Despite the stalling of most areas of business during the Covid-19 pandemic, the housing market has been doing surprisingly well.
It’s a buyer’s market, with housing prices on the lower side and many people eager to move or sell their house.
If you are interested in selling your house in the upcoming year, here are some important tidbits to keep in mind!
1. Conduct a Home Makeover
Remember: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. If it’s in need of repair, an expense is something you shouldn’t spare.
If you have a leaking air conditioner, it would be beneficial to have it repaired prior to putting it on the market as it could affect your home inspection. If a home inspector finds multiple issues with your house, it can affect the amount of offers you receive on your house and the amount.
- Homeowners often make one of these two mistakes:
They make unnecessary upgrades to their house that they don’t need - They don’t make the repairs necessary for their houseConsider having a pre-inspection prior to putting your house on the market, that way you can judge whether or not you need to spend money on repairs or not.
2. Consider Timing and Proper Safety Measures
Traditionally the best time to put your house up for sale is in the summer. People want to be settled into their new houses prior to the beginning of the school year and optimize the vacation time that the season brings.
However, with the effects of the pandemic there was not an explicitly best time to buy a house as the market has been doing very well throughout the year.
With that being said, due to the effects of the pandemic, sanitation has become an important key feature that must be integrated in the selling process.
Make sure that prior to scheduling open houses, you take proper safety measures to ensure the well-being of others.
Such measures include:
- Hand sanitizers throughout the house
- Disposable gloves and masks
- Disinfectant to wipe down the door handles, etc.
- Disposable shoe coverings
The safer your house is, the more appealing it is to the buyer as it shows a robust response to the pandemic and makes you an appealing person to work with.
3. Go Digital
To further elaborate on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on selling your house in 2021, it’s a great idea to make the process more digital friendly.
For example, there are many ways you can make the escrow process digital with New Venture Escrow. This has many added advantages such as:
- Limited face to face contact
- Secure login and communications
- Smoother closings
- Lifetime access
Additionally, make sure you are using digital tools to market your house! Social media can be a key factor in engaging with buyers and making your house more accessible to a larger audience.
Furthermore, now is the time to create virtual home tours! These serve as an advantageous way to allow buyers who are afraid of the virus or are abiding by stay at home orders to look at your home.
Looking Ahead
Now more than ever is a great time to buy houses. The refinancing rates in California are lower than ever. As the year comes to a close and we prepare for the new year ahead, it’s important to know what steps you can do to position your house as the best on the market in 2021.
Interested in learning more about real estate practices or how to go more digital in today’s world?
New Venture Escrow offers virtual escrow services for real estate agents via our new app, VentureTrac 4.0! Provide information to your clients within seconds, send or email direct files from your phone, and save and store all of your information in one convenient location. With New Venture Escrow, it’s never been easier to maneuver the real estate market in the middle of a pandemic.
