Real Estate Tales of COVID-19

During the first pandemic of her life, Gina Turnbull, a realtor team member with Wollam and Associates, had two home sales in the last 5 days. One of the sales was a Buyer from Portland who Gina has been working with for 5-6 months. Gina set up showing the homes the buyer wanted to see last Saturday. The buyer in her own car followed Gina’s car house to house. The Buyer, after seeing all the homes and reviewing them with Gina, requested Gina write an offer that night on the last home they had seen. The offer process was all done by phone, text, email and DocuSign (a digital method for legally signing forms and or contracts that are binding). By Monday morning Gina’s Buyer’s offer was accepted on the home after some back and forth with the seller and listing agent. The rest of the transaction “paperwork” process will continue as prior to the Stay At Home order right up to closing via DocuSign, phone, text, email, and mobile notary. The only actual change from prior to the stay at home order for the transaction is that Gina or other Realtors will not be able to attend the inspection if the buyer wishes to. Only two people may be in the home at one time when related to real estate activity.

With some creative use of tested and long-standing technology in our industry, a hard-working Realtor can, and will, get the job done.

Market Recap: March 2020
The March RMLS statistics for SW WA were encouraging given sales activity was very limited halfway through the month of March. Even with that pending sales were only down 11%. Real Estate prices showed a 7% increase in March over February due to the lack of inventory and sales activity experienced from mid-January through mid-March. With the current COVID-19 stay at home order I expect to see those gains negated and pull back to February home values. Sales activity will be down through April and May, but with inventory levels below what we saw in 2019 we should see real estate values hold relatively steady.

If you have questions or need help with buying or selling please give us a call at 360-609-0111 or email us at hello@wollamassociates.com.

Terry Wollam
Managing Broker | ReMax Equity Group
Wollam & Associates
360-609-0111
Real Estate Expert
hello@wollamassociates.com