Moving During the Pandemic? You Need This Checklist.

Checklist: Before you move

Make sure moving is allowed in your area or building

Not sure if you can move? According to the American Moving & Storage Association, moving has been deemed an "essential service" by the federal government.

Still, while moving is legal in the big picture, it might not be allowed for your specific circumstances. For instance, some apartment buildings in New York City are not allowing residents to move during the current shelter-in-place order. So check with your local and state governments (and your HOA or condo board, if applicable) before scheduling any move.

Choose car travel over air travel

"In order to be safe and to protect others from possible exposure to the coronavirus, drive instead of fly for your long-distance move," advises Ali Wenzke, author of "The Art of Happy Moving."

It may take longer for you to arrive at your new home, but driving is better for the safety of everyone.

Carefully research your movers

Hiring movers should always be a process that involves careful research before signing a contract. Now that missive is even more important. So is using professional movers rather than a cheaper man-with-a-van option, which could involve unknown rental equipment and multiple trips to get everything moved.

These days, many companies have transitioned to contactless moving, which means customers leave their homes while the crew comes in to pack up and load the truck. Many movers are also using video chat technology to see customers’ homes and offer quotes.

At Bellhops, a company that provides moving services in 30 states, “the customer provides instructions and takes a video and sends it to us,” says Luke Marklin, the company’s CEO. “We do a FaceTime walk-through when we arrive and a final FaceTime walk-through to show them the truck and the house, then repeat that process for the unload.”

Make sure to ask all prospective movers about their COVID-19 policies and practices, and make sure to ask the following:

• Do you provide virtual or digital estimates?

• Are the trucks and movers equipped with hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves?

• Will the truck transporting your furniture and boxes be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized before your belongings are packed inside?

• Will all equipment—such as hand trucks and sound blankets—be cleaned before your move?

• How often are high-touch surfaces in the trucks sanitized?

• What is your cancellation/rescheduling policy?

• How are the movers ensuring employees aren't sick? This could include taking their temperature on the day of the move and asking if anyone in their household is ill or experiencing symptoms.

These best practices don't just apply to the movers but to you as well.

"We advise that anyone who is planning to move right now to get gloves and masks to wear during the move," says Rachmany.

Decluttering? Call ahead if you plan to donate

Moving is a natural time to sort through your closets and set aside items to donate. This unusual time period doesn't have to be an exception to this.

But if you plan to drop off old housewares, clothing, and other items at your neighborhood Goodwill or Salvation Army, call ahead—not all stores are open or accepting donations right now, and you may need to take additional steps to sanitize donated items.

Keep reading on Realtor.com for your Post-Move Checklist.

Ready to look for new digs? We’d love to help!

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Listing + Selling Your Property During a COVID Stay-at-Home Order

When the Pros Can't be There: Getting Your House Ready to List

Please let us know if you have questions, or if you would like additional guidance getting your home ready to sell! We’re here for you…even when we can’t come to you.

Stay safe + healthy!

Listing + Selling Your Property During a COVID Stay-at-Home Order

Before we begin, a reminder: the best advice comes from our local government and health officials: Stay Home.

But it isn’t that simple when it comes to Real Estate and shelter. 

Reasons someone may NEED to buy or sell right now:

• You’ve already bought your next home, but haven’t sold your current one

• You’ve already sold your current home but haven’t bought your next one

• You’re a tenant and gave notice (or were given notice) to vacate before COVID-19 began

• Your financial situation is bad (and was before COVID too)  

• Personal circumstances like death or divorce 

Reasons to Pause, Watch and Wait:

If you just WANT to buy or sell right now, we strongly recommend you Pause, Watch and Wait. While we don’t know what the future holds and it’s impossible to predict what will happen to the market and prices post COVID-19, we don’t think it’s worth putting yourself and others at health or financial risk if you don’t NEED to sell.

We think you should Pause, Watch and Wait if:

• You’re looking for a deal and hoping Sellers are desperate (they aren’t)

• You’ve got time on your hands and like house hunting (this isn’t a hobby for your REALTOR)

• Your tenant didn’t pay rent and you’re panicking (we’re hoping to hear about relief for Landlords soon)

• You can’t work right now and are worried about the mortgage (you likely qualify for a mortgage deferral, talk to your lender ASAP)

• You think you’re invincible and immune to the virus (you’re not)

If you find yourself in a position where you NEED to buy or sell right now, know that West + Main Realtors are working hard to figure out how to make it happen- but it’s not business as usual for anyone. Things are changing daily and we’ll be updating this blog regularly.

What Home Sellers Should Expect: March 27, 2020

Home Preparation Issues

It’s not safe (or even allowed in some cases) to bring in handymen, painters, cleaners and stagers to prep your home for sale. What-You-See-is-What-You-Get is generally what’s happening during COVID. 

Restricted Marketing

While many REALTORS are using video, digital marketing and off-MLS networking to get their listings seen, marketing homes isn’t as easy as it was just a few weeks ago. The goal is no longer to get as MANY eyeballs on a listing – it’s to get the RIGHT eyeballs on it. REALTORS are balancing the need to advertise their listings with the public’s understandable distaste for marketing right now, and weighing the pros and cons of being listed on the MLS during a pandemic.

• Not happening: Open houses, large-scale social media promotion, pricing games to attract multiple offers

• Happening, but different: Photography and video (not likely professional), listings on the MLS

• Happening intentionally + strategically: Targeted marketing to qualified and motivated Buyers 

Restricted Access to Professionals

Buying or selling a home involves a lot of people, and right now, they may not be able to do their job because of COVID-19, either due to illness, quarantine, self-isolation or government ‘essential services’ definitions. This includes photographers, stagers, home inspectors, appraisers, real estate lawyers, insurance agents, lenders and title company representatives. 

If you’re selling your home during COVID, be ready to lower your service expectations and be flexible at every stage of the sale. 

Showings

Pre-COVID, our goal was to get as many people to see your home as possible. And now? We want the RIGHT Buyers in there – and we need to be creative in order to reduce personal contact. Smart agents are previewing homes without clients, providing video walk-throughs to their Buyers and increasingly, Buyers are making offers sight-unseen. 

If you’re living in your home while it’s for sale, make sure to seriously consider the risks that you are putting yourself/your family/potential Buyers and their agents in and take precautions to mitigate those risks. Better yet: move out while your home is for sale.  

Condos

If you’re selling a condo during COVID-19, there are a number of unique obstacles to be ready for:

• An increasing number of condominium buildings have restricted access solely to residents. If REALTORS and their Buyers cannot see the unit, it may not be possible to sell it. Alternatively, you may have to accept a ‘sight-unseen’ offer that is conditional until they can view it, or a heavily discounted price to reflect the risk the Buyer is taking. 

• Challenges getting HOA documents, FHA approvals and other needed documents.

• Social distancing is harder in a condo, and elevators and common spaces present unique safety challenges to Buyers and their agents. 

Tenanted Properties

If the home you’re selling is currently being leased, know that you likely aren’t able to guarantee vacant possession right now. Landlords are not currently allowed to evict tenants and the current Stay-at-Home orders are going to make it more difficult to move in and out. You will need to include special clauses in any offer to protect you and may have issues on closing if you’re selling to someone who wants to move into the home themselves. 

Also: you likely can’t force your Tenants to allow showings, given all of the legitimate safety concerns right now.

Offers

Thankfully, many Realtors, including our agents, have long been using electronic signatures to sign offers and ‘presenting’ them via email, phone or video conferencing. But offers are far from business-as-usual right now. 

Longer conditional periods for financing and inspections are the norm these days, and non-standard COVID clauses are being added to offers to address potential closing issues, delays, illness and issues with pre-close visits. 

Deposits can be a challenge too – while banks are still open and more title companies and brokerages are accepting wire transfers, a Buyer typically has to deliver Earnest Money within 72 hours of an offer being accepted – and that may or may not be possible during COVID. 

Closings

If you are successful in selling your home during COVID, you’ll need to prepare for:

• How to handle the buyer pre-close visits (if the buyer, their agent or someone in your home is sick, isolated or quarantined)

• Delays due to appraisal issues (appraisers may not be available, able to do their job or they may be discounting values)

• Serious issues that jeopardize closing – While Buyers can’t just ‘walk away’ from a firm sale (and the repercussions are serious if they do), we may very well see Buyers unable to close because their job or financial situation changes or they are unable to obtain insurance.

• Title companies are currently open, but it’s possible they will be shut down temporarily at some point, which would mean all closings would be paused. We’re hoping this doesn’t happen – but it might. 

• Closing issues: Throughout most of the process, both buyers + sellers are able to sign documents electronically, but most closing documents require a notary which may or may not be possible in the future.

• Movers: If movers are not available, you may need to be creative with organizing your move. 

Selling your home during COVID-19 isn’t easy – but it’s not impossible either. If you NEED to sell your home, be ready to be flexible and deal with obstacles and delays. If you don’t NEED to sell? We recommend you Pause, Watch and Wait.

Want to talk through the obstacles, options + opportunities? We’re here for you.

The Age of Buyers is Skyrocketing

One of the more fascinating trends from the recent 2019 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is the rising age of home buyers.

Overall, buyers’ ages have jumped from a median of 31 in 1981 to 47 in 2019. While many attribute that increase to the rising age of first-time buyers, there is more to the story.

From 1981 to 2018, the first-time buyer age was actually a pretty boring, flat line which fluctuated between 28 and 32, according to the National Association of Realtors. The only movement outside of this was in 2019, when it slightly increased to the median age of 33. Not a huge change, but enough to know there are other factors at play.

First-time buyers are facing a number of hurdles to enter homeownership. Many have difficulty saving for a downpayment with rising home prices, rising rental costs, and getting their debt-to-income ratio in check with student loan debt. First-time buyers also face a housing desert with the lack of affordable entry-level properties. First-time buyers who do enter the market often overcome these hurdles with family help such as downpayment assistance, or the ability to move directly from a parents’ home into homeownership.

The number that has changed dramatically since 1981 is the rise in the age of repeat buyers. Repeat buyers were a median age of 36 in 1981, and are now at 55. This incremental climb can be attributed to a number of factors. Many are staying in their homes for longer periods of time—either because they want to or because they had to as their home was worth less than their mortgage after the Great Recession. Tenure holding a home increased from six to seven years and is now at 10 years.

Also, Americans are also living and working longer, so the idea of moving and purchasing a new home, even with a mortgage, is a trend many feel comfortable doing past the traditional retirement age. As Americans are having children later in life, many life decisions get pushed further into the future. Working and assisting a grown child through college now takes precedent over downsizing. Many parents are holding onto their family home as adult children boomerang back after college.

Now many homeowners are in a positive home equity situation, as home prices have risen, and they are making the move to a home that fits their family’s needs better. Some are moving to be closer to friends and family, others to a larger home, and some just to a better area. Sellers who were holding back, are now finally to break and make that move. Repeat buyers are able to lock in the same low interest rates they likely have on the existing home—another factor that may have delayed their move in the past. What is of note of these home buyers who are a median age of 55 is that the plan on staying in their homes for 15 to 20 years, and many are never planning to move. If that holds, that is yet to be seen.

Dr. Jessica Lautz is the Vice President of Demographics and Behavioral Insights at the National Association of REALTORS®.

Welcome to a New Decade and New Real Estate Trends

New decade, new real estate trends.

Just as many of us choose to make some changes in our lives come the new year, the housing market is expecting to see some changes in how people are buying and selling homes in 2020.

As many baby boomers choose to downsize from larger to smaller homes, millennials are becoming one of the largest pools of homebuyers, with many of them seeking features that align with their values and lifestyle goals.

As the baby boomer generation prepares for its next step, many of this generation may choose to downsize from their large homes to smaller houses, leaving behind a wave of homes on the market. This phenomenon is being called the “silver tsunami.” This is a trend that is expected to bring more than roughly 920,000 homes onto the market each year between 2017 and 2027, according to an article by MarketWatch.

The newly listed homes will likely be purchased by millennials, which refers to people between the ages of 23 and 38, who are quickly becoming one of the largest pools of homebuyers. According to the National Association of Realtors and Sellers Generational Trends Report, millennials comprised 37% of homebuyers in 2019. In order to market homes to this new homebuyer profile, it is important to understand who they are and what their priorities are.

Many members of the millennial generation are more concerned with finding homes that have features that align with their own personal values and lifestyle goals. And although more millennials are beginning to purchase homes, their ideal homes may be different from the homes that baby boomers are exiting.

What’s more, the millennial generation that was once known for clinging to urban areas is now creating its own happy medium between city and suburb, dubbed “hipsturbia.” This newly coined term is defined as smaller, suburban communities with more single-family homes paired with ideal access to shopping, dining and entertainment options.

What does this mean for metro Denver? Well, seeing as though millennials represent 23.7% of Colorado’s population, according to a report by 9News, there may be more demand for homes in the 54 neighborhoods that make up metro Denver. Areas that are outside of downtown but not far from the action such as Greenwood Village, Lakewood and Aurora could be the next “hipsturbias.”

Total properties sold in metro Denver through November of this year as compared to through November of last year rose by 3%, supporting the statement that more homebuyers are showing interest in these neighborhoods that provide the best of both worlds.

Keep reading at the Denver Post.

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