digital age and sign ALL paperwork electronically

4. Utilize limited contact inspections and appraisals

5. See if your title company has a mobile notary option

 

Now that you're selling safely, let's take even more off your plate—read The Stress-Free Way to Sell Your Home here.