The spread of the Coronavirus has created many challenges for homeowners across the country. Selling your home has become especially difficult due to the social distancing measures being practiced by most people in Jupiter, FL. Many people are reluctant to go house-hunting during these times due to the risk of contracting the virus.
Due to this, home sellers will need to take special precautions to encourage prospective buyers to visit their properties. So here are some tipto sell your home during COVID-19.
1. Keep yourself safe
It is important to look after the safety of the prospective homebuyers who will be visiting your property. However, you should focus on your own well-being first. Things can be a bit more stressful during these troubling times but it’s important to keep a level head, especially when you are undertaking a task as major as selling your home.
The process of selling your home is more or less the same during the current era. However, you should be prepared to adopt certain changes to keep yourself and others safe.
2. Avoid open houses
Holding an open house was one of the best ways to show off your home to prospective home buyers in the past. However, this practice has become rare in this new era due to social distancing.
After all, allowing groups of strangers to enter your home can make it a hotspot for the spread of COVID-19. Unfortunately, many prospective buyers can be very traditional, so they may insist on visiting your property in-person.
If you absolutely need to hold an open house, you will need to take certain precautions to keep yourself and prospective buyers safe. These precautions include:
- Asking all visitors to wear masks and gloves before entering your property.
- Providing visitors with shoe covers to wear when they are in your home.
- Maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet from visitors at all times.
- Keeping a garbage bin outside your home to dispose of personal protective equipment.
- Cleaning and disinfecting your floors, countertops, and doorknobs before and after the open house.
However, we must stress that holding open houses should be avoided unless it is absolutely necessary. There are plenty of other ways to advertise and show off your home to prospective buyers in a safe manner.
3. Communicate with prospective buyers using video calls
A great way to maintain social distancing between you and prospective buyers is to communicate via video calls. Most people have familiarized themselves with video call software such as Skype and Zoom. These are great solutions for keeping in touch with home buyers and answering any questions they may have about your home.
These video call apps can also be used on mobile devices. This gives you the freedom to walk around your home during a video call and show off different rooms and features to buyers.
If you’re interested in giving home buyers more freedom to explore your home, you should consider creating a virtual tour of the property.
4. Virtual home tours
Virtual tours are digital simulations of locations that can be accessed remotely. These tours are usually composed of videos or images of locations that allow people to explore a property using a digital device such as a computer or smartphone.
Making your own virtual home tour
To make your virtual home tour, you will need:
- Panoramic or 360-degree camera
- Virtual tour software
Virtual home tours have existed for decades; however, they gained widespread popularity only after the outbreak of COVID-19. Homeowners have the option of creating their virtual home tour or asking a realtor to create one on their behalf.
Once you have acquired the right tools, you will need to plan out your home tour. Start by making a list of each room you want to include in your tour. Then you will need to place your camera in the center of each room to ensure that each room feature is visible.
If you can’t set up your camera in the middle of a particular room due to furniture, you can choose another spot. Just make sure your vantage point allows you to take clear photos of the room.
You should also make sure each room has adequate lighting for your pictures. Consistent lighting is essential when you are making a professional-looking virtual tour. Similarly, you will also need to level your camera height and angle to be consistent across rooms.
Once you have taken all the shots for your tour, recheck your list to make sure you haven’t missed any rooms or features. You can then compile your shots in the virtual tour software and edit them to your liking. Once your tour has been created, you can share it with prospective homebuyers or feature a link to it in your property listing ad.
This whole process can be tedious and challenging for someone unfamiliar with creating virtual tours. If you’re not up to this task, you can always hire a professional to create your virtual tour for you.
There are plenty of real estate agents out there who are familiar with creating virtual tours. These realtors may create tours themselves, or they may know professional virtual tour service companies in Jupiter, FL who can do it for you.
5. Completing closings remotely
Home closings were traditionally completed in-person in the past. However, it is legal to complete them remotely as long as both parties can sign the required documents.
To complete your closing remotely, you will need to ask your real estate agent to send you all the pages of the contract and addendums. These documents can be sent and signed electronically, which makes the process a lot easier and safer.
However, closing attorneys do require physical signatures on documents. So your real estate agent may need to send you some documents to sign via mail.
As you can see, trying to sell your home during COVID-19 can be a challenge. But there are plenty of tools and resources out there to make the process easier and safer for everyone.
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