Buying, selling a home in coronavirus pandemic puts coping skills to the test
It’s hard to remember that just a few short months ago Pierce County was one of the fastest-selling housing markets.
That seems like another lifetime, as the state’s residents remain under a “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order through May 4.
The original order took effect March 25.
Buyers who were already in the home-buying process since have encountered issues they didn’t imagine before, making an already stressful process even more nerve-wracking.
Meanwhile, agents have been figuring out ways to get documents signed and still show homes while maintaining social distancing.
STUCK IN LIMBO
Rush Residential, a home builder with seven housing divisions in the South Sound, sold nine homes in the first two weeks of March, said president Scott Walker. The last two weeks of March, that fell to zero.
There are eight families waiting for their homes in April, but Walker said only two of them will move in.
One family of five is living in a hotel, he said.
“They can’t find an apartment or anywhere to live for 2-3 months while this shutdown delays their home,” Walker said. “We were supposed to deliver on April 29. Now it could be 6 weeks later, (and) they will be forced to live in a hotel.”
Other families told Walker they will live with their parents or other relatives while they wait for their homes to be ready.
“These people who have been waiting for their homes to close … they’ve done everything in preparation for moving their family, and they’re stuck,” he said.
Walker, also president of the Pierce County Master Builders Association (MBA), said each branch of the building industry relies on one another and that’s trickling down to home buyers.
“It was a very shortsighted move on the government’s part to not think through the interconnectedness of a sale and the buyer,” he said.
The MBA sent a letter to Inslee this month, requesting that homes under contract to a buyer be allowed to complete construction and inspections using remote/electronic means and following strict social distancing guidelines.
“Frequently, these buyers have signed contracts to both build a new home and to sell their current home, and these families are at serious risk if these arrangements collapse. Significant legal liability and displacement could occur if these transactions do not close,” wrote Kat Sims, executive director of MBA of King and Snohomish Counties, in the April 1 letter.
Max Belle and his wife sold a home in Bellevue and are in escrow to buy a home in Gig Harbor, he told The News Tribune through social media.
“We are in temporary apartment housing and have goods in storage,” he said. “I agree that no one should be forced to work in conditions that threaten their well being. However, it seems that our builder had made arrangements to address work safety. While the impact of the delay is not devastating, there is a financial impact to us.”
For homes that need repairs for issues discovered in inspections, the picture is even more complicated.
According to a Q&A on the do’s and don’ts of selling in the state at this time from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, contractors generally cannot make repairs associated with an inspection during the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order.
According to its fact sheet: “The only repairs that are allowed are emergency repairs and repairs necessary to the structural integrity of the property. Other repairs or improvements (e.g. for cosmetic purposes) are not allowed. For anything other than emergency or structural repairs, buyers should consider negotiating a price reduction so that a buyer could complete the work after closing and after the order is lifted.”
A LOCKED GAS LINE
Callie Boisture described going through her home-buying process in a recent series of email exchanges with The News Tribune.
Her odyssey started when she and her family realized there was a lock on the gas line of her family’s newly purchased home in Lakewood. After a series of calls, she discovered Puget Sound Energy wasn’t allowing its workers to come out for work deemed non-essential per the governor’s orders.
“Our new house was a steady 45 degrees yesterday, and we have small children,” she wrote The News Tribune on March 27.
After The News Tribune reached out to the city of Lakewood and Puget Sound Energy asking about the policy, and Boisture connected with a Facebook contact, she eventually was able to get the issue resolved.
“As the situation with coronavirus has evolved, so have our policies to ensure we are providing essential service for our customers while minimizing exposure to them and our first responders,” Janet Kim, media representative for PSE, told The News Tribune later that day. “We have re-evaluated our policy regarding essential services following the governor’s statewide mandate, and it will now include gas hook-ups for customers moving into an existing home.
“While this is a service that requires our gas first responders to go inside the home to inspect and light-up the equipment and appliances, we will be using additional personal protective equipment to minimize risk and exposure.”
As for the move itself, it also was not a simple process, Boisture said.
“We rented a Penske truck and had family helping and a few friends who wore masks and gloves. Penske was great to work with. They did have to switch the pickup location that we were using to one in the Port of Tacoma (instead of Daffodil Storage on 38th) due to closures,” she said.
The family got a remote setup kit for their internet via Comcast and signed up for its service online.
Not so simple, decluttering. With Goodwill sites closed, she’s turned to storing extra items in the garage for now.
“We usually enlist a lot of help from friends and family for this sort of big project and have really tried to sort most of it out between my husband and I — which has gotten complicated with being pregnant and trying to set up house and move furniture around,” Boisture said. “We did have a few relatives help with big items like the washer and dryer and some small home repairs that we needed help with right away.
“All in all, it’s been a mixed bag.”
SELLING VIA SOCIAL DISTANCING
Real estate agents also have made adjustments, with an even heavier reliance now on online data.
“Over the years, we’ve seen the process of buying or selling a house change as technology in our industry has evolved. Now, buyers often conduct their initial home search online, viewing photos, sometimes videos and 3D Matterport images to get a feel for the home before setting foot on the property,” J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, told The News Tribune via email.
“Now, sellers can share a wealth of information online about their home, and when a buyer is interested, they could drive by the house to see if they’d like to set up a private showing with their broker associate. These in-person showings are by appointment only, and Northwest MLS guidelines stipulate that no more than two people must be on the premises at one time.”
Those on site, he added, “must strictly follow the CDC’s social distancing guidelines, remaining 6 feet apart at all times. For private showings, sellers can work with their broker to screen potential buyers and coordinate which days their home is available for showings to ensure they are serious qualified or all-cash buyers.”
According to information from John L. Scott Tacoma University Place broker Joe Bauman, DocuSign can serve most purposes in the process, but signing of the deed and the actual loan document both still need to be done in person. As a result, there’s been more implementation of remote notaries.
“Porch signing” also allows for social distancing, where a broker drops off a document on a client’s porch, has it signed and picks it up with minimal interaction. Others are sending documents overnight and including a return envelope for clients to use if clients aren’t tech-savvy with DocuSign, etc.
In the NWMLS Q&A, it’s clear that every step in the sales process has had to be re-examined, from leaving business cards at a house that’s shown (no) to whether an agent can still come to place a for-sale sign in front of a house (yes for temporary signs, no for permanent ones installed by third-party installers).
For sellers nervous about their home languishing on the market for too many days, there is the option of taking it off market in the interim.
The NWMLS admitted in its fact sheet it even debated whether or not to disable the “cumulative days on market” ticker.
“There are many technical and philosophical challenges with temporarily changing code, database structures, and statistical information. In the end, the Board of Directors determined that the best solution was to leave the system as it exists today,” the service stated.
“Buyers are obviously aware of the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order and the government mandate to stay at home. Sellers have the option to take their listing temporarily off the market during the stay, and if they do so, days on market will not accrue, until the listing is re-activated.”
