Buying or Selling During Covid-19

We have been faced with many challenges in the last few months including juggling work, home life, and of course maintaining financial stability. Many aspects of our lives have changed dramatically, and some things have even been put on hold. However, the Victoria real estate market continues to thrive, and home ownership is still the best long-term investment.

With interest rates low and with inventory growing, now is a great time to start the process.

Even with all these positives, many people are concerned about their health and safety when looking for that perfect home.  Thanks to the advantages in today’s technology, narrowing down things like location, prime neighbourhoods, ‘must haves’, price range, etc. can all be done safely online.

Prospective buyers can even access particulars of a home virtually that include:

• Panoramic views of a home
• Floor plans
• Detailed room-by-room descriptions
• Virtual ‘real time’ tours, etc.

One important aspect to keep in mind in today’s market is that these processes may take a little longer that one expects. The best advice is to be prepared, have all necessary documentation organized, and communicate with your realtor early and often.

From start to finish, almost all aspects of buying or selling a home can be done online using e-signatures including:

• Real estate documents
• Mortgages
• Lawyer’s documents

Keep in mind that the pre-approval process is paramount in today’s climate. In addition, given the wait times with the big banks, working with a Mortgage Broker has never been more important. While there may be extra steps to complete and things may take a little longer, there are many amazing opportunities to be had right now in the real estate market.

Selling a home during the Covid-19 pandemic presents its own unique challenges. There are any number of reasons why some people do not have the luxury of waiting until the markets rebound to sell their home such as:

• Financial circumstances may require you to liquidate your current assets
• Perhaps you have already found a new home to purchase and must sell the home you have
• Your existing home may no longer be adequate for your growing family or conditions may not be stable or safe where you are.

If you find that you have no choice but to put your home on market, the first crucial step is to ensure your real estate agent is extremely computer savvy. They should be able to walk you through the virtual real estate experience with confidence. The same criteria for finding the perfect agent that existed before the pandemic still holds true in these challenging times. You will want to have an agent that understands the world of virtual real estate and has already had a great deal of experience in this area before the pandemic hit.

Our team has been successfully selling homes using things such as ‘interactive 360-degree virtual video tours’ for years.  Our experienced agents will also conduct video tours of your home to prospective buyers in real time and be able to answer any questions that may come up during the tour.

The big difference now is that the entire process can be done virtually using tools such as Google Docs or Zoom. An encrypted e-signature is another important tool that allows purchasers and sellers to electronically sign all necessary documents safely.

Whether you are looking to purchase or sell a home, condo, or townhome, you can proceed with confidence knowing that our team of real estate agents, lawyers, and mortgage brokers have done their due diligence to complete all your transactions safely and securely.