As I write this, outside is the first non-perfect spring Florida day in about three weeks. It just makes me more thankful for living in paradise even if we’re locked down. You can still walk out your front door, smell the fresh warm air and take a short walk or bike ride to renew your soul.
But what about the souls of the poor people caught in the limbo of a pending real estate transaction?
According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales rose 2.4% in February from a month earlier. Since pending sales generally predate closing by one or two months, you can assume there were a lot of pending sales in the pipeline when the coronavirus hit and business started to shut down.
So, what happens to those transactions and the buyers and sellers on either end of the transactions? There are a lot of steps in getting a home sale to the finish line. Even after a contract is negotiated and signed, you have home inspections, lender appraisals, termite inspectors and, of course, the closing.
According to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, many home inspecting companies are reluctant to send their staff into homes. Some are attempting to work with drive-by appraisers using exterior photos and county records, obviously slowing down that piece of the transaction. Naturally, all other inspections that may be required are facing the same stumbling block, as are bank appraisers.
Closings are another topic. Although the technology to close properties has been around for a long time, the slow-moving real estate community mostly continues to operate on paper and fax machines. You can bet that’s another system that can anticipate drastic updating in the years ahead as a result of this virus with electronic signing of documents becoming more widespread.
Now, however, the closing culture in many regions of the country is still a sit-down closing. With buyers, sellers, real estate agents and sometimes attorneys around a closing table where it can get pretty crowded, certainly not in line with CDC regulations. But committed real estate professionals are doing their best to get the properties out of limbo and into heaven by closing homes any place where they can avoid close encounters and big crowds. Not an easy and quick process, and hopefully all parties to the transactions are keeping their anxieties in check.
The Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee reported the following pending transactions at the end of February: Single-family homes (968 properties) up 12.3% from last year, and condos (393 properties) up 10.1% from last year. That’s a lot of transactions to get closed while navigating through a pandemic, and when the March pending statistics are available in a few weeks we’ll see where the pending numbers are.
If you’re one of the limbo dwellers, help the professionals as much as you can to get the transaction done without jeopardizing anyone’s health. There could be a good story here to pass on to the next generation when we all start laughing again.
To the people in other parts of the country who are locked down without the benefit of perfect weather and the ability to get outdoors, my thoughts are with you. As always, stay safe.
