A home view through the eyes of a pair of virtual reality goggles. Photo courtesy of Dan Wood
Dan Wood dons a black respirator mask and blue latex gloves. He looks part operating room surgeon, part "Mad Max" extra. But he’s not suiting up to perform an appendectomy nor is he a post-apocalyptic road warrior — he’s selling homes.
The traditional process of home buying, pre-COVID-19, was tried and true. Realtors brought buyers, family in tow, into house after house of trusting sellers until they found the property that checked all their boxes. Shaking hands, chauffeuring clients, and touching doorknobs weren’t given a second thought.
But with the current health crisis, the intimate nature of hunting for a new home became potentially hazardous. Real estate agents like Wood were left to reinvent their jobs quickly to keep everyone safe. Considered essential, they still had clients needing to buy or sell.
“When the shutdown first occurred, we were having to do virtual showings,” Williams Trew Market Area Sales Leader Elizabeth McCoy says. “So we were doing a lot of YouTube videos, Facebook Lives, and FaceTime with our clients, especially for relocating buyers that were under the gun and had to find something to buy.”
Wood kicked his virtual showings up a notch with the addition of 3D tours. He invested in a virtual reality camera a couple years ago. The technology proved even more helpful during shelter-in-place orders. By putting on a pair of VR goggles, his buyers can experience a 360-degree walk-through of a property without stepping foot in the home.
“It really does feel like you're there,” he says. “It's pretty crazy.”
Despite virtual work-arounds, the North Texas market saw a substantial drop in sales during shelter-in-place orders. Williams Trew agent Joseph Berkes says his business during the shutdown dropped over 50 percent, but his May numbers are returning to normal.
Berkes says the uptick of activity can be attributed to eased quarantine restrictions. Buyers and sellers are more comfortable with resuming in-person tours and even a couple of cautious open houses. Eager buyers are looking to make up lost time and get back to home shopping.
“Summer’s going to be the new spring,” Berkes says of the typical busy season for home buying.
To keep everyone safe, agents are following CDC guidelines. That means a lot less touching and a lot more hand sanitizer.
“We are usually in our own automobiles right now, and that's changed a little bit from when we all used to pile in a car to go look,” Berkes says of the recent changes. “Now, we usually meet at the house, and I always wear a mask. When I'm showing houses, we ask that the sellers turn on all the lights, open up any doors they want us to see so we're not going through touching everything.”
COVID-showing forms are another new, optional safe-guard. Prior to touring a home, sellers’ agents can require a signed form stating that people coming into the home have not shown symptoms of COVID, been exposed to anyone with symptoms, or traveled out of the country recently.
“Some agents are requiring those to be signed before the showing, some agents are not. So it's hit or miss depending on which house the buyer wants to go look at,” Wood says.
Holly Winn is a new agent with JP & Associates. After becoming a Realtor last September, Winn was thrown into the whirlwind of maintaining her budding business during the pandemic. She says she used to utilize open houses to market herself to potential new clients. With less of those happening, Winn was left using social media to network. But even then, she felt it was a little insensitive to hit up connections for sales leads during a global pandemic.
“I didn't feel comfortable talking and asking people, ‘Who do you know that's looking to buy and sell?’ during a time like this because there's so much other stuff going on,” Winn says.
She says her favorite part of a sale is the excitement of closing day, but that’s changed too. Many title companies have gone from in-office closings to a curbside service, much like how restaurants are serving take-out. Many of the signatures are done electronically, and the few documents that need wet signatures are brought out to the client to sign in their car.
“I so look forward to closings as a new realtor,” she says. “It’s such an exciting day. But today I have a closing, and we just have to do it all from our cars. We don't get to really see each other and be in the room together and do all the traditional things like take a closing picture and make that memory.”
Without a crystal ball, it’s uncertain how long these changes will affect Realtors and home sales. Robert Gleason, CEO of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, urges agents to remain vigilant even as things begin to reopen.
“For the safety of the client and the agents that are out there working, I think it's important that people make sure they're still following those guidelines, even as we start to open things up a little bit,” he says. “Remember that it's still critical that people do what they can to stay safe.”
Still, the Realtors expressed confidence in the North Texas market. Low mortgage rates and high demand, especially in homes priced under $300,000, make it still a good time to buy a home.
“Putting money in real estate continues to be such a great investment,” McCoy says.
