Spring is typically prime time for home sales. With not enough inventory and low interest rates, sales are good and prices are still high. But this, as we know all too well, is not your typical anything. At a south Reno RE/MAX office, Peter Moritz is a longtime Reno realtor…now working in a whole new way: "It’s crazy, isn't it? It's so unusual, because in a sense we're all experts, though we haven't been here before."
You do what you can in this environment. Since the governor banned open houses and showings of tenant-occupied homes in the wake of COVID-19, online home shopping has taken off, and won't end when the pandemic's over. At the Chase International office in south Reno, realtor Megan Lowe says, "Now it’s Face Time, Zoom, those types of platforms." Moritz told me they’re “doing virtual tours, 3-D virtual tours. Sometimes we do FaceTime where a realtor walks through the house. It can be the seller as well."
And with more people home all day anyone who has an interest, is searching homes online. Moritz played some of the virtual tours he’s been sending out, where buyers can lead the “camera” anywhere: "You can look like this in the kitchen, you can go all the way up, all the way down, look at the flooring. You can walk down a hallway, there we go, and you can look around this way, so we do a lot of this kind of stuff nowadays."
At Chase International, virtual tours have never been so polished. There’s a virtual tour of a home listed for sale in Eagle's Nest off Caughlin Parkway that looks like a Hollywood musical. And another elaborate video for a ranch they have listed for sale in Markleville, California. Since she's doing fewer in-person showings, realtor Megan Lowe uses her office time to arrange home inspections, warranties and everything else for buyers upfront: "And it keeps that social distancing so that when they come in, they have already seen the reports, seen that the repairs have been made and can virtually look through the home."
But will digital end up to be the predominant way to sell? Despite how it looks, Peter doesn't think so: "I think it will be the way to begin the home buying process. But the reality is, people will have to see, feel the home and look at the neighborhood." He also says homes may end up more appealing, as a safe haven amidst an increasingly upside-down world. Whichever way a home is sold, they both predict a home buying surge when the pandemic finally ends. Megan told me, "People that kind of were looking and just seeing, now they're interests are actually becoming a reality."
Peter agrees: "Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. We so much upward pressure on demand right now. We have an over 30,000 housing unit shortage." With a boost from low interest rates, the housing shortage...and workers and retirees who just want to live in Reno.
