In the current circumstances with the Coronavirus, many people are wondering if houses are still selling and the simple answer is yes.
Real estate is still going on and houses are still selling.
In this post I want to address the actual information and talk about the possible changes to be aware of.
Ever since Coronavirus was announced as a pandemic, over a month and a half ago on March 11, 2020, we have still seen thousands of transactions within the state of Utah. This information alone indicates that houses are still being purchased and sold, and that plenty of people are still active in the real estate market.
So what has changed during all of this?
Many rules and regulations have had to be adjusted on how we are selling homes, accommodating showings, and negotiating through contract up to close. Thankfully most of real estate before this was handled about 95% on the computer to send you the contract digitally to sign. Other than that our interactions with clients are mainly showing houses (which we still do), home inspections, and appraisals.
So the biggest thing that I want to point out to those who are thinking about selling in the next couple months is, make sure that you are hiring the right professional to help guide you through this process. What I mean by that is that there have been a lot of changes when it comes to loans (FHA ans VA). There have been a lot of changes when it comes to credit score, down payment and income requirement, and job verification. Those have always been pretty tight but they have gotten even tighter. So you need to know what type of borrower you are accepting before you ever go under contract, because the Utah Real Estate Purchase contract is very buyer friendly so it is very easy for a buyer to cancel and change after they go under contract with no repercussion and just keeping your house off the market for that time.
One thing that I do for my sellers is that I call the lender and I verify the buyers income, credit score, time in current job, or anything else that might be affected. With that information available, I ask any other questions that help identify if these buyers are in good standing, amid all that is going on.
It’s essential during this time to find out all you can, because of how much interest rates are changing and how quickly people are losing their jobs.
With all that being said, it is important to hire full time professionals to guide you through all of this step by step, because things are changing rapidly and if they aren’t fully invested in this they are not going to know what is going on.
If you are interested in selling you house please reach out to me, we are able to do everything online through Zoom but I am also able to meet in person if needed.
