It’s summer 2019, and you see an open house advertised…You walk in, shake hands with the agent, stroll around the house, ask questions, and leave. Easy peasy. Fast forward to summer 2020, and you see an open house advertised. This time, there’s a box of gloves and booties for your shoes at the door for you to don.  Both you and the agent have masks on, and stay at least six feet apart, no hand shaking. You sign in, not so the agent can get your information for future marketing possibilities, but for contact tracing in case anyone at the open house calls to let him or her know they’ve tested positive for coronavirus. The world, and real estate, has changed.

But, people are still buying and selling houses, and most things are the same.  We still set our clients up for MLS searches that send them properties that meet the criteria they are searching for as soon as they hit the market, and we make appointments to go see those houses when they find ones they are interested in (with gloves, booties, hand sanitizer, etc.). You still apply for a loan in the same fashion, and our contracts are still the same, except we now have a COVID-19 Addendum that provides some protection for the buyer (contact us for more information). Home inspections still take place (with gloves, booties, hand sanitizer, etc.).

The biggest physical change we’ve seen is with our closings, and we’ve got a great gallery of pictures below of some recent home buyers signing the paperwork on their new homes. Instead of sitting down at the attorney’s office at a big conference table, attorneys are now doing “drive-thru” closings. The paralegal brings all the paperwork to the car with the areas you need to sign highlighted, and leave you to it. If you have questions, the attorney comes out to you. The thing that has remained the same, though, is the excitement people experience buying their own home. If you’re thinking about taking that step, contact us today, and we’ll set up a time to talk!