The Impact Of COVID On Today’s Real Estate World

Real estate was one industry that did not react to the pandemic very well. At the start of the pandemic, the Government implemented various rules and restrictions to keep people safe. With lockdowns and other changes, for the most part, people couldn’t leave their homes. The changes lead to the popular trend of remote working with many companies getting their staff to handle the work they were assigned, remotely. While a majority of companies were keeping up with the trend, there were a few who could not adapt.

Not all industries could move to remote working with some having to get their work handled in person. Overall, almost all companies took to the internet to push various aspects of their process that they could, online, even if they were small changes like form filling. Some of the industries struggling during the lockdown were hospitality, construction and real estate because most of their work was handled in-person. Additionally, with the uncertainty about the future and a large number of people losing their jobs, and companies shutting down, people did not want to invest a large amount in real estate.

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about some massive issues for the real estate industry, and people were unsure how to get through. If we were to foresee the changes taking place and predict what would happen in the next six months, we make a few calculated guesses. We see many changes taking place within our industry, limiting the number of people at the inspections, while requiring more video and phone calls, concerning the house’s condition for the buyer’s information. We continue to wear PPE suits to protect our clients, ourselves and the sellers.

Generally, when clients come along with us for the inspections, they learn more about their potential home to make better-informed decisions. We can also explain, in great detail, what we do and don’t during an inspection. We love to interact with our clients and real estate agents, but COVID limits these contacts and interactions.

There were other changes implemented as well, with offices not allowed to have more than a specific number of people coming in. When we were showing a place to our clients, we make sure the people are not in the house or had to be on a different floor. We no longer had waiting times for clients and had them booking appointments to coordinate well and complete one before starting the other, without leaving anyone waiting. Using hand sanitizers, along with masks, were now a priority. We had to make a lot of changes to the way we were functioning as well. We ended up spending more time working, even if it was behind the scenes because there was a lot to be coordinated.

We have video calls after the completion of an inspection along with phone calls, as opposed to walking the client around the home to specifically show them some of the issues we found. We do not have clients coming in with us often, so we show them the house remotely, which can be quite challenging because they would not see it exactly as it is but have to make do with what they see on the call.

For the most part, we are working remotely, but we also work from the office. With the changes in the rules and regulations, we couldn’t come into the office for a long time but learned to make do and handle and coordinate everything remotely, which was a massive positive. There are a few disadvantages when it comes to working remotely. One of the main changes we had to go through because of remote working was limiting our contact with agents, home sellers, and many others. 

For the most part, we do not work from an office. However, we are taking precautions about coordinating with various people. All our inspectors wear PPE equipment, including gloves, masks, protective clothing, and we are careful to follow health and CDC guidelines. We make sure that the clients working with us feel safe and comfortable, and they do not feel like we are reckless to put them at risk. We were not working for a large part of the lockdown, so we did not change the number of hours we spend working. We push for the same number of hours, if not more now that the markets are slowing opening up.

We have a secure platform that we were using before COVID, and it was working well for us then. We are not making any changes to it because it was convenient and easy to use while protecting the information that was on it. ISN is a well-known platform and should serve the purpose of all our clients.

Some of our clients are regularly asking us to meet them in person to coordinate requirements better. People feel a sense of receiving more information when meeting in person, so we are more than happy to meet and coordinate without unnecessarily making the process inconvenient. We always make sure we are practicing social distancing and mandatorily wear facemasks at any interaction. At the same time, we limit the number of people we are meeting, to two with no children, as far as possible. Additionally, we also tell our clients to put on their masks when they meet us because we want to make sure we are as safe as possible.

We are open to coordinating with our clients across digital platforms as long as they are comfortable with video calls or phone calls. We use Skype, Zoom, Hangouts, WhatsApp, and a few more. Additionally, we look forward to partaking in virtual public events and business expos whenever we have the opportunity arise.

If you need a home inspector in Clayton, North Caroline, look no further than Little Creek Home Inspections. We provide a thorough home inspection with all the information they would need before purchasing a house. We present a wide range of services across most of North Caroline and have been working within the industry for some time now. We have a decent understanding of home inspections and are open to working with clients to find the right house. If you are looking to understand the services we provide in greater detail, please click here. If you want to get in touch with us, feel free to click here at any point in time, and we are happy to assist in any way that we can.