The overall process of selling a property can sometimes be stressful and complicated. In this post we will discuss how coronavirus may impact selling your house in Detroit, MI. The purpose of this post is to simply bring some awareness to the average home seller during this time. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency in Michigan for coronavirus. This could potentially have a major impact on our local housing market and economy. If you are planning to sell your house during this time, you should be concerned. These circumstances don’t mean that you won’t be able to sell but it does mean you should take some precautionary measures. Let’s go over how Coronavirus may impact selling your house in Detroit.
Technology Is Your Friend
Whenever there’s a highly contagious sickness going around it’s always best to limit person-to-person contact as much as possible. Luckily we are living in a time where we have access to technology which allows us to easily do so. For example, instead of meeting face-to-face with a real estate agent or buyer you could utilize a video call as an alternative. In fact, it would be ideal to strictly communicate by phone call, text and email throughout the entire process of selling your house.
Create A Virtual Tour
Having a thorough video or virtual tour of your property can help to limit the amount of people who will walk through your house. It can help to eliminate some of the time-wasters upfront. Make sure the lighting is good and the audio as well. Also make sure to walk the entire outside of the property as well.
Keep It Paperless
Most paperwork involved with the sale of your house can be done via email and many documents can be digitally signed. Signing a purchase agreement digitally will eliminate having to physically meet with anyone during the sale process. Once you are ready to close the transaction, you can request a mail-away packet or have the closing docs emailed if possible so you won’t need to be physically present.
Sanitize
When people do come to view your house there are a few things you can do to minimize the spread of germs. For instance, keep all interior doors open to discourage viewers from touching doorknobs. Turning on all the lights prior to the showings may also be a good idea in order to keep people from touching the light switches. Even with these precautions you should still sanitize the doorknobs and light switches after each showing if possible. Routinely wipe down and sanitize kitchen and bathroom surfaces as well. Keep in mind that you do not necessarily need to be present during a walk-through unless you have a specific reason.
Other Things To Be Aware Of
A lot of buyers in the Detroit real estate market at this time are investors, many come from out-of-state as well as from other countries. It could be fair to say that a decent number of these property buyers are traveling to Detroit by airplane and at this current time that may pose as a risk. It also means that the amount of buyers may decrease and cause the market to slow down. In short, Covid-19 may impact selling your house in Detroit for several months to come but only time will tell. As the year progresses we will see exactly how this will play out and see exactly how this impacts our local economy and housing market but at this point nothing is certain.
