How to sell homes during a pandemic

Georgia has reopened, and Atlanta’s also moving on to the second stage of its reopening plan. Although restrictions are easing, it’s still best to remain cautious in this time of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are a couple of things you can do to modify your marketing and selling strategy to adapt to these ever-changing times. Stage, stage, stage! How you present your home matters now more than ever! Take this time to finetune your home staging skills or seek out an experienced professional to dress up your home. Why?

• You’ll be showing off your home in the online space. It’s important that it looks good on the virtual tours as it does on the listing pictures, and finally in real life, if you get appointments for in-person viewings.
• You’ll most likely have remote home buyers. Instead of visiting your home, they’ll rely on virtual tours to see your property and determine if it is the one they’re looking for. And so, you need to have your home make a beautiful and memorable first impression.

Home staging shouldn’t just be reserved for inside the home. If you think curb appeal isn’t as important now, you’re mistaken. Every virtual or video tour will still begin with exterior shots of the home, as well as for listing photographs and, eventually, showings. If potential buyers are not impressed with what they see online, they might not get in touch with you to schedule an appointment or make an offer. Go digital With people encouraged to stay at home if they’re not involved in essential work, you have to innovate your marketing strategy. Virtual tours have been around for a long time, and if you have yet to try it, now is the time to do so. As mentioned earlier, virtual tours allow potential home buyers to go through your home. From there, they can decide if they want to look at it in person. In your end, this saves you time. You’ll only have to open your home to serious buyers. If you want to go one step further, you can enlist a professional to do a 3D scan of your home. This will help simulate the open house experience, enabling prospective buyers to go in and out of rooms, wherever they wish. If you’re familiar with 360-degree tours and Google Streetview, the experience is similar to these. For buyers who aren’t as tech-savvy as others, you or your agent can shoot a video tour that potential buyers can watch over and over again. Your agent can also host live video tours via social media platforms or video conferencing tools. Limit the number of people during open houses Restrictions on social gatherings are easing. For instance, in Atlanta, it’s now allowed for groups of 10 to get together. You can use that number as your benchmark for how many people you can entertain at a time during an open house. There are perks to this. One, your selling agent can give each attendee adequate attention. Each potential buyer will be able to view the home without being blocked by a ton of other buyers. Second, your agent will also be able to answer questions accordingly. All these are applicable if you’re selling on your own as well. You can also establish rules during open houses. Maintaining social distance is still a must. You can also require potential buyers to wear face masks, gloves, and booties, or you can provide these before they enter your property. Disinfect your home regularly Since the coronavirus is spread through respiratory droplets as well as direct contact, it’s imperative that you clean your house every after private showing and open house. Regular household cleaners and disinfectant will do. Of course, it’s tiring and time-consuming to clean the entire house almost every time somebody visits it. As such, you can focus on surfaces that are constantly touched. These include door knobs, handles, counter tops, table surfaces, and light switches. Wipe these every time guests leave the property. Once a week, when you’re not entertaining potential buyers, take the time to sweep and mop the floors and clean other parts of the home you didn’t get to disinfect. Check out this article by CDC to learn how to clean and disinfect your property properly. Don’t let the pandemic stop you from selling your home We have all the tools and information you need to sell your home during these times. Get in touch with our team at 770.579.5650 or send us an email at info(at)pagemorgan(dotted)com to sell your home today and fast!