By Chad Arend, The Arend Team
With our state’s real estate inventory still at historic lows, our real estate market has been fairly stable during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have noticed that certainly sales have been reduced, but new listings have been minimal as well. Currently, we’re not seeing any distressed sales come to the market, as the timeframe is too short to see any of those go through the process.
Our team is working the process much differently than normal and we are seeing good results so far. We are relying on virtual tour methods. We have begun using Zoom conference calls to meet with buyers and sellers, to tour properties on a buyer’s behalf, and to connect with new clients. We also use an interactive 3D tour program that allows a prospective buyer to virtually walk through the home from point to point with 360 views of each point. It also shows a floor plan. It’s great technology that we have previously used for our out-of-state buyers, but now allows local buyers to minimize the properties they want to tour physically. It also gives us the ability to send out these tours of our listings to other agents and local brokerages so that we can reduce the showings through their home – yes, this sounds backwards. However, if we minimize the traffic through the home to someone that knows the floor plan, and has virtually toured the home and area, we then know that buyer is thoroughly interested in the home. Obviously there are pros and cons of this process, but the majority of our clients like this approach during this current pandemic. For years, I have been touring and producing YouTube videos of other homes for my out-of-state buyers for a quick candid video of the home to see if it was worth them traveling here to view the home, and now am doing this for my local buyers as well. It is much easier for one person to tour the property using a mask, shoe covers and gloves than to bring the full group through.
In terms of overall market condition, we are seeing a reduction in activity overall compared to it being super hot in late February and March. This has removed the multiple offer situations we were seeing on homes priced under around $300,000 and is providing a more balanced leverage between buyers and sellers. This means buyers will have more ability to ask for concessions, and sellers will need to market their homes at a higher level and ensure the home is priced correctly.
In terms of expected price and sales volume, the Cromford Report cites, “Prices will continue to rise and sales volume will start to show the effects of ‘stay-at-home’ measures in the next few weeks. Not until supply and demand meet will we see prices stabilize and not until supply is higher than demand will we see prices decline. A lot can happen in the next four weeks, however. It’s still too early to be making apocalyptic projections for the Greater Phoenix housing market.”
The Arend Team strives to be on the forefront of the local real estate market and provide the best service and response time to long-time clients and new customers alike. We keep on the forefront of technology, yet also keep tried and true methods. Our industry skills include aggressive negotiation tactics, local knowledge, always update-to-date contract knowledge, premier marketing tools and a strong support staff. We always assure every client involved in the real estate transaction is “kept-in-the-know” on each aspect of the buying or selling process. Our goal is to make sure we maintain a true “clients first” attitude towards all aspects of our business.
